KNOXVILLE, Iowa — For Kevin Thomas Jr., Knoxville Raceway provided the perfect setting for a transformation weekend for he and his Rock Steady Racing team.
KTJ’s beginning to the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season saw him finish no better than eighth in any of his first 10 series starts, and a point ranking of 11th entering this weekend’s Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash.
On Saturday night at the half-mile dirt oval in Iowa, Thomas parlayed an inside second row starting position into victory. First, the Cullman, Alabama racer narrowly avoided a major catastrophe during the opening laps, then put a clamp on the top spot on a lap eight restart en route to his first USAC victory of the season and the first of his career at Knoxville, one that was worth a cool $15,000.
At this time last year, Thomas was on his way to a five-win campaign in USAC National Sprint Car competition. The kind of performances that the team had longed for throughout the first several months of the season have now come back around, and the good times are back again for KTJ and the No. 3r.
“I’m pretty hard on myself in general, but this year has been pretty trying,” Thomas admitted. “To be able to win here at Knoxville is historic and this was also our first time having an opportunity and then capitalizing on it.”
After finishing seventh on Friday, Thomas knew the capability was there, but everything had to align, from himself and his machine to qualifying well (4th) and setting the tone for the rest of the night at the wheel of his Rock Steady Racing/Inferno Armor – Lucas Oil Center – Creative Finishing/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.
“There are a lot of people who put up with stuff from me and what I like to feel in a race car,” Thomas explained. “We have tried and tried and tried and there was something that was very much staring us right in the face that we changed. Now it’s so much better. Like last night, it was an unfortunate thing that we had a situation with a right rear shock but we were still running good. This was the first time all year that we’ve been in the invert, and that gave ourselves a chance to win.”
The opening laps of the 30-lap feature were as arduous as they were hazardous. On the first try, A.J. Johnson (17th) and Jadon Rogers (24th) simultaneous flipped hard through turn two to necessitate the first red flag of the night. Both drivers were able to climb out and walk away.
On the restart, polesitter Jake Swanson established the early lead, pacing laps one and two with Justin Grant slotting into second. However, the action halted on the third lap when pre-race favorites C.J. Leary (3rd) and Brady Bacon (4th) touched wheels entering turn three.
The resulting contact launched Leary into a series of four barrel-rolls accentuated by major airtime and a meeting with the outside guardrail. Bacon, meanwhile, spiraled three times into the outer guardrail. Each driver was able to climb out and walk away. At the same time, the fifth place running Thomas just narrowly missed contact with the flying car of Leary, appearing to drive completely under and just to the right of the airborne Leary, continuing on without harm.
Swanson continued to maintain possession of the lead through lap eight when Robert Ballou and Kale Drake tangled in turn two, sending Drake ramping over Ballou’s hood, yet still managing to go onward.
Just before the yellow, Grant had taken possession of the lead with an outside turn two move on Swanson. However, the yellow flag negated the move, sending Grant back to second and reasserting Swanson as the leader.
Things changed on the lap eight restart as leader Swanson went to the top of turns one and two while Grant dabbled in the middle and Thomas scoured the bottom. Thomas’ low riding groove led him past Grant on the back straight, and when Swanson biked on the cushion in turn four, Thomas zipped on by to take over up front with 23 laps remaining.
Ryan Bernal made a sudden surge to go from fourth to third on lap eight before securing the runner-up position on lap 13 as he drove under Grant in turns three and four to occupy the spot. All the while, Kyle Cummins was carving a path from his 18th starting position, grabbing third from Grant on the 20th circuit.
Thomas’ lead stood at 1.2 seconds as he worked traffic while Bernal inched forward to his back bumper with eighth laps to go. But when Bernal chrome-horned the rear bumper of 19th running Braydon Cromwell in turn two, the contact stifled Bernal and resulted in Thomas gaining precious time on Bernal to the tune of 1.8 seconds.
Thomas led the balance of the distance to the stripe for the biggest payday of the year 1.486 seconds ahead of Bernal as Cummins, Grant and Gunnar Setser rounded out the top five.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Knoxville Raceway, Knoxville, Iowa, May 31, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-18.868; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-18.994; 3. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-19.010; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-19.019; 5. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-19.050; 6. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-19.178; 7. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-19.186; 8. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-19.189; 9. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-19.227; 10. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-19.351; 11. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-19.363; 12. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-19.373; 13. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-19.376; 14. Ryan Bernal, 17x, Dunkel-19.377; 15. A.J. Johnson, 93, Germar-19.384; 16. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-19.439; 17. R.J. Johnson, 33p, Petty-19.581; 18. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-19.599; 19. Kale Drake 2B, 2B Racing-19.691; 20. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-19.783; 21. Stevie Sussex, 2, Yeley-19.792; 22. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Boyd-19.961; 23. Wesley Smith, 44, Smith-20.026; 24. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-20.029; 25. Wyatt Burks, 11w, Burks-20.100; 26. Ben Woods, 11B, B & R-20.142; 27. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-20.193; 28. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-20.437; 29. Tyler Graves, T4, Graves-20.543; 30. Glen Saville, 75, Grasmere-20.874; 31. Dakota Earls, 15E, Earls-21.342.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. R.J. Johnson, 3. Wyatt Burks, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Stevie Sussex, 7. Charles Davis Jr., 8. Tyler Graves. NT
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Ryan Bernal, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Braydon Cromwell, 5. Logan Calderwood, 6. Kobe Simpson, 7. Ben Woods. 2:46.070
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. A.J. Johnson, 6. Wesley Smith, 7. Hayden Reinbold, 8. Dakota Earls. 2:46.018
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Gunnar Setser, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Carson Garrett, 5. Kyle Cummins, 6. Chase Stockon, 7. Kayla Roell. 2:48.806
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Kobe Simpson, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Charles Davis Jr., 5. Ben Woods, 6. Wesley Smith, 7. Stevie Sussex, 8. Kayla Roell, 9. Dakota Earls, 10. Tyler Graves. 3:38.964
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 2. Ryan Bernal (7), 3. Kyle Cummins (18), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Gunnar Setser (9), 6. Chase Stockon (11), 7. Logan Seavey (15), 8. Robert Ballou (10), 9. Briggs Danner (12), 10. Mitchel Moles (6), 11. Jake Swanson (1), 12. Logan Calderwood (13), 13. R.J. Johnson (19), 14. Wyatt Burks (23), 15. Charles Davis Jr. (16), 16. Carson Garrett (22), 17. Hayden Reinbold (14), 18. Kobe Simpson (20), 19. Braydon Cromwell (21), 20. Kale Drake (8), 21. C.J. Leary (2), 22. Brady Bacon (4), 23. A.J. Johnson (17), 24. Jadon Rogers (24).
