USAC (INDIANA) - CHRIS WINDOM WEEKEND UPDATE

Chris Windom and his Windom Motorsports sprint car team are taking the weekend off from racing with USAC to head to two of Indiana's most challenging racing facilities, Gas City/I-69 Speedway and Kokomo Speedway, for their weekly programs.

While USAC runs Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, on Saturday, 16-year-old Windom is too young to compete at that track this year. All participants racing in the USAC divisions need to be at least 18 years old to race at that particular facility. With the highly competitive USAC National Sprint Car Series filled with other aggressive, young drivers, missing a race for any reason becomes critical as the season progresses and points are being tallied.

"Not racing in Iowa this weekend definitely will hurt us in the point standings for "Rookie of the Year," Windom explained. "I'm really disappointed that we're not allowed to race at Iowa Speedway this year, because I've heard it's a really great track. But the rules are the rules, and there's not much we can do about them. We'll just have to try to do the best we can at the remaining USAC races and see how things play out the rest of the year. I feel confident we can make up for anything that's happened this early in the year during the remaining races."

Bad luck and bizarre circumstances have plagued the Windom Motorsports team in the opening rounds of the 2007 season. Mechanical issues, bad qualifying draws and crashes that are no fault of the driver have dictated a slower start to the season than the team - or anyone else - expected. But the hard, cold results do not indicate everything. The crew is not looking at the past, but only toward the future, as each situation was not the fault of anyone on the team - they all know that their driver has all the potential to win every time he straps into the car.

"After a disappointing run at Eldora last Saturday, where I got taken out of the race before we even scored a lap, damaging my car badly, I am really looking forward to the races this weekend at Gas City and Kokomo - I won at Kokomo last year and ran in the top-five in points, so I'm pretty comfortable there," Windom said. "We didn't get to race in the USAC show at Gas City a few weeks ago because of bad weather, so this will be our first time there this year. I'm hoping to be able to run their weekly races as much as possible when it doesn't interfere with a USAC points-paying race. Kokomo Speedway is pretty close to our shop in Frankfort (Indiana), so we'll be going there a lot, too. I really like that track, and now that they've worked on the surface, it's going to be even better than it has been in the past. Hopefully we can do well in both races and turn our season around before racing with USAC again next weekend."

With engines producing upwards of 800 horsepower, the USAC National Sprint Car Series rocket ships combine the thrill of raw power with the heart-stopping action of non-wing Sprint car racing. Dirt rooster tails, wheel stands and three-wide racing are the norm when these bad boys come to town. Sprint cars also run on paved tracks, and any driver with aspirations of a championship must be able to negotiate both dirt and pavement.