BECHTELSVILLE, Pa. — Indiana’s Kyle Cummins survived heavy lapped traffic, multiple restarts and a furious late-race challenge from Briggs Danner to score the $6,000 Jesse Hockett Classic victory in Tuesday night’s AMSOIL USAC Eastern Storm opener at Grandview Speedway.
There was quite a buzz at this event that started with a bustling crowd strolling through the numerous USAC driver merchandise row.
“This is one of the places I really struggle,” Cummins said. “Briggs came through and got by, but, good luck kind of went our way when we got it back because of the yellow.”
Starting from the pole, Cummins raced to the early lead over C.J. Leary and quickly established himself as the driver to beat in the 40-lap USAC National Sprint Car feature.
While Cummins maintained the top spot, the battle behind him intensified as Jake Swanson, Danner and Leary traded positions in a fierce fight for the podium.
Lapped traffic began to play a major role just past the halfway point. Danner, who had worked his way from fourth to third on lap 15 before taking second from Leary one lap later, steadily reeled in the leader as Cummins navigated slower cars.
The race’s pivotal moment appeared to come on lap 18 when Danner executed a bold outside move and briefly took the lead from Cummins. Before the pass could officially count, however, a caution flag for Brendon Hires erased the move and returned Cummins to the point for the restart.
Danner refused to go away.
Following another caution on lap 22 when Ronald Helmick stopped on the frontstretch, Cummins again controlled the restart, but Danner repeatedly attacked the high side of the speedway, riding the cushion and searching for any opening he could find.
Despite several charges, he could never quite draw close enough to mount a clean challenge for the lead.
As the laps wound down, heavy lapped traffic once again tightened the battle. Danner closed to within a few car lengths with five laps remaining and was directly on Cummins’ rear bumper by lap 37.
The crowd came to its feet on lap 38 when Danner launched one final slider entering turn four. The two drivers made contact as Danner attempted the pass, sending Danner spinning and bringing out the caution flag while Cummins maintained control of the race.
That set up a green-white-checkered finish, but Cummins was flawless on the restart, pulling away to secure his fifth USAC National Sprint Car victory of the season and the 35th win of his career.
Jake Swanson crossed the line second, followed by Brady Bacon, C.J. Leary and Christian Bruno.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Grandview Speedway, Bechtelsville, Pa., June 16, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-13.797; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-13.915; 3. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-13.921; 4. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.035; 5. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-14.052; 6. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.060; 7. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-14.186; 8. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.199; 9. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.241; 10. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.261; 11. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-14.291; 12. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.347; 13. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-14.647; 14. Joe Kata, 10, Kata-14.665; 15. Steven Drevicki, 19s, Drevicki-14.728; 16. Christian Bruno, 3BC, Franckowiak-14.730; 17. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.842; 18. Ronald Helmick, 22R, Helmick-14.877; 19. Brenden Hires, 2, Danner-14.960; 20. Matthew Swift, 03, Swift-15.469; 21. Olivia Thayer, 39T, Thayer-15.630; 22. Joey Crilly, 22, Vahlsing/Crilly-15.764; 23. Jason Cherry, 67c, Cherry-15.776; 24. Dirk Rimrott, 1x, Rimrott-16.119; 25. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-NT.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cale Coons (2), 2. Briggs Danner (6), 3. Brady Bacon (4), 4. Logan Seavey (3), 5. Justin Grant (5), 6. Brenden Hires (7), 7. Joey Crilly (8), 8. Christian Bruno (1). NT
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Hayden Reinbold (1), 2. Mitchel Moles (4), 3. Charles Davis Jr. (3), 4. C.J. Leary (5), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 6. Joe Kata (2), 7. Jason Cherry (7). 2:31.980
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chase Stockon (4), 2. Steven Drevicki (2), 3. Ronald Helmick (1), 4. Kyle Cummins (5), 5. Jake Swanson (6), 6. Robert Ballou (3), 7. Olivia Thayer (7), 8. Dirk Rimrott (8). 2:35.591
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (1), 2. Jake Swanson (4), 3. Brady Bacon (10), 4. C.J. Leary (2), 5. Christian Bruno (19), 6. Justin Grant (3), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 8. Mitchel Moles (11), 9. Logan Seavey (12), 10. Chase Stockon (7), 11. Robert Ballou (14), 12. Cale Coons (8), 13. Hayden Reinbold (9), 14. Steven Drevicki (16), 15. Charles Davis Jr. (13), 16. Briggs Danner (6), 17. Jason Cherry (22), 18. Joe Kata (15), 19. Olivia Thayer (20), 20. Ronald Helmick (17), 21. Joey Crilly (21), 22. Brenden Hires (18), 23. Dirk Rimrott (23).
