Summer in the INEX Racing Series is busy; between the Cook Out Summer Shootout at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Thursday Thunder at EchoPark Speedway, there is little to no downtime between races for anyone competing in both. If you want a shot at capturing one, if not both titles, there is no room for error during the two-month span. 

For Jeff Bolen and Carson Sherman, these two events are nothing new, despite doing something a little different this year. The two both have plenty of experience winning at these two tracks, as Bolen won the Summer Shootout in 2009, and Sherman claimed the Thursday Thunder title just last season. 

History repeated itself for Bolen, as he first ran the Shootout in 2008 before winning in 2009; the same thing happened this time around. Bolen returned to Legend Cars last year, his first time in around a decade, before winning the Shootout the next year. The second time around has been a lucky charm for Bolen.

“[Winning it all was] pretty awesome. I did it 16 or 17 years ago in the Semi-Pro ranks and had a really tight battle, back then as I remember it,” said Bolen. “To come back as an old man and do it again the same way we did it in ‘09. I started running in ‘08, kind of got my feet under me, and then came back in ‘09 and won it, and then obviously just started running again last year and came back here the next summer and won it again.”

Bolen continued, “So, I guess it takes me a little while to get my feet under me, but really awesome. You get that belt and even a cool Cook Out trophy. Just knowing who you're racing against and the prestige behind that event.”

For Sherman, the time between championships was a little closer together, as he captured the 2025 and 2026 Thursday Thunder Championships at his home track of EchoPark Speedway. While he has found loads of success in the past year, there is always something special about winning at home.

“It means a lot. I've had a lot of ups and downs there throughout the years. We really struggled there at the beginning of my career, so now to be able to go out there every week and know we have a fast car to win, only losing two races over the last year there. Really means a lot to us,” Sherman said.

A perk to driving at a track you know is being able to go out and hit your marks immediately, and that is just what Carson Sherman did at Thursday Thunder as he captured eight out of ten pole positions.

“Qualifying, you know, you really got to go out there and hit your marks, and you really need to stay consistent. Every lap, any track. But for [EchoPark], I'm really excited for Bando Nationals to go out there and to qualify and need to have a good qualifying and set ourselves up for a good race,” Sherman said.

The Shootout happened on Mondays and Tuesdays, and Thursday Thunder was raced on Wednesdays and Thursdays. With the races being so close together means a lot of traveling, especially for those who don’t live in the area.

“Well, obviously there was a good bit of travel. Thursday Thunder started, maybe a week or two before Summer Shootout, so the first week or two was not so bad. Just down to Atlanta and back,” said Bolen. “We were able to house the cars [in Charlotte], and if we were racing in Charlotte on Monday or Tuesday, we would leave Charlotte depending on whether it was a doubleheader, you know.”

“Some weeks we had four races in a week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We would swap cars; we had two cars that we were running. We would swap cars at the shop. Mark Nahrstedt would make it to my place, which is down in Columbia, stay the night there, hop up early the next morning and head to Atlanta to rinse and repeat,” Bolen said.

While the two drivers collected hardware this season, these wins brought Sherman closer to one of his biggest goals, getting the Bandolero win record, and he did just that. Sherman set himself up after the two events, getting within just three wins of the record before capturing it at Dominion Road Course. 

“The win record, I believe, for the Bandos is 40, and for the whole season I have 37 right now. So that's definitely in the back of our mind trying to, you know, set a win record there. But to win Bando Nationals is a goal for us and Bowman Gray will be really neat to win, and I just want to go out there and do my best for Kyle and all of them,” Sherman said.

 Along with the strain of travelling comes your level of dedication. It is not easy physically or mentally racing two to three times a week while also travelling. But for these drivers, it is something they love, not something they have to do. For Bolen, the motivation never fades, as he is in it for one reason: to win. 

“Obviously we're in it to win it; the plan was to run both all along. We had a lot of momentum coming off of the spring nationals where we won that championship. So we went to Atlanta, knowing we could win races coming off of 2025. We had some rough runs down there. I say rough; we finished second and were never able to pull that victory off,” Bolen said.

“So, our goal was to go down there, knock off some wins, and we did. Then obviously the Shootout, you know, same thing. We wanted to go up there so we could win. I was looking forward to racing against Kyle (Busch), and obviously those things change, so once that dynamic changed, I felt like we really had a legitimate chance of winning it, and we came out of the gates and won one round one and led a bunch of laps around too.”

Summer might be over, and both Bolen and Sherman have accumulated an impressive number of points in the overall national points standings, not to mention their successes at Winter and Spring Nationals earlier this season. The next challenge ahead for both are their respective INEX Championship National events.

Sherman is up first with Bandolero Championship Nationals at EchoPark Speedway, September 25^th-26^th. For Bolen, he won’t have a far trip to get to Legend Car Asphalt Championship Nationals, which will be in his home state of South Carolina at Dillon Motor Speedway, November 12^th-14^th.

If summer is any indication of what’s to come for both, they are well prepared and ready to bring their “A” game.