KOKOMO, Ind. — Kevin Thomas Jr. is making it a habit of visiting victory lane on Friday night during the Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Sprint Car Smackdown.
Thomas won Friday night’s USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Championship feature, making it the fourth time in the past five years he’s won on Friday night during the annual Smackdown.
The Cullman, Alabama racer led all 30 laps at the quarter-mile dirt oval in his Rock Steady Racing/Inferno Armor – Lucas Oil Center – Creative Finishing/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.
“It’s another Friday night win; I wish I was this good on Saturday,” Thomas Jr. quipped. “This is great for these guys, bouncing back from last night where weren’t the best, but not the worst, then coming out tonight with a lights out racecar.”
Thomas carved out a not-too-shabby 13th to sixth run in Thursday’s Smackdown opener but is certainly more at home in victory lane where he’s now notched four USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature victories on the 2025 season.
His 48th and latest series triumph was yet another milestone in his career as he surpassed Tracy Hines for sole possession of fifth on the all-time series win list.
It’s his sixth career Smackdown main event victory (second all-time behind Justin Grant’s nine), which now includes five prelim scores and one championship back in 2016.
Thomas started from the pole and immediately established his command over outside front row starter Kyle Cummins. Meanwhile, Grant was on the move early as he climbed past Cale Coons on the eighth lap, then dove under previous night’s winner Briggs Danner in turn three on lap 10 to take over occupation of third.
Just as the front runners were headed for lapped traffic, caution fell over the speedway on lap 12 as Clinton Boyles rolled to a stop just a lap or two after enduring an extreme bike over in turns three and four. After starting ninth on the grid, Boyles had worked his way up to seventh, ending a solid run with a 25th-place result for the driver filling in for the injured Robert Ballou.
On the lap-13 restart, Danner stumbled off the exit of turn two and Coons was ably took advantage and drove under Danner to take over the fourth spot behind the top-three triumvirate of Thomas, Cummins and Grant.
With 10 laps remaining, traffic was once again in play for the leaders. Cummins was able to close to within a car length of Thomas as the pair weaved their way past the duo of Matt Westfall and Kyle Shipley, who they put a lap down.
Yet, Cummins was unable to draw any closer than that as Thomas continued to hammer his way through the back of the field, successfully placing the lapped cars of Rylan Gray and Chelby Hinton between himself and Cummins entering turn three with chief starter Mark Orr’s white flag set to fly moments later.
“I felt good, like I put enough cars in between myself and Kyle,” Thomas said. “I felt like I got through there well enough that if somebody was right on me, it was going to be tough to maneuver by both the lapped cars and me.”
But the best-laid plans of mice and men doesn’t necessarily ensure success as eighth running Danner slowed with a flat right rear tire which relegated him to a 19th place finish. In turn, the yellow flag was displayed on the 29th circuit, thus setting up a green-white-checkered finish.
Despite the interruption, Thomas remained confident with a clear track ahead of him and equipped with a Tim Spindler-wrenched set up. He even spotted a face in the crowd delivering instruction to second running Cummins.
“I saw his crew guy pointing him here on one caution, and on the next caution, was pointing him there,” Thomas recalled. “But I was lucky enough that I could see the dirt and have lane choice wherever I wanted to go. So, being able to see where people were running was kind of a dead giveaway. You could see it dusted up in some spots and clean in others. I felt comfortable around there and I never felt any pressure to that point, so I wasn’t going to change. But I know that once that 3p gets wound up around the top, it’s probably game over for a lot of us. I just stayed true to what got us there and then ran 30 good ones.”
At the conclusion, Thomas ran two great ones to clinch the victory by a 0.711 second margin over Cummins, who finished as the runner-up for the second night in a row at Kokomo.
Justin Grant was incredible once more as he finished third despite nursing a broken left foot which required him to use crutches just to be able to get on the stage for the podium finishers photo.
Cale Coons to a career best fourth while Jake Swanson rounded out the top five with a bounce back performance after being an innocent victim in a crash 24 hours earlier while running fourth.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Kokomo Speedway, Kokomo, Ind., Aug. 22, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.368; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.394; 3. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.634; 4. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-12.710; 5. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-12.719; 6. Carson Garrett, 2E, Epperson-12.761; 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-12.765; 8. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-12.766; 9. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.781; 10. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-12.858; 11. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-12.880; 12. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-13.030; 13. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-13.045; 14. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-13.050; 15. David Gasper, 77s, Sturgeon-13.078; 16. Chelby Hinton, 71p, Phillips-13.116; 17. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-13.156; 18. Kyle Shipley, 0G, Black Gold-13.166; 19. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.192; 20. Rylan Gray, 06, Gray-13.197; 21. Geoff Ensign, 00x, Anderson-13.198; 22. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-13.206; 23. Clinton Boyles, 12, Ballou-13.210; 24. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-13.222; 25. Shane Cottle, 86, Stamper-13.252; 26. Max Adams, 21, Hery-13.258; 27. Parker Frederickson, 00, Whitney-13.278; 28. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-13.284; 29. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-13.322; 30. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-13.350; 31. Jadon Rogers, 5, Baldwin/Fox-13.353; 32. Wyatt Burks, 16K, Knight-13.363; 33. Todd Hobson, 44, Soudrette-13.414; 34. Jack Hoyer, 57H, Hazen-13.425; 35. James Turnbull II, 2J, Turnbull-13.468; 36. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.510; 37. Brayden Clark, 4c, Clark-13.518; 38. Jacob Tuttle, 24x, Maddox-13.553; 39. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-13.608; 40. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-13.616; 41. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-13.624; 42. Bryce Andrews, 17, MSR-13.687; 43. Aaron Davis, 11, Davis-13.690; 44. Devan Myers, 75, Myers-13.699; 45. Adyn Schmidt, 12s, Schmidt-13.701; 46. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-13.845; 47. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Cromwell-13.847; 48. Rob Caho Jr., 78, Caho-13.938; 49. Travis Thompson, 7, Thompson-14.095; 50. R.J. Miller, 34, Miller-14.120; 51. Jack James, 99, James-14.622; 52. Tyler Miller, 67, Lohman-NT; 53. Steve Justis, 12J, Justis-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Chelby Hinton, 4. Geoff Ensign, 5. Jadon Rogers, 6. Carson Garrett, 7. Brandon Mattox, 8. Max Adams, 9. Matt Goodnight, 10. Troy Carey, 11. Jack James. 2:15.235
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Chance Crum, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Zack Pretorius, 6. Brayden Clark, 7. Wyatt Burks, 8. Braydon Cromwell, 9. Parker Frederickson, 10. Bryce Andrews. 2:13.056
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Clinton Boyles, 2. Gunnar Setser, 3. Kyle Shipley, 4. Cale Coons, 5. Harley Burns, 6. Hunter Maddox, 7. Jacob Tuttle, 8. Todd Hobson, 9. Aaron Davis, 10. Rob Caho Jr. 2:12.182
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Ricky Lewis, 4. Briggs Danner, 5. Kayla Roell, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Kobe Simpson, 8. Jack Hoyer, 9. Devan Myers, 10. Travis Thompson. 2:15.010
CAR IQ FIFTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Matt Westfall, 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Rylan Gray, 6. James Turnbull II, 7. Joey Amantea, 8. Adyn Schmidt, 9. R.J. Miller, 10. David Gasper. 2:15.396
HOOSIER TIRE C MAIN: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the semi) 1. Jack Hoyer, 2. Braydon Cromwell, 3. Max Adams, 4. David Gasper, 5. Aaron Davis, 6. Troy Carey, 7. Parker Frederickson, 8. Matt Goodnight, 9. Rob Caho Jr., 10. Travis Thompson, 11. Bryce Andrews, 12. Devan Myers, 13. Adyn Schmidt, 14. R.J. Miller, 15. Jack James. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Carson Garrett, 2. Harley Burns, 3. Rylan Gray, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Kobe Simpson, 6. Kayla Roell, 7. Hunter Maddox, 8. Brayden Clark, 9. Brandon Mattox, 10. Wyatt Burks, 11. Jack Hoyer, 12. David Gasper, 13. James Turnbull II, 14. Joey Amantea, 15. Max Adams, 16. Braydon Cromwell, 17. Jacob Tuttle, 18. Zack Pretorius, 19. Jadon Rogers. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1), 2. Kyle Cummins (2), 3. Justin Grant (5), 4. Cale Coons (4), 5. Jake Swanson (7), 6. C.J. Leary (8), 7. Kale Drake (10), 8. Mitchel Moles (6), 9. Logan Seavey (13), 10. Gunnar Setser (12), 11. Chase Stockon (14), 12. Ricky Lewis (16), 13. Carson Garrett (11), 14. Hayden Reinbold (19), 15. Shane Cottle (23), 16. Harley Burns (15), 17. Chance Crum (22), 18. Chelby Hinton (17), 19. Briggs Danner (3), 20. Rylan Gray (20), 21. Kyle Shipley (18), 22. Matt Westfall (24), 23. Joey Amantea (25-P), 24. Kobe Simpson (26-P), 25. Clinton Boyles (9), 26. Geoff Ensign (21).
