HAUBSTADT, Ind. — Six was a magic number for Kevin Thomas Jr. during the 19th annual running of the Haubstadt Hustler on Saturday night at Indiana’s Tri-State Speedway.
Starting sixth on the grid, the Cullman, Alabama native charged his way into the lead past Robert Ballou on lap 18, then led the final 23 laps to capture the $20,000 grand prize and his record-extending sixth career Haubstadt Hustler triumph.
No other driver has more than two career Haubstadt Hustler victories.
Thomas’ Haubstadt Hustler successes have come across a 14-year span in 2013, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2024, and now 2026, this time aboard the BBI Motorsports/Driven Racing Oil – Inland Rigging – Indy Metal Finishing/DRC/1-Way Chevy No. 15 in the event co-sanctioned by the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship and the Midwest Thunder 410 Sprint Car Series.
Thomas became just the fifth driver to reach 50 career USAC National Sprint Car feature victories, joining Justin Grant (71), Brady Bacon (64), Dave Darland (62), and Tom Bigelow (52). Of those 50 wins, 10 of them have occurred at Tri-State’s 1/4-mile dirt oval, also an all-time record.
KTJ also continued his run of Haubstadt Hustler success by winning from beyond the front row. His first five wins in the event had all come from the second row. This time, he started on the outside of the third row, and the result was much the same. In fact, Tri-State had proven to be one of his most successful venues in 2026, finishing third in the spring and fifth in the summer in USAC National Sprint Car competition.
To begin the night, KTJ continued his mastery of the weekend’s LearnLab Qualifying sessions by recording his second consecutive fast time award in as many nights. His 13.839 second lap at Tri-State put him at the top of the board for the 44th time in his USAC National Sprint Car career, seventh most all-time.
But it was Ballou who was the frontline figure for much of the first half of the feature as he led the opening 17 laps. Meanwhile, Thomas was steadily moving his way forward. He resided in fifth for the first nine laps before rushing his way into the upper crust in rapid succession.
First, he slid under Jake Swanson in turn three for the fourth spot on lap 10. Then it was rinse and repeat one lap later as Thomas cruised under C.J. Leary for third on the 11th circuit. Maintaining his presence along the bottom, Thomas zipped past Carson Short for the runner-up spot off turn two on the 15th lap.
Moments later, Stevie Sussex (14th) and Aric Gentry (17th) tangled and stopped in turn two, closing up the gap on the full second lead that Ballou had possessed prior to the yellow flag. That put Thomas right on Ballou’s tail tank for the ensuing restart. There, he had his plan drawn up and his blinds undrawn. Now, the impetus was on Thomas to execute the plan.
“At the end of the day, I knew there were two options,” Thomas explained. “I either drive by him or I get up next to him and block that lane around the bottom. He’s very good at getting his car turned and squared up. I was a little worried, to be honest, because if I showed him (my nose) and then I didn’t clear him, that lane was going to be gone.”
Thomas didn’t squander the opportunity. After running side-by-side with Ballou for the majority of two full laps, Thomas’ move off the bottom of turn four stuck as he beat Ballou to the stripe by a half car length to take over the lead on the 18th go around.
Although he made his journey to the front via several passes on the low line, Thomas did have a flirtatious affair with the high line in turns one and two as Ballou protected the lower portion of the surface. But Thomas wound up using the curb as a catapult to propel him down the back straightaway in order to get his run going toward the bottom of turn three, where his winning move was made.
“I’d seen that the top was okay at the time but I don’t think it was enough to clear him and I was just kind of contemplating,” Thomas pondered. “Then, I think I did Robert things better than Robert and I just got lower somehow. Our car was really good. I know his car was really good and I just feel like it’s tough to lead like that and it’s tough to hit your marks when you’re trying to run as hard as what you can and then also come to a screeching halt to run the bottom. If you miss it by a foot, a foot is a long ways.”
With a clear track in front of him, Thomas immediately clicked off the fastest lap of the race on the 19th lap and grew his lead to more than 1.7 seconds at the dawn of the second half of the race over Ballou.
Shortly thereafter, Swanson (3rd) dropped out with an engine issue on lap 23 while Short got swallowed up by a group involving C.J. Leary, Kyle Cummins, and Eli Wilhelmus, dropping Short all the way back to seventh. Cummins charged up to third and then to second as he muscled by Leary for third on the 34th lap, then tracked down Ballou for second on lap 36.
But by then, KTJ’s lead was over two seconds which had him feeling confident and comfortable but not relaxed or content in any manner whatsoever. After all, it was Cummins.
“There at the end of the race, I was trying to pace myself,” Thomas recollected. “You get so sideways here that you can kind of look and see who’s behind you once you get off down in the corner. I saw once Kyle got to second and he was making up ground. But I also saw that there were two laps to go, and with the amount of ground that there was, I knew that I was probably safe-ish.”
There’s also the issue of being too good and catching lapped traffic at the right place at the wrong time Dr. John style, which can stifle your momentum, thus allowing the field to catch up to you while you’re navigating in a precarious position.
“I didn’t want to get to lapped traffic just because it was kind of a hornet’s nest,” Thomas explained. “Every time we would catch them, it would get pretty treacherous. People would crash and that’s just tight racing. But I didn’t want to eliminate myself in that situation.”
No worries whatsoever at the end for KTJ as he wrapped up his victory with a 1.884 second cushion over Cummins with Ballou third, Leary fourth and Chase Stockon rounding out the top five.
Hayden Reinbold was initially credited with fifth but was penalized to seventh due to driving through the infield under the tires to gain position late in the race.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Tri-State Speedway, Haubstadt, Indiana, Sept. 19, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 15, BBI-13.839; 2. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-13.873; 3. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.878; 4. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-13.891; 5. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.892; 6. Carson Short, 21m, Edwards-13.926; 7. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-13.933; 8. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.946; 9. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.965; 10. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-13.981; 11. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.017; 12. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-14.053; 13. Eli Wilhelmus, 55, Wilhelmus-14.079; 14. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-14.106; 15. Stevie Sussex, 3R, Rock Steady-14.154; 16. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.180; 17. Gabriel Gilbert, 10G, GGR-14.219; 18. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-14.267; 19. Adyn Schmidt, 12s, Schmidt-14.277; 20. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-14.400; 21. Donny Brackett, 4B, Brackett-14.421; 22. J.J. Hughes, 76J, Hughes-14.475; 23. Kendall Ruble, 17, Ruble-14.519; 24. Austin Cory, 49, Cory-14.615; 25. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-14.980; 26. Austin Hawkins, 5A, Hawkins-15.069; 27. Steven Pritchett, 2J, JAE-15.375; 28. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-16.168.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Hayden Reinbold (4), 2. Robert Ballou (5), 3. Gabriel Gilbert (2), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 5. Eli Wilhelmus (3), 6. Donny Brackett (1), 7. Brandon Mattox (7). 2:19.570
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cale Coons (3), 2. Chase Stockon (6), 3. Carson Short (5), 4. J.J. Hughes (1), 5. Briggs Danner (4), 6. Aric Gentry (2), 7. Austin Hawkins (7). 2:22.730
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (5), 2. Logan Seavey (4), 3. Adyn Schmidt (2), 4. Stevie Sussex III (3), 5. C.J. Leary (6), 6. Kendall Ruble (1), 7. Steven Pritchett (7). 2:19.651
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (6), 2. Mitchel Moles (5), 3. Harley Burns (4), 4. Justin Grant (3), 5. Jadon Rogers (7), 6. Troy Carey (2), 7. Austin Cory (1). NT
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Aric Gentry (1), 2. Kendall Ruble (4), 3. Troy Carey (2), 4. Donny Brackett (3), 5. Brandon Mattox (6), 6. Austin Hawkins (7), 7. Steven Pritchett (8), 8. Austin Cory (5). NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 2. Kyle Cummins (7), 3. Robert Ballou (2), 4. C.J. Leary (4), 5. Chase Stockon (5), 6. Eli Wilhelmus (14), 7. Hayden Reinbold (8), 8. Cale Coons (9), 9. Logan Seavey (12), 10. Justin Grant (16), 11. Carson Short (1), 12. Mitchel Moles (10), 13. Stevie Sussex (15), 14. Kendall Ruble (23), 15. Harley Burns (13), 16. Briggs Danner (11), 17. Adyn Schmidt (19), 18. Donny Brackett (21), 19. J.J. Hughes (22), 20. Jake Swanson (3), 21. Troy Carey (20), 22. Aric Gentry (18), 23. Gabriel Gilbert (17), 24. Jadon Rogers (24).
