Bryan Clauson will be seeking his second start at the Indianapolis 500 this year. But he’ll also keep busy in 2015 by seeking the inaugural National Sprint League championship.
Clauson, one of the top sprint car drivers in the country, will run in the new winged 410 sprint series as part of the Elk Grove Ford Motorsports/Cole Wood Racing team.
The new deal will also have Clauson make regular appearances at sprint car mecca Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway as well as select World of Outlaws races.
As he continues to adapt to winged sprint competition, the two-time USAC National Sprint Car and Midget champion figures that running in the NSL won’t cut him any slack.
“This is really a perfect fit, at least on my end,” Clauson said in a statement. “They have really good equipment, and they have a good team put together. I would say racing with the NSL is a good opportunity to learn, but it’s as tough a lineup as any 410 series right now. We get to go to tracks a couple times, and that will be good for me as I learn the wing stuff.”
“We’ll have to miss maybe two or three in May, because I’m running the ‘500’,” he continued. “But we’re planning on racing with the NSL and Knoxville pretty much weekly. We’re going to focus on the [Knoxville] Nationals and some select Outlaw shows over the summer. We may race some other races that make sense for us.”
The NSL features a $350,000 points fund and also allows drivers to compete in Knoxville’s Championship Cup Series, which doles out more than $250,000 in cash and contingencies.
Its inaugural schedule begins April 11 at West Burlington, Iowa’s 34 Raceway, but hits its stride in May with seven races that month. Time will tell which of those May events Clauson must miss in order to focus on his Indianapolis program for Jonathan Byrd’s Racing.