By Richie Murray
Terre Haute, Indiana (April 12, 2026)………Kyle Cummins has accomplished a great deal of notable achievements in his USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship career, chiefly speaking of the 31 career feature victories as well as his series driving championship one year ago.
That said, one feat that had forever eluded the Princeton, Indiana racer was a USAC National Sprint Car win at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track.
That is, until Sunday night at the 23rd running of the Jim Hurtubise Classic.
Starting fifth, Cummins roared to the lead past Mitchel Moles just five laps into the 30-lap feature to break through for his first USAC National Sprint Car win at the famed 1/2-mile dirt oval in his 16th career series start at the track dating back to 2009.
For Cummins, there’s not really anything he could place into the same realm as the feat he was able to pull off at the Action Track in his Petty Performance Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – JUGO Superfoods/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy No. 3p.
“Nothing else,” when asked if anything could compare to taming the Terre Haute Action Track in USAC competition. “There through the middle of the race, I might not have been as good. Then, towards the end, I got mad and just freaking drove it. It was either going to blow up or win. It didn’t matter.”
While Cummins actually owns a previous triumph at Terre Haute with the Midwest Sprint Car Series in 2021, this moment stood as one of his proudest moments. Take into consideration that his first career USAC National Sprint Car appearance came at the Terre Haute Action Track as a 16-year-old newcomer in 2003. The end result saw Cummins transported to the hospital after vaulting over the turn three wall during a heat race.
Furthermore, Cummins’ latest score was his first USAC National Sprint Car win of the season following six consecutive top-five results on the series trail, including a second place finish 24 hours earlier at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway after leading the initial 12 laps before being overtaken for the number one spot.
“It hasn’t been a rough year, but we just hadn’t won any races,” Cummins acknowledged. “I really felt good about last night but I was disappointed. I’ll take second there last night if it meant winning tonight.”
In his first race as the series point leader in 2026, the defending champ notched his 31st career USAC National Sprint Car victory, tying him with Tyler Courtney for 18th place on the all-time list.
Cummins hustled his way into the prime position on Sunday night as he delivered a slide job on Moles in turn one on the fifth lap. By lap 10, he had worked his way into traffic, first by Australian Troy Carey and then by Illinoisan James Lyerla. However, Cummins’ lead over Moles had shrunk in half from 1.6 seconds down to 0.9 just prior to the halfway mark.
Logan Seavey, who had muscled into third and was posing a challenge to Moles for second, stopped atop turn four with a flat right rear tire on the 15th lap, which sent him to the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area for fresh rubber. Restarting at the tail of the field, he rushed back to ninth. A solid result, all things considered.
Soon, 2019 Hurtubise Classic winner Justin Grant came into range as he charged under Moles for the second position in the third turn on the 19th go around. Moles performed a half-spin in the process, but motored on, albeit now in third.
The red flag was displayed on lap 20 when Cannon McIntosh and Ricky Lewis tangled in turn four amid a battle for the 11th position. McIntosh wound up with the short end of the stick in the deal as he flipped upside down. Lewis continued on to finish seventh.
A wild scramble on the ensuing lap 21 restart saw both Moles and Jake Swanson drift past Grant in turn three, sending Moles back to second and Swanson to third while Grant fell down the running order to fourth. At the same time, 2015 Hurtubise Classic victor Robert Ballou stopped at the bottom of turns three and four with a downed left rear tire while running seventh. He returned to the tail of the field with a new tire, and crossed under the checkered flag 11th in the final tally.
Following one last final restart on lap 22, Cummins separated himself from Moles by a handful of car lengths initially. With five to go, Moles dug into the cushion in turns three and four and lost valuable ground as Cummins spurted away to freedom. Cummins began to mathematically equate the laps down the stretch. He didn’t want to let this opportunity slip from his grip.
“We got behind the first couple of laps there, but we made same good moves and got to the lead,” Cummins recounted. “It’s a long time around Terre Haute. Thirty laps just feels likes it’s forever and ever. I thought surely we’ve got to be getting close, and they’re like ‘ah, 21 laps.’ I was hoping it was a 25-lapper!”
Nonetheless, whether the main event distance was 25 or 30 laps, Cummins had the field covered as he crossed the stripe 1.597 seconds ahead of Mitchel Moles. Justin Grant took third with Jake Swanson fourth and C.J. Leary rounding out the top-five.
Cummins had plenty of clean air this evening after taking the lead on lap five. He led the remaining 26 laps to get the win as well as the K & N Filters Clean Air award.
Meanwhile, Briggs Danner followed up the previous night’s win with another solid performance at Terre Haute. He raced from 14th to sixth in the feature to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. The sixth is his best career USAC National Sprint Car finish to date at Terre Haute.
It was a first for Justin Grant in LearnLab Qualifying. Never before had he been a USAC National Sprint Car Fast Qualifier at the Terre Haute Action Track. On Sunday, he finally got it done with a top lap of 21.267 seconds. His 42nd career quick time with the series tied him with Kevin Thomas Jr. for sixth place all-time.
Rusty McClure, who captured the one and only USAC National Sprint Car win of his career during the 1992 Jim Hurtubise Classic, was on hand for the evening’s event and served as grand marshal.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: April 12, 2026 – Terre Haute Action Track – Terre Haute, Indiana – 23rd Jim Hurtubise Classic – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-21.267; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-21.460; 3. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-21.632; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-21.709; 5. C.J. Leary, 53, Fox-21.817; 6. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-21.838; 7. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-21.943; 8. Cannon McIntosh, 5G, KO-22.046; 9. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-22.072; 10. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-22.175; 11. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-22.266; 12. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-22.323; 13. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-22.363; 14. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-22.486; 15. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-22.818; 16. David Gasper, 77s, Sturgeon-22.973; 17. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-23.334; 18. James Lyerla, 11, JL-23.458; 19. Adam Taylor, 8T, Doherty-23.530; 20. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-23.642; 21. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-23.774; 22. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-24.082.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (4), 2. Trey Osborne (2), 3. Justin Grant (6), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 5. David Gasper (1), 6. Cale Coons (3), 7. Troy Carey (8), 8. Adam Taylor (7). 2:51.123
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (6), 2. Robert Ballou (2), 3. C.J. Leary (5), 4. Cannon McIntosh (4), 5. Brandon Mattox (7), 6. Aric Gentry (1), 7. Logan Calderwood (3). 2:49.720
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (5), 2. Briggs Danner (2), 3. Chase Stockon (4), 4. Logan Seavey (6), 5. Ricky Lewis (3), 6. Hayden Reinbold (7), 7. James Lyerla (1). 2:53.875
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (5), 2. Mitchel Moles (1), 3. Justin Grant (6), 4. Jake Swanson (7), 5. C.J. Leary (2), 6. Briggs Danner (14), 7. Ricky Lewis (11), 8. Cale Coons (10), 9. Logan Seavey (4), 10. Chase Stockon (9), 11. Robert Ballou (13), 12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 13. Trey Osborne (12), 14. Logan Calderwood (19), 15. Brandon Mattox (17), 16. Hayden Reinbold (18), 17. David Gasper (15), 18. Adam Taylor (22), 19. James Lyerla (20), 20. Troy Carey (21), 21. Cannon McIntosh (8), 22. Aric Gentry (16). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Mitchel Moles, Laps 5-30 Kyle Cummins.
**Cannon McIntosh flipped on lap 20 of the feature.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-610, 2-Justin Grant-587, 3-Jake Swanson-570, 4-Mitchel Moles-562, 5-Logan Seavey-551, 6-Briggs Danner-531, 7-Chase Stockon-518, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-500, 9-C.J. Leary-472, 10-Trey Osborne-443.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Logan Calderwood-36, 2-Briggs Danner-28, 3-Cale Coons-28, 4-Robert Ballou-25, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-22, 6-Hayden Reinbold-19, 7-Justin Grant-18, 8-Chase Stockon-18, 9-Brady Bacon-18, 10-Chelby Hinton-17.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: May 1, 2026 – Bloomington Speedway – Bloomington, Indiana – 19th Larry Rice Classic – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Justin Grant (21.015)
LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (21.267)
K1 RaceGear First Heat Winner: Jake Swanson
TJ Forged Second Heat Winner: Kyle Cummins
K & N Filters Third Heat Winner: Mitchel Moles
K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Kyle Cummins (26 laps led)
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Briggs Danner (14th to 6th)