It’s been nearly three decades since the Turkey Night Grand Prix reached the levels of enormity in car count and all-around buzz.

Watch 2019 USAC Turkey Night at Ventura Raceway Live!

Nov. 27-28 | 3PM ET

More than 70 cars are expected to compete in the event at California’s seaside oval of Ventura Raceway on Thanksgiving night. If the full entry list transfers to the track, it would be the most USAC NOS Energy Drink National and Western States Midgets in attendance for the race since 1992. A little more than half of the expected lineup owns a previous Turkey Night Grand Prix midget feature start. 

Kyle Larson arrives as the lone past winner of Turkey Night, having won in both 2012 and 2016. He’s finished 2^nd in each of the last two years and, in fact, has never finished worse than 4^th in seven starts. Larson, of Elk Grove, Calif., has finished within the top-two in each of the last four years. He was also 3^rd in 2014 and 4^th in his Rookie year of 2011. He recently picked up a big payday with the series last Wednesday at Placerville, Calif., taking home $32,000 following his victory in the inaugural Elk Grove Ford Hangtown 100.

Watch Larson at Placerville:

Christopher Bell, the 2017-18 winner, is not expected to compete this year.

Following last Saturday’s victory at Bakersfield, Larson aims to become the first driver since Billy Boat to win three consecutive USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget features in the state of California. Boat won four-in-a-row in the Golden State spanning the 1995-96 seasons.

Tyler Courtney (Indianapolis, Ind.) enters TNGP as having already clinched the 2019 USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget championship following eight series wins this season.  In two previous starts in the event, he earned a career-best 5^th in 2018 after claiming 22^nd in his Rookie campaign of 2017.

Watch 2019 USAC Turkey Night at Ventura Raceway Live!

Nov. 27-28 | 3PM ET

Two-time USAC National Midget champion Jerry Coons, Jr. (2007-08) is the most experienced Turkey Night Grand Prix driver in the field. He has nine previous starts dating back to the final edition held at Ascot Park in 1990 where he finished 8^th.  The Tucson, Ariz. native did not qualify in his first Turkey Night appearance in 1989, but has secured six top-10 finishes since that point with a runner-up finish in 2012 and a 3^rd in 1998 as his career best.

Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.) is one of 10 drivers in this year’s lineup to have started TNGP midget feature events on both pavement and dirt. Larson, Coons, Chris Windom, Thomas Meseraull, Shane Golobic, Dillon Welch, Robby Josett, David Prickett and Michael Faccinto accompany him on that list. Bacon’s 2^nd place finish in 2016 was his best in seven starts and was 7^th a year ago.

Windom's most recent TNGP appearance came six years ago in 2013. USAC’s 2016 Silver Crown and 2017 AMSOIL National Sprint Car champion has made four feature starts in the event dating to 2007. His 7^th place run in 2011 has been his best thus far. Likewise, San Jose, California native Thomas Meseraull’s last Turkey Night appearance was also in 2013. The Kokomo Sprint Car Smackdown opening night winner this past August and 2004 BCRA Midget champion has five career TNGP starts with 11^th as his top finish thus far.

Racing commentator and part-time racer Dillon Welch definitely doesn’t look the part of an occasional midget racer with two new track records established with the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midgets in 2019 at both Kokomo, Ind. and Placerville, Calif.  It’s been quite awhile since he’s made a TNGP start, in 2012.  His best TNGP performance thus far was an 8^th in 2011. Reigning USAC Western States Midget champion Michael Faccinto’s four starts have resulted in a best of 10^th in 2017 and an 18^th in 2018 for the Hanford, Calif. driver.  2012 Western States Dirt Midget and 2009 BCRA champion David Prickett (Fresno, Calif.) has finished 17^th place in all three of his TNGP starts in 2011-12-17.  Santa Clarita, California’s Robby Josett won his fourth career Western States feature at Ventura this past June, and has five career TNGP starts with a top of 15^th in 2011.

Rico Abreu is one of the best to have never captured a TNGP crown in six starts, finishing a best of 4^th in 2016 and 5^th in 2014.  The St. Helena, Calif. and 16-time USAC National Midget feature winner was 22^nd in the 2018 TNGP and enters the event after a 3^rd place finish last Saturday at Bakersfield.

Watch 2019 USAC Turkey Night at Ventura Raceway Live!

Nov. 27-28 | 3PM ET

Kevin Thomas, Jr., a two-time USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget feature winner earlier in the season at Kokomo and just less than two weeks ago on the opening night of the Western World Championships, is back for his sixth TNGP start.  He did not compete in last year’s event, but did have a 5^th place run in 2015, which serves as the Cullman, Ala. driver’s best.

Five-time USAC Western States Midget champion Ronnie Gardner has won six times in USAC Western States Midget competition at Ventura between 2013 and 2018.  The Riverside, Calif. native has six previous TNGP starts with a best of 5^th in 2013.  Fellow west coaster and 2018 Ventura Western States Midget winner Jake Swanson of Anaheim, Calif. possesses five TNGP starts, topping thus far with a 7^th in 2013.

Multi-time World of Outlaws winner and 2017 Indiana Midget Week champ Shane Golobic has made five previous TNGP Midget starts, finishing 19^th last year, and a best of 3^rd in 2017 to go along with two other top-ten finishes, a 5^th in 2012 and a 7^th in 2016.

Eight-time AMSOIL USAC/CRA Sprint Car champion Damion Gardner nearly won the 2013 Turkey Night Grand Prix, losing a left rear wheel while leading with five laps remaining.  Outside of the heartbreak, the Concord, Calif. driver has been solid with results of 5^th in his most recent start in 2016 and a best of 3^rd in 2015.

Randi Pankratz (Atascadero, Calif.) has made four starts at TNGP over the years, with a 19^th place result in 2015 serving as her best.  She’s one of five female drivers in the field, joining Karsyn Elledge (Mooresville, N.C.), Audra Sasselli (Selma, Calif.), Holley Hollan (Broken Arrow, Okla.) and Maria Cofer (Macdoel, Calif.).  While Elledge and Sasselli are Rookies, Hollan and Cofer have each made one TNGP start.  Hollan was 30^th in 2018 while Cofer, a Western States Midget winner and 2017 BCRA champ, was 19^th in 2016.

Watch 2019 USAC Turkey Night at Ventura Raceway Live!

Nov. 27-28 | 3PM ET

The TNGP three start club includes an eclectic mix of veterans.  Tucker Klaasmeyer (Paola, Kans.) had a career-best 4^th in 2018; USAC Western States Midget point leader and September Ventura Western States Midget victor Robert Dalby (Anaheim, Calif.) ran 14^th in both 2015 and 2018; 2017 USAC National Midget champion Spencer Bayston (Lebanon, Ind.) took 9^th in 2016; New Zealand Midget champ and last Saturday’s runner-up at Bakersfield, Michael Pickens (Auckland), notched a top result of 16^th in the 2012 TNGP; Hollister, California’s Ryan Bernal, a two-time USAC Western Classic Sprint champion and recent 4^th place finisher at the Hangtown 100, was 3^rd in his Rookie run of 2012.

Tanner Carrick (Lincoln, Calif.), the 2017 series USAC National Midget Rookie of the Year and July winner at Sweet Springs, Mo., has been solid in a pair of TNGP starts with a best of 6^th in the 2018 race.  Fellow two-time TNGP starter and 2007 BCRA champ Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) has finished in the top-ten in each of his two TNGP starts, a 7^th in 2017 and 10^th in 2018.

Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.), the 2018 USAC National Midget champ, finished a best of 15^th in his first TNGP and first career series start in 2017.  2016 series Rookie of the Year and 2019 World of Outlaws top Rookie Carson Macedo (Lemoore, Calif.) was 3^rd in 2016 and 6^th in 2017 and won a Ventura Western States race in 2017.  Western States Midget standout Cory Elliott (Bakersfield, Calif.) finished 10^th in the first of his two TNGP starts in 2016.  Three-time Ventura Western States Midget winner Johnathon Henry (Stockton, Calif.) finished a best of 9^th in 2014, his second and most recent TNGP start.  Zeb Wise (Angola, Ind.) won the Don Basile Rookie of the Race award in 2017, finishing 5^th, in the first of his two TNGP starts.

One-time TNGP starters expected to gun for a second start this year are Greenfield, Indiana’s 2019 USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car champion, Roseland, California’s Colby Copeland (13^th in 2018), Mooresville, North Carolina’s Nick Drake (16^th in 2013), Tracy, California’s Austin Liggett (27^th in 2018), Littleton, Colorado’s Carson Garrett (28^th in 2018) and Ojai, California’s Troy Rutherford (21^st in 2012), a 2007 Western States Midget winner at Ventura.  Red Bluff, California’s Jesse Colwell (12^th in 2018), made his first career USAC National Midget start at the TNGP a year ago.

Watch 2019 USAC Turkey Night at Ventura Raceway Live!

Nov. 27-28 | 3PM ET

Chatsworth, California’s Ron Hazelton (11^th in 1993) is the driver in the lineup whose Turkey Night Grand Prix experience dates back the furthest, having made his debut in the race in 1987 at Ascot Park.  In fact, the most recent year that didn’t include a 2019 expected entrant in its feature lineup was 2002.

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s Jason McDougal (8^th in 2018) was awarded last year’s Don Basile Rookie of the Race, which has a number of contenders this year ready to become the next to capture the top first year driver honors, including Fresno, California’s Gio Scelzi, a recent winner at the opening night of the Hangtown 100 in Placerville, Calif., his Tucker/Boat Motorsports teammate Aaron Reutzel of Clute, Texas, who has claimed each of the last two Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions titles.

Collegeville, Pennsylvania’s Andrew Layser is the top Rookie in USAC’s National Midget series who’s making his first TNGP run along with Cannon McIntosh of Bixby, Okla. who, like Scelzi, is one of the five first-time winners with the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midgets this season.  Chase Johnson (Penngrove, Calif.) won the most recent USAC Western States Midget round at Ventura in October, his first career win with the series.  Ben Worth of Coalinga, Calif., likewise, joined Johnson as a first-time winner with the Western series in the opener at California’s Bakersfield Speedway.

Watch 2019 USAC Turkey Night at Ventura Raceway Live!

Nov. 27-28 | 3PM ET

Johnson’s Penngrove, Calif. neighbor, Buddy Kofoid, attempted to make the Turkey Night field a year ago, but didn’t quite make the cut.  He’s back again this year as one of eight cars out of the Keith Kunz Motorsports/Curb-Agajanian stable along with fellow Turkey Night Rookie, 2017 USAC Micro Sprint champion Daison Pursley of Locust Grove, Okla.

Sydney, Australia’s Kaidon Brown is the 2018 Australian Speedcar Champion and won the New South Wales title in 2019.  The 18-year-old recent high school graduate is one of two international drivers in the field along with Pickens.

Twelve states are represented with Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming presenting drivers.  Three different countries are represented with Pickens (New Zealand) and Brown (Australia) making the trip to the states for the event.