Jones Inches Bacon With Last Lap Lawrenceburg Pass

LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. – It couldn’t have been a closer race between Levi Jones and Brady Bacon in USAC’s Lucas Oil National Sprint Car Series opener Saturday at Lawrenceburg Speedway.

In fact, it was the closest race in series history.

Jones, who trailed Bacon for the best part of 30 laps, inched forward by the slimmest of margins at the scoring line by posting his first victory since 2005 and first ever as a driver for Tony Stewart Racing Enterprises.
Jones – in the No. 20 TSRE Chevrolet/Bass Pro Shops Maxim/Chevy – pounced on Bacon just a handful of laps from the end, and used a lapped car as a pick to jump around Bacon coming off Turn 4. It was the only lap Bacon didn’t lead in the feature event.

Bacon started fourth, but benefited from fellow Oklahoman Dustin Morgan’s spin in Turn 1 on the first lap, and moved into the first row on the next restart. He had to wait until the green flag was thrown a third time, as Jones’s new teammate, 2002 series champion Tracy Hines, spun in Turn 3.

Polesitter Brett Burdette got the advantage on the third start, jumping ahead of Bacon and his Kasey Kahne Racing teammate Kevin Swindell, but got bobbled up on the backstretch, and the Kahne teammates split him going into Turn 3. The result gave Bacon the lead.

It didn’t take long for him to pull away. With three laps, he established a second-and-a-half lead over Jones, who passed Burdette and Swindell to score the second position.

By Lap 7, Bacon was working lapped traffic, and, without putting much pressure on himself, pulled away little by little.

However, Jones’s car started coming in. He lapped Morgan on Lap 12 and started mirroring Bacon’s moves up until the halfway point. For the next few laps, he tried the outside lane before making his way back to the bottom over the waning laps.

The only caution after the early set of restarts occurred on Lap 18, when contact between Burdette and Brady Short sent the latter into the infield between Turns 3 and 4.

The caution bunched the field up, and the lead pair came to the green flag nose-to-tail. Bacon stretched his lead to about two car lengths at one point, but couldn’t get more distance between himself and Jones.

Once the pair started approaching lapped traffic again, Jones came back for a last attempt. He went to the high side and appeared to be headed for a second-place finish heading into Turn 1, but got great byte coming off Turn 2 and shot off the corner with a little more speed.

As the pair drove into Turn 3, Bacon couldn’t get through the lapped pack, and Jones stayed on the outside. The duo came off Turn 4 nearly dead even, but it was that little momentum and help from another car that gave Jones that little advantage he needed to take the checkered flag first.

“What a last lap,” Jones said. “I had a really good time racing Brady. I’m really looking forward to this sort of competition all year long. Jay (Drake) and the rest of the guys did a great job with the setup of the car.”

Bacon, looking for his first series victory, scored his career-best second-place finish.

“I thought he had me at the flag stand,” Bacon said in his post-race interview.

Trailing were Swindell, who set the night’s fast qualifying time and track record at 11.647 seconds, Robert Ballou, and defending series champion Josh Wise.

Rookie Neil Shepherd, the son of former USAC National Sprint Car Series Rookie of the Year Terry Shepherd, was transported to Dearborn County Hospital after flipping during heat race action.

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