QUINCY, Mich. — Kyle Cummins had everything going his way entering Saturday night’s USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship event at Butler Motor Speedway.
The Princeton, Indiana racer was fresh off a USAC Eastern Storm championship and possessed a pretty hefty point lead in the season-long USAC National Sprint Car standings
Cummins and his Petty Performance Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – JUGO Superfoods/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy No. 3p kept it rolling, leading all 30 laps to capture his second consecutive USAC victory on Butler’s three-eighths-mile dirt oval.
Cummins is the first driver to win back-to-back USAC National Sprint Car feature events in the state of Michigan since Jack Hewitt in 1994-1995.
Cummins’ 36th career USAC National Sprint Car victory moved him into sole possession of 14th place all-time, ahead of 35-time winners Rich Vogler, Jon Stanbrough, and Logan Seavey.
Cummins is now just one win shy of 1977-81-82 champion Sheldon Kinser at 37.
Whereas Cummins’ 2025 Butler triumph was a barnburner duel between himself and Justin Grant, the 2026 edition was all Cummins from start to finish.
Cummins was initially slated to start on the outside of the front row. However, when pole sitter C.J. Leary was ruled to have jumped the start, he was penalized one row, back to the inside of row two. Therefore, Cummins was moved to the pole position with Keith Sheffer II outside.
Taking control from the outset, Cummins led the opening lap while Sheffer was duking it out for the second spot with Mitchel Moles. That particular battle didn’t last long as Sheffer, a Michigan native, stumbled and biked atop the turn two cushion on the second lap and flipped over. Sheffer was able to restart at the tail before pulling off just 10 laps into the race with a 24th place result.
Cummins’ main challenger throughout the 30-lap main event was lapped traffic. In the first half of the race, Cummins took his lead to roughly 1.5 seconds but was forced to do most of his work on the high side. With gridlock occupying the bottom and middle lines, Cummins had to find a place where they weren’t.
“I just had to make it work,” Cummins stated. “It would feel good through the middle, and then once you hit the dust, man, you were just along for the ride, and luckily, I was able to get around them.”
A brief reprieve from traffic came on lap 13 when Jason Ferguson (21st) and Abby Hohlbein (23rd) tangled and stopped in turn two to bring out the yellow flag and cleared the path in front of the leaders for the time being.
From there, Cummins sailed away again to the tune of 1.5 seconds. That is, until lap 20, when he met the back of the field once again, and Cummins was in a spot where he had to simultaneously pounce while practicing patience through traffic, lest he be prey for the likes of Stockon and Moles running second and third.
“I think the lapped cars actually slowed me down enough to get a little bit lower to hit the bottom, especially in one and two,” Cummins explained. “If I slowed down to their speed on entry, my car would just roll around the bottom really good. So, I would just wait. It felt like if you missed it a little bit, you hung out. So, I would just kind of follow them and follow them, and surely, have a little bit of pressure and they’d slide up. So, if I slid up, I could just shoot the gap, and even if I wasn’t as good coming off, I could at least get in front of him. It was definitely one of those where you’re riding the brakes and just hoping nothing happens.”
That said, Stockon managed to get within five car lengths of Cummins with three to go. But it was a bit of a mirage as Cummins had just gotten around the lapped car of Brian Ruhlman and had freedom ahead of them. Meanwhile, Stockon and Moles were running side-by-side for position while also trying to stay away from the lapper fray.
That was all fine and dandy with Cummins who finished off the job, taking the checkered flag by a 0.968 second margin with Stockon beating Moles to the line for second. Briggs Danner made a late surge on the high wire to fourth past Leary with three laps remaining. Robert Ballou followed suit past Leary moments later to round out the top five.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Butler Motor Speedway, Quincy, Michigan June 27, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.872; 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.927; 3. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-15.122; 4. Keith Sheffer II, 86, Sheffer-15.135; 5. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-15.137; 6. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-15.144; 7. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-15.206; 8. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-15.235; 9. Harley Burns, 3R, Rock Steady-15.241; 10. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-15.270; 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 15, BBI-15.272; 12. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-15.315; 13. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-15.567; 14. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-15.567; 15. Gavin Miller, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-15.638; 16. Beau Brandon, 21BB, Brandon-15.659; 17. Josh Turner, 4T, Turner-15.661; 18. Rylan Gray, 1, Gray-15.704; 19. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-15.798; 20. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-15.893; 21. Tony Helton, 87, Helton-16.083; 22. Aaron Davis, 11, Davis-16.115; 23. Abby Hohlbein, 11A, Hohlbein-16.125; 24. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-16.133; 25. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-16.224; 26. Kole Kirkman, 18K, Dice-16.274; 27. Jack James, 99, James-16.483; 28. Max Frank, 25, Frank-16.492; 29. Jason Ferguson, 33F, Ferguson-17.106; 30. Chad Wilson, 6w, Wityk-NT (time of 16.538 disallowed due to illegal tire).
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (5), 2. Justin Grant (6), 3. Zack Pretorius (3), 4. Tony Helton (1), 5. Brian Ruhlman (7), 6. Harley Burns (4), 7. Jason Ferguson (8), 8. Josh Turner (2). 2:08.862
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (6), 2. Robert Ballou (4), 3. Trey Osborne (3), 4. C.J. Leary (5), 5. Rylan Gray (2), 6. Kole Kirkman (7), 7. Aaron Davis (1), 8. Chad Wilson (8). 2:05.955
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (5), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 3. Chase Stockon (6), 4. Ryan Barr (2), 5. Abby Hohlbein (1), 6. Jack James (7), 7. Gavin Miller (3). 2:06.459
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cale Coons (2), 2. Jake Swanson (4), 3. Briggs Danner (5), 4. Keith Sheffer II (6), 5. Hayden Reinbold (1), 6. Beau Brandon (3), 7. Max Frank (7). 2:04.124
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gavin Miller (2), 2. Harley Burns (1), 3. Beau Brandon (3), 4. Jason Ferguson (8), 5. Kole Kirkman (4), 6. Aaron Davis (6), 7. Chad Wilson (10), 8. Jack James (5), 9. Josh Turner (9), 10. Max Frank (7). NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (2), 2. Chase Stockon (4), 3. Mitchel Moles (5), 4. Briggs Danner (9), 5. Robert Ballou (11), 6. C.J. Leary (1), 7. Justin Grant (6), 8. Logan Seavey (7), 9. Harley Burns (10), 10. Jake Swanson (13), 11. Kevin Thomas Jr. (12), 12. Gavin Miller (16), 13. Hayden Reinbold (22), 14. Cale Coons (8), 15. Zack Pretorius (14), 16. Trey Osborne (15), 17. Ryan Barr (19), 18. Rylan Gray (18), 19. Beau Brandon (17), 20. Brian Ruhlman (23), 21. Tony Helton (20), 22. Jason Ferguson (24), 23. Abby Hohlbein (21), 24. Keith Sheffer II (3).
