BROWNSBURG, Ind — Before my weekend started a few states away in Wisconsin for the NTT IndyCar Series ninth race of the season in Road America, I got a headstart on the west side of Indianapolis for the return of Thursday Night Thunder. Lucas Oil Raceway brought the prestigious event back in 2021 with Thursday being the opening night of the return.
There were two races on hand with a pair of 40 lappers for the USAC Sprint Cars as well as the USAC Midgets. This night was a points paying event for the AJ Foyt Championship which started with the rain delayed Carb Night Classic doubleheader show for the Midgets and USAC Silver Crown cars followed by Thursday Night Thunder, a midget race on July 3 for the SRX race weekend followed by a triple header of Midgets, Sprints and Silver Crown racing on Aug. 13-14 for the inaugural Hoosier Classic.
Heading into the night, Kody Swanson entered as the points leader as he swept the Carb Night Classic races. Bobby Santos III had a front row seat to Swanson’s dominance lately at LOR as he sat 13 points back in second. Both entered both events on Thursday.
Kody and his brother Tanner Swanson have been so dominant lately in USAC action at LOR in general. So, for what Santos III accomplished on Thursday was not only a special feat for him personally, but he finally showed that he can stick it to the Swanson’s on pavement on the .686-mile short track.
Santos III, started on the pole and led all 40 laps in a sloppy Sprint Car race. We saw several cautions which started on Lap 2 in Turn 3 when Justin Harper got into the wall and slowly made his way around the track bringing out the opening yellow. The next yellow came for Swanson’s brother Tanner stalling on the backstretch. The biggest crash came on Lap 25 when Taylor Ferns and Don Hamilton made contact with one another in Turn 1 sparking a big crash. Ferns, was running fourth at the time and Hamilton, a lap down in 11th. That sparked a red flag for cleanup.
Swanson, got under Derek Bischak, who started second beside polesitter Santos III, before they reached Turn 1 on the first lap to take over second place. Then he chased Santos, the eventual winner, the rest of the race.
Swanson cut the gap to Santos by 0.521 of a second from laps 20 through 24, as he was 0.967 behind on lap 20 but only 0.446 behind on lap 24. At that point there was a yellow flag that turned into a red flag due to a crash between Turns 1 and 2 involving the driver who was running fourth at the time, Taylor Ferns, and Don Hamilton. Luckily neither was hurt. On the restart Santos was able to pad his lead again, however.
Santos III was able to hold Swanson off and win for the fourth time of his career in a Sprint Car at LOR.
He bested Swanson by .952-seconds.
“You know, it’s tough to come up short when I know how badly we all wanted to win,” Swanson said. “But it wasn’t for a lack of effort, and I want to thank everyone on the Doran Racing team for all of their hard work, and our sponsors for their support.
“We’ve got a great team, and they continued to work on the car all day. We made improvements with each change, but ultimately didn’t end up where we wanted.
“Early in the race I knew it was going to be tough to keep up, and started trying to move around the track to find a faster line. On that longer run through the middle of the race I had started to wonder if I was at least matching pace better, and then that red came out.
“I don’t think that time we sat under the red flag necessarily helped us any, but that’s just part of how races play out sometimes. I really don’t know if I’d have been able to close on Bobby if we’d have stayed green, but after that red we lost some of what we had working on the run before, and he was really able to pull away from us to the end.
“Congratulations to Bobby and his team; they did a great job.
“Thanks to Lucas Oil Raceway for bringing an event like this back, and to all of the fans who came out to see us or watched it on Flo. I’m looking forward to our next chance to try again!”
Billy Wease was charging hard in the end but had to settle for third. Second place starter Derek Bischak finished fourth while New Castle’s Dakoda Armstrong rounded out the top five in fifth.
In the next race, Santos started fourth but quickly found the lead. Kody Swanson started on the pole but second place starter Josh Wise passed him for the top spot on the opening lap and led the opening two laps before Santos got him on Lap 2. He’d lead the next 38 laps before scoring his 11th career win at LOR.
Swanson finished runner-up while his brother Tanner Swanson finished third. Wise, fell to fourth in the end while Thomas Meseraull rounded out the top five in the race that was stopped by just one caution.
Midget Feature:
- Santos III
- KSwanson
- TSwanson
- Wise
- Meseraull
- Carter
- Hamilton
- Trainor
- Gerhardt
- Roahrig
- Byrd
- Studley
- Breidinger
- Sluss
- Armstrong
- O’Gara
- Ferns
Sprint Feature
- Santos III
- KSwanson
- Wease
- Bischak
- Armstrong
- Vaughn
- O’Gara
- Fitzwater
- Butler
- Roahrig
- Ferns
- Hamilton
- Swanson
- Harper
- McElfresh
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