Eric Smith

5 things to watch for this week’s Driven 2 Save Lives BC 39

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.

Can Seavey Keep Dream Season Alive?

Logan Seavey began the 2023 season off this past January with a win in the prestigious Chili Bowl. Last week, he won all 3 races in the USAC 4-Crown event at Eldora. He did so on the same night in reaching victory lane in a Midget, then Sprint Car, then Silver Crown ride.

Between those two feats, he won June’s Indiana Midget Week title as well as posting two USAC feature wins on the same day at two different tracks.

Can the Sutter, Calif native win on Saturday night at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?H

Has 14 consecutive top 5 finishes on the season including 6 wins and three runner-ups in that span.

KKM

The Columbus based team has won anything and everything that there is to win including the 2022 edition here. From championships to Chili Bowl’s, you name it – KKM is USAC’s version of Hendrick Motorsports. Winning is expected.

This week, among the 72 cars here trying to win the BC 39, KKM has 7 of them.

Buddy Kofoid (No. 67K) headlines the list. While he’s made limited starts this season with finishes of 2nd, 1st, 4th, 1st, 7th, he’s also the defending race winner and was 10th in this event in 2021. Too good to overlook even though he won’t be racing on Saturday. He will on Wednesday and Thursday though.

Jade Avedisian (No. 71) is also one to watch. This girl is fast and an up-and-coming riser in the ranks. She has the talent to march into the NASCAR ranks and a strong showing this week will only expediate it. She’s finished runner-up on three different occasions this season including 2 of the last 4 races at that. She’s alternated 2nd and 16th place results in the last four going from 2nd to 16th to 2nd to 16th again. Is a runner-up coming on Saturday night?

Being in a KKM car gives her the confidence to score her 13th top 10 of the season. She’s had 5 top 4 results in the last 11 races at that.

She has two other female teammates in Mariah Ede (No. 71E) and Taylor Reimer (No. 25K). Reimer is full-time this season and has 8 top 10 finishes on the season. She was 5th just four races ago and ran well here a year ago in finishing 14th.

Ryan Timms (No. 67) is another one. He was 6th last year and sits 4th in points this season on the heels of a 3-win campaign. Timms has finished 6th, 1st, 9th, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 11th, 1st, 9th, 8th, 10th, 8th over the last 12 races too.

Gavin Miller (No. 97) is a sleeper. Miller has been solid with 13 top 10 finishes in 19 tries. In fact, he’s finally grasping a Midget now with finishes of 5th, 2nd, 2nd, 10th, 14th, 8th, 4th over the last 7 races.

The biggest sleeper of them all for KKM is Emerson Axsom (No. 68). The Franklin native has been stout this season in a part-time Midget role. He had a stretch during Midget week of finishes of 5th, 2nd, 2nd. In fact, he has 3 runner-up finishes in only 12 starts this season. In two BC39 starts, he’s finished 5th and 13th.

CB Industries

They’re building something here. They won the 2021 race with Kyle Larson and coming into this week has P2 in points and just brought over a veteran but also youngster in Cannon McIntosh as well as Kaylee Bryson to join the fray too.

McIntosh is fresh to the mix. He just came over as this will mark his debut with the team. He nearly won last year in leading a race-high 20 of 39 laps. His new teammate, Bryant Wiedeman is the current second place driver in points and is also heating up. He has four consecutive top six finishes: 6th, 3rd, 4th, 2nd on the season and in a great position to make a name for himself this week. He finished 11th a year ago.

Bryson is running the Silver Crown slate full-time but was 12th in her lone Midget start of the season last weekend in Eldora to go along with being 19th and 7th in her two BC39 starts too.

4 Different Winners, 4 Years, Do We See No. 5?

Indianapolis is a place that picks it’s winner. When looking at the list of winners no matter on the road course or oval or now dirt here, it’s the best of the best.

For this race in particular, just look at who’s won thus far.

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?

Larson and Wise aren’t back to try to be the first two-time winner. Bacon and Kofoid are. Would you take them or the field?

Cannon McIntosh and Thomas Meseraull finished P2 and P3 last year and are chomping at the bit to get a win. McIntosh led 20 of 39 laps a year ago. His teammate, Bryant Wiedeman, is the current second place driver in points and is also heating up. He has four consecutive top six finishes: 6th, 3rd, 4th, 2nd on the season and in a great position to make a name for himself this week. He finished 11th a year ago.

Justin Grant is winless in a Midget this season but has started in all 19 features. Grant comes to IMS with 4 top 7 finishes (6th, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 14th) in the last 5 races on the season in a Midget. He has 7 top five results and 12 top 10 finishes this season to go along with being 7th, 10th, 2nd, 4th in the four years of this race.

With 4 different drivers winning the 4-year history of this race thus far, Grant could be next in line.

Maybe it’s KTJ’s turn. Kevin Thomas Jr. is part time this season but has finished 24th, 11th, 14th, 10th, 7th, 11th, 4th, 10th, 7th, 15th in them. Here, KTJ has brought it home 3rd, 8th, 13th in three tries. He didn’t make the A-Main a year ago.

The favorite though has to be Logan Seavey. He began the 2023 season off this past January with a win in the prestigious Chili Bowl. Last week, he won all 3 races in the USAC 4-Crown event at Eldora. He did so on the same night in reaching victory lane in a Midget, then Sprint Car, then Silver Crown ride.

Between those two feats, he won June’s Indiana Midget Week title as well as posting two USAC feature wins on the same day at two different tracks.

Can the Sutter, Calif native win on Saturday night at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

He’s made three A-Mains in this race with finishes of 13th (2018), 5th (2019) and 15th (2021). However, he’s riding a streak of 14 straight top 5 finishes in a Midget this season including 3 wins in the last 4 races. In fact, his last 14 finishes have seen him come home 1st, 3rd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 4th, 1st, 1st, 5th, 1st.

He’s not only the Midgets points leader but is leading the way in Silver Crown too.

Points

While Logan Seavey has opened up a 209-point lead over Bryant Wiedeman in the standings, the right for second is a tight one. 57 points separate Wiedeman in 2nd down to Jade Avedisian in 6th.

Wiedeman has 1088 points accumulated. Justin Grant is third with 1066. Ryan Timms (1041), Daison Pursley (1037) and Avedisian (1031) are behind. How does this grouping look after Saturday night’s conclusion?

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