BARBERVILLE, Fla. — On Tuesday night, Jake Swanson trampled the field in a master class of pure domination in the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals finale at Volusia Speedway Park, round two of Winter Dirt Games XVII Presented by Yokohama Tire.
When all was said and done at the conclusion of the 30-lap feature, the Anaheim, California native was a whopping 6.951 seconds ahead of the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Championship field, pocketing $12,000 for his efforts while also earning himself a Little Gator trophy.
Swanson was also victorious in USAC’s debut race at Volusia in 2023, collecting both the Little Gator and the Big Gator as the overall DIRTcar Nationals champion that year.
The third place starting Swanson took over the lead from C.J. Leary on the sixth lap and ran away from the pack in relative ease aboard his Daming Swanson Motorsports/Inland Rigging – Snake Enterprises/DRC/1-Way Chevy.
After taking 47 starts to put his team into USAC victory lane for the first time in 2025, it only took two races for the 32-year-old racer to hit paydirt in 2026.
“I’ve put my life into this,” Swanson stated. “Into this race team, into this program and building this stuff. I’ve got a lot of good people I’m doing this with. I’m confident and I know I can do it, and I know I can build a racecar that can do it. I’m just glad it’s paying off. It’s finally here. I’m doing exactly what I set out to do and I couldn’t be happier to do it with the group I’m doing it with.”
In a race that saw just one stoppage, Swanson actually had to make the winning move twice. Leary led the initial five circuits from the pole position with Swanson immediately overtaking Briggs Danner for the runner-up spot on the opening lap.
On the sixth lap, Swanson roared underneath Leary entering turn three and slid up to the cushion to become the new man on the point. However, simultaneously, the yellow flag was displayed for Ricky Lewis, whose shredded left rear tire caused him to slow to a crawl in turn three while running in the 12th position.
Due to the caution, Swanson’s pass for the lead was negated, relegating him back to second and placing Leary back at the helm, but not for long.
On the ensuing restart, Swanson dove low into turn one to snag the top spot from Leary, and for good. Logan Seavey followed suit to second as he blitzed by Leary over in turn three a half lap later. On lap seven, Kevin Thomas Jr. slotted into third as he surged under Leary in the third turn.
For the remainder of the way, Swanson continued his colossal stomping of the competition, building a 2.8 second advantage by lap 10. At the halfway point on lap 15, Swanson split between Logan Calderwood and Chelby Hinton in turn three to further grow his lead to a full five seconds.
The holidays came early for Swanson as he carved up the lapped cars like a Christmas goose. He further extended his lead to a full straightaway after going three-wide around the outside of Harley Burns and Gunnar Setser, putting both down a lap in the running order in a turn three maneuver with 10 to go.
Swanson put 10 cars a lap down as he cruised to a convincing victory over Seavey, Thomas Jr., Justin Grant and Danner.
“I’m ecstatic man,” Swanson exclaimed. “I knew we were in for a treat. The race track was going to be kind of prime the way they prepped it. But it was going to be hard to pass, kind of like it was last night. I knew we needed a good jump to get an early lead, then just try to maintain the pace. I don’t know how much we had them by but I just felt solid in this thing. This thing was ripping.”
Seavey captured his second career DIRTcar Nationals championship and a Big Gator trophy. Over the past two nights of racing, Seavey finished first on Monday and second on Tuesday. He earned his first Big Gator back in 2024.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Volusia Speedway Park, Barberville, Fla., Feb. 10, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-17.145; 2. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-17.227; 3. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-17.251; 4. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-17.272; 5. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-17.278; 6. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-17.307; 7. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-17.313; 8. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-17.512; 9. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-17.525; 10. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-17.525; 11. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-17.538; 12. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-17.546; 13. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-17.627; 14. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-17.692; 15. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-17.712; 16. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-17.909; 17. Chelby Hinton, 2B, 2B Racing-17.941; 18. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-17.950; 19. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-18.010; 20. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-18.010; 21. Ryan Harrison, 97UK, Harrison-18.176; 22. Chase Howard, 13, Howard-18.301; 23. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-18.381; 24. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-18.526; 25. Bill Rose, 6R, Rose-18.633; 26. Mike Haggenbottom, 51, Tin Hoagie-19.425; 27. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-NT.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (4), 2. Robert Ballou (2), 3. Jake Swanson (5), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 5. Jadon Rogers (3), 6. Hayden Reinbold (1), 7. Gunnar Setser (7), 8. Chase Howard (8), 9. Bill Rose (9). 2:24.432
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ricky Lewis (4), 2. Briggs Danner (5), 3. Trey Osborne (6), 4. Harley Burns (3), 5. Chelby Hinton (1), 6. Saban Bibent (8), 7. Cale Coons (7), 8. Kobe Simpson (2), 9. Mike Haggenbottom (9). 2:26.286
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (1), 2. Chase Stockon (4), 3. Brady Bacon (9), 4. Kyle Cummins (3), 5. Logan Seavey (6), 6. C.J. Leary (5), 7. Logan Calderwood (2), 8. Tom Harris (8), 9. Ryan Harrison (7). NT
FIVE STAR RACE CAR BODIES SEMI: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Calderwood (2), 2. Cale Coons (4), 3. Gunnar Setser (3), 4. Chase Howard (5), 5. Tom Harris (6), 6. Kobe Simpson (1), 7. Bill Rose (8), 8. Ryan Harrison (7), 9. Mike Haggenbottom (9). 3:26.025
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (3), 2. Logan Seavey (4), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 4. Justin Grant (7), 5. Briggs Danner (2), 6. Brady Bacon (18), 7. C.J. Leary (1), 8. Chase Stockon (10), 9. Robert Ballou (14), 10. Kyle Cummins (13), 11. Mitchel Moles (9), 12. Trey Osborne (5), 13. Hayden Reinbold (15), 14. Jadon Rogers (11), 15. Chase Howard (22), 16. Tom Harris (23), 17. Harley Burns (12), 18. Cale Coons (20), 19. Gunnar Setser (21), 20. Ricky Lewis (8), 21. Logan Calderwood (19), 22. Kobe Simpson (24), 23. Chelby Hinton (16), 24. Saban Bibent (17).
