LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — Just because Kyle Cummins possesses a monster point lead in the race for the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, he’s not intent on making the final month of the season a figurative victory lap.
Instead, the Princeton, Indiana racer simply showcased the same kind of intestinal fortitude that he’s displayed time and time again throughout the 2025 season during Friday night’s second running of the Greg Staab Memorial.
Starting third, Cummins raced into the lead past Chase Stockon on the 13th trip around the 3/8-mile dirt oval, then paced the remaining 18 laps to earn his ninth series victory of the year in his Petty Performance Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – Premier Recycling/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.
For Cummins, it was his second USAC triumph at The Burg, and his first since 2022.
Cummins ran his point lead to 356 markers with five events remaining on the schedule. The largest championship point margin between first and second in the history of USAC National Sprint Car racing is 369, set by Pancho Carter over Tom Bigelow back in 1976. Now, ever since he ended a three-month lull without a USAC victory, Cummins has won two of his last three starts and shows no signs of tightening up in crunch time.
“We struggled there at midseason and it’s kind of turned around now,” Cummins admitted. “October seems to be the month of money, so there’s some big money to win here going into the last handful of races.”
Pole-starting Justin Grant appeared to be the man to beat in what was his first appearance at Lawrenceburg since an accident at the same track in July left him with a broken left foot. By the third lap, he’d already slithered away to a 1.4-second advantage over Stockon with Jake Swanson third in line.
Separate spins involving Aric Gentry and Kyle Willis on the fourth lap necessitated the first stoppage of the night. On the ensuing lap four restart, Grant pulled away once again, but as he made his way through turn four, his car suddenly slowed, the victim of an engine failure that ended his night.
Stockon became the new leader at that juncture, while behind him, Cummins was beginning to make his surge. On lap six, Cummins dove under Swanson to gain the runner-up spot, and now, he was in prime position to win the thing.
“You’ve got to get to the front of these races,” Cummins explained. “If you start fifth, sixth, fourth and don’t get up there, everyone’s fast, so it’s hard to maneuver and get by them once it gets a defined line. So, I just try to make sure to get going quickly. Even if I wasn’t close, I got to at least show them my nose and get them racing a little bit.”
On the ninth circuit, the red flag was displayed after Nate Carle lost power in turn four. With nowhere to go, Kobe Simpson plowed into the back of Carle, resulting in Simpson flipping over once before landing on his wheels. Both drivers were done for the evening.
With the field re-racked, Cummins slid Stockon for the top spot in turn one on the lap 11 restart. That said, Stockon didn’t give in without a fight as he countered Cummins’ slider by driving back by on the back straightaway to retain the lead. Two laps later, however, Cummins took his shot again, and this time, it stuck.
“At the beginning of the race, I wasn’t so great,” Cummins acknowledged. “As I lost the fuel load and stuff, it got a little better. There at the end, I felt pretty good.”
How good did he feel? Cruising with two laps remaining, Cummins’ lead had expanded to a whopping 4.209 seconds when the yellow flag fell for debris in turn one, resulting from a jettisoned right rear wheel cover that had previously been attached to Saban Bibent’s machine.
Despite the field being bunched up one more time for the green-white-checkered run to the finish, nobody could match what Cummins had in store down the stretch. Cummins pulled away from Stockon, Swanson et al. during the final restart, crossing the line 0.775 seconds ahead of the pack for the win with Stockon second, Swanson third, Logan Seavey fourth and Ricky Lewis fifth after starting back in the 10th position.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Lawrenceburg Speedway, Lawrenceburg, Ind., Oct. 10, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.836; 2. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-13.937; 3. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-13.947; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-13.988; 5. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.003; 6. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.006; 7. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.017; 8. Ricky Lewis, 2B, 2B Racing-14.041; 9. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-14.043; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-14.045; 11. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-14.119; 12. Nate Carle, 14c, Carle-14.121; 13. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-14.182; 14. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.278; 15. Todd Hobson, 98H, Doran/Wedgewood-14.361; 16. Shawn Westerfeld, 44, Fischesser/Owen-14.390; 17. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-14.418; 18. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-14.502; 19. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-14.685; 20. Dustin Webber, 9, Webber-14.930; 21. Kyle Willis, 5w, Willis-15.229; 22. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-15.314.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Shawn Westerfeld, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Aric Gentry, 8. Kayla Roell. 1:56.145
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Gunnar Setser, 3. Ricky Lewis, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Dustin Webber, 7. Ryan Barr. 1:57.216
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Saban Bibent, 3. Todd Hobson, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Nate Carle, 6. Kobe Simpson, 7. Kyle Willis. 1:57.351
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (3), 2. Chase Stockon (2), 3. Jake Swanson (4), 4. Logan Seavey (8), 5. Ricky Lewis (10), 6. Briggs Danner (5), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (12), 8. Mitchel Moles (6), 9. Saban Bibent (11), 10. Gunnar Setser (13), 11. Todd Hobson (15), 12. Kayla Roell (18), 13. C.J. Leary (7), 14. Dustin Webber (19), 15. Shawn Westerfeld (16), 16. Aric Gentry (21), 17. Kyle Willis (20), 18. Hayden Reinbold (9), 19. Nate Carle (14), 20. Kobe Simpson (17), 21. Justin Grant (1).
