Brady Bacon to focus on Winged Sprint Cars in 2025
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Brady Bacon is no stranger to diversifying his racing schedule, mixing in winged races with his regular USAC schedule. It’s a challenge and a way to stay fresh.
There will be a shift in that schedule next season. The diversity will still be in place, but the bulk of Bacon’s racing will be divided between two teams in the highly competitive winged Sprint Car division.
“I am extremely grateful for my time involved with the Hoffman family and the opportunity I had to represent their legacy in the famous Hoffman 69. We have achieved so much success together including 4 USAC Championships and 50 wins. Richard and Rob Hoffman were critically influential in my career, and it has been an honor to be a part of adding to their unbelievable list of accomplishments. USAC has also been great to me and has allowed me to build a great career and life for my family” shares Bacon. “However, I feel like now is the time for me to make a change in my career and shift my focus in a different direction.”
The last two seasons, Bacon has paired with Chris Dyson Racing in Silver Crown action. They will continue their relationship in 2025 by running 25-to-30 winged 410 Sprint Car events, plus 15-to-20 USAC shows. Bacon will also continue his winged efforts with TKH Motorsports, which is owned by Kelly and Lora Hinck, in an expanded schedule for 40 additional races.
“Obviously, money talks, and I think this was a big year,” Bacon said. “I think the TKH team and I have almost reached the highest level of success we can obtain without taking a step and racing winged Sprint Cars all the time. I’ve raced less than 30 races this year, but we won an Outlaw race each of the last two years, made the Knoxville Nationals, made the Kings Royal, and during regular Outlaws shows, we are normally in the top 10.
“So, I felt like it was going to be difficult to keep improving if we didn’t expand the wing schedule. Our original goal was to try to put together a plan with the 21H to do 50 races, which would have been difficult with a family owned team. Chris Dyson and Sean Michael approached me with the idea to put together a winged and non wing sprint car program together in addition to the Silver Crown races, and it honestly worked out perfect. Chris has nothing but top notch equipment and I get along great with Sean and respect his experience and work ethic. It gives both teams a feasible schedule and hopefully we can continue to build on the success we have had.”
“I am fortunate to have a lot of great partners and companies that we work with that produce great products. Both teams will utilize similar equipment, Triple X Chassis, FK Shocks, XYZ Machining parts etc. to build off of the speed we have now and share information going forward.”
“My longtime supporter and friend Gene Franckowiak will continue to support the engine program for the USAC races with CD Racing. I am really excited to keep working with Gene, he has played a major role in my success with USAC in recent years and we hope to add more wins and get closer to the top of the all time list.”
There is still some unfinished business for Bacon this season. He has five wins and sits second in the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car standings, 86 points behind Logan Seavey with four races left on the schedule.
Once this season is complete, at least in the short term, the Winchester, Ind., driver won’t be chasing points in either discipline. Instead, he will be looking to take the next step in the winged Sprint Car ranks by competing in more events and building a better notebook.
“We’re not planning on running for a championship next year,” Bacon, 34, said. “It would be nice with the tow money and everything, but it doesn’t really fit the infrastructure that I have in place. I built a team to run the USAC schedule, and for years we have had a lot of success doing that, but it is a giant leap in the resources needed to go on the road fulltime with the Outlaws or High Limit.
“I felt like the time has come to move on from that and shift our focus to winged sprint car racing now that we are prepared and have the proper equipment. I don’t like to jump into stuff until I know I can do it properly. Kelly and Lora have invested so much into growing this team, and this year our results started to reflect that.”
“I see it all the time in racing. People get all hyped up to do something, and their eyes get really big, and they realize they jumped into the deep end and don’t know how to swim yet. I wanted to avoid that, so we have methodically built this team over the last few years”
“My family and I have discussed the possibility of these changes for quite some time and we are very excited about the new plans for next season. Having my family with me as much as possible is very important to me, and we are looking forward to this fresh schedule.”
Bacon has 25 starts with TKH Motorsports this season. He beat the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series regulars at Tri-State Speedway for the second-straight year and made the Kings Royal and Knoxville Nationals A-Main.
Those performances solidified Bacon’s decision to go winged racing next season, but he still had to put the proper resources in place to do it the right way. A discussion with Dyson and Michael put the finishing touches on a schedule that makes sense for all parties involved.
“We were Silver Crown racing, and that’s gone pretty well,” Michael said. “Brady Bacon also has a resumé behind him, and we got along well. Seeing how he did in a winged car the few times he ran it the last two years, obviously, the more he runs it, the better he gets. So, I don’t think you can go wrong.”
Bacon has tentative plans to compete in the ASCS and USAC shows in Florida, as well as pulling double duty in events such as #LetsRaceTwo and the 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora Speedway.
On the winged side, the slate will feature races in central Pennsylvania and throughout the Midwest, including most of the sports crown-jewel events. The rest of the schedule will be released as it becomes available.
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