Dylan Duvall Photography

(Bill W) January 7, 2013 – Brady Bacon is hoping to make the biggest week of his life a little bigger with a Chili Bowl win. After getting married last weekend to Xia Xianna, he’ll start his quest for the “Golden Driller” Tuesday night at the Tulsa Expo Center aboard the PPM Titanium Products #99. What better place to honeymoon than the Chili Bowl?

The Broken Arrow, Oklahoma driver is excited about his chances this week. “I’ll be driving for Scott, who I drove a few times for earlier in the year…at the Four Crown and Gold Crown,” he says. “He got a new car together for me for the Chili Bowl. A lot of time was spent on it. It’s a really nice car.”

Brady is confident he can show well this week. “I think we have as good a chance if not better than we’ve ever had to win this thing,” he says. “We have everything we need. I’m really excited about it. All we need is a little luck or at least none…as long as we don’t have bad luck. We should be able to get this done.”

The winner of this year’s “Hut Hundred” is thankful for the help he is receiving. “Scott owns PPM Titanium Products,” says Brady. “He partners with me on the sprint car too. We’ve had some people come aboard for the Chili Bowl…Fatheadz Eyewear, Oilfield Equipment & Manufacturing and Pattison Precision Products. The Chili Bowl can get expensive with fuel and tires and entries. Without their help, we wouldn’t be able to do it right. I’d also like to thank all our regular partners.”

Brady showed well at the Tulsa Shootout two weekends ago. “We were able to finish second with 180 cars in the Outlaw class,” he says. “In the non-wing Outlaw class, we were third out of 230. We definitely did better than most people there. We just weren’t quite good enough to get a Driller, but we were definitely strong. We were able to pass a bunch of cars.”

The shows at Eagle drew a stout field of sprint cars and a good crowd.  “The track had been taking rubber the past few weeks with the local shows,” says Brady.  “They did a good job of keeping water on the track and keeping it racy.  It was really racy on Friday.  We had the top and the bottom in the heats and in the feature.”

After winning his heat from the pole, the redraw saw Brady starting the main event inside of row four.  “One and two was pretty tricky on the bottom,” he says.  “There was a hump getting into turn one, that would push you up the track if you weren’t real careful.  The top was pretty standard Eagle.  It was fast all the way up to the wall.”

His charge forward would continue, and he would take the lead from Brad Loyet on lap twelve.  “We were actually best on the top of one and two, and the bottom of three and four was really good,” says Brady.  “The cushion was a little over halfway up the track in three and four, but it was a big one, so we stayed mostly on the bottom except in traffic.”

The Broken Arrow, Oklahoma driver was on his game last weekend.  “The car was just dead on Friday,” he says of the Brady Bacon Racing #99.  “We could go anywhere we wanted to.  Saturday was no different.”

Brady drew a starting spot outside of row one, but it was Jack Dover who got the jump at the green.  “(Dover) got in front of us,” he says.  “We actually got by him for what felt like three laps.  We had a yellow, and they put us back behind him.  In open track, we were able to get back by him fairly quickly (lap 17).”

At that point, Brady was gone.  “We started pulling away,” he says.  “We were really getting through lapped traffic well.  Right around the bottom of one it was a little rough.  The ruts were an issue, but our car got through them really really well.  In three and four, it was good on the bottom again.”

The margin of victory left no doubt who dominated the weekend.  “We ran through the middle on both ends a few times too,” says Brady.  “Obviously, the car was working really well again.  Some seemed to struggle down low, but our car was perfect.  We won by about seven seconds.”

The wins put Brady in position to contend for the point lead with ASCS.  ASCS Speedweek begins with the Summer Nationals this Friday and Saturday night at the Devil’s Bowl Speedway near Mesquite.  It will then continue in Chatham, Louisiana (Monday), Murfreesboro, Arkansas (Tuesday), Lawton, Oklahoma (Wednesday) and Salina, Oklahoma (Friday).  “We’re in third, but we’re only five points out of the lead,” he says.  “It’s a close race.  We’ve got a lot of races again.  We’re used to that, but this time we get to do it with the same kind of racecar.  That’s almost like a break!”

Things started Wednesday in Farmer City.  “We were feeling confident after our run at Haubstadt with Farmer City being a short track too,” says Brady.  “We had a coil wire going bad for qualifying.  The motor wasn’t running at full power.  We still managed 17^th, just one spot out of the (heat) invert which wasn’t bad considering we were down on power to start with.”

It took time to diagnose the problem, and Brady rebounded by B main time.  “We changed the fuel pump, the MSD box, and we checked the fuel nozzle,” he says.  “We weren’t able to finish the heat race.  That didn’t affect us that much; we just had to run the B (which he won).”

Starting 17^th, Brady diced his way forward amongst the best in the business.  “We were able to work our way up to fifth,” he says.  “There was obviously a crash that took out four cars, but we still passed a lot of good cars to get to that point.  We were really good at the beginning of the race, and the track started tapering off towards the end.  Everyone was the same speed at that point, and it was hard to pass.”

Many with the WoO are taking notice of Brady’s runs.  “We were really happy to finish fifth with the Outlaws,” he says.  “Without our problems the previous two nights, we could have had a top five at Sedalia and should have won at Haubstadt.  Obviously, our car is working well right now.”

Switching back to the 360, the Brady Bacon Racing #99 team hit the Salina High Banks in Salina, Oklahoma.  Brady finished fourth in his heat.  “Salina is a fast track,” he says.  “It is hard to pass there unless someone messes up, and that’s kind of hard to do sometimes.  We drew a loaded heat, and it was tough.”

Starting fifteenth, he would work forward to an eighth place finish in the main event.  “It was wide open around the top,” says Brady.  “You would get up to somebody, and you’d try to slide somebody.  Your momentum would be cut down, and then they would slide you back.  You just get bottled up and slowed down.  It’s hard to gain positions that way.  Wayne (Johnson) obviously started up front and just set sail.”

Another fourth place heat race finish at Riverside International Raceway’s “Rock ‘N Roll 50” on Saturday night in West Memphis, Arkansas set the stage for a tough night.  “It was a standard West Memphis heat race,” says Brady.  “There wasn’t much passing at all.  We got another stout heat and we didn’t have enough passing points to make the A.  The top five in ASCS National points ended up with us in the second B feature.  We were leading that by a good margin and had a U-joint break on the last lap.”

A provisional was necessary to start the main event, and Brady shot from 24^th to a ninth place finish.  “We had to replace the whole driveline to take the provisional,” he says.  “We had to start 24^th instead of 18^th and that hurt us a bit.  We had a good car all night.  We just started too far back, and we didn’t catch any breaks on cautions.  We had one early on where we passed three cars and it was brought back on a caution.”

Through it all, Brady still sits third in the ASCS National standings.  “We’ve had a few things beyond our control happen this year,” he says.  “We are still able to get some solid finishes and that’s a good sign.  We just need to capitalize on our opportunities when they come.  Right now, Wayne is going really well.  I don’t think he’s finished out of the top five all year.  I hope he’s feeling better after Saturday night at West Memphis.”

This will be a weekend away from the sprint car and into a midget.  “We’ll use the week off to drive the Wilke-Pak midget at Dodge City this weekend,” says Brady.  “We’ll go through everything and make sure it’s all ready for Little Rock in two weeks.”

Things started well at The Missouri State Fair Speedway half-mile in Sedalia for the Brady Bacon Racing #99 team on Friday.  The Broken Arrow, Oklahoma driver registered eleventh quick before finishing second in his heat.  “We’re still learning with the 410’s,” says Brady.  “And getting on a big track like that, it’s just so much faster.  We were happy with the qualifying, and that put us on the front row of a heat race.  (Danny) Lasoski got the jump on us, but we were able to tuck in behind him.”

Starting at the back of the dash, Brady advanced to seventh.  “We were able to miss the wreck there and finish seventh in the dash,” he says.  “In the feature, we really started going good.  We struggled on the starts and restarts.  We really weren’t taking off that great, but once we got a lap or two in, we had some good momentum.”

Brady advanced forward to challenge the leaders, but ran low on fuel late in the going.  “We were going well on the top,” he says.  “We were pulling up on some guys.  We were definitely happy with our speed.  We were actually running fourth, but we started running out of fuel without the big tank on.  The car itself was actually good enough to win the race, but my lack of experience on the big track with a 410 hurt me a little bit.  The little choices you make make a big difference.”

A more familiar bullring awaited on Saturday.  Brady has plenty of experience at the Tri-State Speedway near Haubstadt.  “We have some laps there with non-wing cars and midgets and stuff,” he says.  “I think a winged sprint car is my favorite thing to drive there though.  We were really good.  We were second quick, but Sammy (Swindell) cut a perfect lap.”

After running third in the heat and fourth in the dash, Brady was ready to start outside row two in the main event.  “We were staying with the leaders,” he says.  “We fell back to fifth for a little bit.  As the track was slicking back up, we were getting better and better.  We were able to get by Sammy, and after Joey (Saldana) crashed, we were restarting third.”

That’s when the opportunity came to take the lead and pull away.  “We were able to get by (Craig) Dollansky and Stevie (Smith) on the front straightaway,” says Brady.  “They told us we were out to about a straightaway lead on them before we had a caution.  Unfortunately, after that caution, we took the lead again, but we had a fuel valve malfunction.”

It was a disappointing ending to what looked like a sure win with the Outlaws.  “I pulled in not knowing what the problem was,” says Brady.  “Unfortunately, a simple issue had big financial consequences for us.  It’s not often that a guy gets a chance to win a feature with the Outlaws.  I think we had a car good enough to win on Friday, and Saturday, I was comfortable and I think without the mechanical issue, we had it won easily.”

The 2011 Knoxville Nationals Rookie of the Year is gathering attention in the 410 world.  “We’re learning and getting better every time we race with those guys,” says Brady.  “I’m looking forward to running with them more.  I think we may have turned some heads.  We didn’t buy a new tire all weekend.  We were on everyone else’s used tires…so that’s another thing we were happy about.”

Sunday, the wing came off for the MSCS/KISS event at the Terre Haute Action Track in Terre Haute, Indiana.  Brady won his heat from row two.  “It was almost like a day show,” he says.  “We hot lapped at 5:00 and the feature started in daylight.  We were really good in the heat race.”

The track conditions did not yield much of a bottom groove, and Brady’s draw put him in row four.  “Unfortunately, we were the first to draw, and we drew eight out of eight,” he says.  “That wasn’t the place to start.  It definitely would have been beneficial to start in the first couple rows.  It was just hard to pass.  Everyone was way up on the cushion.  You had to use bonsai moves to pass.  We had a car that could have contended for a win, but I was in a position where I didn’t want to tear a good car up for the payoff.  If we were going for the win, it may have been a different story.”

Wednesday night, the team heads to Farmer City, Illinois to compete with the WoO.  On Friday, the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series picks back up in Brady’s home state at the Salina High Banks Speedway seven miles east of Pryor, Oklahoma.  It’s on to the Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas for the “Rock ‘n Roll 50” on Saturday.

On Friday in Beaumont, a pole position draw resulted in a heat win.  “We drew well, and that helped,” says Brady.  “The track was really heavy, especially in one and two.  Three and four slicked out.”

Brady drew a six to start outside row three for the main event.  “I thought we had the car just about perfect for the feature,” he says.  “I think we had the best car on the track when we went green for long stretches.  There were just so many cautions and stoppages.  We would pass a car or two, and the yellow would come out.  We’d pass another car or two and the yellow would come out again.  It seemed like we passed about twelve cars, but we kept getting put back.”

A possible shot at the lead turned into Wayne Johnson getting by on a restart.  “On one of the restarts, Dustin Morgan got bottled up behind the guy in front of him,” says Brady.  “That slowed me down and let Wayne by us over in one and two.  Once he got out front and we were chasing him, he was hard to beat.”

Once he cleared into second, Brady tried to chase down Johnson.  “I think we may have been a little better, and I wish we would have had eight or ten laps of green flag racing at the end,” he says.  “I don’t know that we would have passed Wayne, but we could have gotten beside him and make it interesting.”

Saturday night at Beaumont was much different.  Brady started fifth in the heat and failed to get enough passing points to qualify for the feature.  “They got a little carried away with the water truck at the start of the night,” he says.  “We packed and packed, but the track just stayed super-heavy for the heat.  We were just way too tight.  We didn’t have the right gear in.  We got bungled in a corner, and got passed by (Johnny ) Herrera and (Jack) Dover, and ran sixth.”

Deep in the B main (10^th), Brady shot forward to claim the fourth and final transfer to the main event.  “The track was definitely getting better,” he says.  “We were able to move up through there and grab the last transfer.  Realistically, going into the A, I thought we may get a top ten, and maybe a top five.”

Brady did much better than that from his 20^th starting spot.  “There were three or four cars that got caught up in the beginning and that helped,” he says.  “The track really started to widen out for us, and slicked off, especially in turn two.  We got going and started picking people off.  There were reds, and some fell out.  The next thing you knew, we were up to sixth.”

From there he advanced to the runner-up position, using some restarts.  “We had a couple of short runs in a row…two laps or so, where we were able to get by a car or two each time,” says Brady.  “From where we started in the B, we were fortunate to have those opportunities to get as high as second.  Jason (Johnson) was way out there by the time we got to second, so we weren’t going to run him down at that point.  I would have liked to have had a restart and a shot at it though.”

The Johnson’s and Brady look to be locked in a battle for the championship all season long.  “It seems that Wayne and Jason and I are all up there every race,” says Brady.  “If one of us has a problem, the others are always there to take advantage.”

Brady has three races planned this weekend.  Two will be with the World of Outlaws.  He plans on running at the Missouri State Fair Speedway on Friday night in Sedalia, and at the Tri-State Speedway near Haubstadt, Indiana on Saturday.  Sunday he will venture up to the Terre Haute Action Track to take the wing off and compete with the MSCS series.