HAUBSTADT, Ind. — Tri-State Speedway has been very good to Brady Bacon this season.
In April, Bacon earned his first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car win at the track, and on Saturday night, he raced to a first Haubstadt Hustler victory in the richest event ever at the quarter-mile track, earning $20,000.
The 16th running of the event, co-sanctioned by the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship and the Midwest Sprint Car Series, came down to a duel between Bacon and four-time Haubstadt Hustler victor Kevin Thomas Jr..
Wheeling his Dynamics, Inc./4-Wide Salute Podcast – Tel-Star Technologies – DriveWFX.com/Triple X/Rider Chevy, Bacon’s victory was a major milestone, providing him with his 53rd career USAC National Sprint Car feature win and giving him sole possession of second place all-time ahead of 1978 series champion Tom Bigelow.
Now, Bacon trails only Dave Darland’s record of 62 series wins.
Utilizing the MSCS format of group qualifying, a four-car invert in his heat and a redraw for the feature, the USAC National Sprint Car points race was on hiatus for the evening with every licensed driver and entrant with the series receiving 50 appearance points across the board regardless of finishing position.
For four-time USAC champion Bacon, it was a nice change of pace amidst the pressurized title race of which he trails Justin Grant by nine with only five events left to go.
“It was kind of nice,” Bacon admitted. “It’s been pretty stressful I’m sure for him and I both to get through each night. I’ve made two mistakes that have probably cost us 50 points in the championship. But tonight, I finally got to try something different, and obviously, it paid off. It’s the biggest race here and at a place where we have admittedly struggled in the past. It was good to me earlier this with my first World of Outlaws win and this is a pretty special one tonight. It’s been a lot of years since I’ve last won here in a non-wing sprint car.”
Bacon started from the pole position, and immediately endured a tumultuous opening lap with outside front row starter Robert Ballou. As Bacon worked the middle line and Ballou the outside, the two came together at the exit of turn four, smacking wheels together as they crossed the stripe to complete lap one.
To begin lap two, chrome-to-chrome contact was had between Ballou’s front bumper and Bacon’s rear bumper which sent Bacon sideways in turn one. However, Bacon mashed the gas and was able to escape unscathed after the early race attack from Ballou.
By lap 10, Bacon had entered lapped traffic with a full second lead over Ballou. However, on lap 13, Ballou’s car suddenly lost power, relegating him to watching the rest of the race from the infield with a painful 22nd place result.
Dustin Beck was the beneficiary of Ballou’s misfortune with the former modified standout and Tri-State Speedway regular moving up to second in only his third USAC feature start.
Trouble hit fourth running Justin Grant on the 20th lap when he suddenly slowed with a broken tie-rod.
On the race’s resumption, ninth starting Kevin Thomas Jr. darted into the second position when Beck slid high in turn two on the 22nd lap. Now down a half-straightaway to Bacon for the lead, it was game on for the stalwarts who own a whopping 92 USAC National Sprint Car features between the two.
The gap was closed even further on lap 24 when Carson Short and Jadon Rogers found calamity in the corner in the tussle for the seventh spot. The two drivers connected wheels in turn two with Short nearly getting upside before landing on all fours and stopping with extensive damage to the car, ending his fantastic charge from the 17th-starting position.
Three laps later, Rogers slowed to bring out the caution, prematurely ending the defending champion’s reign as the most recent Haubstadt Hustler champion.
With five laps remaining, Bacon disrupted his rhythm when he went low off turn four to overtake the lapped car of Andy Bradley.In doing so, Bacon’s car slipped completely sideways. Second running Thomas Jr. closed in and made slight contact with the rear of Bacon, but both managed to continue without harm nor foul.
With three laps to go, third-running Beck was in the frame running just a few car lengths from the tail tank of Thomas Jr.
However, he soon skated up the track in turn two and caught the outside wall, resulting in the loss of a full-straightaway of ground.
Moments later, 16th running Kayla Roell flipped wildly in turn one, ending her first Haubstadt Hustler run on lap 38.
Bacon rode the top line to a .289-second victory over Thomas. Beck finished third, with Mitchel Moles and Kyle Cummins rounding out the top five.
Thomas made his first USAC run in Kevin Newton’s No. 16 a successful one as he turned in his best series finish of the season to finish second.
“I felt like we were pretty equal there,” Thomas said. “On the long runs, I could search around. He was leading, so it’s hard to move around. He was running the top there and it was a little lippy on the edge of wanting to push. The way you run this track is very inconsistent as a driver. But he’s one of the best at being consistent. I gave it everything I’ve got, but I think I maybe needed a little bit of lapped traffic and some more laps. I mean, they gave us 40, so how much more can you ask for?”
Beck recorded his best USAC finish.
“I actually podiumed for the first time here two weeks ago and that really hasn’t sunk in yet either,” Beck revealed. “This is definitely a confidence builder. I think we can run with these guys, and we’ve hit on something lately that’s working so I’m confident now running here.”
The Boxscore
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Tri-State Speedway, Haubstadt, Ind., Sept. 16, 2023
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.123; 2. Adyn Schmidt, 12s, Schmidt-13.201; 3. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-13.209; 4. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-13.250; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 16, Newton-13.288; 6. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-13.309; 7. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.320; 8. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.345; 9. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-13.353; 10. Dustin Beck, 75, Hensen/Rupp-13.360; 11. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.381; 12. Stephen Schnapf, 39, Hoosier Speed/Fortune-13.414; 13. Kendall Ruble, 17, Ruble-13.445; 14. J.J. Hughes, 76, Hughes-13.463; 15. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.478; 16. Andy Bradley, 86, Hoosier Speed/Fortune-13.539; 17. Kayla Roell, 5K, KO-13.581; 18. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-13.658; 19. Brady Short, 61m, Edwards-13.688; 20. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-13.754; 21. Sam Scott, 7s, Scott-13.755; 22. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-13.772; 23. Donny Brackett, 4B, Brackett-13.886; 24. Carson Short, 84, Beadles-13.900; 25. Jadon Rogers, 17GP, Dutcher-13.971; 26. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-13.985; 27. Michael Daugherty, 3.14, Daugherty-14.050; 28. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-14.077; 29. Jeff Pritchett, 2J, Nine-One-One-14.170; 30. Johnny Ivers, 55, Ivers/Thomas-14.198; 31. Allen Howard Jr., 4u, AJR-14.230; 32. Kevin Newton, 16TH, Newton-14.552; 33. Raymond Holden, 2R, Holden-14.934.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kendall Ruble, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Jadon Rogers, 6. Sam Scott, 7. Kayla Roell, 8. Jeff Pritchett, 9. Raymond Holden. NT
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Dustin Beck, 2. J.J. Hughes, 3. Carson Garrett, 4. Adyn Schmidt, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Matt Westfall, 8. Johnny Ivers. NT
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Justin Grant, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Brady Short, 6. Michael Daugherty, 7. Allen Howard Jr., 8. Donny Brackett. NT
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Stephen Schnapf, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Andy Bradley, 5. Carson Short, 6. Aric Gentry, 7. Jake Swanson, 8. Kevin Newton. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Carson Short, 2. Jadon Rogers, 3. Brady Short, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Jake Swanson, 8. Sam Scott, 9. Jeff Pritchett, 10. Allen Howard Jr., 11. Johnny Ivers, 12. Aric Gentry, 13. Raymond Holden, 14. Michael Daugherty. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (1), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (9), 3. Dustin Beck (3), 4. Mitchel Moles (5), 5. Kyle Cummins (15), 6. J.J. Hughes (6), 7. Kendall Ruble (4), 8. Justin Grant (7), 9. Carson Garrett (10), 10. C.J. Leary (11), 11. Logan Seavey (20), 12. Chase Stockon (21), 13. Daison Pursley (12), 14. Emerson Axsom (13), 15. Brady Short (19), 16. Adyn Schmidt (14), 17. Kayla Roell (23-P), 18. Andy Bradley (16), 19. Jadon Rogers (18), 20. Carson Short (17), 21. Matt Westfall (22), 22. Robert Ballou (2), 23. Stephen Schnapf (8).