By Richie Murray
Terre Haute, Indiana (October 6, 2024)………In a year in which he had topped all drivers with 15 USAC national feature wins, Logan Seavey entered the weekend with one notable exception on his 2024 resume – a victory with the USAC Silver Crown series.
Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) took care of that on Sunday night during the 20th running of the Sumar Classic at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track. The defending Silver Crown champ took control from racelong leader Brady Bacon after the halfway mark of the 100-lapper and led the final 46 laps to earn his 16th USAC national victory of the season and his first with the series on the famed 1/2-mile dirt oval.
Despite the enormous success Seavey has accrued throughout the year, his triumph was his first with USAC since the month of July, more than two months ago during an AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship event at Indianapolis, Indiana’s Circle City Raceway.
Seavey’s win also allowed him to become the third driver this season to win in all three USAC national division, joining Daison Pursley and Justin Grant, each of whom joined him on the podium as fellow top-three finishers at Terre Haute.
Seavey’s latest victory was the ninth of his USAC Silver Crown career, moving him past 2016 champion Chris Windom and into a tie for 14th place all-time alongside 2000 series titlist Tracy Hines.
Meanwhile, the win also marked the continuation of Seavey’s streak of winning at least one USAC Silver Crown race to four consecutive seasons dating back to 2021. But this particular win required patience as it came in the 13th event of the 14-race season, just in the nick of the time, at the wheel of his Rice Motorsports-Abacus Racing/Bloomington Bison – DiaEdge – STIDA.com/DRC/Felker Chevy.
“It’s been a struggle,” Seavey admitted. “At the tracks we normally go to and feel like we’re going to win when we show up, we’ve had some issues. Those ones hurt. But I’ve been so blessed to never have issues with this car. We just put everything together tonight; we had a great car and (crew chief) Ronnie (Gardner) did a great job setting it up. (The crew) worked really hard all day to get us here and (engine builder) A.J. Felker comes to all the races to make sure this thing runs in tip-top shape, and it really did tonight.”
Before it all began, Seavey had a premonition of how the race was going to unfold as he prepared to start from the ninth position in the 25-car field, the deepest a Sumar Classic winner has emerged from since Chris Windom in 2017.
“It was a tricky track, but I told Ronnie before we started, I think we’re going to see 100 laps of running the cushion and that’s what we got,” Seavey explained. “Ninety of those laps were sprint car laps. That’s not what you normally get with Silver Crown racing but that was fun and exciting. I really love that style of racing.”
Despite starting on the inside of row four, Seavey found himself among the front runners fairly quickly, slotting into the top-three by lap 15 behind front row starters Brady Bacon and Daison Pursley.
“I got to third there quickly,” Seavey acknowledged. “I could see Brady, and I ran down the top-two really easily. I was just trying to be patient and make sure that I made moves at the right time.”
On lap 40, Seavey powered to the second spot as he dove and drove under Pursley at the entry to turn one before sliding up and securing the position. Recent Eldora Silver Crown winner Mitchel Moles followed suit into third a half lap later in turns three and four as he too slid past Pursley.
In short order, Seavey soon found himself right on the rear bumper of Bacon for the lead. Lap after lap in his shadow, Seavey made what turned out to be the winning move on the 55th lap when he dove to the bottom of turn one and slid job his way past the nose of Bacon. As Bacon chocked up on the binders to avoid contact with the rear bumper of Seavey in turn two, his speed was scrubbed and Moles pounced by driving past Bacon for the runner-up spot moments later in turn three.
Initially , Seavey anticipated a different approach to working his way past Bacon, but when he saw an opening, he went for it in patented Terre Haute fashion to secure the lead.
“I knew running above (the cushion) was better,” Seavey acknowledged. “If I got up there and really got to Brady, I figured he was going to do the same thing and then it would be tough to pass. I think maybe he thought rubber was coming, so he moved down and I got a big run and was able to go by him.”
Soon thereafter, Pursley, as well as two-time and defending Sumar Classic winner Justin Grant, were on the move. Both drivers charged past Bacon on lap 64 to slot into third and fourth, respectively, while Bacon fell to fifth. At the same time, however, Seavey was stepping away from the field to the tune of 2.6 seconds over Moles.
The running order soon shuffled when second running Moles’ engine went up in smoke 14 laps from the finish line, forcing him into the infield and out of the race. With Moles out of the equation, Seavey’s lead extended even further to five seconds over new second place occupant Pursley.
A yellow flag on lap 91 for 13th running Carmen Perigo, who performed a half-spin in the middle of the pack, brought out the yellow flag, thus deleting Seavey’s commanding advantage. A crash on the subsequent lap 95 restart saw Shane Cottle (10th) contact the turn one outside guardrail, which extended the caution period and necessitated a green-white-checker finish to button things up.
Nonetheless, Seavey kept the field at bay during the final two-lap stretch to prevail by a 0.953 second margin over Pursley, Grant, Chase Stockon and Bacon who led a race high 54 laps before crossing the line in fifth.
Overall, it was Seavey’s third career USAC victory at the Terre Haute Action Track after previously scoring National Sprint Car wins at the joint in 2021, and most recently in May of this year. To put it succinctly, Seavey is a fan of the Action Track.
“I just love this place,” Seavey exclaimed. “I love coming here, and I love Silver Crown racing, especially racing like that.”
Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) made his first Sumar Classic appearance a good one as he started second and finished second as the top series Rookie performer in the field aboard his Team AZ Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – Apache Transportation – OakCraft Elegant Cabinetry/DRC/Stanton Chevy.
After winning the Sumar Classic in each of his past two attempts in 2018 and 2022, Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) came up just a bit short on Sunday with a third-place result in his Hemelgarn Racing/NOS Energy Drink – Super Fitness – Hemelgarn Enterprises/DRC/Speedway Chevy. With Kody Swanson’s 10th place finish at Terre Haute, Grant will enter the series finale at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on Saturday, October 19, with a deficit of only six points.
In what was his first Sumar Classic start since 2015, more than nine years ago, Chase Stockon (Fort Branch, Ind.) was stellar. He officially started 16th and brought it home fourth in the seat of his Pink 69 Racing/Lucas Oil Center – True Brand Fuel Juels – N-Saine Graphix/Maxim/SPEC Chevy. The plus-12 performance earned him the night’s Hard Charger award.
After mechanical issues sidelined him early, C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) was relegated to using a provisional just to be able to start the feature in his Klatt Enterprises/Wilwood Disc Brakes – Brown & Miller Racing Solutions – Penske – Hoosier Tire/Beast/Ford. In advancing from his 24th starting spot to finish sixth, Leary was ineligible for the hard charger award due to the use of a provisional. Nonetheless, it didn’t deter him from being honored as the recipient of the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
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USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 6, 2024 – Terre Haute Action Track – Terre Haute, Indiana – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 20th Sumar Classic
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: (Top-16 locked into the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 9, Dyson-21.414; 2. Daison Pursley, 21, Team AZ-21.474; 3. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran/Binks-21.576; 4. Mario Clouser, 60, Legacy/Wilson-21.714; 5. Chase Dietz, 86, Lee-21.871; 6. Mitchel Moles, 119, Reinbold/Underwood-21.890; 7. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-22.074; 8. Kyle Steffens, 08, Steffens-22.092; 9. Logan Seavey, 22, Rice/Abacus-22.103; 10. Jerry Coons Jr., 55, Bateman-22.274; 11. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-22.368; 12. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-22.655; 13. Trey Osborne, 81, BCR-22.715; 14. Shane Cottle, 66, Rose-22.752; 15. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-22.755; 16. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-22.824; 17. Jimmy Light, 118, Wingo-22.984; 18. Carmen Perigo, 52, Stehman-23.009; 19. Matt Goodnight, 24, Haggenbottom-23.483; 20. Kevin Newton, 99, Armstrong-23.517; 21. Mark Smith, 01, B & S-23.679; 22. Chris Fetter, 15, Fetter-24.536; 23. Nathan Moore, 48, Thomas/Moore-24.728; 24. Dave Peperak, 777, Peperak-25.164; 25. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-25.480; 26. C.J. Leary, 6, Klatt-26.171; 27. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-26.391; 28. Aric Gentry, 3, Simmons-27.534; 29. Kenny Gentry, 18, Gentry-NT.
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS QUALIFYING RACE: (12 laps, top-8 transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Goodnight, 2. Jimmy Light, 3. Mark Smith, 4. Carmen Perigo, 5. Kevin Newton, 6. Nathan Moore, 7. Chris Fetter, 8. Gregg Cory, 9. Dave Peperak, 10. Dave Berkheimer, 11. Kenny Gentry. NT
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (9), 2. Daison Pursley (2), 3. Justin Grant (7), 4. Chase Stockon (16), 5. Brady Bacon (1), 6. C.J. Leary (24-P), 7. Briggs Danner (14), 8. Matt Westfall (11), 9. Jerry Coons Jr. (10), 10. Kody Swanson (3), 11. Mark Smith (18), 12. Mario Clouser (4), 13. Carmen Perigo (19), 14. Brian Ruhlman (13), 15. Matt Goodnight (16), 16. Jimmy Light (17), 17. Shane Cottle (13), 18. Gregg Cory (23), 19. Nathan Moore (21), 20. Mitchel Moles (6), 21. Kyle Steffens (8), 22. Chase Dietz (5), 23. Chris Fetter (22), 24. Kevin Newton (20), 25. Trey Osborne (25). 53:17.590
(P) represents a provisional starter
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-54 Brady Bacon, Laps 55-100 Logan Seavey.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-785, 2-Justin Grant-779, 3-Logan Seavey-721, 4-C.J. Leary-629, 5-Kyle Steffens-493, 6-Trey Osborne-413, 7-Kaylee Bryson-411, 8-Gregg Cory-411, 9-Nathan Moore-367, 10-Bobby Santos-366.
USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-194, 2-Logan Seavey-188, 3-Robert Ballou-145, 4-Justin Grant-133, 5-C.J. Leary-125, 6-Chase Stockon-124, 7-Kyle Cummins-117, 8-Brady Bacon-111, 9-Matt Westfall-104, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-103.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: October 19, 2024 – Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park – Brownsburg, Indiana – .686-Mile Paved Oval – Championship Saturday
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: Brady Bacon (21.063)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Brady Bacon (21.414)
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Matt Goodnight
Hard Charger: Chase Stockon (16th to 4th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Race: C.J. Leary