MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — ”I never thought I’d say I won at Williams Grove.”
For Mitchel Moles, that fact became a reality on Friday night at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania’s Williams Grove Speedway.
A mere 24 hours after capturing his first career USAC Yokohama Tire Eastern Storm Presented by Levan Machine feature victory, the Raisin City, California native made it two-in-a-row at the helm of his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME – Mesilla Valley Transportation/Spike/Stanton Chevy.
At The Grove’s half-mile dirt oval, Moles took advantage of a lapped traffic logjam, passing Justin Grant for the lead with nine laps remaining to win the race, and also elevate himself to the top of the Eastern Storm standings with just two events remaining.
In his first four years of USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car competition, which encompassed 153 career feature starts between 2022-2025, Moles had accrued just five victories. In year five on the trail with Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports, it’s all paid off for the driver and team as the latest win was Moles’ sixth of the season, surpassing his career total within the first 23 races of the 2026 campaign.
“Well, I have to keep winning these races to pay (car owner) Andy (Reinbold) back for all the shit I’ve torn up over the years,” Moles quipped. “We’re still a long way away from covering that bill. So, I’ve just got to keep digging at that and keep clicking off these wins.”
Moles entered the feature in a tie with Brady Bacon for the Eastern Storm point lead, and wouldn’t you know it? The pair were slotted to start the night’s 30-lap feature side-by-side in row two. Starting fourth, Moles had one simple message for his car owner leading into it.
“I just told Andy, ‘Do whatever the hell you want to it, and I’ll make the rest work.’”
Grant established the initial lead from his pole starting position and instantly took control. But on the second lap, a near catastrophe occurred on the front straightaway when Brady Bacon and Jake Swanson touched wheels on the front straight. Swanson ramped over Bacon’s left rear tire at the flag stand, then landed on all four wheels and slid backwards all the way into turn one.
On the ensuing restart, Briggs Danner and Moles duked it out side-by-side for nearly three-straight laps until Danner drifted high off turn four on the fourth lap. Moles took advantage, and raced on by to the second position, but still had 1.5 seconds worth of ground to make up on Grant for the lead.
Aggressively working his way through lapped traffic at the halfway point, both Moles and Danner lassoed Grant as Moles now only trailed Grant by single car length. Grant maintained his position throughout, but with less than 10 laps to go, Grant encountered a high/low battle for position between Ed Aikin and Hayden Reinbold at the tail of the running order.
For Grant, the road became entirely blocked in turn two. While Grant sought a path forward, Moles used the bottom of the racetrack to roll by Grant, who finally got around the outside of Reinbold moments later. However, by that point, it was too late. Moles was the leader and he was pulling away.
“I think, if you’re in Justin’s shoes there, you’re going to try and run a higher entry like he was doing and make speed through the center,” Moles explained. “I just had enough time to pace him through traffic and ended up catching him between lapped cars and I was able to sneak by him. I knew that when I got to the lead, all I pretty much had to do was not mess up. It was pretty technical, and it piled up pretty good off two and piled up pretty good off four.”
For Moles, the timing was impeccable in making it happen and putting himself into the perfect position to capitalize when the moment arose.
“It was definitely hard to pass,” Moles admitted. “Then, I had to go to the bottom there for a lap. I passed a car in the heat race down there and then I saw the wing cars going through there. I assumed they just wore out the entry of it when no one could stick it. So, I just slowed down there and got it that one time.”
Moles sealed the deal from there on, cruising under flag man Warren Alston’s twin checkered flags to a 4.962-second triumph over runner-up Grant while Bacon finished third for an astonishing fourth consecutive Eastern Storm race.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Williams Grove Speedway, Mechanicsburg, Pa., June 27, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-20.061; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-20.216; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-20.229; 4. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-20.252; 5. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-20.358; 6. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-20.381; 7. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-20.439; 8. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-20.453; 9. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-20.457; 10. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-20.510; 11. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-20.564; 12. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-20.617; 13. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-20.701; 14. Steven Drevicki, 19s, Drevicki-20.751; 15. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-20.756; 16. Christian Bruno, 3BC, JMO-20.942; 17. Ed Aikin, 7, Aikin-20.992; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-21.020; 19. Ronald Helmick, 22R, Helmick-21.543; 20. Joey Crilly, 51, Kelly-22.145; 21. Brett Rose, 45R, Rose-22.208; 22. Olivia Thayer, 39T, Thayer-22.213; 23. Dirk Rimrott, 1x, Rimrott-23.145.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ricky Lewis (2), 2. Logan Seavey (3), 3. C.J. Leary (4), 4. Brady Bacon (5), 5. Christian Bruno (1), 6. Jake Swanson (6), 7. Ronald Helmick (7), 8. Olivia Thayer (8). 2:47.717
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ed Aikin (1), 2. Robert Ballou (3), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr (4), 4. Briggs Danner (5), 5. Kyle Cummins (6), 6. Steven Drevicki (2), 7. Joey Crilly (7), 8. Dirk Rimrott (8). NT
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Charles Davis Jr. (2), 2. Cale Coons (3), 3. Chase Stockon (4), 4. Mitchel Moles (6), 5. Hayden Reinbold (1), 6. Justin Grant (5), 7. Brett Rose (7). 2:50.260
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (4), 2. Justin Grant (1), 3. Brady Bacon (3), 4. Kyle Cummins (5), 5. Briggs Danner (2), 6. Robert Ballou (14), 7. C.J. Leary (10), 8. Ricky Lewis (7), 9. Charles Davis Jr. (8), 10. Chase Stockon (12), 11. Christian Bruno (17), 12. Cale Coons (15), 13. Logan Seavey (13), 14. Jake Swanson (6), 15. Steven Drevicki (16), 16. Ed Aikin (9), 17. Hayden Reinbold (18), 18. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11), 19. Ronald Helmick (19), 20. Brett Rose (21), 21. Joey Crilly (20), 22. Olivia Thayer (22), 23. Dirk Rimrott (23).
