INDIANAPOLIS — The fifth annual Driven 2 Save Lives BC39 is back to celebrate the fifth running of the prestigious USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Championship. This year’s classic will be vastly different than the previous four.
For starters, this isn’t a support race to the NASCAR weekend. It was moved to a standalone event this week. Also, more days were added too. Wednesday night will be practice and the Stoops Pursuit Race. Thursday and Friday the field was split in 2 with 36 Midgets running through the gauntlet on Thursday night and 35 more on Friday night.
Saturday, they all come together to go for the win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
How Each Night Works
Wednesday night is the lighter of the four nights. A pair of practice sessions (7 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. ET) lead way to the 9 p.m. ET Stoops Pursuit Race. It’s a 25 lap, 24 car, shootout. To be a part of the Shootout, the top-10 drivers in points (Logan Seavey, Justin Grant, Bryant Wiedeman, Ryan Timms, Jade Avedisian, Daison Pursley, Cannon McIntosh, Jacob Denney, Gavin Miller and Taylor Reimer) are locked into the event as are the 10 fastest during Wednesday night’s practice who are not already locked in. Up to four promoters’ options will be available to start the event too. How the race will work itself is the 24 cars will start by qualifying inversion. There’s (5), 5-lap segments. Each 5 laps will have a caution. Cars that have been passed will exit. Cars that did the passing will stay. That will get you to just one winner to which receives $1500 prize and $100 additional for cars passed.
Ticket prices are $35 which is all GA.
Thursday night and Friday night will have hot laps, heat races and qualifying races to widdle the 36 Midgets (Thursday) and 35 Midgets (Friday) down to an A-Main on each night. The top 3 A-Main finishers on each night are locked into the A-Main on Saturday night.
On both nights, public gates open at 4 p.m. ET, hot laps at 6 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying, opening ceremonies, heat races (8 laps each), the C-Main (10 laps), the Semi-Feature (12 laps) and the Feature event (30 laps).
Points for the heats will be accumulated by finishing position and total number of positions advanced. Cars will be positioned into qualifying races based on the passing points accumulated in the heats. Total points from the heat races and qualifying races will be added to set the starting lineups for the prelim main events on Thursday and Friday. The top-16 overall in accumulated points will start straight-up in the first eight rows of Thursday and Friday’s A-Main feature.
Prelim night finishers 4-17 will be slated for one of two semi-features on Saturday night. Prelim night feature finishers 18-22, plus finishers 7-15 in the semi-feature, will start in Saturday’s C-Main. Prelim night semi-feature finishers 16th on back will start in Saturday’s D-Main.
Ticket prices range from $40-$60 each night for reserved seating. There’s no GA on either night of action.
Saturday will see the gates open at 4 p.m. ET, practice at 6 p.m. ET, followed by opening ceremonies at 7 p.m. ET, then the main events with D-Main, multiple C-Mains, the B-Main and 39-lap $20,039 to win main event.
**E-Main (if needed): 10 laps, top-4 transfer (2 to each D-Main).
**2 D-Mains: 10 laps, top-4 transfer to the C-Main.
**2 C-Mains: 12 laps, top-4 transfer to the semi-feature.
**2 Semi-Features: 12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature.
**Last Chance Race: 15 laps, top-8 transfer to the feature.
**The 39-lap feature will have 22 starters, plus two USAC provisional starters (if applicable) and two IMS options.
Ticket price are $45-$90 on this night.
No Larson, No Bell, No Problem
Normally with an event of this magnitude, you get the USAC star power from the past and present here. This time, we unfortunately won’t get the big NASCAR stars that have once raced a Midget. No Kyle Larson. No Christopher Bell. No Ricky Stenhouse Jr. You name it.
Larson told me that he wanted to race but didn’t have much midget stuff that he owned anymore. Bell has basically been told “no” by his team on running on dirt.
Still, it’s not like the quality of the field is hurting. While not having dirt masters like Larson or Bell certainly does take a hit in talent, it’s not like there’s no talent here either.
Racing on dirt is an art form and there’s plenty of artists here this week.
Thursday night is ladies night. Jade Avedisian, Taylor Reimer, Kaylee Bryson, Mariah Ede, Randi Pankratz make up 5 of the 36 drivers. However, there’s also plenty of heavy hitters in points too. 6 of the top 11 in points will run this night including Bryant Wiedeman (2nd in points), Avedisian (6th in points), Cannon McIntosh (9th in points), Jacob Denney (7th in points) and Reimer (10th in points).
Friday night has arguably the most all around USAC talent in the field. Justin Grant who is 3rd in Midget points, 3rd in Silver Crown points and the current Sprint Car points leader is on this night. So is Brady Bacon (2nd in Sprint Car points), the inaugural race winner. Kyle Cummins is fourth in Sprint Car points and here. Current Midget and Silver Crown points leader and reigning Chili Bowl winner and 4-crown sweeper, Logan Seavey, is also on this night.
Overall, 4 of the top 5 in Midget points are on this night if you include Ryan Timms (4th in points) and Daison Pursley (5th in points) too.
With this much talent on the two nights and only three drivers each night clinching a spot into the A-Main, it’s going to be intense.
4 Different Winners, 4 Years
Brady Bacon won the inaugural race in 2018. Zeb Wise won a year later (2019). Kyle Larson (2021) and Buddy Kofoid (2022) won the last two years. Who’s No. 5?
Only Larson isn’t back to try to be the first two-time winner.
Will Race Move Again in 2024?
Doug Boles is going to wait to see how the stands look this week before they rush to judgement on where this event lies in 2024. It’s the worst kept secret but the Brickyard weekend should be coming back next year. Where that date lies on the schedule and how the crowd looks this week/weekend will determine where this race goes too.
If the fans love it and it’s jam packed, they can get away with another standalone weekend. However, if the crowds suffer some, then the discussions would take place about moving this race in conjunction with the NASCAR weekend again in some capacity. It could open up more avenues for the Larson’s, Bell’s, Stenhouse Jr’s, Briscoes, Allgaier’s of the world to race too.
This year’s 71 cars on hand is the lowest since 2021. There were 89 last year which marked the 2nd highest we’ve ever seen on the .25 mile dirt track tucked snugly inside Turn 3 of the iconic cathedral of speed. The record was set in the inaugural season in 2018 with 110. We had 84 show up in 2019 and 71 in 2021 and 2023.
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