MERCED, Calif. — After 38 races without a single visit to victory lane, Logan Seavey returned to the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship top step in a most thrilling fashion during Saturday night’s inaugural Chase Johnson Classic at California’s Merced Speedway.
Seavey started fifth on the grid and trailed for the majority of the 30-lap feature. But with two laps remaining, Seavey’s outside pass of racelong leader Jacob Denney proved to be the winning move in what was his first victory of the USAC National Midget season aboard his Abacus Racing/McVey Trucking – Hylan – Indy Powersports – Indy Fuel/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.
Seavey’s 19th career USAC National Midget triumph moved him up to 37th place on the all-time series win list alongside Jason Leffler, Jerry Coons Jr., Stan Fox and Tyler Courtney. Furthermore, it was Seavey’s first USAC National Midget victory in 533 days, dating back to his USAC Indiana Midget Week win on June 8, 2024, at Tri-State Speedway.
Seavey’s win at Merced was the second of his career with the series at Merced, and his first since his championship season of 2023 exactly two years ago to the day of Saturday night’s dub.
Seavey’s win also made him the third driver to capture a victory in all three USAC national divisions during the 2025 season, joining Justin Grant and Daison Pursley in that category. It’s the third season in a row in which Seavey has accomplished the feat and the fourth overall (2021-2023-2024-2025).
The winning vibes began early for Seavey on Saturday night after capturing a $1,000 bonus as the victor of the eight lap May Motorsports Chase for Cash Dash. However, for nearly the entire feature, Denney patrolled the field from his pole starting position while past Merced USAC winners Carson Macedo, Corey Day and Seavey led the pursuit toward Denney who seemed untouchable early on as he constructed a full straightaway lead on the field during the first third of the race.
After a dual spin by Steven Snyder Jr. (9th) and Hayden Reinbold (16th) in turn two on the 11th lap, Day began to surge on the ensuing restart. Using the low line, Day raced by the high-riding Macedo to swipe the spot away on the 13th go around, while Seavey made headway following Day’s path on the bottom to challenge Macedo for position.
“I was so glad when I saw them work the bottom of one and two,” Seavey stated. “I was worried the whole field was going to be up there running through the holes, but they worked it just enough. It was like that moisture came in through the air. It was greasy to start and I kind of bailed on it. Then, it got really fast and I didn’t know if it was ever going to come back. But I knew if there was ever a chance I was going to win, I had to get up and hope that the bottom slowed down.”
Around midway, Seavey switched his approach to the topside and worked lap after lap go get around Macedo. Finally, on lap 19, Seavey altered course once more and drove underneath Macedo off turn four to gain the third position with 11 laps remaining.
Another yellow flag was displayed for Snyder (21st) on lap 23 as he bounced and spun around whirling dervishly to a stop in turn two, which erased Denney’s commanding 1.868 second lead over the field.
It was during that particular moment in time, Seavey found that the middle of the road might very well be his saving grace.
“Those last seven or eight laps, it started to get slick on exit to where I could get a big run,” Seavey said. “I was searching three and four all race. I could run the bottom and I could run the top a little bit, but I would lose some time. I found the middle and turned down off four right before that yellow came out.”
Meanwhile, it went from bad to worse for Snyder on the 24th circuit when he flipped in turn two and came to a rest on his wheels, ending a night which started so promising after earning his first career USAC National Midget Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying award. Fortunately, he climbed out and walked away.
At that moment, Seavey, who stood third in line at the time, knew he had to make quick work of second running Day if he was going to have any chance at running down Denney for the race lead all while finding the perfect placement on the racetrack in order to make his move.
“I knew I really had to get by Corey because he was finding the race track too,” Seavey explained. “I knew he could hear me and he was moving around in three and four. It was crazy. I didn’t really know how it was going to go, but I knew if the top was clear in one and two, I was going to go up there and I was going to run it as hard as I could. Once I snuck by Corey, finding the middle was huge.”
With four to go, the top-three of Denney, Day and Seavey all ran under a blanket with no more than a car length’s separation between the trio at each end of the racetrack. While Denney and Day occupied the bottom, Seavey carved a path at the top of turns one and two and through the middle of three and four. Seavey snagged a rut in turn four, but undeterred, completed the outside pass of Day to secure second and went to work on tracking Denney down for the race lead with time (and laps) tick, tick ticking away.
As the white flag unfurled from the chief starter, Seavey sifted through the middle of turns three and four to sweep around the outside of Denney by two car lengths at the stripe. Denney made one last ditch effort on the final lap to punch back at Seavey but clipped the infield berm in turn three with his left side tires and slid up the banking, allowing Seavey to successfully escape for a 0.958 second margin over victory.
Denney led a race-high 28 of 30 laps en route to a runner-up finish while Day bounced back to take third after missing the previous night’s race as he recovered from last weekend’s rough tumble at Placerville Speedway’s Hangtown 100. Macedo finished fourth while Drake Edwards rounded out the top five.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Merced Speedway, Merced, California, Nov. 22, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-12.555; 2. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.576; 3. Landon Brooks, 57w, Wood-12.584; 4. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.593; 5. Jake Andreotti, 00, Davis-12.599; 6. Buddy Kofoid, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.656; 7. Corey Day, 4K, Kahne-12.704; 8. Carson Macedo, 99AU, Dyson-12.710; 9. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.713; 10. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-12.742; 11. Tanner Carrick, 98, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.760; 12. Brecken Reese, 20Q, Reese-12.800; 13. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-12.810; 14. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-12.820; 15. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-12.839; 16. Jett Yantis, 4y, Carlile-12.843; 17. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-12.883; 18. Michael Pickens, 31, Beilman-12.919; 19. Jakeb Boxell, 14JB, 4 Kings-12.939; 20. Austin Wood, 87w, Wood-12.972; 21. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.048; 22. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-13.077; 23. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.083; 24. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.100; 25. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-13.113; 26. Connor Speir, 14JR, Streeter/Graunstadt-13.175; 27. Mathew Radisich, 17NZ, Out & About-13.242; 28. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-13.246; 29. T.J. Smith, 68, Six8-13.252; 30. Brandon Carr, 98K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.263; 31. Jake Swanson, 31B, Beilman-13.280; 32. Ty Gibbs, 84, CBI-13.291; 33. Anthony Bruno, 9, Boscacci-13.485; 34. Broedy Graham, 66, BGR-14.671; 35. Myles Tomlinson, 22s, GR-16.360; 36. Dane Culver, 50, Knuckles Up-NT; 37. Caden Sarale, 32, Sarale-NT; 38. Terry Nichols, 22G, GR-NT (time of 13.492 disallowed due to illegal right rear tire)
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Jacob Denney, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Jake Andreotti, 5. Steven Snyder Jr., 6. Colton Robinson, 7. Gunnar Setser, 8. T.J. Smith, 9. Anthony Bruno. 1:45.617
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Drake Edwards, 2. Brandon Carr, 3. Kyle Jones, 4. Michael Pickens, 5. Broedy Graham, 6. Buddy Kofoid, 7. Connor Speir, 8. Cannon McIntosh, 9. Justin Grant. NT
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Corey Day, 3. Jakeb Boxell, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Tanner Carrick, 6. Jake Swanson, 7. Mathew Radisich, 8. Landon Brooks, 9. Myles Tomlinson. NT
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Austin Wood, 2. Jett Yantis, 3. Carson Macedo, 4. Cale Coons, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Gavin Miller, 7. Ty Gibbs, 8. Brecken Reese, 9. Terry Nichols. NT
MAY MOTORSPORTS CHASE FOR CASH DASH: (8 laps) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Kale Drake, 3. Drake Edwards, 4. Corey Day, 5. Austin Wood, 6. Steven Snyder Jr., 7. Jacob Denney, 8. Jake Andreotti. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Cannon McIntosh, 2. Landon Brooks, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Gunnar Setser, 5. Brecken Reese, 6. Gavin Miller, 7. Ty Gibbs, 8. Jake Swanson, 9. Colton Robinson, 10. Mathew Radisich, 11. Anthony Bruno, 12. T.J. Smith, 13. Myles Tomlinson. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (5), 2. Jacob Denney (1), 3. Corey Day (3), 4. Carson Macedo (2), 5. Drake Edwards (7), 6. Cannon McIntosh (10), 7. Landon Brooks (11), 8. Kale Drake (9), 9. Austin Wood (8), 10. Tanner Carrick (12), 11. Jett Yantis (16), 12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (15), 13. Justin Grant (14), 14. Cale Coons (22), 15. Daison Pursley (17), 16. Jake Andreotti (4), 17. Jakeb Boxell (19), 18. Hayden Reinbold (13), 19. Michael Pickens (18), 20. Gunnar Setser (21), 21. Gavin Miller (25-P), 22. Colton Robinson (26-P), 23. Broedy Graham (24), 24. Brandon Carr (23), 25. Steven Snyder Jr. (6), 26. Kyle Jones (20).
