KOKOMO, Ind. — Kyle Cummins led the final 15 circuits of the 30-lap feature to capture the victory during Thursday night’s Chili’s Sprint Car Smackdown opener at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway.
Starting fifth on the grid, the Princeton, Indiana racer picked his way to second during the opening 15-lap stanza before slicing by racelong leader Gavin Miller off the exit of turn two on the 16th lap, then led the rest of the way to take his 10th checkered flag of the 2026 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season.
His 10th USAC triumph of the season matches his career high win total from his championship season in 2025. His latest win also made him just the 13th driver to reach 40 or more USAC National Sprint Car career victories and ties him with fellow series champs Gary Bettenhausen and Robert Ballou for 11th place on the all-time series win list.
Starting alongside Justin Grant in the third row, Cummins found it to be imperative to stay in front of the five-time and defending Chili’s Smackdown titlist. Grant initially had the upper hand for the first four laps. But on the fifth trip around the quarter-mile dirt oval, Cummins went topside to nip Grant for fourth in his Petty Performance Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – JUGO Superfoods/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy No. 3p.
“There was a move there at the beginning of the race,” Cummins recalled. “I was coming around the outside and I just snuck around Justin and someone else, and I was like, ‘that’s good.’ I had to get in front of Justin. It’s kind of whoever’s in front, and it’s hard to peel off. So, to get up front and get into the lead first is very important. We did that and here we are.”
Once Cummins got to fourth, that kicked off a succession of advancement that saw him take Gunnar Setser for third on lap six and Kevin Thomas Jr. for second on lap seven, both of which came on consecutive outside passes off the exit of turn two with Miller now lined up in his crosshairs one second ahead.
By the 11th go around, Grant had worked his way into third and was working on tracking down Miller and Cummins. But on lap 13, the field was bunched up following a red flag for fifth running Jake Swanson who got upside down in turn one as he attempted to pass Thomas for fourth in turn one. The two nearly collided, and Swanson took evasive action, resulting in him spinning backwards into turn one. With his right foot standing on the throttle and his front wheels hanging in the air, akin to a bucking bronco, Swanson’s car performed a sort of hydroplane-like blowover. Swanson restarted at the tail and finished 19th.
During the ensuing restart, it quickly became a three-wide battle for the lead with Cummins on the high side, Grant low, and Miller in the middle. Once Cummins saw Grant’s nose reemerge in the picture, he gritted his teeth a little more. It was now or never.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Cummins said. “I’d been behind him a little bit and I’d get such a run in one and two that it would almost plug me into the curb. I thought I was going to get myself in trouble there. I was like, ‘well, it’s a couple laps in.’ Then, I saw Justin (Grant), and I thought, ‘okay, that’s it. It’s time to race.’”
Cummins fired the first shot in turns three and four on lap 15 as he slid across the nose of Miller. However, Miller quickly answered and dipped back under to reassume the top spot at the stripe. But a half lap later Cummins launched off the turn two cushion and rocketed past the inside of Miller for the lead. Grant followed suit along the bottom to slot into second moments later in turns three and four.
From there on, Cummins experienced traffic galore as he negotiated his way through a bevy of lapped traffic with 10 to go, navigating his way through the middle between the likes of USAC national winners Trey Osborne, Jake Swanson, Logan Seavey, and Jacob Denney. Through it all, Grant tried to close up the gap to Cummins’ but couldn’t quite get through it quickly enough to chop off any of Cummins’ interval as Cummins escaped, while at the same time, trying to tame a somewhat tricky cushion when he needed to.
“In one and two, I could run pretty good but it kind of got you in a weird spot, but then once you got there, you could hammer it,” Cummins elaborated. “Getting into three and four got choppy as well and then there were the lapped cars, and I didn’t know where to go. Then, I started running through the middle a little bit and there was actually some decent grip. I didn’t feel like I was as good there by myself but at least I got around a couple lapped cars. It got pretty thick there for a while, and I feel like I was running the same speed. I couldn’t really go faster because you’re kind of at the mercy of the guy in front of you and how hard you can get into the cushion.”
The final stoppage of the night came on lap 26 when Mitchel Moles and Briggs Danner banged wheels in turn two during their battle for the seventh position. Moles ricocheted off Danner into the path of Brady Bacon who spun to a stop to bring out the caution, setting up a four-lap dash to the finish.
Cummins kept things copacetic as he shot away from Grant on the restart, while Kevin Thomas Jr. slid Miller for third in turn three. One lap later, Miller’s race got all out of sorts when he nearly stalled in turns one and two, dropping from fourth all the way back to 11th. Meanwhile, 14th starting Cale Coons took advantage of the situation to climb his way into third on the white-flag lap.
Cummins had it handled as he crossed the finish line 1.442 seconds ahead at the checkered flag over runner-up Justin Grant with Cale Coons scoring a career best USAC finish of third. Kevin Thomas Jr. grabbed fourth with Jadon Rogers rounding out the top five.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Kokomo Speedway, Kokomo, Ind. Aug. 27, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.648; 2. Eli Wilhelmus, 55, Wilhelmus-12.696; 3. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-12.714; 4. Gunnar Setser, G5, Setser-12.735; 5. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.757; 6. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-12.828; 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 15, BBI-12.837; 8. Gavin Miller, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-12.858; 9. Brady Bacon, 49, Davis-12.873; 10. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-12.918; 11. C.J. Leary, 53, Fox-12.952; 12. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.961; 13. Stevie Sussex, 3R, Rock Steady-12.988; 14. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-13.006; 15. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.025; 16. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-13.035; 17. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-13.087; 18. Jakeb Boxell, 54, Westfall-13.088; 19. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-13.143; 20. Thomas Meseraull, 2E, Epperson-13.161; 21. Rylan Gray, 1, Gray-13.177; 22. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-13.191; 23. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.207; 24. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.221; 25. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-13.231; 26. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-13.255; 27. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.329; 28. Beau Brandon, 21B, Brandon-13.337; 29. Anton Hernandez, 21, Hajduk-13.352; 30. Kyle Shipley, 57H, Hazen-13.360; 31. Jack Hoyer, 11, Hoyer-13.365; 32. Jacob Denney, 87, CBI/Spire-13.401; 33. Dalton Stevens, 2BX, 2B Racing-13.413; 34. Shane Cottle, 86, Stamper-13.529; 35. Colin Parker, 16K, Knight-13.534; 36. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-13.595; 37. Brayden Clark, 11c, Clark-13.610; 38. Gabriel Gilbert, 10G, GGR-13.631; 39. Landon Butler, 18, Butler-13.766; 40. Caleb Shietze, 2B, 2B Racing-13.799; 41. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-13.844; 42. Aaron Davis, 11A, Davis-13.862; 43. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-13.954; 44. Bryce Andrews, 17, MSR-13.977; 45. Devan Myers, 75, Myers-14.057; 46. Rob Caho Jr., 78, Caho-14.174; 47. Jack James, 99, James-14.209; 48. Jacob Dykstra, 79, Mahoney-14.394; 49. Steve Justis, 12J, Justis-14.478; 50. Jake Simmons, 7s, Simmons-14.964.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Zack Pretorius (1), 2. Jake Swanson (5), 3. C.J. Leary (4), 4. Justin Grant (6), 5. Rylan Gray (2), 6. Ricky Lewis (3), 7. Jack Hoyer (7), 8. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (9), 9. Kobe Simpson (8), 10. Rob Caho Jr. (10). 2:12.465
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jadon Rogers (2), 2. Cale Coons (4), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 4. Logan Seavey (1), 5. Chance Crum (3), 6. Jacob Denney (7), 7. Brayden Clark (8), 8. Aaron Davis (9), 9. Jack James (10), 10. Eli Wilhelmus (6). NT
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (6), 2. Gavin Miller (5), 3. Hayden Reinbold (2), 4. Stevie Sussex (4), 5. Jakeb Boxell (3), 6. Beau Brandon (1), 7. Gabriel Gilbert (8), 8. Dalton Stevens (7), 9. Troy Carey (9), 10. Jacob Dykstra (10). 2:15.168
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gunnar Setser (6), 2. Chase Stockon (4), 3. Harley Burns (1), 4. Brandon Mattox (2), 5. Steve Justis (9), 6. Brady Bacon (3), 7. Bryce Andrews (7), 8. Landon Butler (8), 9. Shane Cottle (5). NT
K1 RACEGEAR FIFTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Trey Osborne (2), 2. Robert Ballou (4), 3. Briggs Danner (5), 4. Thomas Meseraull (3), 5. Mitchel Moles (6), 6. Caleb Shietze (8), 7. Kyle Shipley (1), 8. Colin Parker (7), 9. Devan Myers (9), 10. Jake Simmons (10). NT
COOK OUT C MAIN: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the semi, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Dalton Stevens (1), 2. Colin Parker (2), 3. Kobe Simpson (5), 4. Devan Myers (6), 5. Eddie Tafoya Jr (3), 6. Aaron Davis (4), 7. Troy Carey (8), 8. Jacob Dykstra (7), 9. Jack James (10), 10. Jake Simmons (9). NT
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (1), 2. Brady Bacon (2), 3. Ricky Lewis (7), 4. Jacob Denney (9), 5. Rylan Gray (5), 6. Caleb Shietze (10), 7. Jack Hoyer (12), 8. Jakeb Boxell (4), 9. Chance Crum (3), 10. Kyle Shipley (11), 11. Gabriel Gilbert (14), 12. Kobe Simpson (18), 13. Dalton Stevens (16), 14. Colin Parker (17), 15. Devan Myers (19), 16. Brayden Clark (13), 17. Bryce Andrews (15), 18. Beau Brandon (8), 19. Steve Justis (6). NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (5), 2. Justin Grant (6), 3. Cale Coons (14), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (2), 5. Jadon Rogers (7), 6. Briggs Danner (12), 7. Mitchel Moles (10), 8. Thomas Meseraull (20), 9. Stevie Sussex (15), 10. Robert Ballou (17), 11. Gavin Miller (1), 12. Chase Stockon (16), 13. Hayden Reinbold (21), 14. Gunnar Setser (4), 15. C.J. Leary (13), 16. Ricky Lewis (18), 17. Harley Burns (19), 18. Jacob Denney (23), 19. Jake Swanson (3), 20. Zack Pretorius (9), 21. Logan Seavey (22), 22. Trey Osborne (8), 23. Brady Bacon (11), 24. Brandon Mattox (24). NT
