Brady Bacon
It’s that time of the year when you look back on your season, and I’ve been doing that lately. I’m pretty happy with how 2008 has gone for me with Kasey Kahne Racing. We started off a little slow, but things really picked up toward the end of the year. In September at Winchester Speedway in Indiana, I got my first USAC Sprint Car win, which was also my first victory on pavement. We also won one of the biggest Midget races, the “Firemens’ Nationals” at Angell Park Speedway in Wisconsin. My teammate Brad Sweet and I both won races and had a lot of podium finishes, so I think it was a good year for our Mopar® team.
In USAC, we run the Sprints and Midgets on both dirt and asphalt, so it’s really four different disciplines. Each car is powered by a Mopar powerplant. I’d say I did best with the dirt Midget, because we ran well in most of the big races we ran with that car. If I had to grade our season with the dirt Midget, I’d give us an “A-” or a “B+” or something right in that range. As for the other divisions, I’d give myself an “A” for the pavement Sprint Car, just because of how we improved in that category over last year. Winning Winchester was great, and we had some other good races, too. In the dirt Sprints and the pavement Midgets, we struggled with the cars so much that I’d have a hard time grading myself. But we had a few good runs with those cars, and we think we’ve found a few things lately that will help us going forward.
We did have some hard luck in all four divisions. There were times when we ran into trouble early – either through a bad lap in time trials, or even just a poor draw that meant we qualified when the track wasn’t good – and had to work our way up. That’s tougher than it looks. There are so many good cars in USAC that you’ve got to be extra strong to come through the field, but we were able to manage it quite a bit this season. That’s a mixed feeling. On one hand, it’s frustrating to pass a bunch of guys, run out of laps and finish third when you know you had the fastest car out there. On the other hand, because you work so hard, those nights can be very satisfying, from a driver’s point of view.
There are times when it feels good to get a particular season over with, and start over with a clean slate. You tend to feel that way, I think, if you’ve had a few frustrating races, like we have. But I just look at things race by race; if something goes wrong, I do my best to leave it behind, and concentrate on the next race.
And that’s never been too hard for me. As difficult as this sport can be, I love it. If I wasn’t thinking about the upcoming race, wherever it happens to be, I’m not sure what would be on my mind. This is what I do, and I’m always excited about what comes next.
