HAUBSTADT, Ind. — Mitchel Moles finally traded in his silver for gold during Saturday night’s 13th running of the Spring Showdown at Tri-State Speedway.
After several close calls in recent years – and in recent weeks – in USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship competition, the Raisin City, California native hustled past Jadon Rogers with eight laps remaining to corral his first victory of the series season.
Moles’ latest triumph came after finishing as the runner-up in three of his past four USAC National Sprint Car feature starts this season, finally parking his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME – Mesilla Valley Transportation/Spike/Stanton Chevy in victory lane.
A frequent frontrunner at the quarter-mile dirt oval, Moles had finished on the podium in each of his past two Spring Showdown starts in 2024 and 2025, and was second in the USAC Indiana Sprint Week round at the track in 2024.
“Man, I feel like I’ve been so close,” Moles exhaled. “It was around this time last year that Justin (Grant) and I were going at it, but I gave it up with a couple laps to go. But tonight, Jadon and I got to firing some slide jobs over there and neither of us wanted to give it up. We both haven’t won a ton of USAC races. He gave it his all and I was giving it my all, and I think that’s what makes it great for the fans.”
Moles’ victory came on the same night one of his finest streaks came to a close. Moles had been the fastest qualifier for four consecutive USAC National Sprint Car events at Tri-State dating back to 2024. On this night, he was beaten to the punch by Kyle Cummins to the tune of a mere .017 seconds.
Turns out, it was just fine for Moles as he notched his sixth career USAC National Sprint Car victory.
Starting fifth on the grid for the 30-lap feature, Moles quickly rose to the second position on the first lap of the feature, instigating a nearly race long pursuit of frontrunner Rogers.
Rogers, still on the med from a broken left fibula suffered about six weeks ago, looked exemplary at the same place he picked up his one and only USAC National Sprint Car win to date back in 2022. Rogers sliced through the thick of the traffic as he kept Moles at bay for the time being. But Moles never strayed too far behind from there on out.
In a spectacular sequence on the 18th lap, Rogers and Moles threw hands and exchanged the lead four times in a single trip. Moles was able to dive under Rogers for the position in both turns one and three. However, at the exit of turns two and four, Rogers managed to fend off Moles’ attack and drive back underneath to resecure the lead by a .038 second margin at the stripe, about the diameter of a front wheel.
The caution fell on lap 18 when Robert Ballou (7th) and Aric Gentry (21st) stopped sideways in turns one and two. On the ensuing restart, Moles had his hands full with Kevin Thomas Jr. for the next three laps, but Moles was able to shake loose and gain some ground on Rogers once again.
Ninth running Eli Wilhelmus’s dramatically slowing car necessitated a yellow flag on lap 23, bringing Moles right to within a whisper of Rogers’ rear bumper. On the first lap of the resumption, Moles’ toured the middle of turns three and four, and glided up in front of Rogers at the exit of turn four to gain the lead for the first time.
“I think we just rolled it in a little more,” Moles explained. “It took a little longer for that one to get picked up, and we rolled it in even more. So, I think that hurt (Jadon’s) run. I’ve been beaten like that before here, so I knew what (Kevin Thomas Jr.) was doing and I knew if I could kind of mimic that. I don’t know where their racecar was at, but when you’re good at Haubstadt, everybody’s stuff seems to go.”
Rogers kept his foot in it, and by the time the two reached turn four on lap 24, Rogers returned the favor and slid across the nose of Moles to retake the spot.
Yet, a split second after Rogers found himself at the front once again, the caution was displayed for a two-car tangle between Eli Wilhelmus and Cale Coons, who were involved in a tussle for 15th place at the time. As a result, Rogers was moved back behind Moles for the next restart.
On the lap-24 restart, Moles distanced himself from the pack. Meanwhile, a battle was raging for third between Thomas and Kyle Cummins. But it was then and there that a catastrophe nearly came to fruition.
As Cummins went topside around Thomas off turn two and down the back straightaway, Thomas’ right front tire and Cummins’ left rear tire brushed each other, sending Cummins’ car careening full speed sideways through the infield before he somehow managed to straighten himself out and rejoin the field, albeit after losing two positions to drop to fifth.
Up front, Moles had a firm grip on the number one spot and took it straight to the checkered flag to win by 1.564 seconds over Rogers with Thomas taking third. Moles’ teammate, Hayden Reinbold, also demonstrated his best series finish of the year with a fourth. Cummins completed the top five.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Tri-State Speedway, Haubstadt, Indiana, May 2, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-13.418; 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.435; 3. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.450; 4. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.705; 5. Eli Wilhelmus, 55, Wilhelmus-13.722; 6. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-13.761; 7. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.867; 8. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-13.901; 9. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-13.986; 10. C.J. Leary, 53, Fox-13.996; 11. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-14.017; 12. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-14.028; 13. Chet Williams, 38, Williams-14.082; 14. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.093; 15. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-14.186; 16. Donny Brackett, 4B, Brackett-14.197; 17. Carson Short, 21m, Edwards-14.229; 18. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-14.254; 19. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.271; 20. Kendall Ruble, 17, Ruble-14.314; 21. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-14.402; 22. Sam Scott, 7s, Scott-14.602; 23. Adyn Schmidt, 12s, Schmidt-14.734; 24. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-14.828; 25. James Boyd, 16B, Boyd-14.838; 26. Brady Short, 61m, Edwards-14.850; 27. Austin Cory, 49, Cory-14.880; 28. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-14.942; 29. Reed Whitney, 87, Whitney-14.971; 30. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-15.252; 31. Collin Ambrose, 36, Ambrose-15.430; 32. Dakota Earls, 15E, Earls-15.487; 33. Austin Hawkins, 5A, Hawkins-15.507.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (6), 2. Carson Short (2), 3. Chet Williams (3), 4. Aric Gentry (1), 5. Briggs Danner (4), 6. Eli Wilhelmus (5), 7. James Boyd (7), 8. Reed Whitney (8), 9. Austin Hawkins (9). NT
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (6), 2. Robert Ballou (3), 3. C.J. Leary (4), 4. Jadon Rogers (5), 5. Jake Swanson (2), 6. Sam Scott (1), 7. Troy Carey (8), 8. Brady Short (7). 2:15.918
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Hayden Reinbold (6), 2. Chase Stockon (2), 3. Harley Burns (3), 4. Logan Seavey (5), 5. Adyn Schmidt (1), 6. Logan Calderwood (4), 7. Austin Cory (7), 8. Collin Ambrose (8). 2:19.333
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 2. Kendall Ruble (2), 3. Cale Coons (1), 4. Justin Grant (6), 5. Trey Osborne (4), 6. Donny Brackett (3), 7. Kobe Simpson (7), 8. Dakota Earls (8). 2:25.328
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Eli Wilhelmus (1), 2. Donny Brackett (3), 3. Logan Calderwood (2), 4. Sam Scott (4), 5. Troy Carey (8), 6. Brady Short (9), 7. James Boyd (5), 8. Kobe Simpson (7), 9. Collin Ambrose (11), 10. Austin Hawkins (13), 11. Reed Whitney (10), 12. Dakota Earls (12), 13. Austin Cory (6). NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (5), 2. Jadon Rogers (2), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 4. Hayden Reinbold (4), 5. Kyle Cummins (6), 6. Justin Grant (3), 7. Donny Brackett (16), 8. C.J. Leary (10), 9. Logan Seavey (1), 10. Chet Williams (13), 11. Robert Ballou (14), 12. Briggs Danner (9), 13. Harley Burns (15), 14. Chase Stockon (19), 15. Cale Coons (24), 16. Kendall Ruble (20), 17. Adyn Schmidt (23), 18. Jake Swanson (18), 19. Aric Gentry (21), 20. Logan Calderwood (11), 21. Eli Wilhelmus (8), 22. Trey Osborne (12), 23. Sam Scott (22), 24. Carson Short (17).
