COLUMBUS, Ind. – Logan Seavey’s path to the USAC Indiana Midget Week championship revolved around consistency and a passion to try and win every one of the five races he entered with Keith Kunz/Curb Agajanian Motorsports.
Seavey took the No. 67 Mobil 1-sponsored Bullet/Toyota to a victory in the mini-series opener at Montpelier Motor Speedway on June 4, then backed that performance up with three additional podium finishes in the next four nights en route to earning the title by 36 points over teammate Tanner Thorson.
A third-place run during the final night at Lawrenceburg Speedway on June 8, combined with a flat tire for chief rival Tyler Courtney, ultimately iced the point battle in Seavey’s favor.
“We just had a good car, basically every night during the week,” Seavey told SPEED SPORT. “We struggled a little bit at Gas City (I-69 Speedway) … but other than that, we were really good at Montpelier, really good at Bloomington, good at Putnamville, and then good again Saturday night at Lawrenceburg. It comes down to having a fast race car and having confidence in what we can do as a team.
“It was good for us to go to Granite City (Tri-City Speedway in Illinois) a few weeks earlier and run well, because that was a big boost to all of us, but then to fire off the week with a win is always good and what really, I feel like, helped to propel us all the way through the five nights to the championship.”
Seavey was quick to mention that one of his team’s keys to success was a quick rebound period, and that they didn’t allow themselves to stress over things that were out of their control or in the past.
“The biggest thing was, that even though we missed out on a few wins I feel like we should have had, we never let that get us down,” Seavey noted. “Even at Gas City, when we had a bad night, we picked ourselves right back up and kept going, kept digging. … Bad nights are a part of racing and you have to recognize that sometimes, it’s just how the cycle goes. We just put our heads down and stayed focused on what we knew we could do and were capable of, and in the end it paid off for us.”
Seavey’s worst finish during the entire week was 12th at Gas City, and after that he put together runs of second, second and third – contending for the trophy each night for the remainder of the stretch despite a loaded field that averaged 30 cars during the course of the week-long endeavor.
“To be on the podium four nights out of five with USAC is huge for us, because these guys are as good as it gets and it’s as hard as it has ever been to be able to stay in the mix all the time with that series,” said Seavey. “That’s just a testament to how fast our race cars are right now, and to the fact that we’re starting to close the gap to the guys ahead of us in points.
“We had a pretty big deficit going into this week, and now we’re starting to trim away at it.”
He may have made his run through Indiana Midget Week look easy, but Seavey said it was anything but simple to string together a streak of four top-three finishes in five days.
“It’s really tough to have that kind of consistency,” Seavey pointed out. “You have to go out and run a good qualifying lap. The night we struggled, we didn’t qualify well … it’s just how USAC’s format works. If you can qualify well, even if you have a bad heat race, you can start at the front of the B (main) and then you’re right back toward the front of the feature again. Qualifying is your whole night with USAC, really.
“Being able to rip that good lap is the key, and right now we’re really doing that.”
Though he was born and raised in Sutter, Calif., Seavey has learned plenty about the racing culture of the Hoosier State and recognizes what it means to add “Indiana Midget Week champion” to his resume.
“Winning an Indiana Midget Week title is huge,” said Seavey. “There’s a lot of talented names on the list of drivers who have won that championship, and it’s pretty special for me just to win a race during the week … let alone to win the whole thing. That’s really cool and something I’ll remember for a while.
“Now we just want to take that momentum, keep moving and hopefully win back to back USAC titles.”
Seavey is also competing during POWRi’s Illinois Speed Week this week, June 13-16.