lionheart prepares for historic 500 mile event at michigan international speedway

​Michigan International Speedway is a track that has had a rich tradition within the Lionheart Racing Series powered by HyperX. The 2-mile superspeedway was home to the very first Lionheart race which took place on July 3rd 2014. Utilizing the Dallara DW12, the series with its initial popularity had more drivers than grid positions. Two races at MIS were ran, as series organizers created splits to handle the volume of drivers wanting to participate in the league. This created two “first time” winners with Michael Chinn winning in race 1 with a field of 31 drivers and Danno Brookins winning race 2 in a field of 27. This practice continued through the first 5 rounds until the league made the decision to no longer utilize splits for its championship seasons.

Michigan remained as the season opener for Lionheart through the first two seasons before being replaced by Homestead. Despite having its rotation on the schedule changed Michigan has earned the prestige of being only 1 of 6 tracks to have made an appearance in each of the 8 IndyCar seasons. Each season Michigan has produced some exciting racing as well as heartbreak. 

Super speedways like Michigan create a pack racing type of environment which leaves no room for error when going wheel to wheel at over 230mph. Lionheart has proven that it has what it takes to race on the big ovals having gone caution free in Season 3 when the race was 200 miles in length. Seasons 5 through 7 also have produced no more than 4 cations and went twice with just 2 in Seasons 5 and 6.

The 2020 campaign has seen 4 different winners so far this season and we could very well see a 5th different winner by the time the checkered flag flies at MIS. In each of the previous running’s at the speedway there has never been a two-time winner. There are only 3 active drivers with a shot of becoming the first driver to achieve this goal, Hassert, Stofer and Yaczik.

Big Joe as he is known around the paddock returns as the defending race winner over Yaczik. It was a reversal from the Season 6 race which saw Yaczik claim victory by just 0.015 seconds over Hassert. The finish would be recorded as the 4th closest finish in league history.

With this race providing double points as well as the likelihood of attrition each driver will have to perform at their absolute best to hold on to or increase their positions in the standings.

The Lionheart U.S. 500 presented by ButtKicker kicks of live Sunday, April 26th 2020 at 3 PM CST courtesy the Global Sim Racing Channel.

​Race Link: https://youtu.be/SUieAT9bEb0