TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The Terre Haute Action Track has been home to many a great race and moment over the past 70-plus seasons. Chase Stockon’s stirring drive to victory on Thursday night added to the half-mile dirt oval’s legendary lore.
Amid a racelong duel that saw Stockon and Robert Ballou officially exchange the lead on four occasions at the stripe and countless more times unofficially, Stockon surged to the lead on the white flag lap, then survived a green-white-checkered restart to earn his first USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature victory in nearly five years.
The Fort Branch, Indiana native’s score during USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing round six arrived after a span of 160 USAC National Sprint Car feature starts without a victory dating back to September 2020.
Stockon provided longtime car owners Tom and Laurie Sertich’s Moose Racing team their first ever USAC National Sprint Car victory. Sprint Car team owners on the west coast since 1994, the husband and wife duo migrated to Indiana from their California home in recent years, hired Stockon to drive and have now been rewarded with the greatest moment in their three-plus decade history in the sport.
Stockon also achieved his fourth career USAC National Sprint Car victory at Terre Haute and his 15th overall with the series. Stockon’s second career triumph in the Don Smith Classic is also monumental as well as the former Terre Haute Action Track promoter and area businessman was instrumental in the early years of Stockon’s budding racing career.
Stockon’s latest victory on Thursday night also came in what was his 500th career USAC National Sprint Car start. He’s now one of four drivers to reach the mark, joining Dave Darland, Brady Bacon and Robert Ballou.
Stockon won the race with a broken right hand suffered exactly one week earlier during a crash in the USAC Indiana Sprint Week opener at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
It’s been a whirlwind of an Indiana Sprint Week experience thus far for Stockon, Sertich and their Brown Brothers Excavating – Dewig Meats – Lucas Oil/DRC/Kistler Chevy. But in the end, it all paid off in reigning victorious following one of the all-time great races in Action Track history.
“This is awesome,” Stockon exclaimed. “We’ve had a lot of speed, but we’ve fought through a lot of adversity this year. This team has no quit in them. That’s all I can ask for. We’re definitely happy to be on the top step here and I’m really blessed to drive this thing and give this team a little bit of a reward.”
At the start of the 30-lap main event, Indiana Sprint Week point leader and fifth place starting Briggs Danner was involved in a tangle that saw him spin backwards in turn two. In attempting to escape the skirmish, Charles Davis Jr. was unable to avoid contact and flipped multiple times, ending his night just as it had begun.
Starting on the pole, Stockon controlled the pace to lead the initial 11 circuits. But after a turn four spin and stop by Australian racer Travis Millar, the lap-12 restart saw Ballou take advantage, driving under Stockon on the back straight for the top spot.
By the 18th lap, Ballou had built his lead to more than two seconds over Stockon until 13th running Logan Calderwood slowed to a halt on the front straight. The sequence erased Ballou’s commanding 2.873-second advantage and put Stockon right back on Ballou’s rear bumper for the restart, and the two remained in close quarters for the remaining 12 laps.
“After Robert got by us there, I didn’t think I’d be able to throw anything at him,” Stockon admitted. “I wouldn’t say ‘win it or wear it,’ but it was pretty damn close. I just kind of centered myself and said, ‘don’t make mistakes.’”
The rejuvenated Stockon immediately demonstrated that he wasn’t going to fade away quietly into the night. He drove deep into turn three and was able to pull even to the inside of Ballou on laps 20, 21, 22 and 23, each time getting closer and closer to making the pass stick.
On lap 24, Stockon was able to land the punch as he slid up in front of Ballou in turn three to complete the pass and assume the race lead with only six laps remaining.
Just as Stockon refused to go away, Ballou was in the same boat. With four laps to go, Ballou rode the high line around the outside of Stockon in turn four to complete the pass for the lead once more. The next time the duo hit the first turn on the 28th lap, Stockon slid across the nose of Ballou to retake the lead, but Ballou quickly countered the haymaker to go back to the point for the moment.
With two to go, Stockon stuck the middle to low line perfectly, and stormed back past Ballou on the back straight to get to the lead one more time.
Side-by-side through turns three and four, the two drivers nearly grazed wheels as chief starter Tom Hansing displayed the white flag from the flag stand. However, just as the front runners crossed under the white, 17th-running Joey Amantea spun to a stop.
The stoppage necessitated a green-white-checkered finish.
On the restart, Stockon pulled away from Ballou with perfect precision over the final two laps to cross under the checkered flag 1.564 seconds ahead of Ballou, while Kyle Cummins, C.J. Leary and Jake Swanson completed the top five.
Throughout this magical night for Stockon, everything set up perfectly for him from the condition of the track surface following nearly two inches of overnight rain to the setup implemented on the car. For Stockon, it couldn’t have been any finer.
“I don’t understand why I like these fast, rough racetracks but I do,” Stockon acknowledged. “I felt the track go away more than it did, so I convinced the team to tighten it up a little bit. She’s a little bit snug but I think the car was spot on.”
Meanwhile, it was yet another terrific run by Robert Ballou who led 14 of the 31 laps en route to a second place result for his fourth podium finish in six Indiana Sprint Week starts this week. Additionally, he’s led laps in five of the six features run thus far this week.
For the second straight USAC Indiana Sprint Week round at Terre Haute, Kyle Cummins came home with a podium finish. After scoring a third in 2024, he repeated the feat on Thursday while increasing his USAC National Sprint Car point lead to a season high 211 markers.
Kevin Thomas Jr. finished seventh and leads the Indiana Sprint Week standings by two points over sixth-place finisher Logan Seavey.
Sprint Week continues Friday night at Bloomington Speedway.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Terre Haute Action Track, Terre Haute, Ind., July 31, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-19.895; 2. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-19.908; 3. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-20.167; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-20.199; 5. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-20.220; 6. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-20.388; 7. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-20.394; 8. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-20.451; 9. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-20.459; 10. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-20.472; 11. Nick Bilbee, 69, Bilbee/Hoffman-20.522; 12. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-20.528; 13. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-20.629; 14. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-20.708; 15. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-20.733; 16. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-21.015; 17. Kyle Shipley, 0G, Black Gold-21.083; 18. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-21.107; 19. Travis Millar, 93AU, Millar-21.227; 20. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-21.281; 21. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-21.469; 22. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-21.563; 23. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-21.711; 24. Bill Rose, 6R, Rose-21.779; 25. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-21.806; 26. Nate Schank, 1, Schank-21.813; 27. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-21.909; 28. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-21.955; 29. Sam Scott, 7s, Scott-22.196; 30. Nate Ervin, 11, Algieo-22.280; 31. Colin Parker, 16K, Knight-NT; 32. Travis Thompson, 7, Thompson-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Hunter Maddox, 4. Gunnar Setser, 5. Kyle Shipley, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Sam Scott, 8. Saban Bibent. 2:49.369
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Charles Davis Jr., 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Logan Calderwood, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Kayla Roell, 7. Nate Schank, 8. Nate Ervin. NT
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Ricky Lewis, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Nick Bilbee, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Travis Millar, 6. Kobe Simpson, 7. Troy Carey. 2:49.511
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Joey Amantea, 5. Brandon Mattox, 6. Bill Rose, 7. Aric Gentry. 2:51.085
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kayla Roell, 2. Nate Schank, 3. Saban Bibent, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Kobe Simpson, 6. Bill Rose, 7. Troy Carey, 8. Sam Scott, 9. Aric Gentry. NT
FEATURE: (31 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chase Stockon (1), 2. Robert Ballou (2), 3. Kyle Cummins (4), 4. C.J. Leary (7), 5. Jake Swanson (11), 6. Logan Seavey (10), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 8. Mitchel Moles (6), 9. Kale Drake (9), 10. Ricky Lewis (8), 11. Nick Bilbee (13), 12. Briggs Danner (5), 13. Gunnar Setser (14), 14. Kayla Roell (22), 15. Hayden Reinbold (23), 16. Travis Millar (19), 17. Brandon Mattox (17), 18. Hunter Maddox (21), 19. Joey Amantea (20), 20. Kyle Shipley (18), 21. Logan Calderwood (12), 22. Saban Bibent (16), 23. Nate Schank (24), 24. Charles Davis Jr. (15). NT
