By Richie Murray
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (June 20, 2025)………Kevin Thomas Jr.’s last trip to Williams Grove Speedway saw him lead just one single solitary lap on the way to a dramatic victory in June of 2024.
The Cullman, Alabama racer’s latest triumph at the Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania 1/2-mile dirt oval didn’t require as much of the late-race dramatics as it did last time, but all in all, the thrill of victory remained just as satisfying.
Thomas led all 30 laps to score the victory in Friday night’s USAC Eastern Storm Presented by Levan Machine & Truck Equipment round three in his Rock Steady Racing/Inferno Armor – Lucas Oil Center – Creative Finishing/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.
The second victory of the 2025 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season for Thomas was also the 46th of his career with the series, moving him into a tie with Jack Hewitt for sixth place on the all-time USAC National Sprint Car win list.
“That’s pretty cool,” Thomas remarked. “When you start out, you look at all the guys on the list. I looked at (Jon) Stanbrough and Jerry Coons Jr. and Dave Darland, and I was like, ‘damn, if I could ever just get one win, that would be pretty cool,’ and just to say I raced with these guys and got a win. Jack is the coolest damn dude ever. He’ll whoop your ass and then pray with you.”
Furthermore, the score was the third of Thomas’ career at Williams Grove following triumphant performances in 2017 and 2024. His three USAC National Sprint Car wins at Williams Grove now rank second all-time, only one behind A.J. Foyt’s four. Additionally, Thomas became the first driver to record back-to-back USAC National Sprint Car wins at Williams Grove since the late, great Jan Opperman in 1973.
Thomas also provided car owner Hank Byram of Rock Steady Racing his 32nd career USAC National Sprint Car main event win, moving him into a tie with Ben Leyba for 14th place all-time on the series’ entrant win list.
However, at first, it was the race that seemingly didn’t want to begin. Just as the 30-lap feature was set to roll off, the track lights went completely dark due to a nearby car accident that knocked out the power to the surrounding area. USAC followers may recall that, six nights earlier, two mid-race power outages during a USAC Silver Crown event at World Wide Technology Raceway resulted in multiple red flags that totaled roughly 45 minutes. This occasion was relatively brief with about a 20-minute unplanned break before light began to beam down from the heavens and racing activities could once again proceed.
When on track action was able to resume, the madness mounted. On the first try at the start, 18th starting J.T. Ferry took a tumble in turn three that also collected Abby Hohlbein and first-time USAC National Sprint Car starter Dirk Rimrott. Ferry’s night was over and he was able to walk away while Hohlbein and Rimrott restarted and continued on.
But as it turned out, that didn’t last long. On take two of the start, Daison Pursley (7th) lost control in between tuns three and four on his own and spun completely sideways in the middle of the track. Moments later, Joey Amantea clipped Pursley’s left front wheel with his right rear tire and slid to a stop while C.J. Leary also collided with Pursley, knocking all three out of the contest.
Further on back, at the very same moment, Hohlbein and Mike Haggenbottom collided, sending both drivers flipping wildly through turns three and four in a spectacular looking ride that both were able to walk away from. While Haggenbottom’s evening ended abruptly, he did set a new record for the longest duration between USAC National Sprint Car feature starts at 28 years, 9 months & 8 days. Before Friday night, his one and only series start came in September of 1996, also at Williams Grove.
The third attempt at a start proved to be the charm as Thomas stepped out to the opening lap lead over Jake Swanson who slotted into second. By lap seven, Thomas’ lead stood at a full second while Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier Mitchel Moles was draped all over the back of Kyle Cummins for third.
For Thomas, restarts were a must to avoid any missteps. After nearly stuffing it in the fence on his initial try at the start, Thomas took notes and made certain that it didn’t happen again.
“It’s hard here, especially with the way the corners are shaped and change up your approach to it,” Thomas explained. “If you do it wrong, you can really open yourself up to failure down there in turn one. I overcooked the first one. I thought I had just a little more grip than what I did and wound up there in the marbles and stuff. I got another shot at it and I felt good there. I just had to be patient. It’s such a long ass straightaway for a non-wing car. You lift before you think you have to and you’re pretty hard on brakes. Even when you’re running the top, you’re pretty hard on the equipment.”
Moles’ milestone fast time to open the night was his series-leading sixth of the USAC National Sprint Car season. Furthermore, his lap of 19.246 seconds was the 21st fast qualifying time of his USAC National Sprint Car career, tying him with four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt for 22nd place all-time.
That said, Moles was hellbent on adding more accolades as he squeezed between the turn one inside guardrail and Cummins to his outside for the third spot on lap 13. Moments later on lap 14, trouble hit two past USAC national and Eastern Storm champions as Robert Ballou (7th) slowed to a stop with a radius rod issue. Simultaneously, Logan Seavey (9th) slowed with a flat left rear tire. Both were able to return with Ballou crossing the stripe 11th and Seavey one spot behind in 12th.
Just as Moles had emerged as a prime contender while running third and challenging for second, he spun backwards into the turn three outside guardrail with a light tap on the 16th lap. Restarting at the back, Moles managed to hustle his way back to 8th at the finish.
Just then, Cummins caught his second wind as he slid past Jake Swanson for second in turn one on the 22nd go around. At the moment, Thomas’ lead remained at nearly a full second over Cummins and now Briggs Danner who scooted under Swanson for third in turns one and two with five circuits remaining on lap 26.
Up front, Thomas was mostly by his lonesome and was two turns away from victory on the final lap when the yellow lights surrounding the track flashed, signaling caution for ninth running Kayla Roell who slowed to a stop on the front straight, just missing out on becoming the first woman in series history to record a top-10 finish in USAC National Sprint Car competition.
Staring at a green-white-checkered finish, Thomas wasn’t keen on experiencing any late-race heroics play out in reverse from one year ago.
“I was just hoping I didn’t run out of fuel like Briggs did last year,” Thomas said, referring to Danner’s last lap trouble at the 2024 Williams Grove USAC Eastern Storm round. “Last year, we got lucky, but we were in position to win. We’ll take those, but I felt that, this year, we put ourselves in position to control the race. As tough as this place is to pass and to get around in general, it’s very oddball for a non-wing car. Being that it’s super-fast and also extremely technical, you can overshoot the corners and miss the bottom and get out into no man’s land. By being able to process those into one on each straightaway, having a clean track in front of you is important.”
It all worked out in Thomas’ plan as he went undenied on the final restart to keep his challengers at bay, crossing under Warren Alston’s checkered flag 0.397 seconds ahead of runner-up Kyle Cummins who was followed by Briggs Danner in third, Jake Swanson in fourth and Justin Grant rounding out the top-five.
It was yet another fine run for Kyle Cummins who upped his best Williams Grove performance from 10th in 2024 to second in 2025 for his best career result at the legendary venue. Best yet for Cummins, he also extended his USAC Eastern Storm point lead to seven with two races remaining.
Steven Drevicki equaled his best career USAC National Sprint Car finish by advancing plus-eight from 14th to 6th to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.
The Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night went to Briggs Danner who made a spectacular bid up through the field to race his way from 10th to 3rd in the feature. In doing so, Danner kept pace in the USAC Eastern Storm title fight, moving up from third to second in the standings, just seven points behind Cummins.
During his first heat race victory, Daison Pursley’s eight-lap run broke the USAC National Sprint Car track record for the distance at Williams Grove. Pursley’s time of 2:38.818 surpassed the now former record time of 2:39.140 set by Brady Bacon in 2023.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 20, 2025 – Williams Grove Speedway – Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – USAC Eastern Storm Presented by Levan Machine & Truck Equipment
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-19.246; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-19.305; 3. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-19.321; 4. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-19.354; 5. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-19.374; 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-19.386; 7. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-19.418; 8. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-19.448; 9. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-19.531; 10. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-19.571; 11. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-19.646; 12. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-19.719; 13. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-19.803; 14. Steven Drevicki, 19s, DeGre-19.913; 15. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-19.992; 16. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-20.221; 17. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Boyd-20.310; 18. J.T. Ferry, 18, Ferry-20.352; 19. Bruce Buckwalter Jr., 83, Buckwalter-20.922; 20. Mike Haggenbottom, 51, Kelly-21.298; 21. Olivia Thayer, 39T, Thayer-21.478; 22. Abby Hohlbein, 2A, 2B Racing-21.615; 23. Dirk Rimrott, 27, Rimrott-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Kale Drake, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Jake Swanson, 6. Kayla Roell, 7. Abby Hohlbein, 8. Bruce Buckwalter Jr. 2:38.818 (New Track Record)
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Gunnar Setser, 4. Steven Drevicki, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Braydon Cromwell, 7. Mike Haggenbottom, 8. Dirk Rimrott. 2:41.114
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Joey Amantea, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. C.J. Leary, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. J.T. Ferry, 7. Olivia Thayer. 2:43.074
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1), 2. Kyle Cummins (2), 3. Briggs Danner (10), 4. Jake Swanson (3), 5. Justin Grant (5), 6. Steven Drevicki (14), 7. Hayden Reinbold (12), 8. Mitchel Moles (6), 9. Gunnar Setser (11), 10. Kale Drake (13), 11. Robert Ballou (8), 12. Logan Seavey (9), 13. Braydon Cromwell (17), 14. Kayla Roell (16), 15. Olivia Thayer (21), 16. Bruce Buckwalter Jr. (19), 17. Dirk Rimrott (23), 18. Daison Pursley (7), 19. Joey Amantea (15), 20. Mike Haggenbottom (20), 21. C.J. Leary (4), 22. Abby Hohlbein (22), 23. J.T. Ferry (18). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Kevin Thomas Jr.
**J.T. Ferry flipped on lap 1 of the feature. Abby Hohlbein & Mike Haggenbottom flipped on the lap 1 restart during the feature.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-1244, 2-Justin Grant-1143, 3-Mitchel Moles-1011, 4-Briggs Danner-953, 5-Logan Seavey-944, 6-Robert Ballou-922, 7-Jake Swanson-916, 8-Kale Drake-874, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-865, 10-C.J. Leary-849.
USAC EASTERN STORM PRESENTED BY LEVAN MACHINE & TRUCK EQUIPMENT POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-228, 2-Briggs Danner-221, 3-Justin Grant-210, 4-Mitchel Moles-209, 5-Jake Swanson-182, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-172, 7-Daison Pursley-172, 8-Robert Ballou-161, 9-Logan Seavey-154, 10-Hayden Reinbold-154.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-135, 2-C.J. Leary-58, 3-Briggs Danner-57, 4-Gunnar Setser-57, 5-Kyle Cummins-55, 6-Robert Ballou-50, 7-Chase Stockon-50, 8-Justin Grant-47, 9-Jacob Denney-35, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-34.
USAC EASTERN STORM PARALLAX GROUP PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Briggs Danner-20, 2-Daison Pursley-15, 3-Robert Ballou-12, 4-Kyle Cummins-11, 5-Steven Drevicki-11, 6-Justin Grant-8, 7-Olivia Thayer-8, 8-Mitchel Moles-7, 9-Kale Drake-7, 10-Gunnar Setser-7.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 21, 2025 – Port Royal Speedway – Port Royal, Pennsylvania – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – USAC Eastern Storm Presented by Levan Machine & Truck Equipment
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Mitchel Moles (19.439)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Mitchel Moles (19.246)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Daison Pursley
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Justin Grant
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Steven Drevicki (14th to 6th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Briggs Danner