BRIDGEPORT, N.J. — Brady Bacon worked lapped traffic to perfection in winning Wednesday night’s Eastern Storm feature for the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Championship at Bridgeport Motorsports Park.
Bacon started on the pole and led all 30 laps to score a record seventh Eastern Storm victory. It was also his second series victory this season.
In the 18th event of the 2024 USAC National Sprint Car season, he became the first driver to lead a feature from start to finish without interruption, doing so once again for his second win of the year and the 55th of his career with the series in his Dynamics, Inc./J. Davidson Scrap Metal – Next Level Metal – Davis Bros. Trucking/Triple X/Rider Chevy.
Furthermore, Bacon’s victory was his first in New Jersey, extending his record of different United States won in to 15 throughout his career.
And don’t look now, but Bacon is back in the hunt on the points front as well. On May 10, he stood 218 points out of the USAC National Sprint Car point lead. Now, after a run of seven consecutive podium finishes, Bacon has pulled to within 52 markers as he remains in the hunt for his record-tying fifth series driving title.
“We had a rough start to the year, but we knew it would turn around,” Bacon stated. “We just had to keep doing things right and we knew we had a fast racecar. You just go to the racetrack and try to win every night, then battle whatever obstacles come your way. We had to change a water pump today after qualifying, so we just needed to keep working and doing the right things. It’s easy to slack off and maybe get lazy but you’ve just got to keep doing everything right even if it takes a little extra effort. It doesn’t seem like it at times, but eventually it does pays off.”
Starting from the pole, Bacon dashed away to the early lead with inside row two starter Kevin Thomas Jr. slotting into second and giving chase, and even briefly edging ahead in turns three and four on lap three, but was unable to keep pace with Bacon’s momentum at the exit of turn four. As it turned out, this brief interaction altered the course of the race from that point forward.
“He showed me his nose there and I was able to adjust to a line that worked,” Bacon revealed. “I just judged my speed off the lapped cars after that, and my diamond move seemed to be working well. I don’t know how good we were compared to everyone else, but we tightened up a lot and I was really nervous those first couple of laps, but I kept it on all fours, so I knew that if I could make it through those first five or six laps, we were going to be really good at the end.”
The lone stoppage of the feature came at the conclusion of lap four when 17th running Alex Bright slowed at the top of turn four to necessitate a yellow flag. When action resumed, Thomas was able to drive right to the rear bumper of Bacon by the time the race reached lap eight but was unable to gain any further ground.
By halfway, Bacon was knifing his way through traffic as he charged past the likes of Tom Harris, Korbyn Hayslett and Chase Stockon, putting each a lap down while also managing to keep both of his challengers, Thomas and the emerging Justin Grant, at bay to the tune of roughly seven tenths of a second.
Down the stretch, Bacon encountered even more traffic, but managed to sweep by with relative ease as he sprinted past Charles Davis Jr., Jake Swanson and even series point leader Logan Seavey in 15th, putting each driver one lap down as he finished off a masterful performance by a 1.256-second margin over Thomas with Justin Grant third, Robert Ballou fourth and Mitchel Moles fifth.
Brian Papiez won the modified feature.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Bridgeport Motorsports Park, Bridgeport, N.J., June 12, 2024
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.685 (Track Record); 2. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-14.746; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.871; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-14.898; 5. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-14.966; 6. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-14.989; 7. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.992; 8. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.992; 9. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.994; 10. Alex Bright, 27, Heffner-15.004; 11. Anton Hernandez, 5, Baldwin/Fox-15.052; 12. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-15.173; 13. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-15.213; 14. Ricky Lewis, 41, Stensland-15.351; 15. Jake Swanson, 2B, 2B Racing-15.364; 16. Jadon Rogers, 17GP, Dutcher-15.392; 17. Daison Pursley, 21AZ, Team AZ-15.472; 18. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-15.546; 19. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-15.558; 20. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-15.564; 21. Steven Drevicki, 19, Drevicki-15.584; 22. Korbyn Hayslett, 1H, Hayslett-15.600; 23. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-15.861; 24. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-15.995.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Westfall, 2. Jadon Rogers, 3. Alex Bright, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Korbyn Hayslett, 7. Chase Stockon, 8. Logan Seavey. 2:05.686
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Anton Hernandez, 2. Ricky Lewis, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Carson Garrett, 6. C.J. Leary, 7. Charles Davis Jr., 8. Tom Harris. 2:03.436 (Track Record)
T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Joey Amantea, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Steven Drevicki, 7. Hunter Maddox, 8. Briggs Danner. 2:06.634
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (1), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 3. Justin Grant (4), 4. Robert Ballou (8), 5. Mitchel Moles (6), 6. C.J. Leary (5), 7. Kyle Cummins (10), 8. Anton Hernandez (7), 9. Ricky Lewis (12), 10. Joey Amantea (16), 11. Carson Garrett (2), 12. Matt Westfall (9), 13. Daison Pursley (15), 14. Jadon Rogers (14), 15. Logan Seavey (23), 16. Jake Swanson (13), 17. Charles Davis Jr. (18), 18. Chase Stockon (17), 19. Korbyn Hayslett (20), 20. Tom Harris (21), 21. Steven Drevicki (19), 22. Alex Bright (11), 23. Briggs Danner (24), 24. Hunter Maddox (22).
