MACON, Ill. — Nearly a year and 34 races after his first USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory, Mitchel Moles returned to victory lane as the series made its debut Friday night at Macon Speedway.
Moles raced around Carson Garrett and into the lead on the first lap of a green-white-checkered finish and held off high-flying Kyle Cummins by a half-car length.
Right behind the front two was the hard-charging, rim-rider who flipped the length of the front straightway while making a bid for the win on the top side, crossing the line third as he was airborne following contact with the outside wall.
Moles ended the merry-go-round of six different multi-time series winners who had traded victories back-and-forth throughout the initial 17 events of the year.
Moles carved his way through the glut to put one on the board in his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – Mesilla Valley Transportation/Spike/Stanton Chevy.
Moles’ victory margin of .093 seconds was the closest in the series since Jake Swanson’s photo finish over Kevin Thomas Jr. on the opening night of the Oval Nationals at California’s Perris Auto Speedway in November of 2021.
Rolling off fourth for the 40-lap feature, Moles initially tucked in behind pole sitter/race leader Jake Swanson as well as Cummins and Garrett during the early stages.
Trouble on lap three involved Justin Grant, Emerson Axsom, Mitchell Davis and Brandon Mattox, all of whom stopped in turn two.
The mayhem continued on the first attempt at a lap-three restart when race leader Swanson spun following contact from Cummins, sending Swanson into a 180-degree whip around at the entry to turn one. Cummins assumed the race lead.
After another two-car spin involving Mitchell Davis and Brandon Mattox on the next try at a restart, more chaos ensued and involved sixth-running Brady Bacon who smacked his right-rear tire off the outside wall in turn two, sending him upside down. The trailing Chase Stockon got into the flipping Bacon while Mario Clouser rode over Stockon’s left-rear tire and got a bit of airtime before landing on all fours.
Things finally settled into a racy groove thereafter with Cummins constructing a full-straight lead by lap eight while Moles was ripping the high side to much delight, charging around the outside of Garrett for the second spot on lap nine. It didn’t take long for Moles to track down Cummins whose lead shrunk to a car length in lapped traffic.
Moles managed to briefly squeeze by for the lead on lap 16 on the back straightaway, but Cummins narrowly split the middle off turn four between Moles and the lapped car of Davis to reassume the lead.
With traffic high, low, here, there and everywhere on the tight confines, Moles capitalized to take over the lead when Cummins found himself mired behind 14th-running Robert Ballou on lap 21. Cummins fought back to reclaim the top spot by a car length at the line, but Moles stayed with it and rocketed around the high side of turn one to move back to the front.
The order among the top-three remained unchanged throughout the latter half of the contest until second-running Cummins drifted sideways at the top of turn two. Garrett pounced, driving under Cummins to take over the runner-up spot from Cummins yet remaining more than a half second behind Cummins with just four laps remaining.
However, time is merely a social construct, and Garrett ate up the ground in short order, surging on the bottom of turns three and four to race by Moles for the lead on lap 38. A mere moments later, sixth-place Logan Seavey slowed to a stop to bring out the caution.
The 38th lap counted and was officially in the books, putting Garrett in the captain’s chair headed for the restart with two laps to go and his first USAC victory on the line.
When Jake Croxton’s green flag waved for the lap 39 restart, Garrett stuck to the bottom while Moles and Cummins went topside into turn one. Going three-wide through turns three and four with Cummins slotting into the middle, Moles edged ahead of Garrett by a whisker at the stripe to lead lap 39.
Navigating the back straightaway for one final time, Moles opted to swap lines from the top to the bottom entering turn three, swinging down across the nose of Garrett. As the front two putted around the bottom, Cummins took an absolute flier through turns three and four up against the wall and appeared to have the momentum to make it a three-wide photo finish.
As Moles took the checkered flag by a half car length over Garrett, Cummins flipped end-over-end against the outside wall down the front straightaway, all while still scoring a third-place result.
Meanwhile, Max Adams grabbed his best career USAC finish of fourth while Kevin Thomas Jr. returned from a heat race flip to round out the top five.
“I felt like I handled the situation pretty well,” Moles stated. “I was taking it really easy because I didn’t want to knock the right rear wheel off this thing like I almost did a few times. (Garrett) just snuck up on me. I saw how one and two was really bad on the bottom, but three and four was so good, he’d just make up all that ground right there.”
Through the trials and tribulations of an absence from victory lane for the duration of the first half of the year, Moles and the Reinbold-Underwood team put it all together on this night from start to finish.
“I just feel like everybody’s stuff is getting so much better,” Moles acknowledges. “We’ve been working so hard. I’ve been destroying stuff and (the crew) has been busting their asses. (Car owner) Andy (Reinbold) hasn’t given up on me, neither has (Andy’s wife) Tammy.”
Garrett came within a few feet of scoring his first USAC win. Still, the runner-up result was his best career USAC finish, surpassing his sixth place run at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway in May of this year in his BGE Dougherty Motorsports/Altoz – Hornbeck Concrete – Leary Shock Technology/DRC/1-Way Chevy.
“Honestly, I don’t have very many laps up front,” admitted Garrett, who led his first lap in USAC competition on this night at Macon. “I feel like we nailed the setup tonight. I was just trying to stick the line that I had run the majority of the race. I tried kind of everywhere. (Turns) three and four were really good, and I figured on that restart if (Moles or Cummins) got in front, whoever was there was just going to have to protect.”
The Boxscore
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Macon Speedway, Macon, Ill., July 7, 2023
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-10.230 (Track Record); 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-10.323; 3. Zach Daum, 5d, Daum-10.335; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 42, Cheney-10.423; 5. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-10.455; 6. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-10.480; 7. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-10.493; 8. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-10.496; 9. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-10.509; 10. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-10.647; 11. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall-10.706; 12. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-10.709; 13. Shane Cottle, 77K, Leer-10.721; 14. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-10.737; 15. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-10.779; 16. Mitchell Davis, 56, Davis-10.852; 17. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-10.857; 18. Mitch Wissmiller, 29, RNB-10.969; 19. Max Adams, 17GP, Dutcher-11.051; 20. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-11.089; 21. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-11.178; 22. Logan Faucon, 52F, Faucon-11.229; 23. Steve Thomas, 20, Thomas-11.235; 24. Daylan Chambers, 8D, KCBJ-11.295; 25. James Lyerla, 11, JL-11.412; 26. Chase Howard, 13, Howard-11.466; 27. Eric Shelton, 70, Shelton-11.541; 28. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-11.713; 29. Patrick Budde, 90, Budde-11.786; 30. Cory Bruns, 8, Smith/Robertson-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Mario Clouser, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Brandon Mattox, 6. Shane Cottle, 7. James Lyerla, 8. Patrick Budde.
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Chase Howard, 6. Logan Faucon, 7. Mitch Wissmiller.
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Max Adams, 2. Emerson Axsom, 3. Carson Garrett, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Zach Daum, 6. Steve Thomas, 7. Eric Shelton.
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Matt Westfall, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Mitchell Davis, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Troy Carey, 7. Daylan Chambers.
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brandon Mattox, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Logan Faucon, 4. James Lyerla, 5. Chase Howard, 6. Troy Carey, 7. Patrick Budde, 8. Steve Thomas, 9. Eric Shelton, 10. Zach Daum, 11. Daylan Chambers, 12. Shane Cottle.
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (4), 2. Carson Garrett (2), 3. Kyle Cummins (3), 4. Max Adams (10), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11), 6. Matt Westfall (17), 7. Emerson Axsom (13), 8. Daison Pursley (12), 9. Chase Stockon (8), 10. C.J. Leary (7), 11. James Lyerla (20), 12. Mario Clouser (16), 13. Logan Faucon (19), 14. Logan Seavey (6), 15. Robert Ballou (14), 16. Mitchell Davis (15), 17. Brandon Mattox (18), 18. Jake Swanson (1), 19. Brady Bacon (5), 20. Justin Grant (9). NT