There’s so much more that goes into and represents the race behind the BC 39 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway dirt track, but Kyle Larson will still be on everybody’s mind.
The 2021 Chili Bowl / Knoxville Nationals / Coca Cola 600 winner is and has been on a tear throughout the summer and has placed his name into the 77-driver entry list for the two-day USAC Midget race this week.
And while there are 76 other drivers that deserve to be looked at as well, Larson should be the favorite.
The race honors the late Bryan Clauson – a driver that was a proud ambassador of dirt racing and ran 150 races per season on average. During his career, he raced in IndyCar, NASCAR, the World of Outlaws, and USAC, among other tours.
He was as much of a legend as anyone in the sport to date.
Culminating on Thursday night, the A-Main for the race will run 39 laps as the distance, to honor the number that Clauson drove in a majority of his races.
Even past Larson, the entry list is stacked.
Clauson Marshall Racing – owned partially by Bryan’s dad, Tim Clauson – will bring four cars to the race.
On top of their normal dirt guys in Cole Bodine and Corey Day (who are two up and coming talents on dirt in their own right) the team will host former NASCAR star Ryan Newman and Kings Royal winner Tyler Courtney.
It will be one of the first times Courtney is back in a midget since he declared that he would run full-time on the winged sprint car circuit this season.
The team dawns the name of the Driven 2 Save Lives foundation, which encourages people to become organ donors like Clauson was. After he passed away, Clauson’s organs saved five lives of humans.
Another winged racing star is entering the race as well by the name of Spencer Bayston. Bayston missed qualifying for the 60th Knoxville Nationals by less than a hundredth of a second a week ago, but has been climbing the ranks as his career as gone one.
Drivers from other forms of racing will be making their way to the track as well.
2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott will be running for Paul May. Chase Briscoe is racing his own car for the event, and IndyCar’s Conor Daly will pilot the DiaEdge car – Elliott’s Chili Bowl sponsor.
On top of the outsiders, the USAC Midget Series boasts a trio of drivers that have been on a tear in the cars this season.
Buddy Kofoid holds the points lead in the series, but sat out of the Knoxville Nationals while nursing an injury a week ago.
Chris Windom – the 2020 USAC Midget champion – is coming for Kofoid and hopes to make up more ground in the standings on Thursday.
And of course, I’d be remiss not to mention the recent success of Emerson Axsom.
The Indiana native is on a string of 13 straight top 10’s, including 10 finishes in the top 5 during the stretch, culminating with his win at Bridgeport.
He’s worked his way up to third in the USAC Midget standings, and if he keeps this up, he’ll have a shot to run for the championship this season.
The BC 39 is slated to kick off with the Heat Race Lineup Draft on Tuesday night. Then, two nights of racing will take place leading into the main event on Thursday.
All of the action can be seen live on FloRacing and Always Race Day will have full coverage.
BC39 Wednesday Heat Race Lineups
10 Laps
Heat 1
Kevin Woody Jr. | Cole Bodine
Blake Brannon | Bryant Wiedeman
Jerry Coons Jr. | Hayden Reinbold
Karter Sarff | Kevin Thomas Jr.
Heat 2
Chase Randall | Justin Dickerson
Chase Elliott | Carson Garrett
Tommy Kouns | Jacob Denney
Hayden Williams | Buddy Kofoid
Chris Windom
Heat 3
Zac Taylor | Tyler Courtney
Ben Varner | Kaylee Bryson
Jeff Schindler | Chance Crum
Chase Briscoe | Emerson Axsom
Jason McDougal
Heat 4
Robert Bell | Aiden Purdue
Kameron Gladish | Maria Cofer
Randi Pankratz | Ethan Mitchell
Brady Bacon | Logan Seavey
J.J. Yeley
Heat 5
Taylor Reimer | Austin Barnhill
Russ Gamester | Brenham Crouch
Tanner Thorson | Justin Grant
Trevor Casey | Kyle Larson
Rylan Gray
Heat 6
Carson Kvapil | Tanner Berryhill
Shane Cottle | Ryan Timms
Billy Lawless | Daison Pursley
Jeff Wimmenauer | Ronnie Gardner
Tyler Edwards
Heat 7
Ryan Newman | Corey Day
Conor Daly | Gary Taylor
Bryan Stanfill | John Heydenreich
Aaron Leffel | Thomas Meseraull
Daniel Robinson
Heat 8
Sam Johnson | Jonathan Shafer
Kyle Cummins | Cannon McIntosh
Glenn Waterland | Zeb Wise
Riley Kreisel | Spencer Bayston
Ian Creager
Full USAC Midget BC 39 Entry List
01 | Bryant Wiedeman (Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports)
08 | Cannon McIntosh (Dave Mac Motorsports)
1NZ | Hayden Williams (BSL Racing)
2C | Trevor Casey (Casey Racing)
2J | Justin Grant (RMS Racing)
2MD | Carson Kvapil (Marc Dailey Racing)
3G | Kyle Cummins (Glenn Styres Racing)
4 | Jason McDougal (Klatt Enterprises)
4K | Kameron Gladish (Gladish Motorsports)
5 | Kevin Thomas Jr. (Petry Motorsports)
5B | Chase Briscoe (Chase Briscoe Racing)
6BC | Ryan Newman (Clauson Marshall Racing)
7BC | Tyler Courtney (Clauson Marshall Racing)
7X | Thomas Meseraull (RMS Racing)
8 | Randi Pankratz (Wally Pankratz)
9 | Chase Elliott (Paul May Motorsports)
9M | Zach Daum (Bundy Built Motorsports)
10 | Kevin Woody Jr. (Dave Mac Motorsports)
11 | Jeff Schindler (Brian & Deidre Martin)
11C | Glenn Waterland (Glenn & Hayley Waterland)
11L | Aaron Leffel (Team Taylor Racing)
11M | Aiden Purdue (Brian & Deidre Martin)
15 | Emerson Axsom (Petry Motorsports)
15J | Jeff Wimmenauer (Jeff Wimmenauer)
15X | Carson Garrett (Broc Garrett)
17 | Tanner Berryhill (Berryhill Family Racing)
17B | Austin Barnhill (Sam Johnson Racing)
17L | Billy Lawless (Lawless Racing)
19A | Chase Randall (Petry Motorsports)
19AZ | Hayden Reinbold (Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports)
19K | Riley Kreisel (Ron Cox)
19M | Ethan Mitchell (Bundy Built Motorsports)
19T | Tanner Thorson (Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports)
21D | Justin Dickerson (Mike Dickerson)
21H | Brady Bacon (TKH Motorsports)
21K | Karter Sarff (Karter Sarff Racing)
22 | John Heydenreich (John Givens)
25 | Logan Seavey (Tom Malloy)
25K | Taylor Reimer (Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports)
25V | Ben Varner (Gladish Motorsports)
26 | Chance Crum (Rudeen Racing)
32 | Gary Taylor (Mike & Brian Dunlap)
35 | Jacob Denney (Petry Motorsports)
36 | Ian Creager (Tod Creager)
37 | Zeb Wise (Matt Wood Racing)
38 | Chase McDermand (Craig Dori)
39BC | Cole Bodine (Clauson Marshall Racing)
40 | Blake Brannon (Brannon Corporation)
41 | Oliver Akard (OMR Motorsports)
43 | Ronnie Gardner (Kevin Arnold)
46 | Russ Gamester (R&G Inc.)
47BC | Corey Day (Clauson Marshall Racing)
47D | Conor Daly (DiaEdge Racing)
49 | Joe B. Miller (Chris Lewis)
51 | J.J. Yeley (Rick Ware Racing)
57 | Maria Cofer (Abacus Racing)
57D | Daniel Robinson (Daniel Robinson)
63 | Frankie Guerrini (F&F Racing)
67 | Buddy Kofoid (Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports)
67K | Jonathan Shafer (Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports)
71 | Kaylee Bryson (Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports)
71B | Robert Bell (Robert Bell)
71K | Daison Pursley (Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports)
71T | Zac Taylor (Todd Henry)
72 | Sam Johnson (Sam Johnson Racing)
75AU | Bryan Stanfill (Griffiths Motorsports)
81G | Rylan Gray (Gray Racing)
84 | Spencer Bayston (CB industries)
85 | Jerry Coons Jr. (Central Motor Sports)
85T | Ryan Timms (CB Industries)
86 | Shane Cottle (Danny Stamper)
86X | Kyle Larson (CB Industries)
88 | Tyler Nelson (Tyler Nelson)
89 | Chris Windom (CB Industries)
97 | Brenham Crouch (Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports)
98 | Tommy Kouns (Tommy Kouns)
116 | Scott Evans (Scott Evans)
