OCALA, Fla. — The season opener for the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship began with a little controversy on Friday night at Bubba Raceway Park.
With five laps to go in the 30-lapper, race leader Justin Grant got loose exiting turn four and made contact with Brady Bacon, who was following closely in second. Bacon spun the No. 69 Hoffman Auto Racing sprint car and was sent to the rear of the field on the restart.
After leading 25 laps, he finished 16th.
“I would like to go to a casino and give him (Grant) some money to play with ‘cause he’s been on a roll with stuff like that here,” Bacon said. “We led the whole race, had a good car. We’ve got a lot to work with, so just take it in stride and hopefully it turns around tomorrow.”
Above all else, Bacon is hoping for a rebound victory on Saturday night, which would also make him the winningest driver at the Winter Dirt Games. He is currently tied with Damion Gardner with five wins.
“Obviously we have a fast race car, we were doing everything right. Just sometimes things happen that you can’t control and that was one of them,” Bacon said.
Grant Receives Hall Of Fame Award
Along with winning on the first night of the season, the reigning USAC sprint car champion was also presented an award by a National Sprint Car Hall of Fame representative on the frontstretch stage.
Grant was named the Non-Wing Sprint Car Driver of the Year by the North American Sprint Car Poll in 2023.
“It feels good for me as a driver to be recognized as that. It feels really good to do it with TOPP Motorsports,” Grant said. “I’m pretty hands-on with this team and we operate it out of my shop.”
TOPP Motorsports was also recognized as the Non-Winged Team of the Year.
“Kevin (Birchmeier, team owner) and I have been racing together for I think eight years now. So it means a lot, to not only get the driver award but to get the team award with these guys as well,” Grant explained.
Seavey’s Triple Crown Thoughts
In Abacus Racing’s USAC sprint car debut, driver Logan Seavey wheeled the No. 57 entry to a third-place finish.
“We’re just experimenting early in this program — trying to figure out what this car wants, what I want and just trying to get stuff sorted out as a team,” Seavey said.
This year may be Abacus Racing’s first season on the sprint car trail, but Seavey won the USAC national midget championship with the Indiana-based team in 2023. He also topped the Silver Crown series driving for Rice Motorsports, in conjunction with Abacus.
Seavey’s impressive accomplishments last season have understandably brought up a question.
Can he sweep all three series’ and win the USAC Triple Crown this year? Only two drivers have done so in the past — Tony Stewart (1995) and J.J. Yeley (2003).
“Right now, we’re just focused on getting our stuff going good and obviously we’re off to a great start with (a podium),” Seavey said. “With racing, anything can happen. But this is kind of how we needed to start it off, just to get confidence with all of us that we can go win some races.”
Other Notes
Thirty cars entered Friday’s season-opening race at Bubba Raceway Park.
Series veteran Robert Ballou was the hard-charger, moving 10th to fourth in the 30-lapper on a track that most drivers found it difficult to pass on.