INDIANAPOLIS — After a winless drought of 66 series events, C.J. Leary returned to USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory lane Wednesday night at Circle City Raceway.
Leary led all 30 laps of the Indiana Sprint Week event, but was forced to fend off another driver who was hungry for his first USAC National sprint car win of the season — Mitchel Moles.
Leary prevailed by a single car length over Moles to win his first series race in 17 months, dating back to his February 2024 victory at Florida’s Ocala Speedway.
For C.J., it’s been a long time coming in his first year as the driver of the Team AZ-Curb-Agajanian Racing/Curb Records – Kodiak Products – OakCraft/DRC/1-Way Chevy as he earned his second career USAC National Sprint Car win at Circle City, and first since Indiana Sprint Week 2022.
It’s Leary’s 24th career USAC National Sprint Car score.
“Hats off to this team,” Leary praised. “They’ve been working their butts off, and they’ve stuck with me. We’ve worked and worked and worked and we’ve changed cars, motors, torsion bars and drivelines. We’ve really rebuilt this thing almost every night and we’ve tried all kinds of stuff.”
Leary started the feature from the outside of the front row, and instantly secured grip of the top spot, building nearly a full straightaway lead by the end of lap five over polesitter Robert Ballou and the hard-charging Kyle Cummins who had made his way into third and was challenging to the outside of Ballou for second.
But on lap seven, mayhem ensued midway down the back straightaway as Ballou’s right-rear tire and Cummins’ left-front tire touched. The resulting contact dislodged Cummins’ left front tire while Ballou spun backward toward the outside turn three wall, making very slight contact.
On the restart, Leary jetted out to a commanding advantage, once again constructing a full second lead within a few laps of the race’s resumption as Moles slotted into second.
With seven laps remaining, Moles was able to reel Leary in to within a few car lengths, but a decisive move in turn four to put Charles Davis Jr. and Kyle Shipley a lap down netted Leary a buffer of two cars between him and Moles with the laps winding down.
However, a lap-27 debris caution for a wheel cover laying on the track at the exit of turn four put a halt to Leary’s potential breakaway while also taking lapped traffic out of the equation.
“In lapped traffic, I made the crumbs work through the middle of three and four,” Leary explained. “I almost went to that on the restart, but we’d been so good on the top, I didn’t want to abort what we’re doing. It was my race to lose. I don’t know if I wanted to see that last caution at the end. I thought I had a good rhythm and I’d been putting together really good laps.
“(Without traffic), I felt like I was good, then I messed up coming to the white flag and almost threw the right front into the wall. I thought I gave it away when I slid myself on both ends.”
On the final lap, Moles was directly on Leary’s rear bumper heading down the back straightaway one last time. Moles, staying true to the high side, watched as Leary slid himself from the bottom of turn three to the top of turn four.
Moles countered at the exit of turn four to cut under Leary who was just a single car length ahead as he crossed under the checkered flag 0.173 seconds of Moles.
Kevin Thomas Jr. took third with Shane Cottle making an incredible drive to fourth from 22nd. Logan Seavey rounded out the top five.
Leary recalled his closest call of the USAC National Sprint Car season prior to Wednesday’s triumph. Back in February of this year at Ocala, he was leading coming back to a green-white-checkered restart but was overtaken by Cummins.
“The last race we were in contention to win, there was a caution with a green-white-checkered, and I got complacent, honestly,” Leary reflected. “It’s a sprint car race and you’ve got to run these things hard every lap. If you don’t do that, a guy like Mitchel or Logan will be right there to pounce on you. We’ve been digging. It’s been a long season, and I’ve almost forgotten where victory lane was.”
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Circle City Raceway, Indianapolis, Ind., July 30, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.027; 2. Carson Garrett, 2E, Epperson-12.087; 3. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-12.123; 4. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.124; 5. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-12.139; 6. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.187; 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-12.199; 8. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-12.204; 9. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-12.249; 10. James Turnbull II, 2J Turnbull-12.295; 11. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-12.328; 12. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.333; 13. Rylan Gray, 96, Slinkard-12.348; 14. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-12.356; 15. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-12.363; 16. Trey Osborne, 6T, Ebert-12.372; 17. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-12.386; 18. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-12.407; 19. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Cromwell/Boyd-12.414; 20. Kole Kirkman, 81, Dice-12.446; 21. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-12.482; 22. Max Adams, 23s, Simon-12.490; 23. Nate Schank, 1, Schank-12.502; 24. Shane Cottle, 34, Olson-12.508; 25. Austin Nigh, 97, Nigh-12.519; 26. Gabriel Gilbert, 10G, GGR-12.539; 27. Kyle Shipley, 0G, Black Gold-12.557; 28. Trey McGranahan, 77s, Sturgeon-12.618; 29. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-12.625; 30. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-12.642; 31. Travis Millar, 93AU, Millar-12.651; 32. Todd Hobson, 77, Wingo-12.675; 33. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-12.734; 34. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-12.739; 35. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-12.782; 36. Cody Trammell, 34T, Trammell-12.810; 37. Michael Clark, 8, Clark-12.837; 38. Tony Helton, 87, Helton-12.890; 39. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-12.915; 40. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-13.087; 41. Jim Tribby, 9, Tribby-13.337; 42. Eli Wilhelmus, 55, Wilhelmus-14.882; 43. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-NT; 44. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Gunnar Setser, 2. Charles Davis Jr., 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Trey Osborne, 6. Gabriel Gilbert, 7. Travis Millar, 8. Cody Trammell, 9. Jim Tribby. NT
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Kyle Shipley, 3. Carson Garrett, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Max Adams, 6. Ricky Lewis, 7. Todd Hobson, 8. Michael Clark. NT
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Logan Calderwood, 4. Nate Schank, 5. Trey McGranahan, 6. Rylan Gray, 7. Tony Helton, 8. Troy Carey. NT
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Shane Cottle, 3. Harley Burns, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Kale Drake, 6. Chance Crum, 7. Braydon Cromwell, 8. Hunter Maddox. NT
CAR IQ FIFTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Brandon Mattox, 4. Kole Kirkman, 5. James Turnbull II, 6. Kayla Roell, 7. Austin Nigh, 8. Kobe Simpson. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Trey Osborne, 2. Rylan Gray, 3. Max Adams, 4. James Turnbull II, 5. Travis Millar, 6. Chance Crum, 7. Kale Drake, 8. Gabriel Gilbert, 9. Hunter Maddox, 10. Ricky Lewis, 11. Cody Trammell, 12. Todd Hobson, 13. Austin Nigh, 14. Trey McGranahan, 15. Kobe Simpson, 16. Kayla Roell, 17. Braydon Cromwell, 18. Jim Tribby, 19. Troy Carey, 20. Tony Helton.
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (2), 2. Mitchel Moles (3), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 4. Shane Cottle (22), 5. Logan Seavey (6), 6. Jake Swanson (10), 7. Hayden Reinbold (12), 8. Gunnar Setser (8), 9. Briggs Danner (17), 10. Carson Garrett (5), 11. Kyle Cummins (4), 12. Trey Osborne (16), 13. Rylan Gray (13), 14. James Turnbull II (11), 15. Chase Stockon (15), 16. Max Adams (20), 17. Robert Ballou (1), 18. Kale Drake (24-P), 19. Harley Burns (14), 20. Ricky Lewis (25-P), 21. Charles Davis Jr. (19), 22. Brandon Mattox (23), 23. Nate Schank (21), 24. Kyle Shipley (26), 25. Logan Calderwood (9), 26. Kole Kirkman (18).
