MONTPELIER, Ind. — After struggling with his NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget on Tuesday night, Kevin Thomas Jr. hopped into his non-winged sprint car and put on a show at Montpelier Motor Speedway.
Thomas used a green-white-checkered restart to grab the lead away from Thomas Meseraull and stormed home to victory in the companion feature to the opening night of Indiana Midget Week.
The driver of the No. 19 Grainger-sponsored entry for Hayward Thomas Motorsports led only the final two revolutions in the 25-lap sprint car feature en route to his second win in his last three sprint car appearances.
“It’s pretty cool to see all the people who came out for this deal tonight,” said Thomas in victory lane. “The midget feature was pretty fun, but we got the sprint car rolling pretty good and this is a great end result. With the rubber on the top groove, it makes it grippy but also really hard to pass.
“T-Mez was running a great race, but there on that last restart … it was just really slick on the frontstretch until you got way up by the fence,” Thomas added. “It’s just the smallest of things that gave us a run down into turn one, but I knew I had to do something different, because everything else I was doing hadn’t worked up to that point. It was a good race car.
“Sometimes the lead with two to go just isn’t the place to be, but T-Mez is a great driver and he’ll have more nights like we had here tonight.”
Polesitter Meseraull ended up with a disappointing second-place finish after leading laps two through 23. Lee Underwood completed the podium ahead of Brady Bacon and Korbyn Hayslett.
Clinton Boyles, who jumped from third to the lead on the opening round and was in contention among the top five all race long, was involved in a multi-car incident with two to go and failed to finish.
Logan Seavey won the headlining Indiana Midget Week feature.
The finish:
Kevin Thomas Jr., Thomas Meseraull, Lee Underwood, Brady Bacon, Korbyn Hayslett, Kyle Simon, Jackson Slone, Cole Ketcham, Parker Frederickson, Anthony D’Alessio, Dave Gross, Clinton Boyles, Matt Cooley, Brian Ruhlman, Gary Rooke, Isaac Chapple, Sterling Cling, Stan Tresty.