WHEATLAND, Mo. — When Kyle Cummins makes just his second appearance at Lucas Oil Speedway on Saturday, the Indiana native can only hope things go as well as his previous time on the Wheatland dirt.
It was 2018 when Cummins drove to victory in the non-winged portion of the Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial. That remains one of the memorable wins that Cummins, 38, has picked up during his successful open-wheel racing career.
“We ran like third or fourth on our prelim night and then won the finale,” Cummins said. “I have not been there since, but definitely looking forward to seeing how things go this time. That’s a very, very nice place with everything. The pits, the grandstands. It’s a nice facility.
“We didn’t take many notes back in the day, but hopefully we have a little bit of thought. At least I’ve ran there once so I know a little bit how the track works.”
Cummins continues his pursuit of a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint championship on Saturday when USAC returns to Wheatland for the first time since 2006 for the Rod End Supply Diamond Dirt Duel. The 30-lap feature will pay $6,000 to the winner.
Cummins, a second-generation open-wheel racer from Princeton, Ind., leads the championship standings by 258 points over Mitchel Moles.
After a fast start to the season, with a feature win in the opener at Volusia Speedway Park and five feature wins in the first 11 events, Cummins has put himself in great position to win his first USAC championship in his second season with Petty Performance Racing.
“We started the season really strong and kind of had some bad luck here and there,” Cummins said. “We’ve got the monkey off our back a little bit of late and found some stuff with the car. We’re on car number three now. We’ve tore up some stuff and kind of learning this one.
“All in all, we’re pretty excited about how things are going and looking forward to finishing these last 15 races strong and trying to get a couple of more wins and have a good finish to the season.”
Following in the footsteps of his father, Mark Cummins, since opening in open karts at age nine, Kyle Cummins developed into one of the top sprint car racers in the Midwest. He’s the all-time winningest driver of the Midwest Sprint Car Series and a five-time champion in that series.
It wasn’t until a fast start to the USAC National Tour in 2023 that Cummins began to think about chasing a national championship. He faded that season and realized that upgrades were needed to pursue such an endeavor.
“The last two years we’ve decided to run for it and be fully prepared, have all the stuff ready,” Cummins said. “We built this new team with Petty Performance and that’s been the goal. Last year was kind of a building season, to take some notes and do a lot of trial and error, working some stuff with the car to give us a really good baseline.
“We started out this season really strong and that’s been the goal from the get-go, from at least 2024 that was the plan, to win the championship.”
Cummins said the competition level on the USAC National series is rugged. There’s no such thing as resting on your laurels, even with a sizable points lead.
“It seems like the top 8-10 guys could win any night. It’s definitely tough,” Cummins said. “Everyone has the same goal, they all want to win. It’s like all sports, any one can win on a given night and you just give it your best shot and see how things go.
“We have a decent-sized lead. We just need to finish out strong and not let up and hopefully the last couple of races we won’t have any pressure and can just go out and have fun.”
