HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Any way you slice it, the odds were stacked against Hayden Reinbold during Saturday night’s third running of the Evans Building Salt City 100 at the Kansas State Fairgrounds.
In what was his first USAC Silver Crown appearance, Reinbold didn’t even make it to the green flag on the initial start after wall contact in turn four. Restarting 17th, he even went a lap down to the leader just 10 circuits into the 100-lapper.
Even after surging forward in the second half of the race, with 13 laps to go, Reinbold still ran fifth. With three laps to go, he occupied third behind the top-two drivers in series points a year ago. Furthermore, a half-straightaway deficit to the leader still stood in his path.
But at the end of it all, the 22-year-old Gilbert, Arizona native could proudly proclaim that he owned a perfect winning percentage of 100 in his USAC Silver Crown career.
One-for-one.
Reinbold made his winning move on lap 99 of 100 when racelong leader Justin Grant’s fuel tank ran dry just 1.5 laps from the finish line. Capitalizing on the situation, Reinbold scurried along the bottom of turns three and four on the half-mile dirt oval, leading the final two laps to earn one of the most stunning victories in series history, considering all the circumstances.
“This is so much fun,” Reinbold exclaimed. “I don’t know if anybody has ever come from a lap down and went on to go win it. I’m kind of gassed. My legs are cooked. I fell off the cage.”
Reinbold did, in fact, fall off the roll cage on his victory lane celebration, but it was no harm, no foul. Funny thing is it took 101 starts for Reinbold to score his first career USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature victory in 2025 at Eldora.
The Silver Crown car took just one try, and he now shares a unique stat with Jimmy Horton as the holder of an unblemished 100 percent Silver Crown winning percentage.
It had been nearly 42 years since a driver won in his first USAC Silver Crown start, but Reinbold decided to take it upon himself to become the latest to achieve the feat at the wheel of his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – RDI Development – JUGO/DRC/Stanton Chevy.
Marv Carman was the most recent driver to win in his first ever USAC Silver Crown start at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in 1984. In fact, only eight drivers have ever pulled off the feat: Jim McElreath (1971 Nazareth), A.J. Foyt (1971 Illinois State Fairgrounds), Danny Smith (1982 Eldora), Rick Hood (1982 Indiana State Fairgrounds), Jimmy Horton (1983 Nazareth), Herb Copeland (1983 Oklahoma City), Marv Carman (1984 Minnesota State Fairgrounds) and now Reinbold.
The way it all played out at Hutch could not have possibly been more dramatic. As the field was approaching the green flag on the initial start, Reinbold’s wheels got caught in the wet, causing the car to push straight into the outside turn four wall before coming to a stop and necessitating a yellow flag.
The contact was slight, but with a full fuel load and it being his first time in the car, it can be chalked it up to a inexperience and a learning moment.
“At the start, I just got tight and the track was greasy,” Reinbold explained. “I got caked in mud and I couldn’t get a tear-off off.”
Initially, it didn’t seem to get all that much better for Reinbold. While continuing to gain footing and gather laps, Reinbold lost a lap as pole starter Justin Grant blitzed by him just 10 laps into the race. However, with the aid of a lap 21 caution, Reinbold received his lap back per a rule that was instituted by the series a few years ago.
From there on, Reinbold got to work. He marched his way into the top-five by lap 64, using a part of the racetrack that had been relatively underutilized, much to his surprise.
“No one was going to the bottom of three and four, surprisingly,” Reinbold offered. “I felt like it was really juiced up down there, so I asked if I should go to the bottom (over the two-way radio). Since no one else was going down there, I went down there.”
Running the infield berm with his front wheels elevated on top of it at times, Reinbold still ran fifth with as little as 13 laps to go. He got to fourth on lap 88 when Chase Stockon fell out of contention due to a lack of fuel. He rose to third on lap 93 as he ducked under defending race winner Briggs Danner in turns three and four. Reinbold finally won a tug-of-war with C.J. Leary for second entering turn one with three laps to go.
But Reinbold still had to track down Grant who remained about a second ahead of him at the time with the laps dwindling. However, Grant noticeably didn’t have quite the drive off the corners as he did just moments earlier. Reinbold quickly ate up Grant’s interval on the back straight on lap 99, and completed the pass for the lead on the bottom of turns three and four just moments later.
On the final lap, Grant remained within a couple car lengths of Reinbold’s back bumper on the high side of turns one and two. That’s when Grant’s car appeared to practically shut off as the last fumes of fuel sloshed around. That allowed Reinbold to turn a narrow lead into an astonishing 3.042 second victory.
Grant crossed the line a disappointing second just inches in front of C.J. Leary in third. Kyle Steffens came home a strong fourth after starting 10th while Mario Clouser rounded out the top five, bouncing back after suffering a flat right rear tire on lap 39 and running out of fuel on lap 88.
USAC Silver Crown Championship, Kansas State Fairgrounds, Hutchinson, Kansas, May 9, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-20.789 (New Track Record); 2. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-21.031; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-21.060; 4. Mario Clouser, 20, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-21.218; 5. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-21.394; 6. Kale Drake, 92, Kazmark-21.542; 7. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-21.598; 8. Hayden Reinbold, 119, Reinbold/Underwood-21.684; 9. Jake Swanson, 6, Klatt-21.749; 10. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-22.274; 11. Bret Tripplett, 65, SV-22.525; 12. Kip Hughes, 160, Hughes-22.617; 13. Steve Gennetten, 64, GGR-22.694; 14. Danny Jennings, 61, Jennings-22.827; 15. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-23.405; 16. Bryan Gossel, 06, Gossel-NT; 17. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Hayden Reinbold (8), 2. Justin Grant (1), 3. C.J. Leary (2), 4. Kyle Steffens (10), 5. Mario Clouser (4), 6. Chase Stockon (7), 7. Briggs Danner (5), 8. Steve Gennetten (13), 9. Danny Jennings (14), 10. Kip Hughes (12), 11. Gregg Cory (15), 12. Jake Swanson (9), 13. Bret Tripplett (11), 14. Mitchel Moles (3), 15. Kale Drake (6), 16. Dave Berkheimer (17), 17. Bryan Gossel (16).
