Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography

The premiere event of the USF Pro Championships schedule, the Carb Night Classic, is upon us this weekend.

Friday night, USF2000 (referred to as the Freedom 75) and USF Pro 2000 (referred to as the Freedom 90) will turn left and only left around Indianapolis Raceway Park for their only oval race of the season. The race carries heightened importance as it carries one-and-a-half times points compared to the other races on the calendar.

Last year’s Carb Night Classic contained two unique stories of triumph, with Indiana native Tanner DeFabis securing the win on home soil in USF2000 for Jay Howard Driver Development, and Exclusive Autosport continuing their dominance in USF Pro 2000 on the oval with Braden Eves securing his first career win at the track in five attempts.

So what can be expected from this race weekend? For starters, DeFabis moved up to USF Pro 2000 to defend the crown and try to repeat his victory from a year prior, but there are plenty of other experienced drivers who will be seeking to take that crown from him. In USF2000, the field seems much more wide open.

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The Format

With the week being unique in the sense that this is the only oval the USF Pro Championships runs during the season, there are a few minor alterations to the format of the race weekend.

As mentioned previously, the points total drivers will receive for this race will be multiplied one-and-a-half to accommodate for this being a one-race weekend as opposed to most race weekends in the series containing 2-3 races. Therefore, the winner of the races at IRP will receive 45 championship points instead of 30, leaving the door open for large swings within the standings, especially in a USF2000 field where only 12 points separates the top three drivers.

Qualifying for the race will also deviate from traditional race weekends. Instead of a timed session where all cars go on track to determine the starting order, drivers will embark on single-car runs where they will compete for the highest speed over a two-lap average to set the field on Thursday evening. Qualifying is considered important, if not crucial, at IRP, as passing on the circuit is extremely difficult.

In the past three years, every single USF Pro 2000 race winner at IRP started the race from third or higher.

The Favorites

To start in USF Pro 2000, the standout favorite to win the race is Exclusive Autosport’s Mac Clark, who is a previous winner of the Freedom 75 in 2023. Clark is driving for an Exclusive team which has dominated the race in previous years, winning each of the past three years with Louis Foster, Salvador de Alba, and then Eves in 2024. Clark is coming off of the back of his strongest start in USF Pro 2000, sitting fourth in the standings.

Jace Denmark finished second in the Freedom 90 in 2024 and now with TJ Speed Motorsports is chasing his first win in the series at a track he has consistently run well at. Also keep an eye out for championship leader Max Garcia, who isn’t known particularly as an oval specialist but has dominated the series so far this year and has never finished outside of the top 10 at IRP.

The USF2000 field is immensely wide open and maybe even bound for chaos as only five of the eighteen drivers competing have ever raced on an oval.

Picking a winner for this race will be remarkably difficult, but keep an eye on Elliot Cox, who finished sixth last year in one of his strongest performances in the series. If Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing can give the Indianapolis native a car that can compete, we might have a local winner for the second year in a row.

Also don’t count out Exclusive Autosport’s ability to put together a car that can win as well at this level. With their championship rival Liam McNeilly sitting out for the weekend due to visa-related issues, Jack Jeffers and Thomas Schrage will have a prime opportunity to build a gap at the top of the standings before McNeilly’s return to the series.

Where Can I Watch?

You can watch all qualifying and race sessions of USF2000 and USF Pro 2000 racing at the Carb Night Classic on the USF Pro Championships YouTube channel and series app. Qualifying begins at 4:40 p.m. eastern on Thursday, with racing beginning at 8:15 p.m. eastern time.