KOKOMO, Ind. — In essence, last year’s Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Sprint Car Smackdown feature at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway was summed up by a two-lap conquest for Justin Grant.
A frequent storyboard for the event throughout its first decade has demonstrated that a final restart and, consequently, how one responds to it, can ultimately decide a driver’s fate regardless of the success that led up to that point.
Grant himself faced, and conquered, a similar scenario just 24 hours earlier at the quarter-mile dirt oval. On Saturday night, $15,000 was on the line, and the green-white-checkered conclusion ultimately made the Ione, Calif. driver the third multi-time winner in the event’s history.
This Thursday-Saturday night, August 25-27, Grant aims to become the event’s third-three time winner (Dave Darland & Tyler Courtney) during Smackdown XI.
The two prelim events on Thursday and Friday conclude with full programs and 30-lap features which provide points to each driver toward their total, which will set the lineups for Saturday’s events, which concludes with a $15,000-to-win, $1,500-to-start feature for all the marbles, the bragging rights and the substantially sized check.
Grant captured the Smackdown finale victory in both 2018 and 2021 and enters the weekend having won the last two USAC National Sprint Car features at the track, including this July’s Indiana Sprint Week round, and four of the last five in total. The 2017-19-21 track champion also scored the King of the Hill title in 2018. One more win for his TOPP Motorsports team on the final night would result in them becoming the first four-time race winner, also notching one with Courtney in 2017.
On The Main Stage
Three past Smackdown final night winners are in this year’s driver lineup: Grant, Dave Darland and Kevin Thomas Jr.
Darland is the undisputed king of Kokomo Speedway. Among the Lincoln, Indiana driver’s record nine career USAC National Sprint Car wins at the track, five have come during Smackdown. The USAC Triple Crown champ collected prelim night victories in 2013-14, and then won the final nights in 2013-14-15.
Thomas (Cullman, Ala.) added a prelim night triumph to his Smackdown resume in 2021. He took Smackdown top honors on the final night of the 2016 edition. The 2016 Kokomo track champion has collected a total of four USAC National Sprint Car wins at the track and slotted into 3rd during the Smackdown finale in 2021.
Saturday Hasn’t Been Alright, Just Yet
Six drivers in this year’s Smackdown field have won a prelim feature but are still shooting for that coveted win on the final night.
Kyle Cummins earned his first career USAC National Sprint Car feature triumph at Kokomo in 2016 during Indiana Sprint Week, then punched in two more in 2020 by becoming the first driver in Smackdown history to sweep both prelims. He finished as the runner-up in the Smackdown finale in both 2019 and 2020.
Logan Seavey won not only his first Kokomo feature, but also earned his first career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory to boot on the second prelim night of Smackdown in 2019. The 2018 USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget champion took 5th on the final night of Smackdown in both 2019 and 2021, which stands as his best result in the event thus far.
Thomas Meseraull has won three USAC National Sprint Car races at Kokomo, and this weekend, will ride once more in the Epperson Racing No. 2E, which won a 2018 Smackdown prelim with driver Tyler Thomas. Meseraull reigned victorious during the 2019 Smackdown opener after winning the Indiana Sprint Week round there in the two prior years of 2017 and 2018. However, his best final night Smackdown result thus far is an 8th in 2020.
One-lap track record holder C.J. Leary is a past Kokomo track champion in 2015 and has three career USAC National Sprint wins at the track, including the first of his career back in 2016 during a Smackdown prelim and once again during a prelim in 2017 in addition to an Indiana Sprint Week round in 2020. The 2019 USAC National Sprint Car champ has finished 3rd at Smackdown’s final night in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Chase Stockon won the second night prelim of Smackdown in 2015. The 2020 Indiana Sprint Week champion was the runner-up on the final night of Smackdown that same weekend in 2015 and was 3rd in 2013. In 2021, he added an 8th place finish to his stat sheet on the last of the three nights.
Robert Ballou captured the 2015 Smackdown opener during his USAC National Sprint Car championship season. His best Smackdown final night finish came in 2014 when he crossed the line in the runner-up position and was also 3rd in 2017. He missed the final two nights of Smackdown in 2021 after an incident on the opening night and is eager to knock off a coveted first Smackdown prize.
A Category Of His Own
Brady Bacon has been all around the top-five in his Smackdown career, finishing inside the top-five five times on the final night in his career. He earned a best of 4th in 2014-20-21 and garnered a pair of 5ths in both 2012 and 2018.
However, the four-time USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car champ has never won a USAC National Sprint Car feature at Kokomo. He’s won three career USAC National Midget features at the venue and became the track’s sprint car champion in 2020. He hasn’t quite been empty-handed in the event as he is also the only three-time champion of Smackdown’s King of the Hill in 2014-15-20.
Return To Redemption
Joining in the fray are a slew of Smackdown veterans eying their first Kokomo USAC National Sprint Car wins, including Shane Cottle, the four-time track champ in 2004-05-07-11, who has won with the series this year at Gas City (Ind.) I-69 Speedway and possesses Smackdown final night finishes of 2nd in 2013 and 7th place results in both 2012 and 2014.
Scotty Weir, like Cottle, is a USAC National Sprint Car feature winner down the road at Gas City, but is looking for that breakthrough at Kokomo, where he captured track titles in 2008 and 2012, finishing a best of 4th at the Smackdown capper in 2017 and 7th in 2013.
Fellow Smackdown returnees include USAC National Sprint Car feature winners Emerson Axsom, Jason McDougal, Jake Swanson and Matt Westfall.
Axsom has won in USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship competition at Kokomo in his career and went 15th to 7th in his Smackdown debut during 2021. McDougal was the top Smackdown Rookie in 2018, finishing 4th. The 2017 USAC West Coast Sprint Car champ, Swanson (Anaheim, Calif.), was 12th in 2021. Matt Westfall won the BOSS portion of 2019 Smackdown and won again on the local level at Kokomo in 2020. He corralled a 21st during his first Smackdown final night feature appearance in 2021.
Jadon Rogers and Mario Clouser gathered top-ten results on the last night of 2021’s installment of Smackdown. Rogers banked a 9th and Clouser a 10th in what was both drivers’ second career start in the event.
Loomis, California’s Max Adams (14th in 2019) returns to the Smackdown field, this time in Michael Dutcher’s No. 17GP. Brandon Mattox led laps and finished inside the top-five at Kokomo in 2020. That year, he also penned a 17th in the Smackdown finale. Corey Smith (17th in 2019), a nearly three-decade veteran of sprint car racing at Kokomo, will be on hand as will Colten Cottle (20th in 2016), who will pilot the legendary No. 57 for car owner Paul Hazen.
The New Blood
Vying for their first Smackdown championship night feature starts are an electric crew. Mitchel Moles has won a pair of USAC National Sprint Car features in his Rookie season of 2022, and even won on Kokomo soil in a local Independence Day Weekend event on July 3.
Alex Bright is fresh off two consecutive USAC Rapid Tire East Coast Sprint Car wins last week in Pennsylvania. He did make feature starts on the two prelim nights at Smackdown in 2021 but came up short in his bid to crack the lineup for the final but plans to come back to change that fact this weekend.
Three-time POWRi WAR Sprint Car champion Riley Kreisel will make his Smackdown debut behind the wheel of the Yeley-Petty Racing No. 2. Jack Hoyer made his first Kokomo USAC Sprint Car start a month ago during Indiana Sprint Week, finishing 18th. Dalton Stevens returns to Kokomo for his first Smackdown run after experiencing Kokomo for the first time in July.
Third in USAC National Sprint Car Rookie points is Alex Banales who aims for his first Smackdown Saturday night start along with Kokomo regulars Sterling Cling and Cole Bodine and many more.
Bodine captured the 2021 ProSource Passing Master honors, which, this year, will once again be up for grabs. ProSource has added a $500 bonus for the driver who advances the most total combined positions throughout the three features this weekend at Kokomo. Positions advanced by provisional feature starters will not count toward the overall total.
ProSource will also reward the slowest qualifying driver who transfers to the feature with a $100 bonus at the conclusion of each night of racing this weekend.