Robert Ballou ended a 14-plus month absence from USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory lane during round two of USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing on Friday night at Honest Abe Roofing Lincoln Park Speedway.

Starting third, the Rocklin, California racer tracked down leader Justin Grant just after the midway point to take over the lead and wheel his Ballou Motorsports/Suburban Subaru – Mountain Mechanical Contractors/DRC/Ott Chevy to his first series victory since a photo finish triumph at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway in May of 2024.

It’s the third time Ballou has captured a USAC Indiana Sprint Week main event at Lincoln Park after previously doing so in 2014 and 2017. Overall, it’s Ballou’s 39th career USAC National Sprint Car feature victory, one behind Gary Bettenhausen for 11th place all-time.

In a way, it was a bookend to his superb run during the USAC Sprintacular feature three weeks earlier on July 4 at Lincoln Park where he led the initial 15 laps, then was involved in a late-race tangle that resulted in a spin and dropped him back to a 22nd place finish.

On Thursday at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Ballou led the first 19 laps before falling back to third at the finish line while his engine billowed heavy smoke during the latter part of the race. On Friday night, Ballou paced the final 15 laps of the 30-lap feature to conquer what has been a trying stretch en route to finally reaching USAC victory lane once more.

“It’s pretty special,” Ballou said. “It’s been a trying season personally and racecar wise. Tonight, I was fortunate enough to get three of my best buddies their first USAC national win as mechanics. This is a really difficult task. I have a big truck and trailer, but I go to work every day, and I’ve got a lot of bills. We killed a motor last night, but luckily, we went last week and picked up a couple from Don Ott.”

For Ballou, it’s his sixth career USAC Indiana Sprint Week victory and his first since the 2022 finale at Tri-State Speedway. Half of those six have come at Lincoln Park where it all came to fruition on Friday night for the 2015 ISW champion.

“We know we’ve been fast,” Ballou reflected. “I’ve been working on my health and getting myself physically ready to do battle, if you will. I have the least amount of help I’ve had all season. I’m in the shop most days by myself in the evenings. It gave me a lot of time to think and get my ducks in a row.”

USAC Indiana Sprint Week Results: Lincoln Park Speedway 

1. Robert Ballou (3)

2. Briggs Danner (4)

3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (8)

4. Brady Bacon (6)

5. Logan Seavey (2)

6. Chase Stockon (9)

7. Jake Swanson (15)

8. Mitchel Moles (10)

9. Gunnar Setser (13)

10. Hayden Reinbold (14)

11. Seth Parker (7)

12. Justin Grant (1)

13. Tye Mihocko (19)

14. Shane Cottle (21)

15. Kale Drake (26-P)

16. Carson Garrett (11)

17. Charles Davis Jr. (12)

18. Cale Coons (17)

19. Zack Pretorius (16)

20. C.J. Leary (25-P)

21. Chelby Hinton (22)

22. Hunter Maddox (18)

 23. Kyle Shipley (24)

24. Logan Calderwood (23)

25. Joey Amantea (20)

26. Kyle Cummins (5). NT