What you need to know about Wisconsin's USAC tripleheader weekend and how to watch
Gregg McKarns, the owner of Madison International Speedway and promoter at Angell Park Speedway, has dreamed of a Wisconsin USAC weekend for years. It has finally come to fruition, with races Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Here’s a look at what’s ahead.
Which USAC divisions are coming, and at which tracks will they race?
The Silver Crown National Championship is set to race Friday night at Madison International Speedway, a half-mile banked asphalt oval in the Town of Rutland. This will be the fourth of 13 races on the schedule.
The USAC Sprint Car National Championship is scheduled for races Saturday at Wilmot Raceway, a three-eighths-mile dirt oval on the Kenosha County Fairgrounds, and Sunday at Angell Park Speedway, a third-mile dirt oval in Sun Prairie. These will be the 14th and 15th races in a season full of rainouts and postponements.
What is the schedule for Madison?
Pits open at 2:30 p.m. Friday and stands at 4. Practice begins at 4:45, followed by qualifying and racing for Silver Crown, Midwest Dash and NASCAR late models. The headlining 100-lap Bytec Dairyland 100 pays $8,000 to win.
What is the schedule for Wilmot?
Pits open at 2 p.m. and grandstands at 4 with on-track activity getting under way at about 5:30. The 30-lap feature pays $6,000 to win. Also part of the program are the Wisconsin wingLESS Sprints and A Modifieds.
What is the schedule for Angell Park?
Pits open at 1:30 p.m. and front gates at 4. Opening ceremonies are set for 6. A 30-lap feature again pays $6,000 to win. Badger Midgets also are on the bill.
How much do tickets cost?
Tickets for Friday are $20 in advance at misracing.com or $25 at the gate, with reduced prices for seniors and children.
Tickets for Saturday are $30 at the gate, free for kids 6 and under and $5 for children 7-11.
Tickets for Sunday are $25 with reduced prices for seniors, military members and children.
Are USAC races broadcast on television or streaming?
Yes. All events are set for coverage by FloRacing.com. Watch live at bit.ly/3frPoW6.
The annual subscription cost is $149.99.
Who are the drivers to watch?
Logan Seavy (189 points) leads Kody Swanson (171) and C.J. Leary (168) atop the Silver Crown standings and won the most recent race Saturday in Port Royal Pennsylvania. Seavy also has two sprint car victories.
Swanson is going for his seventh Silver Crown title. He has won the past two Silver Crown races at Madison and has 27 overall, six more than retired Jack Hewitt on the all-time list, but has yet to win this season.
Although Leary has not won in Silver Crown yet this season, he has won in the sprint car division.
Justin Grant won the Silver Crown opener and is in contention for all three series – Silver Crown, sprint cars and midgets. To win them all would be worth a $300,000 bonus. Only two drivers have done it, Tony Stewart in 1995 and J.J. Yeley in 2003. To win two divisions would be worth an extra $150,000. Grant leads the sprint car standings 872-858 over Seavy.
Bobby Santos broke out at Indianapolis Raceway Park for his first Silver Crown victory since 2018, beating Swanson.
Taylor Ferns comes into Madison after finishing third at Lucas Oil Raceway Park outside Indianapolis, which was the best finish by a woman in Silver Crown.
Three-time sprint car champion Brady Bacon has won four of the 13 races this season, including the most recent Sunday in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. With 29 victories, he is tied for the lead among active drivers with Robert Ballou.
Ballou, the 2015 champion, has won twice in sprint cars this season and was the winner the last time the division raced in Wisconsin (2015, Angell Park).
Sprint car rookie Emerson Axsom won two of the first three races but has fallen to seventh in points.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin USAC Silver Crown, sprint car tripleheader weekend preview
