While Leary has some reservations about midget racing in general, he isn’t overly concerned about taking one around Eldora.
“Last year was the first time I have been in a midget at Eldora and we won both of our heat races,” Leary said. “I felt I could make speed if I was by myself. In the feature we started seventh and we couldn’t generate any speed on the top and I just didn’t feel as comfortable driving midpack.”
Leary believes there are more similarities than differences among the four different race cars.
“I think overall all the race cars I have run at Eldora are similar,” he said. “The track has the same characteristics, so you basically run the same line. It is all about momentum. The midget is just a smaller car and it is nimble, so it reacts very fast. You can’t get it into the cushion like a sprint car. It isn’t as forgiving.”
While he has largely put midget racing to the side since relocating to Indiana from California, Jake Swanson has plenty of experience in smaller cars. He realizes Eldora might be a special case.
“The biggest place I have been to in a midget is Perris,” he said. “I would guess racing a midget at Eldora is like racing a sprint car, you still get right up against the fence. It is a knife edge that you are flirting with the whole time.”
Swanson has driven Alex Bowman’s winged sprint car frequently this summer, but feels he needs more seat time to be successful.
“I feel I could be pretty good,” he said. “But it is more about understanding the air with a winged sprint car and I’m still learning that.”
However, Swanson is in contention for the USAC sprint car title and that is his No. 1 priority.
“I probably would not pursue anything now for 4-Crown because I am just so busy with what I have got going on,” he said. “I am very involved with my race teams. I try not to spread myself too thin because things start to fail in other places. Obviously, we are in the points chase in the USAC deal so we must be sure we have all our ducks in a row and are focused.”
Young Emerson Axsom has plenty of ambition and wants to get more involved in winged racing, but he knows he needs to listen to his head as well as his heart.
“We might do that in the future,” he noted. “But the way we are running so far this year, we are focusing on the USAC sprint car championship. I feel we have a legitimate shot at it so I think it would be smart to just run the non-winged stuff. But that is one of my goals for sure.”
Justin Grant is one of USAC’s biggest and busiest stars. No one doubts he can sweep the USAC card at Eldora. The question is how he would fare with a wing over his head.
“It would be pretty cool, but I don’t know if I have the skill set to win the winged portion of it these days,” Grant acknowledged.
Grant believes he could land a winged sprint car ride for Eldora, but said he isn’t sure that is a good idea.
“4-Crown is tough for me because I am pretty hands on setup-wise with the Crown car, midget and sprint car,” he noted. “Even now there are times when we catch a red flag and I am pulling down near the infield yelling at the crew about what we need to do to the next car. It turns out that when the winged cars are on the track is really the only time I can run around and get things in order for whatever is next.
“So, for me personally, it would be hard to fill in that little free time during the day with a winged ride. I have never done it because I feel my other three rides would suffer and we’re in championship fights. I have to try to give the car owners who support me all year long my best effort. I just don’t think I could do that if I was running a winged car.”
One must also consider the physical and mental demands of racing four different cars, especially if four different teams are involved. Logan Seavey knows this firsthand because he raced in all classes in 2022.
“The most exhausted I have ever been is the day following the 4-Crown,” Seavey said with a laugh. “I don’t think I moved out of bed for most of the day on Sunday. It wore me out more than anything I have ever done.”
There are the basic physical demands of racing, but fatigue comes with the frenetic pace of the event.
“I was sprinting around the pits all day because all four of my cars were parked in all four corners of the race track and the Silver Crown car was up the hill,” Seavey said. “It was a logistical nightmare for me. I only had two seat inserts and four cars. It was kind of a mess. There really aren’t any breaks and very little time to eat or drink so you are using up all that energy and not refueling enough.”