CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — For many, Atomic Speedway will be a new experience come this Saturday night, when the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship returns to the track for the first time since 2010’s abbreviated event.
For several others, their level of Atomic experience comes in droves, with several Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series events taking place at the three-eighths-mile dirt oval over the past decade.
USAC’s lone trip of the millennium to Atomic came 12 years ago when the track was still known as K-C Raceway. After two heats, however, Mother Nature doused the surface and the remainder of the evening was called off.
Five previous visits came both with and without wings.
Kenny Jacobs captured the first USAC contest at Atomic, with a wing, in 1987. Kelly Kinser delivered another winged score in 1991. Jack Hewitt went back-to-back without a wing in 1992 and 1993, while Dave Darland followed Hewitt in picking up his third career USAC National Sprint Car victory in 1994.
Justin Grant was in attendance at the 2010 round and only experienced a few brief laps before the rain. He qualified 12th, but his heat race was never held due to the weather. The 2021 Mike Curb USAC Super License champ has already won once this season with the series back in February at Ocala, Florida’s Bubba Raceway Park, finishing in the top-six in all three of his starts.
Emerson Axsom has already won two of the first three features, both in Ocala, finishing inside the top-three in each of the three as well.
He would welcome becoming the fifth driver – and the sixth occasion – to start the season by winning three of the first four features. Only Don Branson (1959-60), A.J. Foyt (1961), Larry Dickson (1970) and Damion Gardner (2010) are on that select list at the moment.
Five past winners of USAC National Sprint Car features in the state of Ohio are on board for Saturday’s event, all of which have previously come at Rossburg, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.
However, all five are seeking a first USAC win at Atomic, a list that includes Grant, Brady Bacon, Robert Ballou, C.J. Leary and Matt Westfall.
Matt Westfall celebrated his lone USAC National Sprint Car victory in his home state back in 2006 at Eldora. Westfall has winning experience at Atomic too, capturing the BOSS Sprint Car feature at the track in 2019.
Atomic Speedway can claim multiple generations of Hewitt participants in its history books. Jack Hewitt is the lone two-time USAC National Sprint Car feature victor at the track, having won in back-to-back seasons during 1992-’93. His nephew, Dallas Hewitt, will try to join Jack as an Atomic USAC winner on Saturday. Dallas has come close to victory in recent years with BOSS, finishing as the runner-up in 2020 and third in 2016 and ’17.
Fellow Ohioan Landon Simon took second with BOSS at Atomic in 2015 as well as 5th in 2019 and 8th in 2017. Ricky Lewis fresh off a USAC West Coast Sprint Car victory at Bakersfield (Calif.) Speedway in March, finished as the runner-up in July of 2021 with BOSS at Atomic.
Korbyn Hayslett, Cody Gardner and Paul Dues will each make their first USAC appearances of the season on Saturday at Atomic, where the trio has earned their share of recent success with BOSS.
Several individuals in the driver lineup will make their Atomic debut this weekend, including Jason McDougal, Chase Stockon, Kyle Cummins, Jake Swanson and Logan Seavey.
McDougal finished as the runner-up in Ocala’s February opener. Stockon ran two nights inside the top-four with a third and fourth. Cummins collected two in the top-six with a fourth and a sixth-place effort. Swanson notched a seventh on night two. Seavey is one of five to finish inside the top-10 in each of the first three races this year, along with Grant and Stockon as well as Buddy Kofoid and Carson Short.