AMARILLO, Texas — At the beginning of the year, Gavin Miller may not have expected a win to arrive so quickly in his USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car career, by his own personal accord.
That said, as the year wore on and Miller got more seat time, all the signs were as clear as neon yellow that the Allentown, Pennsylvania native was at the forefront of the list of potential first-time series winners during the 2026 season.
During Saturday night’s Bomb City 40 at Amarillo, Texas’ Route 66 Motor Speedway, Miller left no doubt on his way to his first career USAC National Sprint Car feature victory by leading all 40 laps and trouncing the field to the tune of a 6.953 second advantage at the checkered flag.
In just his 15th career series start, the 19-year-old sprint car newcomer cashed in to earn a $10,000 payday aboard his Team AZ-Curb-Agajanian Racing/Curb Records – Kodiak Products – OakCraft/DRC/1-Way Chevy.
Throughout those 15 starts, Miller has accrued an average finish of 7.3 with no finish worse than 12th and has been one of the most consistent drivers in the series, albeit on a limited basis. In fact, his points per race average ranks fifth in the series this year. Mightily impressive for a sprint car “beginner.”
“I did not,” Miller replied when asked if he expected a victory to arrive this early in his USAC National Sprint Car career. “Going into this year, I didn’t really have anything lined up sprint car wise. We’ve been super close a couple of times, and it’s because of the guys on this team. I’m just grateful that they took a chance on me. I’m just so thankful to be in this position. I feel like I’m about to be in tears here.”
The closest of Miller’s calls came during July’s USAC Indiana Sprint Week round at Bloomington Speedway where he was leading until the final lap when he ran out of fuel. Miller also finished third during Indiana Sprint Week at Kokomo Speedway and led 15 laps of a Kokomo Sprint Car Smackdown prelim.
To many observers, Miller was earmarked as one of the potential new first-time USAC National Sprint Car winners to possibly emerge this season, and to successfully follow up on his success in the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget realm (5 career wins).
Saturday’s event marked USAC’s second visit to the three-eighths-mile dirt oval in the Texas panhandle. For Miller, it was the very first time he had ever laid eyes on the place, and he even had a scenic view from the front row to start things off.
Just moments after the green flag dropped for the 40-lap feature, trouble ensued. A tangle between Justin Grant (11th) and Hayden Reinbold (12th) sent Grant spinning to a stop and half the field scrambling to avoid contact. Two others were caught up in the incident, including first-time USAC starter Caden McCreary (17th) and Cooper Sullivan (19th) who both stopped. Reinbold continued on without stopping, and all others were able to restart at the tail.
From the word “go,” Miller was in total control after beating outside front row starter Cale Coons to the stripe by a half car length to lead lap one. By lap 10, Miller was already gliding his way through traffic with a 2.6-second lead.
By the time Sullivan (18th) crawled to a stop in turn two on lap 14, Miller’s lead was already 3.5 seconds. Forced to reset with a bunched up field behind him, it didn’t take long for Miller to reestablish his interval, and then some, until Kale Drake (15th) slowed to a halt on the back straightaway just in front of Miller on the 23rd lap. Drake was making his season debut with the series for the newly-formed RMS Racing sprint car team.
To that point, Miller’s lead was a hefty 3.9 seconds. But once more, following the ensuing lap 24 restart, Miller was gone again with a car that was lights out from start to finish.
“The setup was on kill,” Miller praised. “I feel like the car was a little snug to begin with, but once the track went away, it went to our advantage there.”
Down the stretch, all Miller had to contend with was a few bits of traffic as his lead ballooned to nearly half a lap. Despite this, it was nearly all thrown out the door with just four laps remaining.
“I biked up off two, and then going into three and four, I hopped the cushion,” Miller explained. “I was a little nervous because I didn’t know really who was around me at that point. Luckily, I had a big enough gap to where I could rebound and kind of collect my marbles there.”
After Miller gathered up his No. 21AZ, he avoided contact with the wall, stood on the throttle, and carried on by actually extending his lead to nearly seven seconds by race’s end. Miller took the checkered flag by becoming the third first-time winner of the 2026 USAC National Sprint Car season, joining Trey Osborne and Cale Coons.
Coons finished second to Miller while Grant made a valiant comeback to slot into third place. Defending Amarillo USAC winner Jake Swanson took fourth while Mitchel Moles rounded out the top five.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Route 66 Motor Speedway, Amarillo, Texas, Oct. 17, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 15, BBI-14.030; 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.041; 3. Stevie Sussex, 3R, Rock Steady-14.090; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.114; 5. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-14.155; 6. Gavin Miller, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-14.162; 7. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.185; 8. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.199; 9. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.225; 10. Kale Drake, 4K, RMS-14.396; 11. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-14.447; 12. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-14.454; 13. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.457; 14. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-14.462; 15. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.470; 16. R.J. Miller, 34, Miller-14.509; 17. Caden McCreary, 48, Moore-15.000; 18. Colt Treharn, 48T, Seals-15.040; 19. Cooper Sullivan, 79F, Fry-15.237; 20. Jacob Ewing, 48x, Moore-16.466.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (2), 2. R.J. Miller (1), 3. Logan Seavey (4), 4. Kale Drake (3), 5. Kyle Cummins (5), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 7. Cooper Sullivan (7). 1:59.075
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (2), 2. Justin Grant (4), 3. Mitchel Moles (6), 4. Cale Coons (5), 5. C.J. Leary (3), 6. Caden McCreary (1), 7. Jacob Ewing (7). 1:56.646
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chase Stockon (2), 2. Gavin Miller (5), 3. Colt Treharn (1), 4. Stevie Sussex (6), 5. Hayden Reinbold (4), 6. Kobe Simpson (3). NT
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gavin Miller (1), 2. Cale Coons (2), 3. Justin Grant (11), 4. Jake Swanson (8), 5. Mitchel Moles (5), 6. Kyle Cummins (3), 7. Stevie Sussex (4), 8. Briggs Danner (7), 9. Logan Seavey (10), 10. Chase Stockon (9), 11. C.J. Leary (14), 12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 13. Kale Drake (13), 14. Hayden Reinbold (12), 15. R.J. Miller (16), 16. Kobe Simpson (15), 17. Caden McCreary (17), 18. Colt Treharn (18), 19. Cooper Sullivan (19), 20. Jacob Ewing (20).
