USAC SPRINT TOP ROOKIE ROGERS LOOKS TO MAKE GAINS IN 2021
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Worthington, Indiana (January 26, 2021)………Still just a high school senior, Jadon Rogers can already count himself as a six-year sprint car racing veteran, but in 2020, the Worthington, Ind. teenager took on the bulk of the USAC trail for the first time, and as a result, earned himself the 2020 AMSOIL National Sprint Car Rookie of the Year award.
Rogers and his family-owned No. 14 team began the season picking and choosing USAC events, starting just four of the first 11 events on the schedule, but from mid-July onward, starting at Indiana Sprint Week when he picked up a ride in the Randy Edwards No. 61m, stepping in for the briefly retired Stephen Schnapf, Rogers committed himself to the remainder of the schedule to earn the honor.
Rogers overtook season-long top-Rookie Anton Hernandez (Arlington, Texas) three-quarters of the way through the year, with seven races remaining, and never relinquished it, finishing 14th overall in the final series standings.
“This is outstanding,” Rogers exclaimed. “We bought in about halfway through the year last year, really started chipping away. We didn’t really know at the beginning of the year that we were going to run for (Rookie of the Year). When we got closer to the middle of the year, we knew that if we were going to run for it, we were going to have to go hard.”
Rogers indeed did finish strong, making large strides in the latter stretch where he earned three of his five total top-ten finishes in his last five starts, topped by a career best finish of 2nd at Tri-State Speedway’s Haubstadt Hustler in September. Along the way, Rogers also notched a 7th at Gas City, Ind., a 9th at Putnamville, Ind. and a 9th and 10th at Tri-State, making him three-for-three on the year in recording top-ten results at Haubstadt, Ind. track in USAC competition.
Establishing USAC career highs in all statistical categories, Rogers was also the fastest qualifier in one of the largest fields of the year, topping 51 cars in time trials during the July 3 Bill Gardner Sprintacular at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Ind. Despite the achievement, qualifying is an aspect of the racing program that Rogers is still learning, one step, and one lap, at a time.
“Qualifying is the hardest part,” Rogers acknowledges. “You’ve just got to make a good lap and then you’ve got to strive for an even better one on the second lap. Sometimes just cutting one good lap is a struggle. We really struggled qualifying all year and maybe that’s my fault, but we’ll keep trying harder and if we can get that better, I think we can put ourselves in a better position for success.”
Rogers splits his time racing on dirt tracks in the Midwest with time spent in the fall on the soccer field and in the winter on the basketball court, both sports in which he excels in at White River Valley High School in Switz City, Ind.
However, like many during this time of the year, Rogers has his mind set on sunny Florida. However, Rogers has a destination in mind that is a racer’s delight – the dirt, rather than the beach, to kick off the new season at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla. for the start of Winter Dirt Games XII where the dawn of a new season presents new goals to strive for and a fire brewing inside.
“I just want to get a USAC win,” Rogers stated. “I want to be able to contend in races and every time I go to the racetrack, I want to be one of the guys to beat.”
USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR ROOKIES OF THE YEAR:
1971: Darl Harrison
1972: Billy Cassella
1973: Rich Leavell
1974: Lee Osborne
1975: Marvin Carman
1976: Roger Rager
1977: Eddie Leavitt
1978: Tim Richmond
1979: Jerry Carman
1980: Frank Riddle
1981: Steve Long & Johnny Coogan
1982: Danny Milburn
1983: Dean Shirley
1984: Jerry Russell
1985: Terry Shepherd
1986: Kenny Jacobs
1987: Rick Ungar
1988: Dean Jacobs
1989: Eric Gordon
1990: Rick Howerton
1991: Tony Stewart
1992: Gary Cameron II
1993: Kenny Irwin Jr.
1994: Bobby Smith
1995: Mark Cassella
1996: Gus Wasson
1997: J.J. Yeley
1998: Tracy Hines
1999: Ryan Newman
2000: Bud Kaeding
2001: Ed Carpenter
2002: Boston Reid
2003: Michael Lewis & Mat Neely
2004: Josh Ford & Josh Wise
2005: Darren Hagen
2006: Scotty Weir
2007: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
2008: Chad Boat
2009: Henry Clarke
2010: Justin Grant
2011: Coleman Gulick
2012: C.J. Leary
2013: Tyler Courtney
2014: Jarett Andretti
2015: Aaron Farney
2016: Isaac Chapple
2017: Stevie Sussex
2018: Timmy Buckwalter & Logan Seavey
2019: Dustin Clark
2020: Jadon Rogers