On Saturday, October 19th the 2024 500 Sprint Car Tour season will come to a close with Championship Saturday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP). The series will be crowning its champion at IRP for the third consecutive season as part of the track’s championship night. In addition to the 500 Sprint Car Tour naming its 2024 champion, the USAC Silver Crown Series will be completing their 2024 campaign and naming their champion on Saturday night as well.
Inaugural series champion, Kody Swanson, finds himself in familiar territory. Heading into Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Championship Saturday with the chance to clinch the 500 Sprint Car Tour Championship. In 2022, the inaugural season, Swanson was in a close battle with Dakoda Armstrong going into a winner take all Championship event. In 2023, Swanson again went to IRP with a chance to clinch the championship but came up short. Now, Swanson has a chance to become the first multi-time champion of the series as he maintains a 30 points lead over Billy Wease going into the final night. Swanson is also leading the USAC Silver Crown points with a chance to win both championships on the same night, just like he did in 2022.
In the last four 500 Sprint Car Tour events at IRP, Tyler Roahrig has gone to victory lane three times. Although Roahrig will not be competing for a second consecutive championship after missing multiple races in 2024, he will be looking to extend his total wins lead for the season. Roahrig currently has three victories in 2024 and a fourth win would match his 2022 total which still holds as the most victories by one driver in a single 500 Sprint Car Tour season.
The season-long battle for Rookie of the Year will come to an end on Saturday as Tim Creech and Nathan Byrd go toe to toe for one more round to decide who will go home with the award. Creech and Byrd have been in a close battle all season long with Creech slowly starting to pull away late. Byrd was unable to compete in the Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial at Salem Speedway, opening the door for Creech to extend his lead. Byrd has experience at IRP and will be looking for a strong outing to help close the 55 point gap to Creech on the final night.
Some notable entries for Championship Saturday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park include: Trey Osbourne in his second career start, Dakoda Armstrong, Derek Bischak, Kyle Robbins with his first start of 2024, Bobby Santos III, Jackson Macenko, 2023 Little 500 Winner Jake Trainor, Kyle O’Gara, Chase Locke from New Hampshire in his first career start, and Anthony Nocella from Massachusetts with his second start of 2024 and first since the Little 500.
Championship Saturday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park is set for Saturday, October 19th at 5:30pm. Pit gates for the event will open at 9am and spectator gates will open at 12pm. 500 Sprint Car Tour practice begins at 12:30pm and qualifying is set for 3:35pm. The 500 Sprint Car Tour feature is set to begin at 6:05pm and will be a 40-lap event. Tickets to the event are all general admission and are $25. You can purchase your tickets online by clicking HERE. All 500 Sprint Car Tour action will be streamed LIVE on DIRTVision with FloRacing providing coverage of the USAC Silver Crown Series and the National Pavement Midgets.
The 2024 500 Sprint Car Tour season will see nine point earning events across a ten race schedule from early April to mid October. The 76th Annual Little 500 will once again be a non-points earning event for the series, filling out the ten race schedule in its traditional Memorial Day Weekend slot. All races, including the 76th Annual Little 500, will be streamed LIVE on DIRTVision. For more information on the 500 Sprint Car Tour visit: 500sprintcartour.com and be sure to follow on social media (Facebook: 500 Sprint Car Tour | Twitter (X): @500SprintTour | Instagram: @500sprintcartour).
Story - 500 Sprint Car Series
Photo - Jack Kessler
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