LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — Logan Seavey made history by winning Saturday night’s 17th running of the Fall Nationals at Lawrenceburg Speedway.
The $20,000 triumph was Seavey’s 14th of the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season, tying him with Tom Bigelow (1977) for the winningest season in series history.
The fifth-starting Seavey took over the top spot by lap two, then routed the field for the remaining 29 circuits at the three-eighths-mile dirt oval to cash in a $20,000 payday and his 14th win of the series season in his Abacus Racing/Mesilla Valley Transportation – Mountain Mechanical Contractors/DRC/Stanton Chevy.
Despite the record-setting season turned in by Seavey, Saturday night’s score was his first USAC National Sprint Car feature triumph in two-and-a-half months. His last one came during the USAC Indiana Sprint Week round at Circle City Raceway on July 31.
“Once (the record) became talked about, it’s kind of been in the back of my head, but I’ve tried not to think about it,” Seavey acknowledged. “I just really like to win these races and I try to do my best to win them. It sure makes it a lot sweeter with that $20 grand here.”
Seavey reeled off his first 13 series wins of 2024 in a 30-race span between February and July. Since that point, he’s still been a front-runner, just not all the way up front. In that 11-race winless span, Seavey still managed seven top-five finishes, 10 top-ten results and an average finish of sixth. Here and there, it may have been just one move or one moment that proved to be the deciding factor one way or another.
“We got to 13 (wins) really fast, then it’s been like 10 or 12 races since we’ve won, and it feels like it’s been a lifetime,” Seavey admitted. “But that’s just sprint car racing. These USAC guys are tough and my guys have been doing a great job. I feel like I’ve put myself in position at times and run a few bad races as well. Sometime you get on a run like that where everything’s just going magnificent and everything’s falling into our laps. Then we have 10 races where our cars are still fast, but if I don’t make the right moves or whatever it may be, it just shows how hard these races are to win. That’s not due to a lack of effort from these guys.”
On the initial green flag start, Daison Pursley and C.J. Leary clipped wheels on the back straightaway, sending Leary flipping nose-to-tail several times. Meanwhile, while attempting to avoid the flipping Leary, Saban Bibent grinded to a halt alongside the outside wall and flipped.
With the field re-racked for a second attempt to restart the race, as the field rounded turn two, Kayla Roell spun to a stop to bring out the caution.
The third try to complete a lap proved to not be a charm as Friday night’s Greg Staab Memorial winner Briggs Danner biked, hopped, then barrel rolled into the outside wall as he led the field into turn one.
The fourth try did indeed prove to be the charm, but more so for Seavey than anyone else. He hustled his way past Kyle Cummins for second on the opening lap as he cut down from the top of the banking to drive underneath the 2022 Fall Nationals victor. By lap two, Seavey had tracked down race leader Mitchel Moles, and by the time the two hit turn three on the second lap, Seavey dove under Moles and slid up to the cushion to clear the competition once and for all.
Seavey had already begun to weave his way through lapped traffic by lap eight as he constructed a lead of nearly two seconds over Moles and the rest of the field. Fast-qualifier Daison Pursley advanced to third on lap 14 after repeatedly trying every which way to make his move for the spot on Cummins stick.
Meanwhile, Seavey was having absolutely no trouble up front as he continued to build upon his advantage gradually while Moles had his full attention tuned to fending off Pursley for the runner-up spot for the last several laps. That was all to the advantage of Seavey who was married to the high side and in control of his own destiny.
“I guess you could say I live and die by the top,” Seavey remarked. “It killed me last night but it sure paid off tonight. It was so rough getting into one all weekend. I got in above it for five to 10 laps and made a bunch of speed. It got really ledgy once I got to traffic, and I wasn’t trusting it as much. For the last 10 or so laps, I felt really slow. But I knew that if I could keep putting lapped cars away, every lap or two, we’d be in good shape.”
As a matter of fact, Seavey was in tip-top shape as he put the race on ice, passing under the checkered flag 1.616 seconds ahead of the field for a quite lucrative night. Mitchel Moles finished a distant second with Daison Pursley third, Kyle Cummins fourth and Chase Stockon rounding out the top five.
Furthermore, with his sixth-place result, Brady Bacon earned a $10,000 bonus as he became the first two-time champion in the three-year history of the 10-race Bubby Jones Master of Going Faster series presented by Spire Sports + Entertainment.
After suffering heartbreak on the final lap of Friday’s feature at Lawrenceburg when a stuck throttle and a late caution thwarted his victory, Mitchel Moles bounced back with a runner-up finish on Saturday night in his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – Mesilla Valley Transportation/Spike/Stanton Chevy.
Starting off with his second Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying time in as many nights followed by a heat race victory, Daison Pursley came up just a couple spots short of a complete sweep of the event in his Team AZ-Curb-Agajanian Racing/Curb Records – Apache Transport – OakCraft Elegant Cabinetry/DRC/1-Way Chevy. But in the end, he turned in his best Fall Nationals performance to date with a third.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Lawrenceburg Speedway, Lawrenceburg, Ind., Oct. 12, 2024
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Daison Pursley, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-14.213; 2. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.357; 3. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-14.452; 4. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.469; 5. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.537; 6. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.582; 7. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-14.591; 8. Rylan Gray, 06, Gray-14.663; 9. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.715; 10. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.781; 11. Shawn Westerfeld, 44J, Fischesser/Owen-14.791; 12. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-14.815; 13. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-14.959; 14. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-14.962; 15. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-15.029; 16. J.J. Hughes, 76, Hughes-15.033; 17. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-15.082; 18. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-15.104; 19. Kayla Roell, 5K, KO-15.195; 20. Scotty Weir, 2x, 2B Racing-15.229; 21. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-15.232; 22. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-15.236; 23. Stevie Sussex, 77s, Sturgeon-15.267; 24. Todd Hobson, 44, Soudrette-15.325; 25. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-15.354; 26. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.392; 27. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-15.473; 28. Nick Bilbee, 17, Bilbee-15.505; 29. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-15.544; 30. Braxton Cummings, 71B, Cummings-15.579; 31. Chance Crum, 26, Crum-15.838; 32. Kyle Shipley, 4u, AJR-15.842; 33. Dakota Earls, 15E, Earls-16.359; 34. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-16.401; 35. Brian Heitkamp, 22, Heitkamp-17.087.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Briggs Danner, 5. Jake Swanson, 6. Jadon Rogers, 7. Hayden Reinbold, 8. Braxton Cummings, 9. Hunter Maddox. 2:01.433
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Stevie Sussex, 5. Carson Garrett, 6. Chance Crum, 7. Kayla Roell, 8. Ryan Barr, 9. Brian Heitkamp. 2:05.501
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Scotty Weir, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Shawn Westerfeld, 4. Saban Bibent, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Nick Bilbee, 7. Kyle Shipley, 8. Todd Hobson. NT
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. J.J. Hughes, 3. Mitchel Moles, 4. Matt Westfall, 5. Rylan Gray, 6. Joey Amantea, 7. Brandon Mattox, 8. Dakota Earls. 2:09.859
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jadon Rogers, 2. Hayden Reinbold, 3. Nick Bilbee, 4. Kayla Roell, 5. Kyle Shipley, 6. Ryan Barr, 7. Joey Amantea, 8. Chance Crum, 9. Brandon Mattox, 10. Dakota Earls, 11. Braxton Cummings, 12. Hunter Maddox, 13. Brian Heitkamp. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (5), 2. Mitchel Moles (3), 3. Daison Pursley (6), 4. Kyle Cummins (1), 5. Chase Stockon (4), 6. Brady Bacon (9), 7. Justin Grant (11), 8. Robert Ballou (12), 9. Rylan Gray (10), 10. Jadon Rogers (21), 11. Scotty Weir (8), 12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (14), 13. Jake Swanson (18), 14. J.J. Hughes (17), 15. Matt Westfall (20), 16. Kayla Roell (19), 17. Carson Garrett (15), 18. Stevie Sussex (22), 19. Shawn Westerfeld (13), 20. Hayden Reinbold (23), 21. Hunter Maddox (25-P), 22. Nick Bilbee (24), 23. Briggs Danner (2), 24. C.J. Leary (7), 25. Saban Bibent (16).