By T.J. Buffenbarger
(February 9, 2026) — For the first time in his career Kyle Cummins arrives in Florida to open the USAC National Sprint Car Series season as the defending champion. Cummins, from Princeton, Indiana, didn’t just win the championship last season, the 38-year-old driver decimated the field with 10 feature victories, setting records for top two, five, and 10 finishes in a single season, and led the point standings through all 49 events contested during the 2025 season.
That success has now made Cummins the driver people are hunting rather than being the hunter. Based on the success he obtained last year, Cummins is comfortable with his seat at the top USAC Sprint Car Racing mountain.
“I think it gives me a little more confidence. I’ve never been the guy coming into into the season people were thinking, ‘oh man, this is the guy you’re looking for’. Now I just need to keep doing what I’m doing and let them keep chasing after me.”
Cummins and the top caliber team he assembled with car owner Jerry Petty enjoyed the release of the pressure of holding that top position in the standings for the entire season as much as the joy of winning his first USAC National Sprint Car points title.
“It was kind of a relief just to go a full year with everybody chasing us and was able to come out ahead,” said Cummins of the relief from leading the standings the entire year. “I liked it better because it wasn’t a close battle. We had so many good finishes and set all the records for top two’s and top five’s, top 10’s. It was a monumental year. I don’t know if I care what people think, but it validated to myself that one time my career I was at least one the best for a year.”
“I think it was more of a release than anything,” said Cummins. “When I first started racing, I was a race car driver, I just raced. Then you start thinking about if you could ever win a USAC race, man, that would be just unbelievable. Then I raced and raced and raced, and it just didn’t happen. Then finally got that first win. It took a little bit longer after that, but then finally we start clicking off wins and you kind of know, you can do it. Then I never even expected a championship, because I never ran all the races. I ran around here, but still in the back of your mind I would think, ‘Man, sure be nice to just win one, wouldn’t that be nice?’
For Cummins the championship comes just two seasons into putting together a race team with Avanti Windows and Doors founder Jerry Petty, which has put Cummins in a scenario that most drivers can only fantasize about with the ability to assemble top equipment and people to race with.
“The situation is probably better than you could even dream up, it’s the best situation in the pits,” said Cummins of teaming up with Petty. “When Jerry and I talked about doing this, I said if we’re going to do this, it must be one way. He basically gave me the reins to build it how I wanted to. I took everything I ever dreamed about or wanted a race team to be, and I did that. We brought in other guys who also have their information. I’m not the most organized person in the world, and so we brought in the right people who are super organized. It’s everything I wanted and there’s data to back it up. It’s not just a fluke deal.”
Part of being able to put together the operation with Petty is also having control of how the team goes about its business, which is very information driven.
“I would say in sprint car racing, we’re at the probably one of the very top as far as the information,” said Cummins. “How we go about things, how we check things, and what kind of notes we have. I don’t know if anyone’s even doing it remotely close to how much information we’re taking. It’s kind of like a sprint car team with a little bit of an F1 mentality.”
Cummins finds that information helpful as part of his process where he is highly involved in how the car is setup for any given race night, which creates a unique approach to how Cummins going through any given night at the racetrack.
“It’s the point of now that I’m making the calls, I don’t even think about the driving really,” said Cummins. I just think about the setup part of it. Is it going to be tighter, going to be looser, that’s what I’m nervous about. I’m just nervous about going out and just missing it completely.”
“Every race car driver has it when you go out there and you’re trying and nothing works. The car is so bad that there’s nothing you can do to do better, and you’re trying your hardest and it’s like a nightmare. My main thing is just to get the car right. I’ve got all the information to make it right; I just have to go out there and make the right calls set up wise. If you do that, it makes the driver’s job easy. To the better job I do making the right calls the easier it is for me to drive it.”
Even with the best of everything Cummins feels most of the pressure to perform comes from himself rather than from team ownership.
“Jerry never puts pressure on me at all. He wants to do good and expects it but doesn’t really put pressure on me. I put enough pressure on myself. I don’t put pressure on my driving as much as I do to make the right setup calls. If the car is right or close, I know I can get the job done.”
Going into the USAC Sprint Car season opening events at Volusia and Ocala, Cummins hopes to improve on picking up a feature win at each facility in 2025 by improving his qualifying effort to gain better track position.
“I think those tracks qualifying is extremely important. Ocala, for sure,” said Cummins. If you get qualified in good, you set yourself up for a pretty good night. I think they both changed their dirt a little bit, but last year there just was not a not a whole lot of passing. Getting qualified in good and just keep the momentum going the right way and not make any dumb mistakes.
Cummins comes into the season opening races in Florida not only looking forward to starting the USAC National Sprint Car Series season, but also to get away from the cold Indiana winter and some of the work at his bustling machine shop.
It’s really my favorite part of the season when we can leave the cold weather and warm up a little bit. It just has a different feeling down there, so it’s defiantly exciting to go racing down there.”
At 38 years of age, Cummins is in the prime of his driving career with a top-level race team but also knows that the number of years he has completed is larger than how many seasons he has left in the driver’s seat. Even with his current success, Cummins ponders when it might be time to step away from driving at some point, but that point will not be coming that soon while Cummins is performing at a high level.
“It crosses my mind every day,” said Cummins, “It took this long to finally get in a situation that you wish you had when you were 25. Jerry has always said when I’m ready to give it up or if I want to stay home, he’ll still let me race a little bit locally or just pick and choose some races I’d like to run. To have that opportunity to be able to still race in good stuff. I don’t know if I could cold turkey. The race shop is at my house and its life, not just a job. It’s our whole life. So, I think about it quite a bit, but I know for sure that this year I’ll be all in.”
Other notes….
- Non-Wing Sprint Cars become the focus this week with the USAC National Sprint Car Series in action all week in Florida at Volusia Speedway Park and Ocala Speedway. The USAC/CRA Sprint Car Series also holds their season opening event at Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday night.
- Peth Motorplex has a busy week of racing with a special mid-week event on Wednesday that leading into the Krikke Boys Shootout on Friday and Saturday.
- Midget cars are also featured in Australia on Friday and Saturday during the Australian Speedcar Championship at Simpson Speedway. Kaidon Brown will look to add the National Title to the Victorian Championship he won last Saturday at Simpson.
- The USCS Sprint Car event scheduled to take place Friday and Saturday at Southern Raceway in Milton, Florida has been cancelled due to renovations being finished up by the track’s new ownership group. The USCS events on February 20-21 at Southern Raceway are still on as scheduled.