Tyler Courtney will admit two things about the $15,000 winner’s purse for the Driven2SaveLives BC39 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

First, of course $15,000 would mean a lot for him and his team at Clauson-Marshall Racing. It’s no secret it’s expensive to run cars in midget racing and compete at a national level. Second, he knows it may be difficult for some to believe the drivers who will compete Sept. 5-6 don’t care — even if there’s no purse out there this large, not to mention $70,000 in purse and incentives available overall.

This may end up as Courtney’s biggest payday. This may end up as the biggest payday for many of the more than 100 drivers on the entry list. But Courtney is adamant winning the first dirt-track race ever at IMS means more. It's a race created to honor dirt-track legend Bryan Clauson, who died in Aug. 2016 from injuries sustained in a sprint car wreck in Kansas, and his choice to be an organ donor.

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“It’s a prestige thing,” Courtney said. “We all do this because we love it. If we did it for money we probably wouldn’t have any fun doing what we’re doing. It’s just the way we race. I race because I love it, and we’re getting to race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway — something that most people never, ever, get to do.”

It may not be on the prestigious 2.5-mile oval and it may not award a driver the Borg-Warner Trophy. But don’t say it won’t cement the winner’s name in dirt-track racing history. Drivers of all levels, from Courtney to NASCAR’s Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to IndyCar’s Conor Daly, want to own this slice of history.

IMS president Doug Boles, who considers midget racing the most exciting form of racing available to motorsports fans, said the purse is special because everyone who organized it thought it ought to pay out in a special way. It certainly doesn’t hurt the buzz surrounding the event, either.

At an Aug. 21 event at the Clauson-Marshall Racing shop Boles told the story of how the first dirt-track race at IMS nearly happened two years ago. How IMS built a 3/16-mile oval dirt track in the same Turn 3 this race’s quarter-mile track resides to honor Tony Stewart and everyone invited had so much fun they started to put money down for a race, before Clauson approached Boles to tell him it was a bad idea.

“We’re all going to go out, and we don’t care about the money, we want to win the first short-track race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Boles remembers Clauson telling him in 2016. “And that’s going to mean that we’re going to race harder that we should probably race on a track that’s not designed for that, and the story’s not going to be who won. The story’s going to be how bad’s the crash for these guys trying to win the race. Let’s do it the right way.”

The race track is designed for it now. Boles regrets not just telling Clauson to deal with it and drive, but the track exists now, more than 5,000 fans are expected to attend.

Another Clauson-Marshall Racing driver, Zeb Wise, will race with the number Clauson is known for that is also included in the race’s name. To say he’s honored doesn’t touch the surface of how he feels, and to say he’s like his teammate in believing the $15,000 purse wouldn’t do as much for his career as the prestige that would come from winning it shouldn’t be a surprise.

“When you look at it you are like, ‘Oh, $15,000 to win, That would be a good one to win,’” Wise said. “But the drivers and the teams, they’re looking at it from an emotional standpoint. They just want to go out there and win.”

And it’s not likely there’s a win out there that’d mean more.

“Winning that race would probably be the biggest win of my career no matter what,” Wise said. “To be the first dirt winner of the BC39 at (IMS) would be huge.”

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Jordan Guskey on Twitter at @JordanGuskey or email him at jguskey@gannett.com.

DRIVEN2SAVELIVES BC39

When: Wednesday and Thursday

Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, inside Turn 3

Tickets: $20-$65. Go to www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/events/usac/buy-tickets/ticket-prices for more information.

Schedule:

WEDNESDAY

4 p.m.: Gates open

5 p.m.: Hot Lap Sessions

7:15 p.m.: Heat Races

9 p.m.: The Stoops Pursuit Race

THURSDAY

4 p.m.: Gates open

5 p.m.: Hot Lap Sessions

6 p.m.: Qualifying Races

7:45 p.m.: Main Races

9:30 p.m.: Driven2SaveLives BC39 Feature Race