By Richie Murray
Casa Grande, Arizona (October 23, 2026)………Gavin Miller led all 25 laps from the pole position to notch his first career USAC Southwest 360 Sprint Car victory during Friday night’s Western World Championships at Central Arizona Raceway.
However, it didn’t come without its share of close encounters for the Allentown, Pennsylvania native as he put the home state car fielded by the Team AZ / Curb-Agajanian Racing team into victory lane at the 3/8-mile dirt oval.
With 11 laps remaining, Miller nearly got caught up while attempting to put Dayton Shelton a lap down. Shelton ricocheted off the cushion, right in front of Miller, but Miller was narrowly able to avoid catastrophe by about the width of an eyebrow hair.
By the time there were four laps to go, fellow Western World Rookie Jacob Denney had closed up the gap considerable on Miller and was raring up to take his shot at the lead.
As Miller put 10th running Ryan Bernal a lap down around the outside on the back straightaway, Denney had a run that he took into turn three as he attempted to split between Miller and Bernal. However, Denney’s left rear tire ramped over Bernal’s right front tire, sending Denney’s car briefly airborne before he smashed backwards into the outside wall. Denney was able to walk away, finishing a distant 22nd in the final rundown.
From that point forward, Miller had things under full control as he stayed true to the top and took the checkered flag by a 2.925 second margin with Kevin Thomas Jr. second, fast qualifier Elijah Gile third, Briggs Danner fourth, and Ricky Lewis fifth.
Meanwhile, David Gasper’s run from 17th to 9th in the feature earned him a little change in his pocket that went jing-a-ling-a-ling. His plus-eight performance netted him $902.91 from the Lafond Jar of Change.
USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS SOUTHWEST SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: October 23, 2026 – Central Arizona Raceway – Casa Grande, Arizona – 59th Western World Championships
FIRST QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Jacob Denney, 87, CBI/Spire-16.577; 2. Jake Helsel, 44, Ledbetter-16.795; 3. Dayton Shelton, 4D, Shelton-16.921; 4. Ricky Thornton Jr., 20RT, Petty-17.068; 5. Austin Cato, 38, Cato-17.368; 6. Joshua Shipley, 2x, Shipley-17.486; 7. Racin Silva, 5s, Silva-17.591; 8. Jordan Stetson, 8AZ, Stetson-17.826; 9. Elijah Loper, 43x, Loper-17.826.
SECOND QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Gavin Miller, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-16.751; 2. Koen Crawford, 48, Crawford-16.883; 3. R.J. Johnson, 33p, Petty-16.936; 4. J.J. Yeley, 2, Yeley-17.067; 5. Lonnie Oliver, 11, Oliver-17.886; 6. A.J. Hernandez, 72, Hernandez-17.914; 7. Bryan Ledbetter Jr., 7OH, Ledbetter-17.945; 8. James Webster, 5AZ, Webster-18.223; 9. Ryan Bernal, 6c, Calderwood-NT.
THIRD QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Elijah Gile, 17GP, Dutcher-16.331; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 51, Johnson-16.691; 3. Briggs Danner, 6, Calderwood-16.733; 4. Chaz Baca, 57, Stone-17.259; 5. Austin Ervine, 21, AJ-18.194; 6. Bruce St. James, 1AZ, St. James-18.301; 7. Dan Klinder, 30K, Klinder-18.724; 8. Brent Yarnal, 29, Yarnal-18.873; 9. Rickey Kinney Jr., 81K, Kinney-19.105.
FOURTH QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Charles Davis Jr., 11c, DAR-17.265; 2. Ricky Lewis, 007, Siddle-17.434; 3. Grant Schaadt, 88G, Schaadt-17.623; 4. Daylin Perreira, 21p, Perreira-17.929; 5. David Gasper, 20, Deskins-18.077; 6. Mickey Gile, 23AZ, Sussex-18.870; 7. Ronald Webster, 25w, Waddle-18.901; 8. Larry Peterson, 63, Peterson-18.986.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jacob Denney (4), 2. Ricky Thornton Jr. (1), 3. Jake Helsel (3), 4. Dayton Shelton (2), 5. Joshua Shipley (6), 6. Racin Silva (7), 7. Austin Cato (5), 8. Jordan Stetson (8), 9. Elijah Loper (9). NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. R.J. Johnson (2), 2. Gavin Miller (4), 3. J.J. Yeley (1), 4. Ryan Bernal (9), 5. Koen Crawford (3), 6. Bryan Ledbetter Jr. (7), 7. A.J. Hernandez (6), 8. Lonnie Oliver (5), 9. James Webster (8). NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (2), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 3. Elijah Gile (4), 4. Bruce St James (6), 5. Austin Ervine (5), 6. Rickey Kinney Jr. (9), 7. Dan Klinder (7), 8. Brent Yarnal (8), 9. Chaz Baca (1). NT
FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ricky Lewis (3), 2. Grant Schaadt (2), 3. Daylin Perreira (1), 4. David Gasper (5), 5. Charles Davis Jr. (4), 6. Ronald Webster (7), 7. Mickey Gile (6), 8. Larry Peterson (8). NT
SEMI: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Racin Silva (1), 2. Austin Cato (5), 3. Chaz Baca (12), 4. Lonnie Oliver (9), 5. A.J. Hernandez (6), 6. Rickey Kinney Jr. (3), 7. Jordan Stetson (8), 8. Brent Yarnal (10), 9. Ronald Webster (4), 10. Larry Peterson (11), 11. Dan Klinder (7), 12. Bryan Ledbetter Jr. (2). NT
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gavin Miller (1), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (9), 3. Elijah Gile (4), 4. Briggs Danner (2), 5. Ricky Lewis (5), 6. R.J. Johnson (7), 7. Charles Davis Jr. (6), 8. Jake Helsel (11), 9. David Gasper (17), 10. J.J. Yeley (12), 11. Ryan Bernal (15), 12. Dayton Shelton (14), 13. Ricky Thornton Jr. (8), 14. Grant Schaadt (10), 15. Bruce St. James (16), 16. Koen Crawford (19), 17. Daylin Perreira (13), 18. Joshua Shipley (18), 19. Austin Cato (22), 20. Austin Ervine (20), 21. Lonnie Oliver (24), 22. Jacob Denney (3), 23. Chaz Baca (23), 24. Racin Silva (21). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-25 Gavin Miller.
USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS SOUTHWEST SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-R.J. Johnson-981, 2-Dayton Shelton-767, 3-Koen Crawford-763, 4-Daylin Perreira-752, 5-Bruce St. James-718, 6-Stevie Sussex-676, 7-A.J. Hernandez-675, 8-Elijah Gile-568, 9-Jordan Stetson-550, 10-Charles Davis Jr.-536.
NEXT USAC AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS SOUTHWEST SPRINT CAR RACE: October 24, 2026 – Central Arizona Raceway – Casa Grande, Arizona – 59th Western World Championships