

4/28/2025
Bloomington Speedway
Brad Cummings: Back Where he Belongs.
Born in 1970, Bedford’s Brad Cummings fell in love with racing at an early age. “My papaw (Jack) was a big time A. J. Foyt fan and there is a picture of me on his shoulders looking at A.J.’s car. It looks like I’m crying but the tears were from the methanol fumes.” Closer to home he spent time taking in the action at the Historic Bloomington Speedway and recalls marveling at the exploits of Larry “Poodle” Harris and Ray Humphrey. “I dreamed of doing that someday,” he says, “I remember that Ray had a Chevelle and Poodle had a Nova.”
It was his grandfather and uncle Terry Cummings who really got the ball rolling, and by the time he was eight years old he was in a kart. “I started at Mountain Raceway in Stinesville,” he notes, “Jerry Kinser, Kelly’s dad had a logging company, and the racetrack was back there.” He loved it and was determined to see if he had what it took to take the next step up the ladder.
His first car was a 1973 Nova that he drove straight home from the junkyard. “I had no garage, I didn’t even have a truck or trailer,” he says with a laugh, “but I had a car.” A friend helped him extract a cage from a late model and slowly his ride began to take shape. Then he had another epiphany. “It finally hit me that I had no way to get it to the racetrack,” he says still chuckling. “I don’t know if I was just that dumb or just didn’t think I would ever get it done.” Luckily, a friend came to his rescue and by 1987 he was ready to give it a go. He focused on Bloomington, North Vernon, and Brownstown, and adds that in this period it was people like Denny Campbell and Lee Hobbs that showed him the ropes.
By 1989 he had found victory lane, and as he grew older his life got increasingly complicated. His first date with his future wife Carol came at Bloomington Speedway, and if his bride-to-be didn’t understand what she was in for she only had herself to blame. Nearly shaking his head as he shares the tale Cummings says, “She actually met me there. I didn’t have time to wait on her to get off of work.”
Right out of high school Brad took a position with D & M Tool and Machine and has been there ever since. However, for seventeen years he was also a firefighter for the city of Bedford. “D & M let me keep my job,” he says, “they were very flexible. I had to work on my day off to get in 40 hours. On top of this I have always built and worked on race cars and sold parts. That’s how I have paid for my cocaine habit – better known as racing.” If that wasn’t enough Brad and Carol are also the parents of five children, Larissa, Lilyann, Brailey, Zakry, and Loralie. Clearly, Brad Cummings can get a lot accomplished in a 24 hour period.
As he moved up the super stock ranks Cummings got valuable tips from drivers like Terry Arthur, Russ Petro and Lee Hobbs. He suspects his strong relationship with Hobbs might well take many by surprise. “We live five miles apart,” he notes, “He builds cars, and I build cars. You might think we would be enemies or clash, and it is the exact opposite. If he needs a piece of tubing, he comes over here and gets it. If I need welding wire on Saturday night at midnight I go down and get it.”
For many Cummings is synonymous with the super stock class, and for good reason. He has run up front for years, and in 2009 he was the track champion. However, the record indicates there is little he has not done at Bloomington Speedway. “I may have the record for racing the most classes at Bloomington,” he says. “I have raced a super late model, crate late model, modified, super stock, mini sprint, and sprint car there.” It should be noted that he has won in a modified (and is a two-time track champion at Brownstown) and in mini sprints.
As for sprint car racing, he admits “That was a bucket list item. One summer I decided I was going to try a sprint car,” he says, “and my intention was to race at Paragon because it got so slick and was easy on stuff. But I couldn’t stand it, so I went to Putnamville a couple of times and went to Bloomington. I’m not a sprint car driver. I felt like I was riding it, not driving it. There were some stock car habits I could not get rid of.” Even so, his love of sprint cars was also born from his time as a fan. As a result, he has carried no. 71 in honor of National Sprint Car Hall of Fame owner and Bloomington Speedway legend Dizz Wilson.
The 2023 season is one he would care to forget. One of his children was dealing with a serious threat to her well-being that weighed heavily on everyone. As much as he tried to deny it, and as much as racing was a stress reliever, he began to realize he wasn’t properly focused. It came to a head one night at Brownstown Speedway. The track was slick to the curb and in most instances, this is where Cummings shines. Not this night. It was the words of a peer that finally got Brad’s attention. “Jason Hehman came up to me and said that I was driving the car like I was pissed off at the world,” he says, “I was spinning the tires, and I thought all I am doing is wasting fuel and burning up tires and I’m smarter than that.”
As is the case so often in life, those who have the ability to be self-aware can turn a negative into a positive and that is exactly what happened here. Fellow competitor Tucker Chastain knew that the cars Brad built in his shop (Aggressive chassis) were top notch, and always immaculately prepared. He had an idea. Reflecting on all that transpired Cummings says “Tucker (Chastain) saw right through what was going on to. He came to me and said you build the best cars out there and I would love to drive it. I said let’s go for it and the first night out he won.”
The pair closed out the year with another podium run and both men could see the possibilities for 2024. “ So right there it was, let’s go, “Brad says “My lifetime goal was to be a UMP National Champion. I tried desperately to do that for twenty years. I was close a time or two, but never got it done.”
That was about to change. In 2024 over the course of 43 starts the pair racked up ten wins, the Brownstown and Bloomington track championships and the coveted UMP National Sportsman title. It was a dream season and just what Cummings needed. Others were watching, and now Brad is working hard to put four new cars together for customers. One senses that the demand for his products will only grow.
There is a lot to be proud of. He estimates that 90% of the time he has gone to the track with little to no help. From the beginning this has been a labor of love. Yes, he may have dreamed of mixing it up with Larry “Poodle” Harris and Ray Humphrey, and later he wanted to prove that he could race with Denny Campbell and Lee Hobbs. Mission accomplished. Now he too is a Bloomington Speedway legend.
The red clay is in his soul, and few appreciate more the effort it takes to juggle life’s demands and carve out some time to race. This is why his own championships recede a bit in the background when he is pressed to recall his greatest night at the Historic Bloomington Speedway. “My favorite memory is the year after Gerald Todd died,” he says, “it wasn’t a memorial race but kind of a remembrance race. I lettered my car up as #51 and I won the feature that night. He was one of my friends and he raced at Bloomington for years and he was the kind of guy who keeps racing going. He never won, but he was there every time.”
A torn and tattered photo from his first win hangs on his shop wall. Years have flown by, but the desire to win still burns strong. In 2025 Brad plans to get back behind the wheel and try to run up front with the TexaCon Cut Stone Super Stocks. Don’t ever count him out.
Chris Pederson and Cummings Family Photos
Article Credit: Patrick Sullivan