By Richie Murray
Lawrenceburg, Indiana (October 11, 2025)………Just when it seemed Logan Seavey was destined for a runner-up finish, in the blink of an eye, everything changed during the final laps of Saturday night’s 18th running of the Fall Nationals at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway.
Seavey (Sutter, California) led the initial 15 laps of the feature before giving way to Justin Grant who led the next 10 circuits and appeared in total control until five laps remaining. But when Grant’s right rear tire let go with five to go, that reopened the door for Seavey who seized the moment and raced away to his second consecutive Fall Nationals triumph.
For his efforts, Seavey collected a $30,000 payday, encompassing a $20,000 winner’s share, plus a $10,000 bonus as part of the NOS Energy Drink Hoosier Trifecta. Seavey finished all three Trifecta events on the podium, including a pair of victories at Tri-State Speedway’s Haubstadt Hustler and Lawrenceburg’s Fall Nationals, plus a third place result at Kokomo Speedway’s Sprint Car Smackdown.
Meanwhile, with his third place result at Lawrenceburg, Princeton, Indiana’s Kyle Cummins gained enough points to clinch his first career USAC National Sprint Car driving championship with four races remaining. Furthermore, it was also the first USAC National Sprint Car titles for both the Petty Performance Racing team as well as Mach-1 Chassis.
With his seventh win of the USAC National Sprint Car season in his Abacus Racing/Mountain Mechanical – Droplight – Elbrecht Concrete/DRC/Stanton Chevy, Seavey became the third driver to capture back-to-back Fall Nationals scores, following Robert Ballou (2007 & 2008) and Bryan Clauson (2013 & 2014).
It was Seavey’s fifth career USAC National Sprint Car win at Lawrenceburg and the 31st overall of Seavey’s USAC National Sprint Car career, tying him with Tyler Courtney for 17th place on the all-time list. This one was quite another lucrative USAC success for Seavey after pocketing $20,000 in his most recent win at Tri-State a month ago.
Oftentimes in racing, it’s better to be lucky than good. On Saturday night at The Burg, Seavey was both of those things.
“We’ll take them how we can get them,” Seavey said. “We’ve had a struggle over the last few months, but I feel like tonight, we finally figured it out and got back on the right track. I just wish it wasn’t so late in the year with only four races to go. I’m happy that we got our car back and I’m comfortable again driving this sprint car. Hopefully this means we’re back.”
One night earlier, Seavey ran inside the top-five of the Greg Staab Memorial at Lawrenceburg, but never quite felt at ease throughout the night. Entering Saturday, the Abacus crew went to work fine-tuning the No. 57 to where it was right on the money.
“Last night, we ran fourth but we just really haven’t been happy with the car,” Seavey admitted. “We made some big swings tonight to try and get me more comfortable and we just kind of went back to how we started the year. Man, it was lights out right away.”
Seavey started the feature from the outside of the front row and immediately took control as he raced around the outside of pole sitter Mitchel Moles to slot into the race lead. Simultaneously, Grant was working his way into the fold, taking third from Kyle Shipley on the opening lap, then chasing down Moles for the runner-up position on the 10th lap with a turn three slide job.
To that point, Seavey’s lead over Grant stood at a full second. However, Grant ate up the interval in a hurry, and on the 16th lap, Grant hustled around the outside of Seavey in turn four to take over the lead at the midway point.
“I felt like my car was probably just as good as (Grant’s) but he was just outdriving me,” Seavey explained. “He was running really hard, and with $40 grand, he’s got a rabbit to chase. If there’s a guy you don’t want behind you, it’s Justin. He went by me and I could kind of pace him. I told my guys all night, ‘man, this is a place I want to start fourth.’ I had to start on the front row and Justin got to start fourth. He got to pace me and find out how to get faster. That’s just how it goes here at Lawrenceburg.”
Grant pushed his lead to nearly a full second after putting Kayla Roell a lap down with seven laps remaining, separating himself from Seavey and Moles who toured the 3/8-mile dirt oval, desperately trying to erase the gap.
But on lap 26 of 30, heartbreak for Grant struck again as he suddenly slowed in turns one and two with a shredded right rear tire. The ordeal was costly as Grant was in the driver’s seat for a $40,000 payday – $20,000 for the race and a personal $20,000 share as part of the NOS Energy Drink Hoosier Trifecta.
It was the third consecutive trip to Lawrenceburg in which misfortune has hit Grant. In July, he broke his left foot in an accident during the feature, which derailed his championship hopes. On Friday, Grant’s bid for victory ended abruptly due to an engine failure while leading the race. It’s been a wild bout of misfortune for Grant at Lawrenceburg where he is a seven time USAC National Sprint Car winner, tied for the most all-time.
Grant returned to the field with fresh rubber after his TOPP Motorsports crew swapped it out during the caution in the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area. Grant’s misfortune was Seavey’s gain as he now held the upper hand as the new race leader with five laps remaining.
“It’s hard not to feel for Justin there,” Seavey acknowledged. “That’s a $40,000 tire for him and three nights in a row now at Lawrenceburg have bit him pretty hard. You got to feel for those guys.”
On the final restart, Seavey shook himself away from the field and bolted away to victory by a 0.897 second margin with Mitchel Moles second again at the Fall Nationals for the second straight year. Kyle Cummins took third with C.J. Leary fourth and Jake Swanson fifth.
Swanson continued his solid stretch of finishes with a 12th to 5th run to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. Over his seven most recent USAC National Sprint Car starts, he’s now finished 5th-5th-5th-8th-5th-3rd-5th.
Kyle Shipley parlayed a nice fourth place qualifying run into a top-10 feature finish in his first career Fall Nationals start. That said, it came following a nifty recovery early in the feature when he bounced several times through turns one and two but managed to save it and continue on without contact. The save earned him the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
In Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying, Kevin Thomas Jr. collected his first USAC National Sprint Car Fast Qualifying time of the year. Despite winning the event three times, it was his first career quick time during the Fall Nationals. Overall, his 13.663 second lap was the 41st fast qualifying time of his career with the series, sixth most all-time.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 11, 2025 – Lawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – 18th Fall Nationals
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-13.663; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-13.762; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.771; 4. Kyle Shipley, 00, Anderson-13.822; 5. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.868; 6. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.872; 7. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-13.916; 8. Todd Hobson, 98H, Doran/Wedgewood-13.933; 9. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-13.960; 10. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-13.978; 11. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-14.025; 12. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.026; 13. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.117; 14. Ricky Lewis, 2B, 2B Racing-14.125; 15. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.129; 16. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-14.403; 17. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-14.505; 18. Glen Saville, 75, Saville-14.821.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Saban Bibent, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. C.J. Leary, 5. Kyle Shipley, 6. Kobe Simpson. 1:55.835
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Ricky Lewis, 2. Todd Hobson, 3. Gunnar Setser, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Kayla Roell. 1:55.113
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Hayden Reinbold, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Briggs Danner, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Glen Saville. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (2), 2. Mitchel Moles (1), 3. Kyle Cummins (5), 4. C.J. Leary (10), 5. Jake Swanson (12), 6. Hayden Reinbold (9), 7. Ricky Lewis (8), 8. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 9. Gunnar Setser (13), 10. Kyle Shipley (3), 11. Todd Hobson (11), 12. Justin Grant (4), 13. Chase Stockon (15), 14. Kayla Roell (17), 15. Saban Bibent (7), 16. Briggs Danner (14), 17. Glen Saville (18), 18. Kobe Simpson (16). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-15 Logan Seavey, Laps 16-25 Justin Grant, Laps 26-30 Logan Seavey.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-3097, 2-Mitchel Moles-2739, 3-Logan Seavey-2698, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2631, 5-Justin Grant-2571, 6-Briggs Danner-2486, 7-C.J. Leary-2418, 8-Jake Swanson-2417, 9-Chase Stockon-2063, 10-Gunnar Setser-1990.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-213, 2-Gunnar Setser-146, 3-Briggs Danner-144, 4-C.J. Leary-138, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-134, 6-Logan Seavey-122, 7-Justin Grant-119, 8-Kyle Cummins-114, 9-Chase Stockon-110, 10-Hayden Reinbold-109.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: October 17, 2025 – Dodge City Raceway Park – Dodge City, Kansas – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Todd Hobson (13.850)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Kevin Thomas Jr. (13.663)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Saban Bibent
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Ricky Lewis
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Hayden Reinbold
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Jake Swanson (12th to 5th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Kyle Shipley