HAUBSTADT, Ind. — After capturing the USAC Indiana Midget Week championship a year ago, by all accounts, this hasn’t exactly been the week that Logan Seavey and Abacus Racing had envisioned.
Nonetheless, they were determined to make a lasting mark before the curtain fell on the five-race USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship miniseries across the Hoosier State.
After successive finishes of 17th (DNF), 11th and 4th in their first three IMW outings this week, Seavey wheeled his Indy Fuel – AP Driver Development – Prime 47 – Drexel Interiors/Spike/Stanton SR-11x to a memorable victory on Saturday night at Haubstadt, Indiana’s Tri-State Speedway, outdueling Kyle Cummins for his first win of the week.
For the two-time USAC Indiana Midget Week champion from Sutter, Calif., it was his 18th career USAC National Midget feature win, tying him for 40th on the all-time list alongside Dave Steele. However, it’s the first of his career at Tri-State, where he owns an average finish of eighth and hasn’t finished better than fifth in any of his five previous series starts.
It’s a place he and many others have struggled to master over the years. But now, you can forever introduce Seavey as a Tri-State Speedway winner, a feat that even he has a hard time believing.
“It’s so cool to be fast here, finally,” Seavey exclaimed. “I have sucked so badly here in the past. I can’t say enough about what (my crew does). It’s just insane that I won at Haubstadt; that’s really all I can say. I’m usually getting lapped here, so I’m usually trying to stay out of the way. To get up here and race with these guys is cool, and to put on a show like that is really cool. Winning at Haubstadt is awesome.”
Seavey began his 30-lap quest from the fourth spot in the 25-car field. Meanwhile, outside front row starting Jake Andreotti set sail at the start, leading the initial seven laps from his outside front row starting position. Third-starting Cummins made a couple early bids for the race lead on laps six and seven that were ultimately rejected when Andreotti raced back under to retake the lead for the time being.
On the eighth lap, the course turned when Andreotti slid over the cushion and slapped the turn four wall, allowing both Cummins and Seavey to drive past and become the new occupants of the first two positions in the running order, respectively.
IMW point leader Daison Pursley entered the fray and instantly became a player up front in the second half of the race, sliding his way past Seavey into second for a brief moment in turns two and four on lap 18. Nonetheless, Seavey was prepared for it, and instantly countered the move by punching back and driving back to retain second.
In the meantime, Cummins stretched his lead to eighth tenths of a second over Seavey with a mere eight laps remaining, but traffic was suddenly looming for the frontrunners by that point in time. That equation was soon expunged on the 23rd lap when 21st running Kyle Jones spun backwards to a stop in turn four. That reshuffled the deck and allowed for a clear track ahead for the leaders when the race resumed.
That is precisely when the ultimate slider fest of all slider fests commenced between Cummins and Seavey. Seavey fired his shot on the lap 23 restart when he dove to the bottom of turn one and slid up in front of Cummins to gain the lead. But Cummins had his response signed and sealed before delivering it by sliding his way back past Seavey in turns three and four to regain the upper hand.
It was a carbon copy situation for the pair on the 24th circuit, but on lap 25, Cummins threw a slight changeup by sliding himself on entry into turn one. This time around, Seavey went to work on the opposite end of the quarter-mile dirt oval and successfully executed the slide job in turns three and four to take over the spot before beating Cummins to the stripe by 3/4 of a car length margin.
Seemingly, Seavey went to school by following in the wake of Cummins who has won an enormous amount of sprint car races over the years at Tri-State, including six in USAC-sanctioned events at the track. Ultimately, the lessons Seavey learned were more than an adequate teacher.
“Following a guy like him makes it easier to figure out what I need to do because he’s obviously the best here,” Seavey stated. “I just needed a good restart, and once it got going, it was like we were exactly the same pace. He’d get away a few car lengths, then I’d stick with him. I was really hoping for some traffic to make it interesting, but it was like every time we got there, a yellow would come out. I just got one great restart and that was all I needed to get racing with him and slow him down.”
In the process, Seavey discovered the difference between two plans of attack – the one that got him to the front in the first place and the one in which he was going to use to maintain and sustain his lead once he reached that juncture.
“It’s just how it is here,” Seavey acknowledged. “You can actually make a bunch of grip and a bunch of speed by running down but then once you get clear, you have to get up and make speed. I was actually defending from Daison with the slider line, and I was slowly creeping up on Kyle. That was when I kind of figured that once I got to the lead, if I could really be consistent at doing that, it would be good and that Kyle, of course, would figure out something to beat it and get back in front of me. That’s what the good guys do here, so I had to stay lower with my protection line.”
Moments after the lead exchange, Jade Avedisian (17th) stopped in turns three and four to necessitate the final caution of the evening, setting up a four-lap dash to the finish. Seavey withstood one last attack from Cummins on the first go around following the lap 27 restart, yet Cummins was only able to muster enough to pull even with Seavey in turn four, but soon slotted back into line behind Seavey who gradually drifted away into the distance.
From there onward, Seavey sped away to clinch a 0.601 second victory, his second of the USAC National Midget season, over Kyle Cummins, followed by Daison Pursley and Justin Grant with Zach Wigal rounding out the top-five.
Kyle Cummins led a race high 18 laps before finishing as the runner-up in his Glenn Styres Racing/Ohsweken Speedway – Elite – Midwest Lawn & Landscaping/Spike/Stanton SR-11x. All in all, it was his best USAC National Midget result since scoring his one and only career series victory at Tri-State in June of 2021.
When finishing third is a bit of a personal disappointment, you’ve got to take solace in the fact that that’s not a bad place to be in the grand scheme of things. Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) did just that after finishing on the podium for the fourth consecutive time in four nights aboard his CB Industries/PristineAuction.com – NOS Energy Drink – TRD/Spike/Speedway Toyota, extending his USAC Indiana Midget Week point lead to 64 over Ryan Timms.
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi-Feature winner Adam Taylor advanced to his first USAC National Midget main event in two seasons. Not only that, but he also won it with a unique Fusion V-4 powerplant that emanated a mighty growling roar from under the hood, much different than the standard higher-pitched noise that we have been accustomed to. After all was said and done, he was the recipient of the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
Cannon McIntosh (Bixby, Okla.) was forced into a backup car after his primary ride broke a rocker arm in his heat race. Starting 23rd in the feature, he raced his way back through the field to an 11th place result. The +12 netted him his second straight $100 hard charger bonus in as many nights courtesy of Irvin King.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Tri-State Speedway, Haubstadt, Ind., June 8, 2024
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-13.551; 2. Zach Wigal, 89, CBI-13.597; 3. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.653; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3G, Styres-13.741; 5. Jake Andreotti, 14, 4 Kings-13.800; 6. Ricky Lewis, 54, 4 Kings-13.820; 7. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.840; 8. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.896; 9. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.902; 10. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.905; 11. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.949; 12. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.971; 13. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.975; 14. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-14.000; 15. Chase McDermand, 8w, Ford-14.006; 16. Zach Daum, 7p, RAMCO-14.073; 17. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-14.078; 18. Steve Buckwalter, 25B, Buckwalter-14.263; 19. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-14.309; 20. Adam Taylor, 7T, ATM-14.322; 21. Jadon Rogers, 7m, RAMCO-14.364; 22. Kevin Thomas Jr, 14s, Mounce/Stout-14.450; 23. Jeff Schindler, 8x, Schindler-14.460; 24. Michael Pickens, 54NZ, Mounce/Stout-14.552; 25. Hank Davis, 8, Cornell-14.568; 26. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-14.590; 27. Blake Brannon, 40, Brannon-14.646; 28. Drake Edwards, 3p, Petty-14.660; 29. Stephen Schnapf, 11, Martin-14.765; 30. Tom Dunkel, 17A, Ford-15.107; 31. Lance Bennett, 91, Mason-15.149; 32. Adam Bolyard, 4, Bolyard-15.191; 33. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-15.203.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Ryan Timms, 4. Kale Drake, 5. Jake Andreotti, 6. Jadon Rogers, 7. Kyle Jones, 8. Stephen Schnapf, 9. Hank Davis. NT
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Zach Wigal, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Steve Buckwalter, 4. Jade Avedisian, 5. Ricky Lewis, 6. Ethan Mitchell, 7. Tom Dunkel, 8. Kevin Thomas Jr. NT
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase McDermand, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Gavin Miller, 5. Jeff Schindler, 6. Kayla Roell, 7. Blake Brannon, 8. Lance Bennett. 2:24.491
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Zach Daum, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Taylor Reimer, 5. Michael Pickens, 6. Adam Taylor, 7. Drake Edwards, 8. Adam Bolyard. 2:23.693
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Adam Taylor, 2. Ethan Mitchell, 3. Drake Edwards, 4. Kyle Jones, 5. Blake Brannon, 6. Lance Bennett, 7. Tom Dunkel, 8. Hank Davis, 9. Kayla Roell, 10. Jadon Rogers, 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 12. Adam Bolyard, 13. Stephen Schnapf. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (4), 2. Kyle Cummins (3), 3. Daison Pursley (6), 4. Justin Grant (15), 5. Zach Wigal (5), 6. Chase McDermand (7), 7. Gavin Miller (9), 8. Jacob Denney (16), 9. Zach Daum (8), 10. Jadon Rogers (24-P), 11. Cannon McIntosh (23), 12. Ryan Timms (14), 13. Taylor Reimer (10), 14. Jake Andreotti (2), 15. Kale Drake (11), 16. Hayden Reinbold (13), 17. Steve Buckwalter (17), 18. Jade Avedisian (12), 19. Adam Taylor (18), 20. Drake Edwards (21), 21. Kyle Jones (22), 22. Ricky Lewis (1), 23. Jeff Schindler (19), 24. Ethan Mitchell (20), 25. Michael Pickens (25).
