SPEEDWAY, Ind. — In what was the closest first year driver battle in USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship history, Gunnar Setser prevailed by a mere four points to earn Max Papis Innovations Rookie of the Year honors.
The Columbus, Ind., native put together a solid first year with the series, which included a pair of top-five finishes and a best result of fifth at both Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway and Indiana’s Circle City Raceway to finish 10th in the standings.
At 16 years old, and just a few days before his 17th birthday, Setser became the third youngest Rookie of the Year in the history of USAC National Sprint Car racing. Only Chad Boat (2008) and C.J. Leary (2012) were younger.
Setser became the second KO Motorsports driver in the past three seasons to score USAC National Sprint Car Rookie of the Year along with Daison Pursley in 2023.
Racing was ever-present in Gunnar’s upbringing. His father, Jason Setser, was the 2016 UMRA King of the TQs midget champion. Jason also raced midgets, stock cars and late models, and was also proficient in sprint cars, capturing the 2000 Lawrenceburg Speedway track title.
Gunnar, himself, cut his teeth in the micro sprint ranks at such Indiana dirt tracks as Logansport’s U.S. 24 Speedway and Peru’s Circus City Speedway where winning was a frequent occurrence, including a staggering 16 in his first year of competition.
Gunnar has been racking up the rookie of the year accolades everywhere he turns, earning the same award at the 2025 Chili Bowl Nationals, as well as with the POWRi Midgets in 2024 and the Hoosier Auto Racing Fans in 2024.
Throughout the 49-race series schedule in 2025, Setser and Hayden Reinbold traded barbs back-and-forth, exchanging the Rookie point lead seven different times. On several occasions, the two drivers finished within a spot of each other in the feature results. To be precise, that occurred eight different times.
It seemed everywhere you looked on any given night, Setser’s No. 5G and Reinbold’s No. 19 were battling for position.
“It seemed like one of us would do better one night, and then the other would do better the next night,” Setser said. “It was always pretty close, but during the last few races, we went ahead a little bit and that gave us a little bit of breathing room. We were just going at it back and forth the whole time. It never ended. It was very close, and it was a good fight.”
Entering the final weekend of the season at Central Arizona Raceway in late October, Setser’s lead over Reinbold stood at 14 points. It grew to 31 entering the final night, and pretty much required Setser to finish mid-pack or better in order to clinch. However, things didn’t turn out to be so straightforward.
“We were just trying to do our thing, but over the last two nights, I really started to feel the pressure,” Setser admitted. “We knew we had a pretty good lead going in, and we knew we had to finish the races to be able to do that.”
While running 12th with six laps remaining in the feature, Setser’s right-rear tire shredded. Restarting at the tail with fresh rubber, Setser managed to muster a 19th. Meanwhile, Reinbold had carved his way up from his 18th starting spot to finish seventh. The final tally showed that Setser took the Rookie title by a mere two on track positions.
Over the past 18 seasons, Setser is just the third Rookie driver to finish inside the top-10 of the USAC National Sprint Car standings, joining Tyler Courtney (ninth in 2013), Tanner Thorson (fourth in 2021) and Emerson Axsom (fifth in 2022). Now, he joins the list of those who’ve achieved the ultimate reward for freshman success in USAC National Sprint Car racing.
“It means a lot,” Setser stated. “It was definitely a tough season with a lot of ups and downs with all the new tracks I got to run and the tough competition we faced.”
Setser’s biggest learning curve with the series went right along that line at a variety of venues ranging from flat bullrings to half-mile high banked dirt ovals.
“Learning how to run the cushion was probably the biggest one for me,” Setser recollected. “I figured it out fairly quickly, but it’s different at every track you go to. Also, it’s hard to qualify well all the time. There would be a couple nights where we’re hard charging and getting up through the field, then something would happen. I’d prefer to start up front as it usually gets you a better finishing spot, but once you get near the top-five, it’s really hard to get past those guys. They’re a really tough group and everybody’s pretty even up there.”
USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR ROOKIES OF THE YEAR
1971 Darl Harrison, Tiffin, Ohio
1972 Billy Cassella, Weirton, West Virginia
1973 Rich Leavell, Elwood, Indiana
1974 Lee Osborne, Lebanon, Pennsylvania
1975 Marvin Carman, Union City, Michigan
1976 Roger Rager, Mound, Minnesota
1977 Eddie Leavitt, Kearney, Missouri
1978 Tim Richmond, Ashland, Ohio
1979 Jerry Carman, Burlington, Michigan
1980 Frank Riddle, Tampa, Florida
1981 Steve Long, Indianapolis, Indiana (co)
1981 Johnny Coogan, Alexandria, Indiana (co)
1982 Danny Milburn, Indianapolis, Indiana
1983 Dean Shirley, Middletown, Illinois
1984 Jerry Russell, Springfield, Illinois
1985 Terry Shepherd, Warsaw, Indiana
1986 Kenny Jacobs, Holmesville, Ohio
1987 Rick Ungar, Garrettsville, Ohio
1988 Dean Jacobs, Fredericksburg, Ohio
1989 Eric Gordon, Greenfield, Indiana
1990 Rick Howerton, Indianapolis, Indiana
1991 Tony Stewart, Columbus, Indiana
1992 Gary Cameron II, Tulsa, Oklahoma
1993 Kenny Irwin Jr., Indianapolis, Indiana
1994 Bobby Smith, Martinsville, Indiana
1995 Mark Cassella, Weirton, West Virginia
1996 Gus Wasson, Bloomdale, Ohio
1997 J.J. Yeley, Phoenix, Arizona
1998 Tracy Hines, New Castle, Indiana
1999 Ryan Newman, South Bend, Indiana
2000 Bud Kaeding, Campbell, California
2001 Ed Carpenter, Indianapolis, Indiana
2002 Boston Reid, Logansport, Indiana
2003 Michael Lewis, Noblesville, Indiana (co)
2003 Mat Neely, Robinson, Illinois (co)
2004 Josh Ford, Camarillo, California (co)
2004 Josh Wise, Riverside, California (co)
2005 Darren Hagen, Riverside, California
2006 Scotty Weir, Marion, Indiana
2007 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Olive Branch, Mississippi
2008 Chad Boat, Phoenix, Arizona
2009 Henry Clarke, Villa Park, California
2010 Justin Grant, Ione, California
2011 Coleman Gulick, Binghamton, New York
2012 C.J. Leary, Greenfield, Indiana
2013 Tyler Courtney, Indianapolis, Indiana
2014 Jarett Andretti, Mooresville, North Carolina
2015 Aaron Farney, Brookston, Indiana
2016 Isaac Chapple, Willow Branch, Indiana
2017 Stevie Sussex, Tempe, Arizona
2018 Timmy Buckwalter, Douglassville, Pennsylvania (co)
2018 Logan Seavey, Sutter, California (co)
2019 Dustin Clark, Washington, Indiana
2020 Jadon Rogers, Worthington, Indiana
2021 Tanner Thorson, Minden, Nevada
2022 Emerson Axsom, Franklin, Indiana
2023 Daison Pursley, Locust Grove, Oklahoma
2024 Hunter Maddox, Bedford, Indiana
2025 Gunnar Setser, Columbus, Indiana
