SPEEDWAY, Ind. — One year after the ultimate racing heartbreak, Kyle Cummins came back to finish the job during the 19th edition of USAC Yokohama Tire Eastern Storm Presented by Levan Machine.
In 2025, Cummins lost the Eastern Storm championship based on a tiebreaker to Justin Grant, in a race and point battle that came down to the last ounce.
“That was a shot to the heart,” Cummins acknowledged. “I was fourth and we had a three-lap shootout. I tried to pass one of them on the top, but I couldn’t pass. Coming across the line knowing that he won the tiebreaker, that was not a good feeling.”
This time around, Cummins came into the sixth and final round of Eastern Storm at Action Track USA with a 20-point deficit behind Mitchel Moles with Brady Bacon second, 14 markers in front of Cummins. But after both Moles and Bacon were caught up in early race incidents, the door was ajar.
“I’ll tell you what, I didn’t think we really had a shot at it,” Cummins admitted. “We got one point on Saturday night in qualifying over Mitchel (Moles), and then a couple (points) over Brady (Bacon), which was big. We didn’t qualify great tonight, but we got enough to start up front, and then we won the heat race, which was huge, and that’s eight more points. That’s a big deal.”
Moles made a valiant effort back from the tail (22nd) to finish eighth on the final lap at Action Track USA, while Cummins made a late-race pass for second place on Jake Swanson that gave him an added cushion at the wheel of his Petty Performance Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – JUGO Superfoods/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.
Last year, Cummins needed to gain one more solitary spot for the Eastern Storm title. This time, he got that spot. In the end, Cummins was only one on-track position and two points ahead of Moles.
“I saw Mitchel was stopped and I saw Brady was stopped, and was like, ‘man, I still got to win, but we’ll just see what I can do,” Cummins recalled. “Winning by two points, that was the one position I got when I got past Jake (Swanson).”
For the first time, Cummins is officially an Eastern Storm champion. No ties and no doubt about it.
“This is worth two feature wins tonight,” Cummins exclaimed. “Last year, after tying and not winning because of the tiebreaker, that was a long trip home. Tonight, I’m going to take a shower and I’m just going to truck her on home. I’m pretty excited.”
Cummins entered Eastern Storm as the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship point leader. After winning the opening night of the week at Grandview Speedway, Cummins had a couple races in a row where he drifted slightly backwards in the feature: fifth to sixth at Bridgeport Motorsports Park and fifth to seventh at Big Diamond Speedway.
He went a bit forward from fifth to fourth at Williams Grove Speedway to remain in contention, but the results weren’t exactly up to the standards they’ve set over the past couple of seasons.
“We’ve been doing a bunch of random testing, just trying stuff,” Cummins revealed. “We were really good the first night and then we went downhill farther and farther off queue. I felt like I found what I had been searching for the last month. Tonight, the car was great all night. My guys put some fresh brakes on this thing, but I stalled it in qualifying. I thought that really kind of ruined us, but we’ve got really good brakes now.”
Besides the brakes, Cummins got the breaks he needed. His 2026 Eastern Storm championship paid him off with a $12,000 reward, part of a $24,000 point fund among the top five in the final standings. Moles finished as the runner-up ($6,000), with Justin Grant third ($3,000), Briggs Danner fourth ($2,000), and Brady Bacon fifth ($1,000).
