LINCOLN PARK TWIN FEATURE PREVIEW: 9/12/2020

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Putnamville, Indiana (September 9, 2020)………The highly-anticipated Lincoln Park Speedway twin feature event featuring double A-Mains for the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship arrives this Saturday night, September 12, at the 5/16-mile dirt oval in Putnamville, Ind.

The twin feature format presents a rarity with this being the first such event for the series in nine years and only the third in the past quarter century.  More prevalent during the decade of the 1970s, 64 previous USAC National Sprint Car events have been held with multiple features held at the same track within the same day.

This scenario came to fruition due to the rain suspended event from July 31 at Lincoln Park where precipitation fell with four laps remaining in the semi-feature.  Saturday’s event will pick up with the resumption of those final four laps of the semi followed by the 30-lap feature, with lineups based on the heat race results from July 31 and the semi-feature finish from earlier Saturday night.  Heat races were won by Shane Cottle, Robert Ballou, Brady Bacon and Logan Seavey, who was also the night’s fastest qualifier.

At the completion of the first feature, an entirely new USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car program will begin from scratch with qualifying followed by heat races, last chance races and another 30-lap feature, as is the standard format.

Two complete USAC National Sprint Car programs have been run to completion at Lincoln Park this season.  Shane Cottle (Kansas, Ill.) captured the July 3 round, leading the last 23 laps to score his first career Lincoln Park USAC victory.

Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.) emerged as the winner on July 4 following a see-saw battle with Justin Grant and C.J. Leary that saw the closest 1-2-3 finish of the season.  Bacon led a race-high 16 total laps but re-emerged with the lead with only three laps to go to earn his second LPS USAC Sprint triumph after earlier winning during the 2015 season.  Bacon also won the Sprint Car portion of Indiana Midget Week at LPS back in June.

Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) led both of those races, finishing 2^nd on July 3 and 3^rd on July 4.  He led on two non-consecutive occasions for two laps in the first meeting, then led the first 14 on the Independence Day race.  C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.), meanwhile, finished 4^th on July 3 and 2^nd on July 4.  The defending series champ led one-lap late on the fourth but lost the lead back to Bacon with three to go.

Along with Cottle and Bacon, past Lincoln Park USAC National Sprint winners in the lineup include 1990-91 track titlist Dave Darland (Lincoln, Ind.), a 7^th place finisher on July 4 and a six-time series winner there in 1997-98-99-2005-12-18, which stands as the most for any driver at LPS.

Robert Ballou (Rocklin, Calif.) has won on three occasions with USAC at LPS, in 2014-16-17, while Kyle Cummins (Princeton, Ind.), winner of three of the last four USAC Sprint races, was the victor at LPS in July of 2019.

Chase Stockon (Ft. Branch, Ind.) has been on a roll of consistency of late, knocking out top-ten runs on the norm to rise near the top of the standings entering September.  It was at LPS where Stockon began his run with KO Motorsports on the USAC trail, finishing 5^th on July 3 and 4^th on July 4.

Chris Windom (Canton, Ill.) was a 3^rd place runner there on July 3 and was also a winner of an Indiana Midget Week round there in June.  Meanwhile, LPS hot shoe A.J. Hopkins (Brownsburg, Ind.) was 6^th on July 3 and has been a winner twice on the local level with the sprint car there in 2020, back in June and in the most recent event held last Saturday.

Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Ala.) has also won twice at Lincoln Park this season, once in July and again in August with the Midwest Sprint Car Series.  Thomas finished 8^th at LPS with USAC back in early July.  Dakota Jackson (Elizabethtown, Ind.) earned a 9^th place run with USAC on July 3, the same night that Carson Short (Marion, Ill.) led five laps early in the 30-lap feature.  Short finished 10^th the following night.  Brandon Mattox (Terre Haute, Ind.), meanwhile, scored his best USAC finish of the year, a 9^th on July 4 at LPS.

Jadon Rogers (Worthington, Ind.) took honors as the fastest in Fatheadz Qualifying on July 3, his first fast time of his career with the series.  He won locally at Lincoln Park in early August and is engaged in a fierce battle with Anton Hernandez (Arlington, Texas) for the position as the top Rookie in the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car standings.  Hernandez, who’ll wheel Michael Dutcher’s No. 17GP this weekend, is four points ahead of Rogers coming in.

Brent Beauchamp (Fairland, Ind.) added a fast qualifying time to his USAC resume at LPS on July 4, his first in eight seasons with the series.  Two solid runs marked the occasion in early July for Beauchamp with a 7^th on the third and a 6^th on the fourth.  The 2012 and 2017 LPS track champion has won twice locally this season, once in June and again in August.

The September date marks a rare visit by the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars to Lincoln Park at this time of the season.  Only three previous series events have been held during the ninth month on the calendar, including the first in 1981 won by Sheldon Kinser; a 1985 visit won by Steve Butler; and the most recent September stop in 2010, won by Jon Stanbrough.

The Lincoln Park event is the bookend of a three-race slate this weekend for the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars which kicks off Friday, Sept. 11 at Bloomington Speedway and continues Saturday, Sept. 12 with double features at LPS.

Saturday at Lincoln Park, pits open at 3pm ET, grandstands at 4pm, drivers meeting at 5pm and hot laps at 5:30pm.  General admission tickets are $25 while children age 10 and under are free.  Pit passes are $35 with kids 10 and under free.  Modifieds and Super Stocks will also be in action.

Tickets will be available at the gate for all of this weekend’s events, but you can also purchase your tickets in advance at http://usactickets.com.

All three events will streamed live on FloRacing at https://bit.ly/3frPoW6.

LINCOLN PARK SPEEDWAY USAC SPRINT CAR TRACK RECORDS:

1 Lap: 7/26/2018 - Brady Bacon - 12.276 - 91.642 mph

6 Laps: 8/23/1997 - Bill Rose - 1:22.90 - 81.423 mph

8 Laps: 7/29/2001 - Bryon Walters - 1:46.75 - 84.309 mph

10 Laps: 7/16/2017 - Chris Windom - 2:10.33 - 86.319 mph

12 Laps: 7/14/2014 - Jon Stanbrough - 2:40.15 - 84.296 mph

ALL-TIME LINCOLN PARK SPEEDWAY USAC SPRINT CAR FEATURE WINS

(6) Dave Darland

(5) Sheldon Kinser

(3) Robert Ballou

(2) Brady Bacon, Steve Butler, Jerry Coons Jr., Jay Drake, Cory Kruseman & Jon Stanbrough

(1) Chuck Amati, Chad Boespflug, Bryan Clauson, Shane Cottle, Tyler Courtney, Kyle Cummins, Brad Fox, Dickie Gaines, Jack Hewitt, Kelly Kinser & Brady Short

ALL-TIME LINCOLN PARK SPEEDWAY USAC SPRINT CAR FEATURE WINNERS:

1981: Sheldon Kinser (9/16)

1983: Kelly Kinser (5/25) & Sheldon Kinser (8/24)

1984: Chuck Amati (5/23) & Sheldon Kinser (7/18)

1985: Sheldon Kinser (5/4) & Steve Butler (9/7)

1986: Steve Butler (5/17) & Sheldon Kinser (8/23)

1997: Jack Hewitt (7/27) & Dave Darland (8/23)

1998: Dave Darland (7/26) & Brad Fox (8/15)

1999: Dave Darland (7/24)

2000: Jay Drake (7/29)

2001: Jon Stanbrough (7/21)

2002: Cory Kruseman (7/20)

2003: Jay Drake (7/19)

2004: Cory Kruseman (7/17)

2005: Dave Darland (7/19)

2010: Dickie Gaines (7/24) & Jon Stanbrough (9/10)

2012: Dave Darland (7/22)

2013: Chad Boespflug (7/4) & Bryan Clauson (7/18)

2014: Jerry Coons, Jr. (7/4) & Robert Ballou (7/17)

2015: Jerry Coons, Jr. (7/4) & Brady Bacon (7/16)

2016: Robert Ballou (7/1) & Brady Short (7/14)

2017: Robert Ballou (7/16)

2018: Tyler Courtney (7/6) & Dave Darland (7/26)

2019: Kyle Cummins (7/25)

2020: Shane Cottle (7/3) & Brady Bacon (7/4)