INDIANAPOLIS – Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis bears a rich history when it comes to stock car racing, including numerous NASCAR national series events through the years.
The Super Cup Stock Car Series will take its turn at adding a page to the record books on June 20, adding a second facility in the Hoosier State to its season calendar thanks to promoter Mike Moore of RevsRacing LLC.
Super Cup competition will be part of the Indy Summer Nationals at LOR, headlined by a special non-winged sprint car event sanctioned by the Must See Racing Sprint Car Series.
“We have the opportunity to put our footprint in the Midwest, and adding Lucas Oil Raceway to our schedule this year is just absolutely exciting to me,” said SCSCS Director of Competition Joe Schmaling. “To bring our series to this part of the country is fabulous. We want to thank Mike for inviting us to the Indy Summer Nationals, which we are going to be a part of with our friends at Must See and a few others. We’re going to have a big day and thankful to be a part of it.
“The future starts right now and it’s going to go right through the Crossroads of America here in Indy.”
The Indy Summer Nationals will feature something for everyone, whether they are visiting from out of town or are from the local area.
Headlining the festivities on the oval will be the return of non-winged sprint cars for the first time since 2011 to LOR courtesy of Must See Racing, utilizing the same rules as the famed Little 500, held annually at Anderson (Ind.) Speedway the night before the Indianapolis 500. Hall of Famer Tom Bigelow will serve as the event’s grand marshal.
Also accompanying the 3,300-pound, 600-horsepower SCSCS machines as part of the supporting cast will be the Midwest Supermodified Series and the Midwest Compacts.
Meanwhile, the adjacent Lucas Oil Raceway drag strip will have all kinds of competition over a three-day period, with a car show and swap meet also being planned.
“I kind of took my lemons and made lemonade and said okay I have a facility – a dragstrip, an oval site, a swap meet,” Moore noted. “We’re going to put together a big mega-event, as I’m calling it, an auto enthusiast ‘kid in a candy store’ event. We’re doing anything from Hot Wheels to race cars. Every kid that comes out is going to walk away with a Hot Wheel (die-cast), and it’s just going to be everything from one aspect to the other.
“Basically, we’re having four ‘A-list’ series come in.”
For additional entertainment when not taking in the drag racing action or Saturday evening at the short track, there’s always the neighboring town of Speedway and bustling downtown Indianapolis to show dad and family around on Father’s Day weekend.
If that’s not enough, fans also have the option down the road to enjoy the IMS Museum and daytime ambiance taking place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as the Trans Am Series and Sportscar Vintage Racing Ass’n tackle the road course layout.
SCSCS veteran Bill Ashton will be one of many that will not be seeing the multipurpose Clermont, Ind., facility for the first time.
The current leader in consecutive points race starts from Uniontown, Pa., echoed Schmaling’s thanks to Moore for the opportunity and his initiative to organize the event.
“It’s going to be something else,” Ashton said. “I drove my Street Stock at Lucas Oil Raceway a couple years ago and I love the track. It’s a very classy facility and I can’t wait to drive there.”
In addition to Ashton, numerous drivers that competed in a SCSCS race in 2019 have been to LOR before.
Mike Potter and Joe Cooksey participated in the same Xfinity race in 2001, while Josh Clemons and Will Kimmel have both been on the track in Super Late Models. Dale Shearer drove there in an ARCA car, Doug George did so in the Truck Series, and J.J. Pack and Allen Purkhiser each made Pro Cup starts at LOR.
Tim Richardson has even been there, albeit in an open-wheel F2000 car.
Past Super Cup champion Bob Schacht had perhaps the most success at the Lucas Oil paved oval, scoring two ARCA victories there in the 1980s by outrunning late NASCAR Cup Series star Davey Allison, among others.