By Richie Murray
Dodge City, Kansas (October 17, 2025)………If you thought Kyle Cummins was going to wind it down after wrapping up the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship with four races remaining, you thought wrong.
Playing with house money, so to speak, the Princeton, Indiana driver’s responsibilities now revolved around simply concentrating on winning races rather than counting points night-in and night-out.
In his first race as the champion on Friday night at Kansas’ Dodge City Raceway Park, Cummins led early, fell behind, then capitalized when Kevin Thomas Jr. had a run-in with lapped traffic. From there, Cummins led the final 22 circuits to capture his 10th win of the series season in his Petty Performance Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – Premier Recycling/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.
“Points racing is stressful,” Cummins noted. “It’s every day and you’ve got to be on kill every time you hit the racetrack. If you’re not, you’re losing. Mentally, you’ve got to be ready for it. It was a tough season and I’m glad to get it done. That way, we can go out and have some fun.”
It was quite a monumental night for Cummins in terms of his place in USAC National Sprint Car history. For instance, with his latest victory, he set a new single season USAC National Sprint Car record with his 42nd top-10 finish, breaking the record formerly held by Brady Bacon since 2021. Furthermore, Cummins tied Bacon’s 2021 record for most top-fives in a season at 36.
To add to it, Cummins became the second driver this season to reach double digits in feature victories, joining Justin Grant in that category. This marks the first time in 48 years that multiple drivers have surpassed 10 wins in a single USAC National Sprint Car season. Back in 1977, Tom Bigelow hit 14 wins while Pancho Carter tallied 10.
Ironically, there’s another record Cummins is threatening to overtake, which also involves Carter and Bigelow. Carter’s final 369 point margin over Bigelow in 1976 stands as the largest USAC National Sprint Car differential between first and second in series history. Cummins’ Dodge City triumph pushed his lead to 378 with three races remaining.
Cummins’ 30th career USAC National Sprint Car victory also tied him with Chris Windom for 19th place on the all-time series win list.
In what was the first USAC National Sprint Car event held at Dodge City’s 3/8-mile dirt oval in 14 years, Cummins started on the outside of the front row for the 30-lap feature and quickly broke out to the lead around the outside of pole sitter Chase Stockon.
Suddenly, fourth starting Kevin Thomas Jr. broke rank from his fourth starting spot, going by Logan Seavey for third on the opening lap, then surging under Stockon for second in turn four on the second go around. By the fourth lap, Thomas had the lead in his grip as he slid up in front of Cummins off the exit of turn four.
“I wasn’t great,” Cummins confided. “I was good, but (Thomas) was just better through the middle. I was making adjustments right behind him there and was right there with him. I just couldn’t get around him.”
On lap nine, Thomas whistled his way into turn three and nearly collided with the back end of 23rd place running Cooper Sullivan. The closing rate proved to be so spectacular, Thomas had to stand on the binders to avoid contact, which pitched his car sideways and slid backward up the racetrack and nearly into the path of the high line riding Cummins who snaked around Thomas to complete the pass for the lead around the top side of turns three and four.
“It was pretty close,” Cummins recalled. “I don’t know if I want to get any closer than that. I went in there and was going to rip the top, but Kevin got a little sideways. When he did, it kind of backed both of those cars up. I had to let off but I knew that was really my only chance.”
While Cummins pounced back to the front of the pack, Briggs Danner was suddenly the one on the move. Danner wriggled his way into the top-three by lap 13 as he weaved through lapped traffic and around Stockon for the spot in turn two. Two laps later, Danner slotted into second as he zipped around the outside of Thomas and began slicing into Cummins’ 1/2-second advantage with lapped cars here, there and everywhere in between.
With 10 laps to go, the only yellow flag of the night fell when eighth running Jake Swanson slowed to a stop with a flat right rear tire. He returned to the tail of the field after stopping in the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area for fresh rubber but managed only to get back up to 13th at the finish line.
To begin the night, Swanson set a new one-lap USAC National Sprint Car track record at Dodge City with a time of 14.963 seconds during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying, eclipsing the former mark of 15.261, set by Chris Windom in 2011. The quick time was Swanson’s first of the USAC National Sprint Car season and the 11th of his career, equaling him with Daison Pursley, George Snider and Jim McWithey for 50th place all-time.
With the caution, traffic was cleared from the equation for the front runners, which was all to the benefit of Cummins who simply took off over the final 10 laps while the rest of the field was busy fighting their own battles. The most intense of which was the duel for second, which saw Danner and Thomas officially exchange the position four separate times between laps 21 and 26 before Danner finally cleared him with an outside maneuver on lap 26.
Up ahead, Cummins was in total command as he finished the night off 0.700 seconds ahead at the line with Danner crossing the stripe in second, Thomas third, C.J. Leary fourth and Stockon fifth.
Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Caleb Stelzig had to dig himself out of a hole to start the night. His qualifying time was disallowed due to having the incorrect left rear tire affixed to his car. Starting 22nd in the feature, he went +5 to finish 17th, which made him the evening’s Rod End Supply Hard Charger. Furthermore, Stelzig was the highest finishing POWRi Elite Non-Wing Sprint driver in the feature, helping him to pocket $400 worth of bonuses alone.
Trey Osborne left Kansas with a top-10 feature finish in what was the Columbus, Ohio racer’s first career USAC National Sprint Car start in the Sunflower State. That earned him the Inferno Armor USA Fire Move of the Night.
Stevie Sussex picked up an extra $100 from Oklahoma Tidbits for his pill draw performance. The Tempe, Arizona racer drew the highest pill of the night, then came out last in line and still managed to qualify ninth in the field of the 24 cars on hand.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 17, 2025 – Dodge City Raceway Park – Dodge City, Kansas – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – Co-Sanctioned by the POWRi Elite Non-Wing Sprints
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-14.963 (New Track Record); 2. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-15.049; 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-15.102; 4. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-15.116; 5. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-15.117; 6. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-15.191; 7. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.222; 8. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-15.224; 9. Stevie Sussex, 17GP, Dutcher-15.226; 10. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.234; 11. Trey Osborne, 6T, Ebert-15.278; 12. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-15.302; 13. Wyatt Burks, 11w, Burks-15.431; 14. Wesley Smith, 2B, 2B Racing-15.536; 15. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-15.547; 16. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-15.621; 17. R.J. Miller, 34, Miller-15.758; 18. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-15.778; 19. Anthony Nicholson, 16, Nicholson-15.941; 20. Dakota Earls, 15E, Earls-15.993; 21. Paul White, 1w, White-16.489; 22. Glen Saville, 75, Saville-NT; 23. Caleb Stelzig, 21, Stelzig-NT (time of 15.954 disallowed due to illegal left rear tire); 24. Cooper Sullivan, 79F, Fry-NT (time of 16.675 disallowed due to illegal left rear tire).
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Wyatt Burks, 2. Saban Bibent, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Caleb Stelzig, 8. Anthony Nicholson. 2:06.62
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Wesley Smith, 3. Briggs Danner, 4. Trey Osborne, 5. Kyle Cummins, 6. R.J. Miller, 7. Dakota Earls, 8. Cooper Sullivan. 2:03.21
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Stevie Sussex, 3. Gunnar Setser, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Kobe Simpson, 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 7. Paul White. 2:05.06
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (2), 2. Briggs Danner (5), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 4. C.J. Leary (7), 5. Chase Stockon (1), 6. Justin Grant (8), 7. Mitchel Moles (10), 8. Logan Seavey (3), 9. Hayden Reinbold (12), 10. Trey Osborne (13), 11. Gunnar Setser (15), 12. Stevie Sussex (11), 13. Jake Swanson (6), 14. Wyatt Burks (9), 15. Wesley Smith (14), 16. Saban Bibent (19), 17. Caleb Stelzig (22), 18. Anthony Nicholson (18), 19. Kobe Simpson (17), 20. Dakota Earls (20), 21. Cooper Sullivan (23), 22. Paul White (21), 23. R.J. Miller (16). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Kyle Cummins, Laps 4-8 Kevin Thomas Jr., Laps 9-30 Kyle Cummins.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-3173, 2-Mitchel Moles-2795, 3-Logan Seavey-2753, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2702, 5-Justin Grant-2634, 6-Briggs Danner-2564, 7-C.J. Leary-2487, 8-Jake Swanson-2465, 9-Chase Stockon-2127, 10-Gunnar Setser-2037.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-213, 2-Gunnar Setser-150, 3-Briggs Danner-147, 4-C.J. Leary-141, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-135, 6-Logan Seavey-122, 7-Justin Grant-121, 8-Kyle Cummins-115, 9-Hayden Reinbold-112, 10-Chase Stockon-110.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: October 18, 2025 – Route 66 Motor Speedway – Amarillo, Texas – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Chase Stockon (15.237)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Jake Swanson (14.963)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Wyatt Burks
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: C.J. Leary
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Justin Grant
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Caleb Stelzig (22nd to 17th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Trey Osborne
Oklahoma Tidbits Lowest Pill Draw: Stevie Sussex
ProSource Top Elite Qualifier: R.J. Miller
ProSource Top Finishing Elite Drivers: Caleb Stelzig (17th), Kobe Simpson (19th) & Cooper Sullivan (21st)