Lonnie Wheatley, KANSAS CITY, Kan. (May 12, 2022) – Brady Bacon left no room for doubt.
After starting fifth, “The Macho Man” stormed into the lead in just four laps and dominated the rest of the way in Thursday night’s non-stop 30-lap USAC Sprint Car feature atop the 2/5-mile Lakeside Speedway.
It was the second series win in a row for the four-time series champion and second in a row at Lakeside Speedway after a 2017 triumph to go along with previous Sprint Bandits TNT scores at Lakeside in 2008 and 2009.
“The track was a lot more like it was 12 years ago when we used to run here and have a lot of success, the banking has changed a little bit and it was spotty like it was tonight in the past,” Bacon explained after taking the checkered flag by a 4.595-seconds aboard the Hoffman Racing No. 69 Sprint Car.
While Bacon gridded the field inside the third row, Emerson Axsom and Logan Seavey led the way to the green flag. Bacon shot into the lead battle right away and after a pair of laps dicing in three-wide fashion for the point with Axsom and third-stater C.J. Leary, he took command and distanced himself from the field.
“Three and four had me kind of scared in traffic, I didn’t know how slow I was getting in lapped traffic,” Bacon said. “I felt really good in one and two on the bottom and found it early and stuck to it.”
In his wake, Axsom fought off Robert Ballou for the runner-up position until the 19th round when the latter raced into second.
Ballou held second to the line, explaining that, “You just have to go where they’re not. Brady and those guys were the class of the field, it took us a while to get to second.”
Seavey made a late move around Axsom to snare the show position, stating that, “I just got a really bad start and fell back to fifth, once I got confident at the end I ran down C.J. (Leary) and then Emerson (Axsom). I just have to do a better job earlier in the race.”
Axsom crossed the stripe fourth with Leary rounding out the top five as 11th-starter Matt Westfall, Jason McDougal, Chase Stockon, Jadon Rogers and Justin Grant completed the top ten.
Ballou kicked off the night by setting a fast time of 16.783 seconds in qualifying before Wyatt Burks, Mario Clouser, Stockon and McDougal topped heat race action with Cody Baker winning the 10-lap “B” Main.
USAC Sprint Cars
Lakeside Speedway – Kansas City, KS
Thursday, May 12, 2022
USAC Sprint Cars:
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.783; 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.895; 3. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-17.030; 4. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-17.052; 5. Logan Seavey, 5, Baldwin/Fox-17.123; 6. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-17.190; 7. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-17.204; 8. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-17.246; 9. Jadon Rogers, 14, Engler-17.268; 10. Mario Clouser, 6, EZR-17.334; 11. Wesley Smith, 44, Smith-17.407; 12. Jason McDougal, 5m, KO-17.451; 13. Cody Baker, 9, Tribble/Hall-17.469; 14. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-17.500; 15. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-17.566; 16. Zach Daum, 5d, Daum-17.715; 17. Wyatt Burks, 11w, Burks-17.765; 18. Alex Banales, 5x, Baldwin/Fox-17.811; 19. Chris Parkinson, 65, Parkinson-18.012; 20. Xavier Doney, 74, Doney/Lawson-18.150; 21. Braydon Cromwell, 90, Smith-18.254; 22. Chad Frewaldt, 2x, Lewis-18.262; 23. Dakota Earls, 15E, Earls-18.365; 24. Rece Wommack, 33, Wommack-18.554; 25. Zach Clark, 26, C & C-18.670; 26. Chase Howard, 13, Howard-18.676; 27. Jason Billups, 2J, Billups-18.940; 28. Justin Johnson, 27, Johnson-19.386; 29. Tyler Burton, 03, Burton-19.616; 30. Buddy Parker, 93, Weld/Parkinson-20.152; 31. Chad Tye, 88, Tye-20.185.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Wyatt Burks, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Jadon Rogers, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Cody Baker, 6. Braydon Cromwell, 7. Zach Clark, 8. Tyler Burton. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Mario Clouser, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Alex Banales, 4. Brandon Mattox, 5. Matt Westfall, 6. Chad Frewaldt, 7. Chase Howard, 8. Buddy Parker.
PIT STOP USA THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Emerson Axsom, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Wesley Smith, 5. Chris Parkinson, 6. Dakota Earls, 7. Jason Billups, 8. Chad Tye.
ROD END SUPPLY FOURT HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jason McDougal, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Xavier Doney, 5. Rece Wommack, 6. Justin Johnson, 7. Zach Daum.
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI-FEATURE: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Cody Baker, 2. Zach Daum, 3. Matt Westfall, 4. Chris Parkinson, 5. Rece Wommack, 6. Zach Clark, 7. Chase Howard, 8. Justin Johnson, 9. Braydon Cromwell, 10. Jason Billups, 11. Chad Tye, 12. Tyler Burton, 13. Dakota Earls, 14. Chad Frewaldt, 15. Buddy Parker. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (5), 2. Robert Ballou (6), 3. Logan Seavey (2), 4. Emerson Axsom (1), 5. C.J. Leary (3), 6. Matt Westfall (11), 7. Jason McDougal (8), 8. Chase Stockon (9), 9. Jadon Rogers (13), 10. Justin Grant (12), 11. Xavier Doney (18), 12. Jake Swanson (4), 13. Mario Clouser (7), 14. Wesley Smith (14), 15. Wyatt Burks (10), 16. Zach Daum (16), 17. Brandon Mattox (15), 18. Chris Parkinson (22), 19. Zach Clark (20), 20. Rece Wommack (19), 21. Alex Banales (21), 22. Cody Baker (17). 9:56.04 (New Track Record)
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Emerson Axsom, Lap 2 C.J. Leary, Lap 3 Emerson Axsom, Laps 4-30 Brady Bacon.