Early morning drizzle and a leaden sky left many drivers and officials pondering what might lie in store.
Early morning drizzle and a leaden sky left many drivers and officials pondering what might lie in store.
A year ago, the USAC Silver Crown Series race at Toledo (Ohio) Speedway fell victim to rain and for a moment the status of the 2021 season finale hung in the balance.
The points chase could not have been any closer with only a single tally separating five-time champion Kody Swanson and his surprise challenger Logan Seavey. It was an odd pair fighting for the title. While Swanson held nearly every series record, he had no intention of pursuing another crown when the season began.
Yet, when it was clear that a path to add to his thick résumé existed, the affable Swanson patched rides together to try and rewrite history once more. For Seavey the journey to this point was equally remarkable and wholly unexpected. He knew on this day he was facing long odds, but then, he has stared down such challenges his entire life.
Unlike many of his peers Seavey did not grow up in a racing family, but once exposed to the sport he showed immediate interest. Starting in karts at age 5, he worked up the ladder and began tackling the ultra-quick outlaw karts at California‘s Red Bluff and Cycleland Speedway. He muscled these machines successfully for a decade and became QRC‘s factory driver. Everything was headed in a positive direction. Then he faced a serious threat to his budding career.
Seavey was born with a rare heart condition known as Scimitar Syndrome. While this sounded scary, he and his family were assured all was well. Explaining his situation in easy-to-understand terms, Seavey said, “I had a pulmonary vein in the wrong spot when I was born. My heart was shifted over to the right side and it kind of crowded out my lungs and heart a little bit. A lot of stuff on the right side of my heart was connected in the wrong spot. Because of this I went to a cardiologist the first five or six years of my life. They didn‘t think it would ever be a problem for me, but it was.”
The condition impacted his ability to breathe and his overall stamina and in 2016 it was determined that surgery was in order.
Whatever anxiety the five-hour operation produced was quickly forgotten in the aftermath.
“I knew I was better instantly,” he recalled, “and when I go back and watch videos taken before my surgery I can see that I could barely do an interview after I got out of the car.”
Recovery included a concerted effort to improve his overall cardiovascular fitness. When that journey began he “was nowhere near the pace of other people. I was even behind non-active people. But now I can improve where before it didn‘t matter how hard I worked. Five years later, I‘m still working on this and I feel I have improved a lot lately.”
With the initial crisis behind him Seavey could concentrate on moving his career forward. He had succeeded in a difficult racing environment and even weathered a difficult personal challenge. To those who understand that racing is a physical, mental and emotional enterprise it appeared that this kid was special.
Based on his on-track record alone a supporter reached out to Austin Brown and Flea Ruzic of BOSS Chassis. Given what this duo had learned they were interested in securing Seavey‘s services for the POWRi Midget League. What would happen next was truly anyone‘s guess. Still a young man, Seavey was set to move halfway across the nation and race in unfamiliar places. He didn‘t blink. He rode two wins and a slew of consistent finishes to the championship.
His success turned plenty of heads.
Seavey learned there was an opening at Keith Kunz Motorsports and boldly reached out. Within a week of their initial conversation, he got the call many racers would die for. He was asked to join KKM for the Chili Bowl. His 2018 campaign could not have gone better.
On the USAC national trail, Seavey parlayed three wins and 10 podium finishes into a title and he also won six POWRi features. The brass at Toyota Racing Development noticed and provided opportunities for Seavey to spread his wings. He garnered national attention when he competed with the NASCAR Truck Series at Ohio‘s Eldora Speedway.
He led more than 50 laps, but a late caution worked against him and he finished eighth. There were also opportunities with ARCA on the dirt and once again he delivered. He finished third at the annual Allen Crowe 100 at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield and just more than two weeks later he earned the 50th career victory for Venturini Motorsports at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds.
Among those scouring the short-track world for the next potential NASCAR stars, Seavey‘s stock was on the rise. In 2019, he scored two top-five finishes with ARCA and earned three USAC midget victories. Perhaps under the radar, his performance against his POWRi foes was remarkable as he broke Christopher Bell‘s single-season record by winning 12 features, doing it in a mere 21 starts. He also won three sprint car features, including his first USAC national series triumph at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway.
Despite his success, the involvement with TRD became a dead-end street.
“Personally, I feel I was there at a bad time. They had the most people they ever had and there was a lot of competition for one or two seats,” Seavey explained. “I was the oldest of all of them by far. Chandler Smith was the main guy and he was really good and really young. I think he is 18 or 19 now, so they didn‘t really need me. They had established pavement drivers already. They gave me a shot and I did really well on the dirt races and I was OK on the pavement stuff, but I didn‘t get to test. I don‘t think I got the same program that (Christopher) Bell got, or Buddy (Kofoid) is getting now.