OCALA, Fla. — For Chase Stockon and Moose Racing, it seemed as if it was just a matter of time when they’re breakthrough at Florida’s Ocala Speedway would come to fruition.
All they needed was a little bit of good fortune, and they got some of it on Friday the 13th, no less.
They were fast throughout the week the previous winter, and thus far, had been near the forefront of the field during the first two nights of USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship racing at the three-eighths-mile D-shaped dirt track.
A runner-up result for Stockon on Wednesday in which he and eventual winner Trey Osborne banged wheels on the front straightaway was followed by another solid top-five run on Thursday.
Friday was a new chapter, however, and despite a brief heart-in-the-throat moment and an emphatic stroke of Byzantine whimsy, Stockon led the entire 35-lap distance from start to finish in his Tom & Laurie Sertich/Lucas Oil Centers – Dewig Meats – Brown Excavating/DRC/Kistler Chevy.
The Fort Branch, Indiana native’s 16th USAC National Sprint Car victory tied him with Damion Gardner and Jud Larson for 39th place on the all-time list. It was his second career triumph at Ocala and his first there since 2018.
“I can’t thank Tom and Laurie enough and Mister with Steve Williby on the wrenches. I wish I would’ve found him a long time ago in my career,” Stockon praised. “This whole bunch on the Moose 92 has been a godsend for me. It’s pretty special giving them another USAC national win.”
Starting from the pole, Stockon stepped out to the early lead and maintained full control for the first three laps of the feature with Kevin Thomas Jr. slotting into second ahead of Kyle Cummins. However, an incident collecting a pair of feature winners this week halted the proceedings on lap four.
Thursday’s Ocala winner Logan Seavey drifted out of the groove at the exit of turn four and walloped the outside wall with his right-rear tire, then spun down the front straightaway before coming to a stop with a flat right rear tire. In the aftermath, Tuesday’s Volusia victor Jake Swanson attempted to avoid the incident, but knocked wheels with Robert Ballou, ramped into the air and landed with a knocked out front end.
Miraculously, both Seavey and Swanson returned to the field. Starting at the tail end of the 23-car field, Swanson advanced all the way back to a ninth-place result. Seavey, meanwhile, raced all the way back to eighth before a mechanical issue stifled him during the final laps and dropped him to 11th in the running order.
On the ensuing lap five restart, Ballou found trouble in exactly the same manner as Seavey but took a much more detrimental result. Ballou skated over the edge in turn four, collided with the outside wall and flipped several times nose-to-tail down the front straightaway. However, he was able to climb out and walk away. Ricky Lewis was also caught up in the incident and was unable to restart with front end damage to his ride.
Shortly after the resumption, Cummins began his surge as he swung to the inside of Thomas on the backstretch dogleg to make his way into second on lap six, then set sail for Stockon’s lead.
On the seventh lap, the complexion of the race nearly changed in a heartbeat. In turns three and four, Stockon got all four of his wheels over the cushion where the track flattens out. Cummins drove on by, but Stockon straightened himself out, pointed his car back under Cummins off turn four and managed to beat Cummins back to the stripe by a wheel.
As he balanced the exhilarating tension between being and becoming, Stockon narrowly avoided heartbreak on two fronts simultaneously.
“We finished out the year strong and we had a strong Ocala last year. We just couldn’t seem to find any luck,” recalled. “I think we had a little bit of luck on our side tonight. I killed the engine down in three and Kyle slid me. I thought I gave it away right there.”
Back up front, Stockon’s new nemesis was lapped traffic, which he encountered a plethora of with 10 laps remaining. With traffic running high, running low and operating to and fro, Stockon successfully split right between the duo of Gunnar Setser and Greg Mitchell on the front straight, but Cummins remained within striking distance and delivered the message that he was here to stay and maintain the pressure.
“You’ve just got to use your ears,” Stockon explained. “He’s bad fast, and this kind of slick, technical stuff is right up his alley. I knew he’d be tough. I heard him a couple times and saw his nose a couple times. I just stuck to my guns until somebody proved me otherwise.”
C.J. Leary was stopped backwards between turns one and two on lap 29 with heavy damage to his machine. He was able to climb out and walk away. That diverted traffic with seven laps remaining, allowing the duel to continue with a clear track and clean air out in front. Still, Stockon knew he just couldn’t allow Cummins to get a word, or a wheel, in edgewise.
“With all the cautions and the low tire pressure, I didn’t really know what the plan was,” Stockon remembered. “I just knew that if I could hold them off from throwing a slider on me, we’d probably be in good shape.”
Stockon was in perfectly good shape as it turned out, and he was able to jump away from Cummins down the stretch to finish off the victory by a 0.691 seconds over Cummins with Kevin Thomas Jr. third, Brady Bacon fourth and Mitchel Moles fifth.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Ocala Speedway, Ocala, Florida, Feb. 13, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.910; 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.937; 3. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-14.052; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.058; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-14.098; 6. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.138; 7. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-14.161; 8. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.162; 9. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-14.213; 10. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.220; 11. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.273; 12. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-14.334; 13. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-14.443; 14. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-14.467; 15. Chelby Hinton, 2B, 2B Racing-14.495; 16. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-14.552; 17. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-14.573; 18. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-14.626; 19. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-14.715; 20. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-14.794; 21. Ryan Harrison, 97UK, Harrison-14.900; 22. Greg Mitchell, 001, Mitchell-15.790; 23. Chase Howard, 13, Howard-NT; 24. Kobe Simpson, 13TH, Howard-NT.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ricky Lewis (1), 2. Briggs Danner (3), 3. Jake Swanson (4), 4. Kyle Cummins (5), 5. Tom Harris (2), 6. Justin Grant (6), 7. Logan Calderwood (7), 8. Greg Mitchell (8). 2:01.671
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (1), 2. Robert Ballou (3), 3. Gunnar Setser (2), 4. Logan Seavey (4), 5. Mitchel Moles (6), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr (5), 7. Cale Coons (7). 1:58.539
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (1), 2. Jadon Rogers (4), 3. Chase Stockon (5), 4. Chelby Hinton (2), 5. Trey Osborne (6), 6. Harley Burns (3), 7. Ryan Harrison (7). 2:01.558
FEATURE: (35 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chase Stockon (1), 2. Kyle Cummins (3), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (2), 4. Brady Bacon (8), 5. Mitchel Moles (5), 6. Justin Grant (6), 7. Briggs Danner (13), 8. Trey Osborne (4), 9. Jake Swanson (10), 10. Jadon Rogers (12), 11. Logan Seavey (11), 12. Chelby Hinton (18), 13. Tom Harris (16), 14. Logan Calderwood (19), 15. Gunnar Setser (17), 16. Ryan Harrison (21), 17. Cale Coons (20), 18. C.J. Leary (9), 19. Greg Mitchell (22), 20. Harley Burns (15), 21. Ricky Lewis (7), 22. Robert Ballou (14), 23. Chase Howard (23). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-35 Chase Stockon.
