BARBERVILLE, Fla. — On Tuesday night at Volusia Speedway Park, Logan Seavey added another astounding achievement to his ever-growing list of accomplishments.
On this night, the Sutter, Calif., racer did something no other driver has done in more than 22 years – winning multiple USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship features in a single day.
Fellow Californian Bud Kaeding was the most recent to go back-to-back on the same night in October of 2001 at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track.
Seavey’s performance was the 18th occasion in which a driver swept both ends of a USAC National Sprint Car doubleheader at the same track on the same day.
“It’s incredible,” Seavey exclaimed. “These races are so hard to win, and to win any of them is just a dream come true for me. These big half-miles really suit me well. Once you get your momentum going, it’s easy to keep it going. I’ve been here in the past and struggled, but this thing is so good. I was really confident, and it showed here tonight. The last 13 months have been the best months of my career and my life. It’s just so cool to be out here winning USAC races.”
In addition, Abacus Racing had a perfect night as well, capturing its first two USAC National Sprint Car features in a span of a little more than an hour. The Noblesville, Ind. based team became the first entrant to win their first two USAC National Sprint Car main events on the same day since Max Dowker at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway in 1975, a car driven to twin-50 lap victories nearly a half-century ago.
To add to the saga, Abacus Racing’s primary powerplant met its demise as Seavey was taking the checkered flag during a heat race victory in Monday’s rain-abbreviated program.
At that point, the team decided to remove the engine out of their CG CPAs – Indy Custom Stone – Forecheck Marketing/DRC/Stanton Chevy spare car and install it in their primary rather than going with the backup.
The move paid off.
“(Crewman) Kirk (Simpson) and Ronnie (Gardner) have worked so much harder than I feel they should’ve or needed to,” Seavey praised. “I kind of pushed them to make that call to stay in this car and change engines and keep our starting spot for later. These guys didn’t give up. They just kept working on this thing and making it better for me. When you change engines, it changes everything. With any power difference, it just changes the car completely. Our car has been so good, and to have a big change like that is tough, but you can’t really help engine problems.”
The first of two features held on Tuesday night was a 30-lapper paying $10,000-to-win, which saw Seavey starting ninth on the grid. Polesitter Carson Garrett led the initial five circuits until outside front row starter Kyle Cummins went topside around the low-riding Garrett to take over the top spot on lap six.
By halfway, Seavey was in the thick of the mix as he charged under Brady Bacon for the second spot on lap 15. After catching Cummins on lap 20, Seavey attempted his first slider to no avail in turns one and two. When Cummins counterpunched to briefly reassume the lead, Seavey sling-shotted his way under Cummins in turns three and four to make the move stick and take over the reins of the race.
“I really was surprised actually when (Cummins) turned down off two,” Seavey recalled. “I think I just hopped the cushion a little bit when I slid him. I was nervous, and then I got an awful final restart and I spun really bad. I had to protect a lot into one and I didn’t feel like I got through one and two good at all, but I kind of got through the backstretch OK. I thought if I could just get into three good and get away from these guys, I’d be okay. I grabbed brake and I got tight, then I just kept making mistakes those last few laps, but the car kind of carried me to the win.”
Just when Seavey seemingly had it all wrapped up in a neat little package just after taking the white flag, calamity ensued. During a battle for third between Bacon and Kevin Thomas Jr., Bacon and the lapped car of Jadon Rogers collided in turns three and four, resulting in Bacon and Rogers flipping over as well as the oncoming car of Trey Osborne.
As was the story all night long, Seavey found no match after the green-white-checkered restart, scoring the win by 1.331 seconds over Cummins, making it two brand-new teams finishing inside the top-two. Thomas Jr. took third while fast qualifier and one-lap track record holder C.J. Leary grabbed fourth. Meanwhile, Garrett rounded out the top five.
Starting fourth in the second “Monday make-up” feature of the night, Chase Stockon zipped out to the opening lap lead from his pole-starting position. However, third-starting Bacon quickly positioned himself at the front with a slider on Stockon for the lead in turn one on lap two.
By lap four, Seavey had already shot his way into second as he slipped by Stockon to take the spot, then began to work on reeling in Bacon. On lap 11, Seavey swiped the lead from Bacon with a strong run on the back straight.
However, just as Seavey cleared Bacon, the yellow flag flew for a 360-degree spin in turn four by Stockon after he and Grant tangled in a battle for seventh. Due to the caution, Seavey relinquished his lead back to Bacon.
It didn’t take long, however, for Seavey to fight his way back to the front. Seavey slid Bacon in turns one and two to take full ownership of the top spot on lap 14.
“It’s tough when you’re leading,” Seavey said of Bacon’s predicament. “He was running fairly hard, but when you’ve got a rabbit to chase, you can always push it a little bit harder. If you’re leading and screw up, you look like a dummy. It’s hard to judge just how hard you can run. If you step over the line once, it gets you, and it did get him there, but he got saved by the yellow. This car is so comfortable on the cushion and secure, you can really hammer it in there and run well. I got to him a little bit earlier in the race and I tried too hard, and I was the one getting up over it. These big fast miles with a curb are tricky, and it’s why we love them.”
Nonetheless, the action came to a halt in a major way on lap 20 as Robert Ballou (12th) barrel rolled atop turns one and two. Rogers attempted to avoid the carnage, but flipped several times.
Leader Seavey nearly got caught up in it and was forced to take evasive action to avoid the carnage, narrowly avoiding contact with four wheels above the cushion, but kept it going.
Seavey held a 3.542 second lead before the red flag with six to go, but once again, he went undeterred to the finish line, opening up a relatively comfortable gap of 1.742 seconds at the stripe for his second triumphant performance of the night while Bacon, Leary, Daison Pursley and Grant rounded out the top five.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Volusia Speedway Park, Barberville, Fla., Feb. 13, 2024
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-16.151 (New Track Record); 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.375; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-16.506; 4. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-16.557; 5. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-16.574; 6. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-16.607; 7. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-16.667; 8. Timmy Buckwalter, 20, Hummer-16.700; 9. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-16.707; 10. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-16.711; 11. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.716; 12. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-16.760; 13. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-16.784; 14. Zach Daum, 5d, Daum-16.796; 15. Daison Pursley, 21AZ, Team AZ-16.816; 16. Jadon Rogers, 17GP, Dutcher-16.834; 17. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-16.883; 18. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-16.889; 19. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-16.940; 20. Tye Mihocko, 5T, Wilson-16.991; 21. Alex Bright, 27, Heffner-17.005; 22. Jake Swanson, 2B, 2B Racing-17.011; 23. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-17.043; 24. Trey Osborne, 5, Baldwin/Fox-17.083; 25. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-17.093; 26. Chase Howard, 13, Howard-17.565; 27. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Jadon Rogers, 3. Matt Westfall, 4. C.J. Leary, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Briggs Danner, 7. Robert Ballou, 8. Jake Swanson, 9. Tom Harris.
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Timmy Buckwalter, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Tye Mihocko, 6. Zach Daum, 7. Brandon Mattox, 8. Chase Howard, 9. Hunter Maddox. 2:18.20
T.J. FORGED/CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Brian Ruhlman, 3. Joey Amantea, 4. Carson Garrett, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Alex Bright, 7. Trey Osborne, 8. Daison Pursley, 9. Robert Bell. 2:16.68
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Tom Harris, 3. Trey Osborne, 4. Brandon Mattox, 5. Jake Swanson, 6. Hunter Maddox, 7. Chase Howard. 2:22.45
FIRST FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (9), 2. Kyle Cummins (2), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (8), 4. C.J. Leary (6), 5. Carson Garrett (1), 6. Daison Pursley (25-P), 7. Mitchel Moles (4), 8. Briggs Danner (3), 9. Chase Stockon (18), 10. Justin Grant (5), 11. Robert Ballou (24), 12. Joey Amantea (12), 13. Tye Mihocko (19), 14. Timmy Buckwalter (11), 15. Tom Harris (13), 16. Matt Westfall (10), 17. Zach Daum (14), 18. Hunter Maddox (22), 19. Alex Bright (20), 20. Brady Bacon (7), 21. Jadon Rogers (15), 22. Trey Osborne (23), 23. Brandon Mattox (16), 24. Brian Ruhlman (17), 25. Jake Swanson (21).
SECOND FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses, held February 13) 1. Logan Seavey (4), 2. Brady Bacon (3), 3. C.J. Leary (6), 4. Daison Pursley (12), 5. Justin Grant (8), 6. Alex Bright (7), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 8. Briggs Danner (10), 9. Mitchel Moles (2), 10. Kyle Cummins (13), 11. Tye Mihocko (23), 12. Tom Harris (17), 13. Carson Garrett (9), 14. Joey Amantea (18), 15. Chase Stockon (1), 16. Robert Ballou (19), 17. Matt Westfall (22), 18. Zach Daum (14), 19. Trey Osborne (24), 20. Hunter Maddox (20), 21. Brian Ruhlman (21), 22. Timmy Buckwalter (11), 23. Jadon Rogers (16), 24. Jake Swanson (15).