OVID, Mich. — Jake Trainor bested a field of 24 All-Star National Pavement Midget Series competitors in front of a huge crowd Wednesday night at Owosso Speedway.
The event was part of the Race for the Million $30,000-to-win winged sprint car event.
The event was the 2026 season opener for the inaugural season for the upstart pavement midget series. The original season opener that was scheduled for May 22 at Indianapolis Raceway Park was rained out and postponed until June 24.
A full field of midgets was on hand for the inaugural event headlined by current NASCAR Cup regular Christopher Bell and 2008 Dayton 500 winner Ryan Newman. Newman’s 15-year-old daughter Brooklyn Newman was making her pavement midget debut and would be competing alongside her father on the night.
Nathan Byrd got the night rolling when he set quick time (14.827) around the three-eighths-mile, semi-banked asphalt oval.
A skirmish on the first lap of the feature in turn two involving Kaylee Bryson necessitated a restart. On the restart Jake Trainor was ablet to pull into the lead and immediately build a small cushion over Christpher Bell the majority of the race.
Kody Swanson and Ryan Neman battled for position behind the lead duo, swapping positions a handful of times.
Trainor was able to thwart off Bell on the final restart to win by a margin of 0.472 seconds over his Seymour Racing teammate Bell.
Swanson was third followed by Newman and Chase Locke rounding out the top five.
“I was nervous earlier in the day,” explained Trainor. “We weren’t quite on the pace. The invert fell to us and we kind of got bailed out. We got out front early. I was just waiting. I had Christopher Bell and Kody Swanson behind me coming. I was just waiting for someone to give me a nose, especially on that green-white-checkered there at the end. It’s tough when you get a late race caution while you’re leading. But we held them off and had a great night here.”
The finish:
- 29-Jake Trainor; 2. 19-Christopher Bell; 3. 47-Kody Swanson; 4. 61-Ryan Newman; 5. 88-Chase Locke; 6. 7-Aryton Houk; 7. 67-Kyle O’Gara; 8. 85-Michael Lewis; 9. 53-Dylan Coutu; 10. 9-Ben Mikitarian; 11. 40-Nathan Byrd; 12. 1a-Jim Anderson; 13. 83-Chance Crum; 14. 16-Dezi Pedregon; 15. 5-Haylee Papp; 16. 77-Kaylee Bryson; 17. 88y-Brooklyn Newman; 18. 14-Jadon Rogers; 19. 14w-Keegan Weese; 20. 42-Lee Pierce; 21. 88o-Dakoda Armstrong; 22. 1-Sammy Swindell; 23. 2-Billy Wease; 24. 8-Dameron Taylor
