Brady Bacon. [Indianapolis Motor Speedway photo]
Brady Bacon. [Indianapolis Motor Speedway photo]
By Dan Margetta
Speedway, Ind., Sept. 6—At the end of the all night party that was the inaugural Driven2SaveLives “BC39” presented by NOS Energy Drink USAC Midget race on The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Brady Bacon emerged victorious after a hard fought battle with Kevin Thomas Jr. and Chad Boat.
“This team steps up when it comes to the big races and the big money and I can’t thank them enough for that.” Bacon told the crowd who stuck around well past midnight to see the main event as heavy rains earlier pushed back the racing program several hours, “It turned out to be a great race and I know I was holding my breath there for a few laps trying to get by KT (Thomas Jr.) as he’s such a hard racer and we were in lapped traffic there.”
“We’ve usually been the best guy on the bottom and the track was really tricky there with the cushion being so big from the rain,” Bacon continued, “That’s kind of what we shot for, to be able to really get a lot of acceleration off the bottom and to be able to stick it in really sideways like that.”
Kevin Thomas Jr. started on the pole and immediately jumped out to the early lead while Bacon found an opening from his seventh starting position to quickly advance to second. As the leaders approached lapped traffic, Thomas took a line that swung wider off the turns while Bacon remained glued to the inside and he was able to make numerous challenges for the lead as Chad Boat entered the fray, advancing from his tenth starting spot up to third. The three put on quite a show battling for the lead with Bacon edging to the inside of Thomas while Boat stalked both of them in third. With eight laps to go, Bacon finally was able to draw alongside Thomas on the inside exiting turn four and clear him just past the start-finish line to take the lead. Boat followed the move a few laps later as he slid past Thomas and began to chase Bacon for the top spot as the laps wound down. Bacon would not be denied however and he took the checkered flag with Boat in his tire tracks to claim the inaugural “BC39” trophy and the $15,000 pay day that went with it.
“The guys gave me a great car,” Boat told the crowd after his late race charge came up just short with a second place result, “You always want to win at The Speedway so second kind of stinks right now but what a great car and we will use this momentum to get them next time.”
“It’s irritating but that’s part of racing, “Thomas Jr. stated describing losing the lead to Bacon in lapped traffic, “It felt good to lead there and when you catch the lapped cars, the second and third guys are able to search around and find some places that are faster than you and that’s just part of it. They have good race cars and we had a good race car too and we just got beat.”
Tyler Courtney finished fourth while Christopher Bell was the event’s Hard Charger as he advanced from his 17th starting position all the way to fifth. Alex Bright finished sixth followed by Justin Grant and Holly Shelton in seventh and eighth place respectively. Jerry Coons Jr. and Ryan Robinson rounded out the top ten finishers.
The earlier rainfall combined with time restrictions forced the cancellation of the “Alphabet Soup” Mains and the A-Main starting field was based on combined passing points from Wednesday night’s action along with eight qualifying races held on Thursday night.
Logan Seavey won the first qualifier over Christopher Bell and Shane Golobic while Jake Neuman won the second qualifier over Tyler Thomas and Gage Walker. Jerry Coons Jr. was victorious in the third qualifier over David Budres and Critter Malone and Holly Shelton captured the victory in the fourth qualifier over Dilllon Welch and Zane Hendricks. Chad Boat held off Andrew Layser and Brayton Lynch to win the fifth qualifier while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. won the sixth qualifier over Justin Grant and Tyler Courtney. Kevin Thomas Jr. won the seventh qualifier over Shane Cottle and Gio Scelzi while Chris Windom won the eighth and final qualifier over Brady Bacon and Ryan Robinson.
Robert Dalby was involved in a spectacular crash in the fourth qualifier as his car shot high into the air on the frontstretch after contact with another car before tumbling down the racetrack end over end. Dalby climbed from the car but was later transported to a local hospital. Later on Twitter, Dalby posted he was sore everywhere and was being held for observation for a bruised lung.
