“I didn‘t get as many races as I should have, but then guys like Bell went out and won their first or second race and I didn‘t,” Seavey added. “I got a little thrown to the wolves and really didn‘t have any Toyota people with me at the track. They would look at the results and see that you ran fifth. They didn‘t see how the race played out in person; they just saw the results. I think there were some flaws in the system, but I also think it has improved now. If I could have closed out the Eldora race maybe things would have been different.”
Perhaps the most stunning aspect of this experience was the direct message he received from NASCAR gatekeepers. At 21 he was told he was a bit too old. It was a statement made without malice and reflected an honesty that Seavey welcomed.
“There are no hard feelings,” he said. “I appreciate everything they did for me. I wouldn‘t have had any of these opportunities if it weren‘t for them. But I wasn‘t winning these pavement races and I knew it was probably over for me. Still, by that time I was already a USAC national champion so I was in the scene and people knew who I was.
“Because of that I would have opportunities beyond Keith Kunz Motorsports and would be able to run sprint cars and midgets and make enough money to live. I had a backup plan if NASCAR didn‘t work out.”
The problem that emerged with his flirtation with the NASCAR world is that it put him in limbo. On one hand he had to turn down a repeat performance with NASCAR at Eldora because of his USAC commitments and on the other hand he turned down a full-time sprint car ride with Andy Reinbold‘s Arizona-based team because of conflicts with his scheduled short track appearances arranged by TRD.
He determined that he was going to ride the string out with Toyota and make the most of it. He can‘t help but wonder if his NASCAR dream is best put away forever. However, Seavey admires what his friend, Chase Briscoe, has accomplished and believes a lifeline to that world may still exist.
Regardless, this isn‘t something Seavey dwells on. For as long has he can remember he has been told that when you win races things take care of themselves. That‘s all that was on his mind in the past and nothing has changed.
Free to focus on his open-wheel world, he joined forces with Reinbold and ran the USAC National sprint car and midget slate in 2020. His year was certainly solid and was highlighted by a spectacular Indiana Sprint Week victory at Gas City I-69 Speedway. A hard crash in the midget at Lincoln Park Speedway put him on the shelf for a few weeks, but he came back strong setting a track record at Arizona Speedway during the Western World Championship in November.
What may have been overlooked was Seavey‘s impressive debut in the Silver Crown Series. Former racer Robbie Rice dipped his toe in the water during the 2019 season and put forth a more comprehensive effort the following year. How Rice and Seavey came together is a unique story.
“I met Robbie racing on the computer,” Seavey said with a laugh. “I was a big rFactor kid from about the time I was 11 and I would see Robbie there. He is an insane racing fan and he knows so much about the history of the sport. He also has family members who were involved with a Northern California sprint car team my brother was racing with. We started talking in 2019 and we put the deal together at the Gateway indoor race.”
Rice couldn‘t do this alone and leaned on his relationship with Rico Elmore of Fatheadz, Inc. Elmore, who is one of the great patrons of the sport, was interested in helping Rice and was particularly interested in supporting Seavey.
Because of the pandemic, the Silver Crown season opener did not come until the second weekend in August at Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway. The record shows Seavey recorded a respectable 10th-place finish but plenty was happening behind the scenes.
“If Logan would have quit before hot laps, I wouldn‘t have been mad at him,” Rice said. “We were so messed up. We couldn‘t get the car to start, we fouled the plugs and we missed hot laps. It was like what in the world are we doing? s much confidence as I had in Logan he had it in us, too, because he could have dumped us and walked away from the program.”
The group rebounded with a third-place run at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and posted an eighth-place finish at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. Three top-10 finishes in three starts was an impressive debut.
Seavey and Reinbold parted ways prior to this season, but Seavey had the chance to race Tom Malloy‘s midget with Jerome Rodella as crew chief, while he continued with Rice Motorsports in the Silver Crown Series. As the season dawned the basic plan was to compete in all of the series‘ dirt races. No one was thinking about going pavement racing, except Robbie Rice.
When he posed the idea to his team members, they were skeptical.
The genesis of the change in direction came during a preseason meeting between Rice and Elmore. Recalling the conversation Rice says his main sponsor asked what it would take to go pavement racing. A bit taken aback Rice replied, “Bud, you‘re opening up a whole other can.” Elmore persisted and asked what it would cost.
After mulling things over, Rice and his brother Zachary were able to acquire the necessary equipment from former team owner Ted Finkenbinder and Elmore provided the sponsorship money up front.