PUTNAMVILLE, Ind. — Twenty-four hours after lying upside down in a heap of disappointment with a destroyed race car, Jake Swanson and Team AZ Racing were back on their feet Thursday night at Lincoln Park Speedway.
Armed with another car from the team’s stable that was prepared on blazing hot Thursday afternoon through a combination of blood, sweat and tears – but mostly sweat – Swanson won his first USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented By Honest Abe Roofing feature.
The timeline of events that transpired between the events at Terre Haute and Lincoln Park are a microcosm of the tug-of-war of emotions the team has experienced. In the six Indiana Sprint Week events contested thus far, Swanson has three finishes of 16th or worse, plus a 2nd, an 8th and now a victory in his Team AZ Racing/Racing For Autism Awareness – Apache Transport/DRC/1-Way Chevy.
Wednesday’s Terre Haute round was undoubtedly the team’s most discouraging moment of the week thus far, crashing and writing off a racecar while running third after leading eight laps.
However, Thursday’s triumphant performance turned out to be the team’s most rewarding, which arrived after the clock had already struck midnight due to a two-plus hour rain delay that doused the five-sixteenths-mile dirt oval with excessive moisture.
Together, everyone achieved more, and finally, they were rewarded with their initial Indiana Sprint Week victory.
“We crashed last night at Terre Haute, and it was all on me,” Swanson admitted. “I was just trying too hard, and these guys have worked their (tails) off trying to get a car back together and get this thing ready. Tonight, we struggled with brake problems, and (the crew) just continued to work through the heat. I think they sweated through about three T-shirts each.”
Swanson started the 30-lap, $8,000-to-win main event from the outside of the front row, but quickly gained the upper hand on the opening lap as he scooted around the outside of pole sitter Logan Seavey to grab the lead while Seavey slotted into second with Kevin Thomas Jr. closing in from the third position.
The top-three remained in formation as lapped traffic loomed for the frontrunners on lap 10. With Swanson slightly roadblocked, that allowed Seavey and Thomas Jr. to chop down a 1.5 second deficit. One lap later, on the 11th circuit, Thomas found the inside edge to swipe second place from Seavey on the bottom of turns three and four.
Thomas Jr. rapidly ascended toward the forefront of the field and managed to pull even with Swanson for the race lead on the 13th lap. As Thomas Jr. and Swanson surrounded Hunter Maddox to put him a lap down, Thomas Jr. suddenly began to slow dramatically and pulled to the infield after the engine simply lost power, ending his bid for s first USAC win of 2023 and car owner Dwight Cheney’s first ever USAC score.
With Thomas Jr. out of the picture, it still wasn’t quite clear sailing for Swanson. Seavey suddenly found a resurgence and began to chase down Swanson and had closed to within a car length of the lead by lap 18. With 11 laps to go, however, the merry-go-round came to a halt when 10th running Mitchel Moles spun sideways in turn four, then was clipped by the trailing car driven by Briggs Danner, resulting in a knocked-out front end for Moles and a 21st place feature result.
Under the yellow, second running Seavey abruptly exited the racetrack, like Thomas Jr., also experiencing a sudden loss of power under the hood that promptly ended the team’s night. That moved Ballou up to the second spot behind Swanson for the restart where he promptly took several peeks to the inside of Swanson with as he clamped down right on Swanson’s back bumper.
Current Indiana Sprint Week point leader and defending champ Justin Grant shuffled to the third spot with a slick move under Chase Stockon on the lap 20 restart. Brady Bacon, second in the ISW standings, followed suit past Stockon for fourth on lap 22. Bacon continued to surge and snagged the third spot when Grant slipped up the surface in turn four on the 27th lap.
All the while, up front, it was a race between the resilient Swanson and Ballou, both of whom endured major incidents the night before at Terre Haute and who had both experienced their fair share of tumultuous trials and tribulations throughout the grueling week.
Swanson’s ride was smooth and easy like an (early) Friday morning as he kept Ballou at arm’s length throughout the final 10 laps to thwart the pressure, winning by .344 seconds for his fourth points-paying USAC National Sprint Car victory of his career and his sixth overall.
Coming home second was Robert Ballou with Brady Bacon third, Justin Grant fourth and Chase Stockon fifth.
Bacon edged Justin Grant by a single position and trails Grant by four points in the Indiana Sprint Week standings with two races remaining.
As well, Bacon holds an 11-point lead in the season-long national standings over Grant.
Chase Stockon came home fifth on Thursday night.
The Boxscore
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Lincoln Park Speedway, Putnamville, Ind., July 27, 2023
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.370; 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.370; 3. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-12.372; 4. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-12.378; 5. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.473; 6. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-12.534; 7. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-12.557; 8. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-12.616; 9. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-12.617; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 42, Cheney-12.639; 11. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-12.688; 12. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-12.710; 13. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-12.757; 14. Sterling Cling, 34, Cling-12.768; 15. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-12.772; 16. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-12.776; 17. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-12.780; 18. Ricky Lewis, 41, Brown-12.796; 19. Geoff Ensign, 3F, Ensign-12.846; 20. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.854; 21. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-12.861; 22. Stevie Sussex, 77s, Sturgeon-12.899; 23. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-12.920; 24. Jordan Kinser, 04, Burton-12.935; 25. Jadon Rogers, 14, 4J Motorsports-12.968; 26. Jake Scott, 33, Miller-12.979; 27. Todd Hobson, 5T, Daming-12.990; 28. Braxton Cummings, 71B, Cummings-13.015; 29. Dalton Stevens, 99x, Stevens-13.035; 30. Ivan Glotzbach, i1, Glotzbach-13.091; 31. Todd Moule, 26, Moule-13.107; 32. Shane Cottle, 2E, Epperson-13.111; 33. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-13.131; 34. Tye Mihocko, 5, Wilson-13.170; 35. Dave Darland, 36D, Darland/Curb-Agajanian-13.178; 36. Brent Beauchamp, 34B, Olson-13.292; 37. Evan Mosley, 27, Barkdull-13.313; 38. Tim Creech, 31, Creech-13.330; 39. Alec Sipes, 19, Hayward-13.355; 40. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-13.387; 41. Rylan Gray, 06, Gray-13.583; 42. Travis Millar, 93AU, Millar-13.710; 43. Tayte Williamson, 20, Williamson-13.743; 44. Kyle Johnson, 99J, Johnson-13.841; 45. Tony Helton, 87, Miller-14.290; 46. Johnny Ivers, 55, Ivers/Thomas-14.316; 47. Justin Meneely, 100, Meneely-14.757; 48. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-15.030; 49. Joey Amantea, 88J, Amantea-NT; 50. Justin Zimmerman, 1, D-Up-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Charles Davis Jr., 2. Justin Grant, 3. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Brandon Mattox, 7. Daison Pursley, 8. Dalton Stevens, 9. Rylan Gray, 10. Zack Pretorius, 11. Johnny Ivers. NT
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Stevie Sussex, 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Tye Mihocko, 5. Ricky Lewis, 6. Jake Scott, 7. Tim Creech, 8. Sterling Cling, 9. Ivan Glotzbach, 10. Travis Millar, 11. Justin Meneely, 12. Mitchel Moles. NT
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Westfall, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Todd Hobson, 7. Dave Darland, 8. Alec Sipes, 9. Todd Moule, 10. Tayte Williamson, 11. Troy Carey, 12. Geoff Ensign. 2:14.19
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Shane Cottle, 3. Jordan Kinser, 4. Brent Beauchamp, 5. Kyle Johnson, 6. Hunter Maddox, 7. C.J. Leary, 8. Carson Garrett, 9. Logan Calderwood, 10. Tony Helton, 11. Emerson Axsom, 12. Braxton Cummings. NT
STEEL-IT C MAIN: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the semi) 1. Ivan Glotzbach, 2. Dalton Stevens, 3. Zack Pretorius, 4. Tim Creech, 5. Dave Darland, 6. Alec Sipes, 7. Travis Millar, 8. Rylan Gray, 9. Tony Helton, 10. Tayte Williamson, 11. Evan Mosley, 12. Todd Moule, 13. Troy Carey, 14. Logan Calderwood, 15. Kyle Johnson, 16. Justin Meneely. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Carson Garrett, 5. Hunter Maddox, 6. Briggs Danner, 7. Daison Pursley, 8. Emerson Axsom, 9. Ricky Lewis, 10. Sterling Cling, 11. Tim Creech, 12. Zack Pretorius, 13. Dalton Stevens, 14. Jake Scott, 15. Geoff Ensign, 16. Todd Hobson, 17. Brandon Mattox. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (2), 2. Robert Ballou (8), 3. Brady Bacon (10), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Chase Stockon (4), 6. Kyle Cummins (6), 7. Carson Garrett (15), 8. Charles Davis Jr. (7), 9. Jadon Rogers (19), 10. Brent Beauchamp (22), 11. Briggs Danner (13), 12. Shane Cottle (20), 13. Emerson Axsom (23-P), 14. Matt Westfall (9), 15. C.J. Leary (14), 16. Stevie Sussex (17), 17. Daison Pursley (24-P), 18. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (16), 19. Hunter Maddox (12), 20. Logan Seavey (1), 21. Mitchel Moles (11), 22. Jordan Kinser (18), 23. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 24. Tye Mihocko (21).