SPEEDWAY, Ind. — For the 37th straight season, and the 29th under USAC sanction, NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented By Honest Abe Roofing provides a sensational slate of dirt tracks and drivers from across the nation vying to become the next to conquer one of the most grueling, yet rewarding adventures of the year.
Lincoln Park Speedway will host the ISW opener for the first time since 2001 on Friday, July 26. From there, the tour travels to Kokomo Speedway on July 27, followed by dates at Lawrenceburg Speedway on July 28, Circle City Raceway on July 31, the Terre Haute Action Track on Aug. 1, Bloomington Speedway on Aug. 2 and the finale at Tri-State Speedway on Aug. 3.
The Champions
Six past USAC Indiana Sprint Week champions are vying for another title: Brady Bacon, Justin Grant, Kevin Thomas Jr., Chase Stockon, C.J. Leary and Robert Ballou.
Bacon enters this week as the defending ISW champion, after also winning in 2016, and is shooting to become the first back-to-back ISW titlist since Bryan Clauson in 2013-14.
Grant collected the ISW title in 2022 and has finished inside the top-five of the ISW points in each of the past five seasons since 2019.
Like Bacon, Thomas also comes in as a two-time ISW champion in 2017 and 2021. And like Grant, Thomas also scored his very first career USAC National Sprint Car feature win during Indiana Sprint Week back in 2012.
Stockon has captured victories in both the opening and closing races of ISW during his career. He locked down an ISW championship in 2020 with KO Motorsports just after joining the team.
Leary tripled up in 2019 with an Eastern Storm crown followed by an Indiana Sprint Week title and the USAC National Sprint Car championship all in a single season.
In 2015, Ballou experienced one of the most masterful seasons of all-time in USAC National Sprint Car competition, winning 13 times while also grabbing an Indiana Sprint Week title en route to the season championship.
On The Brink
However, there are several drivers in wait who are seeking to earn their first USAC Indiana Sprint Week championship, four of whom currently reside inside the top 10 of the USAC National Sprint Car points.
USAC point leader Logan Seavey has won each of his past three USAC National Sprint Car starts, and eyes his fourth-in-a-row this Friday at Lincoln Park. Rick Hood was the most recent driver to win four-in-a-row with the series back in 1985. Seavey has already won 10 features this season, and in 2021, won three-in-a-row during ISW to finish a career best third in the standings.
Daison Pursley looks to join the ranks of first-time Indiana Sprint Week winners after capturing his first USAC National Sprint Car points-paying victory earlier this season at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway.
Mitchel Moles corralled a feature victory in his debut ISW run in 2022 at Lincoln Park and is coming off a recent championship during USAC’s Eastern Storm tour through Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Kyle Cummins ranks sixth all-time in Indiana Sprint Week feature wins with seven, but now turns his focus toward an ISW title after tying a career-best points finish of fourth in 2023.
The First One
Twenty drivers have won their first USAC National Sprint Car feature during Indiana Sprint Week.
It’s a list that includes Brad Marvel, Brad Fox, Bill Rose, Derek Davidson, Terry Pletch, Cory Kruseman, Bud Kaeding, A.J. Anderson, Brady Short, Jeff Bland Jr., Hunter Schuerenberg, Blake Fitzpatrick, Casey Riggs, Justin Grant, Kevin Thomas Jr., Aaron Farney, Tyler Courtney, Kyle Cummins, Brent Beauchamp and Carson Short.
It’s an occasion that hasn’t occurred in more than eight years, since the 2016 season, but could become a forefront storyline throughout the week if one of these names were to pop up at the top of the running order.
Ricky Lewis has twice garnered fourth place finishes with USAC this season, and four finishes inside the top-six, all of which have occurred on Indiana soil. He’s already won eight sprint car races in Indiana outside of USAC competition, five of which include three different tracks on the ISW schedule: Lincoln Park, Lawrenceburg and Circle City.
Carson Garrett has come within a whisker of winning his first career USAC National Sprint Car feature, and recently just notched a top-five result with USAC at Lincoln Park to start off the month of July.
Anton Hernandez has won on the local level in Indiana and will be behind the wheel of the orange No. 5 owned by the Baldwin-Fox Racing team which won the 2011 and 2018 ISW titles with driver Chris Windom.
Joey Amantea has led laps in USAC competition this year and will even have a Jeff Gordon throwback scheme to mark his second career ISW experience.
Making not only his Indiana Sprint Week debut, but also his USAC National Sprint Car debut is Kale Drake. The 2024 Chili Bowl Rookie of the Year has been among the top rookies with the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship this season, ranking ninth in points. Drake will drive the 2B Racing No. 2bB, which Levi Jones drove to the 2004 ISW title.
Points Matter
Unquestionably, Logan Seavey has been on a tear of late, and thus, leads the USAC National Sprint Car standings by a 62-point margin, and has held the top position since February.
With seven races across nine nights during ISW, things can turn on a dime with one bad night here or there, or conversely, stringing together consistent fine runs throughout the week.
Seavey is laser-focused on emerging from the week unscathed and coming out of the other side of ISW with a firmer grip on the season long title.
In 14 of the 28 Indiana Sprint Weeks held under USAC sanction since 1996, one driver has entered ISW as the USAC National Sprint Car point leader, left ISW as the point leader and wound up as the champion at year’s end.
On six other occasions, a driver entered and exited ISW as the USAC National Sprint Car point leader but wound up short of the USAC national title at the close of the season.
Five other times, a driver entered ISW as the point leader, but left the week trailing the USAC season championship standings, and ultimately, missed out on the year-end USAC crown.
There have been three moments in which a driver entered ISW as the point leader, lost it by the end of ISW, but then regained it in time to score the USAC National Sprint Car title at the end of the campaign.
All USAC ISW feature events will pay $8,000-to-win, while the series champion will earn $10,000.