By Richie Murray
Speedway, Indiana (January 22, 2026)………Cale Coons will compete for Rookie of the Year honors with the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship in 2026, as the full-time driver aboard the Dooling Autosports/Curb-Agajanian No. 63.
Coons (Greencastle, Indiana), the son of USAC Career Triple Crown champion Jerry Coons Jr., competed in eight USAC National Sprint Car events in 2025, finishing inside the top-10 on six of the eight starts with a best result of fourth at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway in August.
The 18-year-old Coons was named the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame co-Rookie of the Year in the Non-Wing Sprint Car poll for 2025 by virtue of five feature wins on the local Indiana sprint car level at Lincoln Park Speedway (3), Circle City Raceway (1) and Kokomo Speedway (1).
This year, Cale looks to translate that success to the USAC stage.
“Last year, we had a really good sprint car season, better than we all kind of thought we’d have,” Coons admitted. “We didn’t even expect to run any USAC Sprint Car shows, then we had six top-tens. I’m excited to run full-time this year and I’m excited to run for Rookie of the Year.”
Coons is the second full-time competitor to announce his intentions to run for USAC National Sprint Car Rookie of the Year in 2026. Dubberly, Louisiana’s Chelby Hinton will also attempt to earn top Rookie honors with the series for 2B Racing.
“Chelby is a really good racecar driver and he’s in a really good car,” Coons said of Hinton. “So, that’ll be fun to compete against him.”
Making it an even more special occasion for Cale is the fact that Jerry Coons Jr. drove Dooling’s No. 63 midget on a full-time basis with USAC in 2012-2013. In the following years, Bryan Clauson drove for the team from 2014-2016, a run which included the team earning nine USAC National Sprint Car victories.
Cale fondly recalled the years in which his dad drove for Dooling, but he also vividly reflected on a particular aspect of his connection to the 63 when Clauson was at the wheel.
“I would talk to Bryan when I was little, and they would always wait for me,” Coons reminisced. “I would always go around the pits to help everybody push their cars into their trailer. They wouldn’t push his car into the trailer unless I was over there helping him. I had a good relationship with Bryan and it’s so cool working with Joe (Dooling) and getting the chance to drive the iconic 63.”
Cale cites the challenge of all the new, different tracks he will run on for the first time throughout this year’s upcoming 55-race USAC National Sprint Car schedule. But that excites the former micro sprint standout who was a Rookie on the USAC National Midget trail in 2025 and faced many of the same challenges.
“The goal is to get Rookie of the Year,” Coons point blanked. “It would be really cool to win a couple races at tracks like Lincoln Park or Kokomo where I’ve been to in the past year and had good speed at.”
All the while, Cale will be working alongside his dad, who’ll serve as crew chief on the ride, a man whose experience, success and advice is irreplaceable following his own USAC National Midget titles in 2006-2007, as well as the USAC National Sprint Cars in 2008 and the USAC Silver Crown series in 2008.
“He’s always helped me a lot,” Cale stated about his dad. “He’s helped me a lot with driving and he’s really great at setting up the racecars. He’s been doing it for a long time.”
The 2026 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season begins with six races in Florida during Winter Dirt Games XVII Presented by Yokohama Tire. A practice day kicks it off at Ocala Speedway on Sunday, February 8. Race days arrive at Volusia Speedway Park as part of the DIRTcar Nationals on February 9-10. The action then moves back west to Ocala for four-straight nights of racing on February 11-12-13-14.