By Richie Murray
Meeker, Oklahoma (October 25, 2024)………”It’s a dream come true to be able to win some USAC races.”
Matt Westfall has now achieved this highlight three times in his long career, but his latest triumph was undoubtedly his most incredible during Friday night’s USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship debut at Meeker, Oklahoma’s Red Dirt Raceway.
Meanwhile, third-place finishing Logan Seavey clinched the USAC National Sprint Car driving title. In doing so, he became the eighth member of the USAC Career Triple Crown Club by capturing championships in all three of USAC’s national divisions: Midget (2018 & 2023), Silver Crown (2023) and Sprint (2024). It’s a feat previously accomplished by only Pancho Carter, Tony Stewart, Dave Darland, J.J. Yeley, Jerry Coons Jr., Tracy Hines and Chris Windom.
Starting 13th on the grid, Westfall (Pleasant Hill, Ohio) found his way to the front by sticking to the bottom and controlling the throttle with precision and perfection. After all, starting as far back as he did and running the line that he chose, Westfall had to be every bit of perfect as humanly possible for 30-straight laps in his Ray Marshall Motorsports/Buckeye Machine – Hempy Water/DRC/Gressman Chevy.
After swiping the lead away from the rim-riding Kyle Cummins with seven laps remaining, Westfall cruised to his first USAC National Sprint Car win of the season. Amid the process, it was the furthest back any driver had started and won a race with the series since Kevin Thomas Jr.’s 14th to 1st charge at Indiana’s Lincoln Park Speedway in 2021.
Perhaps most miraculous of all was the fact that Westfall’s run to the front came after starting on the pole of the semi-feature and running second. It was a bounce back for the ages for the driver who hadn’t finished inside the top-five of a USAC National Sprint Car feature in nearly six months, back in May at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.
“We sucked all night,” Westfall admitted. “We qualified decent but we weren’t very good. We made wholesale changes there for the feature and it slowed down enough to where we could idle the bottom and nobody else could hold it down there.”
At the start, it was pole starting Kevin Thomas Jr. who broke out to lead the opening four laps, fending off repeated slider attempts from Justin Grant along the way. However, Kyle Cummins was fiercely on the move. The sixth starting driver was contending for the lead by lap four, and by lap five, he was up front after slipping under Thomas for the top spot in turn two.
Within a few laps, Cummins had strung his lead out to a full-straightaway, and his powerhouse performance thus far appeared to all onlookers as if he was a shoo-in for the win, especially after already corralling Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier honors followed by a dominant heat race victory.
Within a few laps, Cummins was already slicing his way through the back end of traffic. As the focus turned to the battles beyond the lead, there was a yellow streak crawling along the bottom of the track driven by Westfall. At first, some might’ve misconstrued it as a lapped car until noticing that it was picking off the cars in front of it at will.
By lap eight, Westfall was running 10th, and that’s when he really began to rally. He was eighth by lap nine, sixth by lap 10, fifth by lap 11 and third by lap 12. Finally, on lap 17, Westfall cleared Grant for second after Grant became entrapped behind a flurry of traffic on the high line of turns three and four. Though the track could be deemed technical, for Westfall’s style and liking, this place fit him like a glove.
“I call this red ice; there was no grip,” Westfall explained. “There was just one little patch around the bottom that we could get ahold of. Everybody was pretty even and we were pretty good there on the bottom.”
Although his deficit remained nearly three seconds behind Cummins at that juncture, the momentum seemed to be on the side of Westfall. However, once Westfall encountered his share of lapped cars on the low line, he figured his surge to the front was in danger. However, none of those cars were able to stick to the bottom quite like he could. As they slid up, Westfall swiftly drove by them all while keeping his car as straight as an arrow through the turns. Suddenly, Cummins’ lead had dwindled from a full-straightaway to a half-straightaway.
Westfall’s 1.812 second deficit to Cummins was dramatically cut on lap 20 when 23rd running Hunter Maddox spun to a stop in turn one to bring out the yellow flag, thus, bunching up the field and removing the equation of lapped traffic for the final 10 laps.
On the ensuing restart, Cummins stayed true to the top while Westfall occupied the bottom. Lap after lap after lap, it was the true definition of a high-low battle as the pair remained side-by-side all the way around the 1/4-mile dirt oval. On lap 24, Westfall’s persistence paid off as he emerged from turn four to nip Cummins at the line by a wheel at the conclusion of the 24th lap.
From that point onward, Westfall successfully inched away bit by bit to cross the finish line as a winner in the return of USAC National Sprint Cars to Oklahoma for the first time since Jay Drake’s victory 20 years ago at the Tulsa Fairgrounds in 2004.
Kyle Cummins finished as the runner-up 1.948 seconds behind Westfall after leading a race high 19 laps. New series champion Logan Seavey took third with Justin Grant fourth and Kevin Thomas Jr. fifth.
Not only was Westfall the feature winner, but he also earned hard charger honors for his +12 performance. While doing so, he became the first driver since Brady Bacon at Wisconsin’s Wilmot Raceway in 2023 to score both the hard charger award and the feature win on the same evening.
It was also a big night for Paul White. The Texan earned his best career USAC National Sprint Car result. His 17th to 7th run made him the recipient of Inferno Armor’s Fire Move of the Night. He also picked up an extra $100 from ProSource as the best finishing ASCS Elite Non-Wing Sprints Series driver.
To begin the night, Kyle Cummins established Red Dirt’s USAC National Sprint Car track record of 12.832 seconds. His 17th career fast time with the series moved him past Rollie Beale, Jack Hewitt and Doug Kalitta for sole possession of 28th place all-time.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 25, 2024 – Red Dirt Raceway – Meeker, Oklahoma – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – Co-Sanctioned by the ASCS Elite Non-Wing Sprints Series
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-12.832 (New Track Record); 2. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-12.946; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.018; 4. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.042; 5. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.087; 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-13.148; 7. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.186; 8. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.235; 9. Kyle Jones, 79, Hall-13.245; 10. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-13.284; 11. Daison Pursley, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-13.356; 12. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-13.361; 13. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.420; 14. Xavier Doney, 74, Doney/Lawson-13.457; 15. Wesley Smith, 2B, 2B Racing-13.471; 16. Paul White, 1, Wade-13.566; 17. Weston Gorham, 71w, Gorham-13.597; 18. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-13.602; 19. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-13.695; 20. Wyatt Burks, 11w, Burks-13.817; 21. Matt Sherrell, 15m, Graham-13.902; 22. Cooper Sullivan, 79F, Fry-13.920; 23. Colt Treharn, 77, Treharn-13.931; 24. Craig Carroll, 24c, Risley-14.019; 25. Brock Cottrell, 5B, Cottrell-14.044; 26. Ty Hulsey, 24H, Risley-14.094; 27. R.J. Miller, 34, Miller-14.102; 28. Brennon Marshall, 43, Miller-14.798; 29. Joe Wood Jr., 03, Wood-14.090.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Matt Sherrell, 5. Kyle Jones, 6. Weston Gorham, 7. Brock Cottrell, 8. Joe Wood Jr. 2:17.610
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Xavier Doney, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Kobe Simpson, 5. Carson Garrett, 6. Cooper Sullivan, 7. Ty Hulsey. 2:17.053 (New Track Record)
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Wesley Smith, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Colt Treharn, 6. R.J. Miller, 7. Hunter Maddox. NT
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Wyatt Burks, 2. Craig Carroll, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Paul White, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Brennon Marshall. 2:25.578
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Weston Gorham, 2. Matt Westfall, 3. Brock Cottrell, 4. Cooper Sullivan, 5. Ty Hulsey, 6. Hunter Maddox, 7. Brennon Marshall, 8. R.J. Miller, 9. Joe Wood Jr. 2:23.814
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Matt Westfall (13), 2. Kyle Cummins (6), 3. Logan Seavey (3), 4. Justin Grant (2), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1), 6. Brady Bacon (9), 7. Paul White (17), 8. Daison Pursley (7), 9. Mitchel Moles (4), 10. Wesley Smith (16), 11. C.J. Leary (5), 12. Robert Ballou (10), 13. Wyatt Burks (8), 14. Xavier Doney (15), 15. Kyle Jones (11), 16. Cooper Sullivan (21), 17. Carson Garrett (12), 18. Weston Gorham (18), 19. Matt Sherrell (20), 20. Hunter Maddox (25-P), 21. Kobe Simpson (19), 22. Hayden Reinbold (14), 23. Colt Treharn (22), 24. Brock Cottrell (24), 25. Craig Carroll (23). NT
(P) represents a provisional starter
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Kevin Thomas Jr., Laps 5-23 Kyle Cummins, Laps 24-30 Matt Westfall.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-2916, 2-Brady Bacon-2820, 3-Daison Pursley-2645, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2580, 5-C.J. Leary-2555, 6-Mitchel Moles-2514, 7-Robert Ballou-2474, 8-Kyle Cummins-2426, 9-Justin Grant-2395, 10-Carson Garrett-1777.
USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-199, 2-Logan Seavey-195, 3-Robert Ballou-149, 4-Justin Grant-142, 5-C.J. Leary-130, 6-Kyle Cummins-128, 7-Chase Stockon-126, 8-Matt Westfall-119, 9-Brady Bacon-118, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-109.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: October 26, 2024 – Red Dirt Raceway – Meeker, Oklahoma – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: C.J. Leary (12.867)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Kyle Cummins (12.832)
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Kyle Cummins
Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.
T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Daison Pursley
Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Wyatt Burks
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Weston Gorham
Hard Charger: Matt Westfall (13th to 1st)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Paul White
ProSource Top ASCS Elite Non-Wing Finisher: Paul White