ROSSBURG, Ohio — Kevin Thomas Jr. had never won a feature at Eldora Speedway before Thursday night.
On Thursday night, the owner of 60 career USAC national wins got to make the long awaited trip up the ramp to victory lane in what was his 48th career USAC main event appearance at The Big E.
Thomas claimed the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature and finally added an Eldora victory to his resume, having run his first race at the track in 2009.
“Man, you have no idea,” Thomas exclaimed. “This place has had my number for, literally, ever. We’ve had good runs here, but we’ve never been able to finish it off.”
Starting third on the grid for the 25-lapper, Thomas guided his 4 Kings Racing/Purple Heart Foundation – AccroSeal – Metalloid1 – AccroLube/LynK/Stanton SR-11x to the front for his third series win of the year as well as the ninth of his career.
“This 4 Kings number 14 was an absolute rocket,” Thomas praised. “Matt (Westfall), Phil (Westfall), (Jakeb Boxell), and everybody that brings these cars to the racetrack, they always bring a good hot rod. I’m very fortunate to be able to drive for those guys and I’m happy for the Purple Heart Foundation, Rex (Turner), Fred (Edwards), and the whole crew. To finally to be up here, it’s pretty special.”
For the initial 21 laps, Hayden Reinbold controlled the race. Interestingly, the tables were turned from the 2025 Thursday race in which Reinbold charged past Thomas on lap eight, then led the remaining 18 laps en route to victory while Thomas followed him across the stripe in the second position.
Thomas worked around the high side of Kale Drake to move into the second spot on lap nine. By lap 20, Thomas had completely crossed out Reinbold’s 1.5-second lead. Now, Thomas was right on Reinbold’s tail tank.
Reinbold dove low into turn one on the 20th lap and nearly collided with the lapped car of Cord Kisthardt. Thomas looked high and low, low and high, and every which way around Reinbold and was able to pull even with him on both sides on laps 20 and 21. Twenty-two proved to be the catch for KTJ as he followed his instincts with some straightforward self-advice.
“Just drive the balls off of it, really,” Thomas put it succinctly. “This place was treacherous tonight, and in a midget, it’s exaggerated too. You’re hitting frame rails, and you’re doing all kinds of wild stuff, and you don’t got a lot of horsepower. So, it’s very key to keep your momentum up and pick the correct lines whenever you get to lapped traffic.”
On the 22nd lap, Thomas had a major run to the outside of Reinbold on the back straightaway as they closed in on the 15th place running car of Adam Taylor.
As Reinbold pulled even to the inside of Taylor, Reinbold’s car slipped and drifted up the race track.
Thomas’ momentum was the x-factor as he flat-footed it around the outside of Reinbold off turn four to edge ahead, then turned down under Taylor entering the first turn moments later to put a buffer between himself and the rest of the field.
“I don’t think I would have necessarily gotten to Hayden in that scenario without lap traffic,” Thomas admitted. “Wide open is wide open here and we both run Stanton engines and they run really good. I don’t know if catching him was in the cards there, but sometimes being second when you get there is good because you can see where he killed speed at or where he didn’t and you can navigate those lapped cars just a little bit better.”
Just as Thomas quickly opened up his advantage, the action came to a halt when Jadon Rogers slowed on the back straightaway to bring out the caution on lap 24, thus, bunching up the field for a green-white-checkered restart.
“Once we got out front, it wasn’t very long,” Thomas recalled. “I think it was like a couple laps and then we had that green white checkered. Our stuff is notorious for restarting really well. So, I felt confident and just kind of went up and got my momentum up for about a lap and a half and finally won one of these here.”
Thomas finished with a 0.885-second victory. Meanwhile, Justin Grant raced by Reinbold on the final lap to get second while Reinbold rounded out the podium.
Daison Pursley took fourth while KTJ’s 4 Kings teammate Jakeb Boxell collected a fifth place finish.
USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Championship, Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio, Sept. 24, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.060; 2. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-16.132; 3. Jakeb Boxell, 54, 4 Kings-16.150; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-16.151; 5. Kale Drake, 4, RMS-16.196; 6. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-16.216; 7. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.253; 8. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-16.273; 9. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-16.296; 10. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.308; 11. Mack Leopard, 40L, McDermand-16.455; 12. Kyle Jones, 7TX, Engler-16.534; 13. Brecken Reese, 20Q, Reese-16.620; 14. Jadon Rogers, 4p, Binks-16.621; 15. Luke Wackerlin, 7w, Guithues-16.837; 16. Adam Taylor, 7T, ATM-16.855; 17. Bradley Cox, 45, Mason-16.900; 18. Devon Dobie, 23D, Dobie-17.065; 19. Cord Kisthardt, 21K, Kisthardt-17.605; 20. Chelby Hinton, 4B, Klatt-NT; 21. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-NT; 22. Sheldon Males, 4m, Males-NT.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brecken Reese (2), 2. Gavin Miller (4), 3. Jacob Denney (6), 4. Colton Robinson (3), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 6. Cord Kisthardt (7), 7. Adam Taylor (1). 2:12.303
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Daison Pursley (6), 2. Gunnar Setser (4), 3. Kale Drake (5), 4. Jadon Rogers (2), 5. Bradley Cox (1), 6. Mack Leopard (3). 2:13.713
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (4), 2. Kyle Jones (3), 3. Hayden Reinbold (5), 4. Jakeb Boxell (6), 5. Luke Wackerlin (2), 6. Devon Dobie (1). 2:10.814
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 2. Justin Grant (7), 3. Hayden Reinbold (1), 4. Daison Pursley (5), 5. Jakeb Boxell (4), 6. Jacob Denney (6), 7. Gunnar Setser (10), 8. Brecken Reese (8), 9. Kale Drake (2), 10. Logan Seavey (20), 11. Mack Leopard (12), 12. Kyle Jones (13), 13. Colton Robinson (11), 14. Gavin Miller (9), 15. Adam Taylor (19), 16. Luke Wackerlin (15), 17. Cord Kisthardt (17), 18. Jadon Rogers (14), 19. Bradley Cox (16), 20. Devon Dobie (18).
