Indiana Sprint Week Coming Up This Wednesday Night At Terre Haute IN Action Track

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*30TH INDIANA SPRINT WEEK TO VISIT TERRE HAUTE ACTION TRACK WEDNESDAY*

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Indiana Sprint Week.  Those words alone invoke powerful emotions of passion
that reaches from each of USAC’s Sprint Car superheroes all the way to the
common race fan.  It makes no difference who you are.  When Sprint Week
looms, it consumes every waking hour.  This Wednesday, July 12, fans in
Terre Haute, Indiana will be packing the stands at The Action Track,
watching all of the stars of the 2017 edition pace the fast 1/2-mile.

Seven races in nine nights of action with events at Gas City, Kokomo, and
Lawrenceburg, leading up to the Terre Haute race.  Following Terre Haute,
the tour travels to Lincoln Park, Bloomington, and Tri-State.

It’s a journey that can turn hair gray, yet create legends out of mere
mortals.  It can divert a season’s path to one of joyous jubilation or to a
fate of frustration.  Yet, ultimately, it can make the person who’s seen
everything, feel like a kid again.  It makes no difference who you are.
The moment has drawn near.  For the 30th year, Indiana Sprint Week has
arrived.

Entering its third decade, Indiana Sprint Week presented by Camping World
has become a timeless tradition.  One that’s seen countless breakthrough
performances such as last year when Kyle Cummins, Brent Beauchamp, Carson
Short and Tyler Courtney all raced to their first USAC AMSOIL National
Sprint Car victories.

Courtney’s particularly stands out due to his stick-to-it-iveness following
a lap one spin in the 2016 Sprint Week opener at Gas City.  After
restarting from the tail, few could’ve foreseen the comeback for the ages
that Sunshine demonstrated throughout the next 30 laps, passing at least
one car per lap before ultimately driving by Bryan Clauson on the bottom
for the victory with eight laps to go.

Courtney was in position to win the title with two races remaining until a
massive Bloomington crack-up dashed his hopes and dreams of the ultimate
Sprint Week glory.  Meanwhile, Brady Bacon was racking up a string of
consistent finishes on a nightly basis that netted him his first Indiana
Sprint Week title, the ninth to do so without a single win in the history
of the mini-series.  This year, however, he’s at the wheel of the
Dooling/Hayward Motorsports No. 63, which Clauson raced to his 41st and
final victory at Lawrenceburg’s Sprint Week round a year ago.

Bacon’s championship ride from last year is occupied by Hanford,
California’s Chad Boespflug.  Despite a run of big-time wins last season,
an Indiana Sprint Week triumph was not among them, although his first
career USAC win back in 2013 came at a Sprint Week staple – Lincoln Park
Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana.  The Hoffman No. 69 has seen its share of
success in Indiana Sprint Week with 12 wins and two titles between Dave
Darland in 1998 and Bacon in 2016.

A pair of ISW champions are eager to end their respective droughts.
Astonishingly, Chris Windom of Canton, Illinois hasn’t won an ISW race
since Terre Haute’s “Don Smith Classic�?? that same summer six years back.
Rocklin, California’s Robert Ballou was the 2015 titlist, but did so absent
a victory.  But, it was a single week in 2014 after multiple wins at
Putnamville and Haubstadt that turned Ballou’s career around.  He arrived
at Putnamville for Sprint Week three years ago with five wins in an
eight-year span.  In the two-and-a-half years since, he’s tallied 22 USAC
National wins and a National title.

Point leader Justin Grant is the only driver to win USAC Sprint races in
four different states this season, but his last Indiana Sprint Week win
came in 2012 at Lawrenceburg.  Alabama’s Kevin Thomas, Jr., a recent
Williams Grove winner, is one of just three drivers to win three Sprint
Week features in a row and is the last to do so back in 2013.

The two winningest ISW drivers of all-time – three-time champ Dave Darland
and twice a champion Jon Stanbrough – have been neck-to-neck in terms of
total series victories for quite some time.  The two have been mainstays
atop the results for many a year with Darland’s first win “Sprint Week�?? win
coming in 1990 and Stanbrough’s in 1996!  The connection between the two
holds true to today with each of their most recent Sprint Week wins coming
one night apart from each other in 2014.  Stanbrough took his 16th on
opening night at Gas City while Darland snagged Kokomo the following night
for the 18th time.

Hoosier Hotshots Brady Short and Chase Stockon aim to once again protect
their home turf as they did last year at Putnamville and Terre Haute,
respectively.

USAC Champions Brody Roa and Ryan Bernal intend to carry the flame for the
west coast, continuing a tradition of Californians who’ve made the 30-plus
hour Midwest migration for a couple weeks during the summer to take on the
best of USAC’s National contingent.  Cory Kruseman, Cary Faas and Damion
Gardner are among the few who’ve conquered the west, then thrived in
Indiana Sprint Week as race winners.  Reigning West Coast Sprint champ Roa
made his initial foray to “Sprint Week�?? back in 2014 while Bernal, the 2013
and 14 Western Classic Sprint champion, makes his first trip back since
2013.

For some, Indiana Sprint Week can be a pocket full of sunshine and a
racer’s delight.  For others, it can prove to be a walk on hot coals
scattered atop a bed of nails.  Racers go to challenge themselves against
the best of the best, night after night to prove themselves on this racing
carousel.  Where each lands at the end of the week is up to preparation
and, perhaps, a bit of good fortune.  The stakes are immense and the action
intense.  Sleep is secondary from the moment the engines fire at Gas City
‘til the final flag drops at Haubstadt.  And, you know what?  We wouldn’t
have it any other way.  This is Indiana Sprint Week!

Joining the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars will be the Scott's Custom
Colors UMP Modifieds.  Pits will open Wednesday at 3:00 and grandstands at
4:00 with a special prerace show taking place in front of the stands with
Donald Davidson, Indianapolis Motor Speedway historian.  The track will be
hot with the start of practice at 6:30, qualifying at 7:00, and racing at
7:30.  Grandstand admission is $25, infield admission $15, and kids 11 and
under are free.

Five of the seven races will be streamed LIVE via PPV on
http://www.SpeedShiftTV.com/: Gas City, Kokomo, Lawrenceburg, Terre Haute
and Bloomington.  You may catch all the races available on-demand a day
following the event at http://www.Loudpedal.TV/.

About Terre Haute Action Track:

For more information, follow the Action Track online at
www.terrehauteactiontrack.net and on Facebook (
www.facebook.com/terrehauteactiontrack).  Updates are also available by
calling the Track Enterprises office at 217-764-3200.

The Terre Haute Action Track is located at the Wabash County Fairgrounds,
in Terre Haute, IN.  The physical address is 3901 South US Hwy 41, Terre
Haute, IN 47807.