By Richie Murray
Lawrenceburg, Indiana (October 9, 2026)………Jake Swanson had been yearning for his first career Lawrenceburg Speedway USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory ever since he first stepped foot at the southeastern Indiana 3/8-mile dirt oval.
He just needed the perfect moment to come together at exactly the right place at exactly the right time.
With four laps remaining during Friday night’s 3rd Annual Greg Staab Memorial, Swanson used his expert timing to pick off Kyle Cummins in lapped traffic for the lead, then successfully fended off all-out blitz from Briggs Danner on the final lap to capture his third triumph of the USAC season.
“We’ve got some really good competition, really stout guys, big teams, big money, and it feels really good for my little race team to be keeping up with them and beating them from time-to-time,” Swanson beamed. “It’s definitely something that I’m proud of, and I’m thankful for all the people that who’ve helped me do it.”
Swanson’s win was the 10th of his career in USAC National Sprint Car competition, tying him with Thomas Meseraull, Eddie Sachs, Tony Stewart, and Johnny Thomson for 56th place on the all-time list.
But none of those 10 had ever occurred at Lawrenceburg, where he had posted five USAC podium finishes dating back to 2021, including a pair of runner-up results and three thirds. He also possessed three other top-five USAC finishes in that span, but nary a win. Until this one.
“Oh, man! I’ve wanted to win here for a long time but I’ve just always ran second here. Like a lot of seconds here,” Swanson recounted. “I’m so stoked to finally get one here.”
Starting fourth in the 24-car field for the $6,544-to-win 30-lap feature in his Daming Swanson Motorsports/Inland Rigging – Snake Enterprises/DRC/1-Way Chevy, Swanson watched as fellow second row starter Cummins made mincemeat of the front row on the opening lap as Cummins charged past C.J. Leary and Chase Stockon to take an immediate front row seat and promptly took off from the rest of the pack.
For a while, it seemed like Cummins was saying ‘sayonara’ to the field, just as he had done 11 previous times with the series this year, and just as he had done one year ago during this very same event. But Swanson steadily and surely moved to the forefront to third by Leary on lap two and to second past Stockon on lap four.
Although, by then, Cummins’ lead was already more than two seconds. But Swanson didn’t fret. He was going to take what the track was giving him, all the while running all-out. After all, it’s Lawrenceburg, and any and all slouchers will immediately become exposed.
“This place is not one you just go out there and kind of run around,” Swanson explained. “You have to be on the edge the whole time. The cushion might not even look that big on camera on Flo, but it’s sketchy and you’ve got to run right on it and perfect for 30 laps. If you go past it once, you’re going to crash, especially when it gets close to the wall. But the curb was big tonight. You’ve definitely just got to race the racetrack.”
On the sixth lap, it was the low line that got sketchy for 12th running Hayden Reinbold as he clipped an infield tire marker with his own left front tire entering turn one and went as far over as a sprint car possibly can without flipping over. However, as he shot up the banking and landed his car on all fours, he entered right into the path of Mario Clouser (13th) who tagged Reinbold, then smashed nose first against the outside wall. Further back, Ryan Barr (16th) checked up to avoid the accident, and Saban Bibent (17th) plowed into the back of Barr, sending Bibent spinning into the outside wall. All drivers were okay, and only Clouser did not return to the race.
For the next 20-plus laps, Swanson was the dog chasing the mechanical rabbit that was Cummins. Just before midway, it was all about traffic as Cummins worked the high side around the back half of the field. Yet, lap after lap, the gap back to Swanson visually got incrementally smaller and smaller.
With seven laps to go, things got real as Cummins briefly switched to the bottom to work by 13th running Max Adams off turn four but couldn’t clear him. Riding the high line, Swanson quickly ate up the interval and found himself right on the rear bumper of Cummins for the race lead.
But there’s a science to executing a perfect pass. That involves not showing your hand too early while trying to give as little indication as possible prior to even thinking about setting up and completing the pass. All that while running 100+ miles per hour, mind you. But patience remains key regardless.
“It was pretty difficult to have that much patience,” Swanson admitted. “Well, it was and it wasn’t. I felt like if I showed him and we got to racing, I didn’t know if he was kind of in reserve because I was legged. I was trying really hard to get to him, but I didn’t want to show him. When I did it, I wanted to make sure we did it. It was perfect timing. The lapped cars were doing what I needed them to do, but not what he needed. They’re all racing for position too. You’ve got to be able to work through the middle and go where they’re not. I was just able to capitalize there in traffic.”
On lap 27, Swanson was Johnny-on-the-spot. Entering turn one, the 14th place car of Ryan Barr biked on the cushion in between turns one and two. Cummins, who was directly behind Barr, had to bind it up, which knocked him out of his rhythm and sent him into the blues.
As Swanson pulled to the inside of Cummins for the lead down the back straightaway, Adams and Barr were, likewise, side-by-side in a battle for 13th place directly in front of them. As those four were in Thunderbirds formation through turns three and four, Cummins fell out of tune and skipped over the turn four cushion. Swanson struck the right chord and found himself in the lead with four laps remaining while Briggs Danner capitalized his way into second by surpassing Cummins at the same time.
Now it was Swanson v. Danner. Entering turn one for the final time, Danner made his move as he pulled ahead by a car length and slid up the turn two banking toward Swanson. However, Swanson never batted an eye, kept his foot on the throttle, and gunned his way back into the lead down the back straightaway. Through turns three and four, Danner got twisted up on the cushion and Swanson was able to break away just enough to cross the line a mere 0.257 of a second ahead of Danner in one of the closest finishes of the USAC season.
Cummins finished a distant third while C.J. Leary grabbed fourth and Mitchel Moles rounded out the top five.
“Doug Doherty, I can’t thank him enough,” Swanson said. “We wouldn’t be on the tour without him and his engines and I just have fun racing with him. My wife, she works so hard for us to keep us going because I don’t do much around the house. I haven’t weeded or done anything as far as yard work goes. My neighbor does all that. I just focus on this racecar.”
Swanson and crewman Caleb Stelzig have been busy on another project that has occupied their time of late as they’ve been putting together a new trailer over the past couple of weeks while Swanson also learns how to drive a big rig. Swanson’s No. 5T didn’t even have an engine in it 24 hours before showtime, but it got turned around and was just what he needed to get the job done.
“I really wanted to run this engine tonight,” Swanson acknowledged. “I knew we’d have a good shot to win. I’m just really, really pumped. I’m really, really happy.”
Cummins was four laps away from repeating his Greg Staab Memorial victory. Up to that point, he’d led each and every one of the 26 circuits. As the leader of the most laps, he was the recipient of the K & N Filters Clean Air Award.
Robert Ballou picked up nine positions on his run from 19th to 10th in the feature to pick up Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors for the fifth time this season.
Dustin Webber missed the final transfer spot by one solitary position in the Five Star Bodies Semi-Feature after starting at the tail. For that, the Goshen, Ohio racer collected $444. All other non-transfers tonight pocketed $300. Each heat race winner received an extra $144.
Justin Grant was the LearnLab Fast Qualifier with a quick lap of 13.626 seconds to record his series-leading ninth fast time of the 2026 USAC National Sprint Car season. It was also the 49th of his career with the series, five behind Brady Bacon for fifth place all-time.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 9, 2026 – Lawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – 3rd Greg Staab Memorial
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.626; 2. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-13.691; 3. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-13.725; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-13.866; 5. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.916; 6. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.012; 7. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.101; 8. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-14.121; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 15, BBI-14.145; 10. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-14.164; 11. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.190; 12. Mario Clouser, 3R, Rock Steady-14.208; 13. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.249; 14. Shawn Westerfeld, 4J, Fischesser/Owen-14.260; 15. Austin Nigh, 97, Ninety Seven-14.264; 16. Max Adams, 40, Hery-14.293; 17. Dustin Webber, 9, Webber-14.445; 18. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-14.447; 19. Todd Hobson, 44, Soudrette-14.456; 20. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.615; 21. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-14.634; 22. Brian Heitkamp, 22, Heitkamp-14.844; 23. Zach Lamb, 9x, Webber-14.891; 24. Elijah Knoke, 77K, Knoke-14.964; 25. Jake Beck, 92x, Beck-15.265; 26. Kyle Willis, 3JR, Willis/Rock Steady-15.428; 27. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-15.525; 28. Owen Barr, 43, Wolf-15.584; 29. Nate Carle, 14c, Carle-NT.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (3), 2. C.J. Leary (5), 3. Justin Grant (6), 4. Saban Bibent (1), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 6. Jake Beck (7), 7. Dustin Webber (2), 8. Nate Carle (8). NT
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (6), 2. Chase Stockon (5), 3. Ryan Barr (2), 4. Shawn Westerfeld (3), 5. Kyle Willis (7), 6. Brian Heitkamp (1), 7. Hunter Maddox (4). 1:57.883
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Todd Hobson (2), 2. Hayden Reinbold (4), 3. Mitchel Moles (5), 4. Jake Swanson (6), 5. Austin Nigh (3), 6. Troy Carey (7), 7. Zach Lamb (1). 1:58.349
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (06), 2. Robert Ballou (2), 3. Mario Clouser (4), 4. Max Adams (3), 5. Cale Coons (5), 6. Elijah Knoke (1), 7. Owen Barr (7). 1:57.916
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Hunter Maddox (1), 2. Elijah Knoke (3), 3. Brian Heitkamp (2), 4. Troy Carey (5), 5. Dustin Webber (8), 6. Jake Beck (4), 7. Owen Barr (6), 8. Nate Carle (7). 2:38.039
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (4), 2. Briggs Danner (5), 3. Kyle Cummins (3), 4. C.J. Leary (2), 5. Mitchel Moles (9), 6. Justin Grant (6), 7. Chase Stockon (1), 8. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11), 9. Cale Coons (10), 10. Robert Ballou (19), 11. Todd Hobson (8), 12. Logan Seavey (7), 13. Max Adams (17), 14. Ryan Barr (18), 15. Shawn Westerfeld (15), 16. Hayden Reinbold (13), 17. Saban Bibent (20), 18. Austin Nigh (16), 19. Troy Carey (24), 20. Hunter Maddox (12), 21. Brian Heitkamp (21), 22. Kyle Willis (23), 23. Elijah Knoke (22), 24. Mario Clouser (14). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-26 Kyle Cummins, Laps 27-30 Jake Swanson.
**Nate Carle flipped during qualifying.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-3084, 2-Justin Grant-2879, 3-Mitchel Moles-2816, 4-Jake Swanson-2561, 5-Briggs Danner-2466, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2399, 7-C.J. Leary-2299, 8-Chase Stockon-2287, 9-Robert Ballou-2260, 10-Logan Seavey-2232.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kevin Thomas Jr.-142, 2-Hayden Reinbold-142, 3-Justin Grant-139, 4-Robert Ballou-133, 5-Briggs Danner-113, 6-Chase Stockon-112, 7-Cale Coons-109, 8-Jacob Denney-102, 9-Jake Swanson-98, 10-Mitchel Moles-93.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: October 10, 2026 – Lawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – 19th Fall Nationals
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Justin Grant (13.793)
LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (13.626)
K1 RaceGear First Heat Winner: Logan Seavey
TJ Forged Second Heat Winner: Briggs Danner
K & N Filters Third Heat Winner: Todd Hobson
Indy Powersports Fourth Heat Winner: Kyle Cummins
Five Star Bodies Semi Winner: Hunter Maddox
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Robert Ballou (19th to 10th)
K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Kyle Cummins (26 laps led)
First Non-Transfer: Dustin Webber