LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. – The AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Series Midwest season opener is always a time to celebrate, as 410-cubic inch engines come back to life following the winter doldrums.
This year is no exception, as the series returns to Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway, host of 61 previous series events dating back to 1983, on March 30.
The most recent of those 61 races was won by Ione, California’s Justin Grant, who drove the TOPP Motorsports car to victory last fall at the three-eighths-mile, high-banked dirt oval amidst a flurry of wins to conclude last season.
Grant has won USAC shows at Lawrenceburg three times, including 2012, 2014 and again last year. He’s already begun the season with a victory in Ocala, Fla., back in February and sits fourth in the standings.
Greenfield, Indiana’s C.J. Leary debuted with the Reinbold/Underwood Motorsports team in similar fashion the night following Grant in Ocala, winning the Winter Dirt Games X finale.
The 2013 Lawrenceburg track champion won during Indiana Sprint Week at Lawrenceburg in 2017 and leads the USAC standings coming into Saturday night’s race.
Chris Windom, the 2017 USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car champion, won the spring opener at Lawrenceburg that year to kickstart his title run. The Canton, Ill., driver won this year’s season opener in Ocala in spectacular fashion, on the final lap over Kevin Thomas Jr.
Thomas, of Cullman, Ala., sits two markers behind Leary in the standings following a pair of runner-up finishes and a fifth to his credit. He’s won with USAC at Lawrenceburg on three occasions, including the spring opener in 2013.
Tyler Courtney didn’t snare a win down at Ocala, but did manage to grab a pair of third-place runs, including a charge from 22nd to the podium on the second night. The defending series champion won the Indiana Sprint Week round at Lawrenceburg a year ago.
No driver has won as many USAC sprint car races at Lawrenceburg than Dave Darland, with The People’s Champ picking up seven between 1998 and 2016.
Briscoe’s father Kevin won three times in USAC competition at Lawrenceburg, in 1999, 2000 and 2002. Brady Short, on the crew for the CBR team, won a USAC sprint car feature himself at Lawrenceburg as a driver in 2008.
Robert Ballou, Chase Stockon and Brady Bacon have each scored a USAC win at Lawrenceburg over the years, while like Leary, Hanford, California’s Chad Boespflug is a USAC regular who’s a past track champ at Lawrenceburg back in 2011.
Boespflug is aiming to get back to victory lane for the first time in two seasons this Saturday, looking to tack on to his six career points-paying victories with his initial USAC score at Lawrenceburg.