INDIANAPOLIS — Circle City Raceway never disappoints when the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship visits the quarter-mile dirt track.
Time and time again, barnburners have been the name of the game, and this Friday night, past Circle City Raceway USAC Sprint Car winners Logan Seavey, Kyle Cummins, Brady Bacon, C.J. Leary, Kevin Thomas Jr. and others look to continue that trend.
It’s round 38 of the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car season, and here’s six appealing storylines to get you amped up for the weekend:
SEAVEY’S STREAK
In this race last September at Circle City, all Logan Seavey led of the 30-lap feature was about the final 10 feet or so in pulling off an extraordinary victory after passing Shane Cottle around the outside on the last lap.
That finish was the first of Seavey’s three USAC National victories at Circle City, which makes him the winningest series driver in the short history of the track which dates back to 2021.
Nonetheless, he has provend dominant of late at Circle City, winning each of the past two series rounds at the track in May and July of this year.
It also just so happens to be the last place Seavey won a USAC National Sprint Car feature at, eight races and a month-and-a-half ago on July 31.
His next USAC Sprint win would be historic as it would be number 14, which would tie Tom Bigelow’s all-time record series mark set in 1977.
COUNT ON COTTLE
One name missing thus far from Circle City’s winners list is Shane Cottle. However, when it comes to this place, Cottle doesn’t have very many equals despite the absence of a win for he and his Epperson Racing No. 2e.
He suffered heartbreak on the final lap of the September Circle City race in 2023 when he was passed on the final turn of the final lap by Logan Seavey, finishing second.
Cottle also owns finishes of third twice here of late, including in July, and has started on the front row in all three of his starts at Circle City in 2024.
BACON’S PUSH
Brady Bacon is trying one last mad dash in his drive for five career USAC National Sprint Car championships. He enters Circle City on a string of 15 consecutive top-10 finishes with the series, including a victory in the most recent round at Arkansas’ Texarkana 67 Speedway.
Bacon trails Seavey by 75 points in pursuit of the USAC National Sprint Car driving title and won the first series feature of this year at Circle City back in May of this year.
With 84 points maximum available during a night of racing, every point is critical for Bacon, and he can’t afford to slip now with a razor thin margin for error.
After all, Seavey has nearly matched him every step of the way with 16 top 10s in his past 17 starts, thus preventing Bacon from gaining any valuable ground on him.
MUSICAL CHAIRS
The combinations of victorious drivers and teams in USAC National Sprint Car competition at Circle City runs the gamut.
As it turns out, the pieces of the puzzle are everywhere you look and these new combinations now want to amalgamate their winning ways in concert.
Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports scored the first ever USAC National Sprint Car victory at Circle City in 2021. This Friday, RUM’s Mitchel Moles looks to take them back for his personal first score at the track.
C.J. Leary punctuated a victory at Circle City with Michael Motorsports in 2022, just as Kevin Thomas Jr. did with BGE Dougherty Motorsports that same year. Leary is in the BGE Dougherty stable as each party shoots for a return to Circle City’s winners’ circle as a team.
Thomas Jr. is the wheelman for Rock Steady Racing, who twice won with Kyle Cummins at Circle City in 2023. Logan Seavey scored for 2B Racing at September’s Circle City race a year ago, a ride whose seat is now occupied by rookie Kale Drake.
The 2B had been driven earlier this season by Swanson at Circle City, after Swanson himself won at Circle City for Team AZ Racing in 2023.
Daison Pursley will now try to take the Team AZ machine back to victory lane at Circle City.
FRIDAY THE 13TH
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that this weekend’s Circle City date lands on Friday the 13th. This occasion will mark just the eighth USAC National Sprint Car event held on Friday the 13th over the years.
Oddly enough, three of them occurred on Friday, Sept. 13, the same date of this weekend’s show. Jim Mahoney captured the first such event on this date at Kansas City, Kansas’ Lakeside Speedway on 9/13/1991. Billy Pauch answered with his first and only career USAC National Sprint Car victory on 9/13/1996 at Pennsylvania’s Williams Grove Speedway. Justin Grant was the most recent victor on 9/13/2019 at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track.
Additionally, Brian Tyler collected a score on Friday the 13th, 7/13/2001 at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway. Daron Clayton was triumphant at Indiana’s Gas City I-69 Speedway on 7/13/2007 while Bryan Clauson performed likewise on 7/13/2012 and Robert Ballou achieved the same feat on 11/13/2015 at California’s Perris Auto Speedway.