Bloomington, Indiana -- As much a fixture of spring as the blooming of the flowers and trees, it seems apropos that the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship makes an annual early season trip to southern Indiana’s Bloomington Speedway.

The 11th such springtime series event at the 1/4-mile red clay oval since the first edition in 1986 brings the series to round number five of the 2022 season and its 42nd event ever held at Bloomington over the past 40 years.

Brady Bacon enters Friday’s event at Bloomington coming off a victory in the series’ most recent race on April 16 at Ohio’s Atomic Speedway.  He’s the lone springtime Bloomington USAC National Sprint Car feature winner expected in the field, capturing the 30-lap feature in 2019, which stands as the 30-lap track record for the series at a clip of 6:47.18.  Additionally, the four-time series champ was 2nd in 2021 and has finished his last seven spring Bloomington starts inside the top-eight along with being a three-time fast qualifier there this time of the year in 2012-13-15.

Shane Cottle (Kansas, Ill.) eyes one spot better than he got a decade ago in May of 2012 when he finished second behind Bobby East at Bloomington.  Brady Short (Bedford, Ind.) is looking for two better after the seven-time track champion tallied a 3rd place result in the spring of 2013.

Like Short, the quad of Chase Stockon, Jason McDougal, Logan Seavey and Kyle Cummins are all looking to return to the podium, where they’ve all stood before with third-place finishes in the spring at Bloomington in recent years.  Stockon (Fort Branch, Ind.) took third in both 2015 and 2017 while Stockon holds Bloomington’s 12-lap track record of 2:20.84, set in April of 2017.

Stockon’s KO Motorsports’ teammate, McDougal (Broken Arrow, Okla.) notched a third in his only previous spring Bloomington start in 2019.  Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) made his only spring Bloomington start a good one in 2018 where he finished third.  Cummins scored a third in the most recent edition in 2021.

February Ocala winner Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) seeks a return to victory lane this Friday after finishing 4th in the spring of 2017 at Bloomington and was the Fatheadz Fast Qualifier a year ago in 2021.  Robert Ballou (Rocklin, Calif.), the 2015 USAC National Sprint Car driving champion, collected a top-five run with a fifth in 2016.  C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.), the 2019 series titlist, took 5th in both 2018 and 2019, while also being a three-time fast qualifier during the event in 2016-17-19, the latter of which stands as the one-lap track record for the series at 10.685 seconds.

Likewise, Tanner Thorson, Carson Short, Brent Beauchamp and Matt Westfall are all previous spring Bloomington top-ten finishers who are planning to edge their way into the top-five and more this Friday night.  Short (Marion, Ill.) collected a 6th in 2015 while Thorson (Minden, Nev.), the 2016 USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Champion, was 6th in his first and only early-season series start at Bloomington in 2021.  Brent Beauchamp (Fairland, Ind.), a one-time USAC National Sprint Car victor at Bloomington in July of 2016, finished 9th there in the spring of 2017.  Westfall (Pleasant Hill, Ohio) bagged a 10th back in 2013.

Jadon Rogers, Jake Swanson and Max Adams, meanwhile, are coming off seasons in which they all won on the local level at Bloomington in 2021.  Rogers (Worthington, Ind.) captured three victories with Swanson (Anaheim, Calif.) picking up two and Adams once during the early part of the campaign.  Rogers vies for his first spring Bloomington start while Swanson finished 11th and Adams 18th in 2021.

A handful of drivers from last year’s spring lineup aim to better their results from their 2021 spring showings.  That starts with Carson Garrett (Littleton, Colo.) who makes his return after being injured during an incident with another car as he took the checkered flag, yet still placed 13th.  Mario Clouser (Auburn, Ill.) finished 14th while Cole Bodine (Rossville, Ind.) was 19th, Brayden Fox (Avon, Ind.), the son of 1997 track champ Brad Fox, was 20th.  Sterling Cling (Tempe, Ariz.), a 2019 USAC Regional Midget winner at Bloomington, was 23rd there a year ago and Ricky Lewis (Oxnard, Calif.) was 24th.

Veteran Brandons, Brandon Morin and Brandon Mattox, will be on the gas to put it in Bloomington’s spring show for the first time in a number of years this Friday.  Mattox (Terre Haute, Ind.) snared a 22nd in 2016 while Morin (Jasonville, Ind.) was 25th back in 2015.

Series point leader, and a two-time feature winner down in Ocala, Fla. in the month of February, Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.), will make his USAC Sprint Car debut on the red clay this Friday.  He finished 11th with the USAC National Midgets in 2021 at Bloomington.  Additional debuts will arrive from Geoff Ensign (Sebastopol, Calif.), last week’s winner on the local level at Indiana’s Lincoln Park Speedway, plus Alex Banales (Lafayette, Ind.), Gabriel Gilbert (Greenwood, Ind.), Harley Burns (Brazil, Ind.) and five-time Paragon (Ind.) Speedway track champ Jake Scott (Morgantown, Ind.).

Alec Sipes (Bloomington, Ind.) is the lone Bloomington native in Friday’s lineup.  Braxton Cummings (Bedford, Ind.) will attempt to become the first son a past spring Bloomington USAC National Sprint Car feature starter, following in the footsteps of his dad, Bub Cummings, who finished 14th in the 2011 race.

Friday’s Larry Rice Classic honors the life and career of the three-time USAC National driving champion, 1978 Indianapolis 500 co-Rookie of the Year and ESPN Thunder color analyst.  Rice captured the USAC National Midget title in 1973, plus USAC Silver Crown championships in both 1977 and 1981.

The event features the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, plus IMCA RaceSaver Sprints Cars and Hornets.

Pits open at 4pm Eastern with the grandstands opening at 5pm, drivers meeting at 5:30pm and cars on track at 6:30pm with qualifying and racing to immediately follow.

General admission tickets are $30 for ages 11 & up.  General admission tickets are free for ages 10 & under with proof of age.  Pit passes are $35 for ages 11 & up.  Pit passes are $15 for ages 10 & under.

The Larry Rice Classic can be watched live and on-demand on FloRacing at https://bit.ly/3dgONXz.