PARAGON, Ind. – Kevin Thomas Jr. added one more tally to his growing USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series win list for this year, conquering a Sunday night, caution-free duel between he and Logan Seavey at Indiana’s Paragon Speedway.
In the series’ return to the three-eighths-mile dirt oval following a 23-year absence, Thomas couldn’t hardly wait to end his personal absence from victory lane, moving to the lead past Seavey eight laps in, then spending the remaining 23-lap distance trying to simultaneously press through lapped traffic while keeping Seavey behind him.
Thomas’ 32nd career USAC National Sprint Car feature win tied him with USAC and National Sprint Car Hall of Famer Rollie Beale for 13th on the all-time win list. The victory comes after Thomas secured the Indiana Sprint Week crown in July.
“I’m glad to get the win,” Thomas stated. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been to Paragon, and I’m glad we’re back. It’s a fun little race track. It’s a good win for us, and coming right after winning Sprint Week, it just carries over momentum-wise.”
Pole sitter C.J. Leary initially edged ahead at the start for the first three-quarters of a lap, but off turn four, Seavey muscled his way through on the cushion to reach the point from his outside front row starting position while Thomas followed suit on the topside past Leary exiting the fourth corner to slot into second.
Thomas hovered all over the back bumper of Seavey as the pair crossed the stripe to complete lap eight. Seavey went straight the top through turns one and two while Thomas stuck the middle and surged ahead to take over the race lead at the exit of turn two.
The name of the game for the remaining two-thirds of the race was traffic, and both Thomas and Seavey blasted their way through the back half of the field with precision, Seavey remaining a half second back and desperately trying to reel himself back into contention.
Any mistake or misstep in negotiating the race track itself or another car would prove costly, and twice throughout the middle portion of the race, Seavey got close to the back of Thomas but encountered issues atop the tricky curb between turns three and four that cost himself a half-second of ground each time on laps 14, 17 and 24.
Running two distinct lines – Thomas through the middle and Seavey up top – the two worked on the 14th place car of semi-feature winner Koby Barksdale as Seavey closed the gap to two car lengths with three laps remaining. Thomas pulled to the inside of Barksdale exiting turn two as Barksdale hiked the front end and veered right just as Thomas was overtaking him to his left field of vision, leaving nothing but open space in front of the leaders for the final two-lap run to the checkered.
Crossing under the white flag, less than two car lengths separated both Thomas and Seavey. Thomas nailed his path through turns one and two to open up a separation of six car lengths that ultimately proved insurmountable. In turns three and four, Thomas slid through the middle and up to the top to take away Seavey’s line at the exit of turn four to be greeted by twin checkers for the fifth time during this season with the series.
Thomas’ .375-second margin of victory at the finish line put him ahead of Seavey, Kyle Cummins, point leader Brady Bacon and KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Chris Windom, who came all the way from 18th to finish 5th.
For the duration of his time up front, Thomas was unsure of himself regarding where to attack the racetrack. Lapped cars dictated that in certain aspects, so Thomas found a tactic that worked for him and pushed him to victory lane once again.
“The whole race, I was kind of in defense mode,” Thomas recalled. “I felt alright at the beginning after the track work. Once I got to the lead, about five to eight laps later, I didn’t know where to run. I saw lapped cars pulling me certain places and I wasn’t really good where they were getting me. I tried other things and ended up sliding myself for 30 laps.”
It had been a span of 22 days since the most recent USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship event and Thomas had run seven USAC National Midget races in that timeframe. Thomas relished the opportunity to get back to work in the No. 9K sprinter, while his crew chief Davey Jones offered some poignant advice.
“It feels good,” Thomas said. “I like getting back in the sprint car, and running the midget during our off weeks really keeps me up to par. But after qualifying, Davey said if you don’t quit driving that thing like a midget, we’re going to have trouble. I enjoy doing it, and I enjoy racing sprint cars and coming to new places.”
The resulting success has moved Thomas to within 39 of Bacon’s series point lead as he seeks his first career USAC National championship. Offering a quick quip regarding his championship outlook, Thomas got right to the point to show where his mindset is with so many races lying ahead.
“I ain’t even going to talk about that,” Thomas remarked.
Seavey led the first seven laps and took second to Thomas in his Baldwin-Fox Racing/Fox Paving – Claxton Engines/DRC/Claxton Chevy. For Seavey, it was his second consecutive day of finishing second after finishing in the runner-up spot to Kody Swanson in Saturday afternoon’s USAC Silver Crown event at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.
Kyle Cummins scored his third-straight top-four finish with USAC in his Rock Steady Racing/Mid-America Safety Solutions – Project Oversight/Mach-1/Cummins Chevy with a third-place finish.
Thomas’ time of 8:28.95 in the non-stop, green-to-checker feature shattered a 39-year-old record for USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car racing at Paragon. The 30-lap record for the series, formerly held by Rich Vogler, was set in 1982 with a time of 12:01.780.
The finish:
1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 2. Logan Seavey (2), 3. Kyle Cummins (6), 4. Brady Bacon (9), 5. Chris Windom (18), 6. C.J. Leary (1), 7. Robert Ballou (19), 8. Justin Grant (5), 9. Jason McDougal (13), 10. Emerson Axsom (7), 11. Jake Swanson (10), 12. Tanner Thorson (23-P), 13. Chase Randall (14), 14. Koby Barksdale (11), 15. Brayden Fox (16), 16. Jake Scott (15), 17. Brandon Mattox (21), 18. Brandon Morin (22), 19. Tye Mihocko (20), 20. Chase Stockon (8), 21. Jadon Rogers (12), 22. Ricky Lewis (17), 23. Shane Cockrum (3).