TEXAS TEA: USAC SPRINT CAR HISTORY IN THE LONE STAR STATE

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Speedway, Indiana (April 20, 2023)………Texas.  It’s big and it’s larger than life.

From being the home to the headquarters of NASA to being the lifelong residence of the one-and-only A.J. Foyt to the sheer size and breadth of the state itself, Texas is an entity of its own with a true, unique identity.

That’s why the excitement is pulsating for the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship’s first visit to Texas since 1985 – 38 years ago.

After a one-night stay in neighboring Arkansas on Wednesday, April 26, at Texarkana 67 Speedway, the series crosses the border into Texas for three-straight nights, starting Thursday, April 27, at Petty’s Rocket Raceway Park and for two evenings at Mesquite’s Devil’s Bowl Speedway on Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29.  The four-race tour features USAC in conjunction with the ASCS Elite Non-Wing Sprint Cars.

The three Texas races in 2023 nearly equal the amount of USAC Sprint Car feature events that have been held in the state during the first 67 seasons of USAC between 1956-2022.  Four series events have been held in the Lone Star State, the first of which was came mere weeks after A.J. Foyt’s first career USAC Sprint Car win in 1959.

USAC’s Midwest Sprint Car division trekked down to Houston’s Meyer Speedway for the final series event of the decade of the 1950s.  The race was the first USAC sanctioned event at Meyer, which hosted a handful of USAC Sprint, Midget and Stock Car races between 1959-62.  Foyt tacked on a special victory at his hometown half-mile paved oval, leading the entire 50-lap distance for legendary car owner/builder A.J. Watson, whose cars Foyt would take to further success at the Indianapolis 500 in the years to come.

Don Branson came into the 1960 USAC Midwest Sprint Car opener at Meyer Speedway at the top of his game, having won the series championship the year before for car owner Bob Estes.  But he needed every inch to remain at the top of the sport on this night at Meyer Speedway, edging Jim Hurtubise to the finish line by a mere two feet.  Branson set a 30-lap track record during the feature in the process after earlier laying down a new track record time in qualifying, breaking the former record set a year earlier by Parnelli Jones.

Rufus Jones, better known as Parnelli, got his revenge in October of 1960 at Meyer Speedway when he became the third-straight USAC Sprint Car driving champion to “walk-off” with a feature victory in the final race of the season after Eddie Sachs (1958) and Tommy Hinnershitz (1959) did the same during the previous two years.  Parnelli capped off the first year of the revolutionary 1960s by clinching the USAC Midwest Sprint Car title with a 50-lap score by a single car length over A.J. Foyt.  Jones and Foyt exchanged the lead four different times before Jones emerged ahead with eight laps remaining to get the win.

The hiatus lasted 25 years before USAC Sprint Car racing returned to Texas in 1985, which presented a unique USAC vs CRA (California Racing Association) challenge, pitting the top talent from the national scene versus the best of the west.  After two of the first three rounds of the six-race series went CRA’s way, Rick Hood evened the score two-to-two for USAC with a stunning finish at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas.  Hood trailed Butler for 29 of the 30 laps before roaring from behind in the final turn to beat Butler to the checkered flag in his Blackie Fortune-owned, Rose Brothers-sponsored machine.  The win thrusted Hood to his second consecutive USAC driving title.

Four races in Texas over the past 67 years.  Three races in three nights this week.  How about that?  Plus, one thing each of the four USAC National Sprint Car winners in Texas have in common is that they are USAC National Sprint Car champions.  That bodes well for four drivers in particular when the series returns to Rocket Raceway Park on April 27 and Devil’s Bowl Speedway on April 28-29: Brady Bacon (2014-16-21-22), Robert Ballou (2015), C.J. Leary (2019) and Justin Grant (2022).

However, they’ll have a whole host of others intending to break this 64-year “streak” dating back to 1959 by snagging one away from the champs, guys like Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.), Kyle Cummins (Princeton, Ind.), Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Ala.), Chase Stockon (Fort Branch, Ind.), Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.), Jake Swanson (Anaheim, Calif.), Matt Westfall (Pleasant Hill, Ohio), Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, Calif.), Jadon Rogers (Worthington, Ind.), Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.), Carson Garrett (Littleton, Colo.) and many more.

Perhaps, like the others who came before them, a win in Texas could be a boon toward a USAC National Sprint Car championship.

Just wait and see.

2023 USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP / ASCS ELITE NON-WING SPRINT CAR ARKANSAS/TEXAS TOUR SCHEDULE:

Apr 26: Texarkana 67 Speedway – Texarkana, Arkansas

Apr 27: Rocket Raceway Park – Petty, Texas

Apr 28: Devil’s Bowl Speedway | Mesquite, Texas

Apr 29: Devil’s Bowl Speedway | Mesquite, Texas

PAST USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR WINNERS IN TEXAS:

1959: A.J. Foyt (10/11 at Meyer Speedway)

1960: Don Branson (3/20 at Meyer Speedway)

1960: Parnelli Jones (10/23 at Meyer Speedway)

1985: Rick Hood (5/10 at Devil’s Bowl Speedway)

PAST USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RESULTS IN TEXAS:

USAC MIDWEST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: October 11, 1959 – Meyer Speedway – Houston, Texas

FEATURE: (50 laps) 1. A.J. Foyt (A.J. Watson #33), 2. Don Branson, 3. Parnelli Jones, 4. Shorty Templeman, 5. Tony Bettenhausen, 6. Chuck Hulse, 7. Jim Packard, 8. Bud Sterrett, 9. Harry Ross, 10. Curly Daggett, 11. Leon Clum, 12. Roger McCluskey, 13. Jim Hurtubise, 14. Hall, 15. Dempsey Wilson, 16. Bill Griswold.

USAC MIDWEST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: March 20, 1960 – Meyer Speedway – Houston, Texas

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Don Branson (Bob Estes #1), 2. Jim Hurtubise, 3. Parnelli Jones, 4. A.J. Foyt, 5. Wayne Weiler, 6. Jim Packard, 7. Leon Clum, 8. Roger McCluskey, 9. Nelson Stacy, 10. Harry Ross, 11. Bob Mathouser, 12. Dan Morgan.

USAC MIDWEST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: October 23, 1960 – Meyer Speedway – Houston, Texas

FEATURE: (50 laps) 1. Parnelli Jones (Harlan Fike #51), 2. A.J. Foyt, 3. Roger McCluskey, 4. Don Branson, 5. Jim Hurtubise, 6. Bud Tingelstad, 7. Elmer George, 8.Billy Wade, 9.  Jim Hemmings, 10. Hank Henry, 11. Bruce Jacobi, 12. Don Melton.

USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: May 10, 1985 – Devil’s Bowl Speedway – Mesquite, Texas

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Rick Hood (Blackie Fortune #39), 2. Steve Butler, 3. Eddie Wirth, 4. Dean Thompson, 5. Mike Sweeney, 6. Bob Meli, 7. John Redican, 8. Richard Summers, 9. Brad Noffsinger, 10. Jeff Heywood, 11. Billy Felts, 12. Greg Wooley, 13. Steve Perry, 14. Edd French, 15. Bill Holder, 16. Duke Grose, 17. Bill VonHelmolt, 18. Sheldon Kinser, 19. Johnny Suggs, 20. Dale Looper.