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63! GRANT BECOMES USAC SPRINTS’ ALL-TIME WIN KING WITH WHEATLAND WIN

Rich Forman

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Wheatland, Missouri (September 6, 2025)………One man now stands alone at the top of the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship career win list. That’s Justin Grant.

On Saturday night at Wheatland, Missouri’s Lucas Oil Speedway, Grant captured his 63rd career series victory to become the winningest driver in the history of USAC National Sprint Car racing, surpassing Dave Darland’s mark of 62.

Furthermore, the Ione, California native’s triumph was the 100th win of his USAC career across all divisions, national and regional. He’s just the eighth driver to reach that mark, a list that includes the likes of Rich Vogler (171), A.J. Foyt (162), Sleepy Tripp (161), Mel Kenyon (131), Dave Darland (115), Bryan Clauson (112), Damion Gardner (106) and now Justin Grant (100).

On this occasion, the fourth place starting Grant was on a roll right from the start as he charged into second on the first lap, then chased down Wesley Smith for the lead on lap eight. From there, he fended off repeated challenges from Jake Swanson down the stretch to record his series-leading ninth win of the USAC National Sprint Car season, and the 14th across all USAC national series in 2025, also tops among all drivers.

Oh, and lest we mention, he achieved these milestones while nursing a broken left foot suffered a little over a month ago while wearing a hard cast and hobbling on a pair of crutches to and from his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – TOPP Industries – LA Poly/Maxim/Kistler Chevy, if you haven’t heard.

“I absolutely love driving sprint cars, particularly non-wing sprint cars. I love USAC. I love everything about what we do,” Grant said. “To be the all-time winner is just absolutely incredible. I’ve poured my life into this sport and into this discipline while trying to get better and better and better at it.”

From the time Grant first jumped into a sprint car back in 2009, he was fast. Impressively, he’s won his 63 USAC National Sprint Car races for just three car owners: TOPP Motorsports (55), Sam McGhee Motorsports (5) and Mark Hery (3). As Grant looked back on all the car owners he’s raced for over the years, he was appreciative of the opportunities that got him to where he stands today – on top of the of the all-time list.

“There’s so many people who make it possible for me to win these races,” Grant reminisced. “All the way back to Ken Baldwin, the first guy who hired me to go racing, and Mark Hery who stuck with me for years and years and years and let me tear up a lot of equipment, and we won some races together.”

With Kevin Birchmeier’s TOPP Motorsports outfit, Grant has been a mainstay as the team’s driver dating back to the beginning of the 2018 season. Together, they’ve accumulated more wins than any other driver/entrant combo in USAC National Sprint Car history. Together, they’ve obliterated the record books.

“Kevin Birchmeier, I’ve driven for him for eight seasons now and we’ve been through some really high highs and some really low lows together and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him,” Grant explained. “He supports me 100 percent. When we’re struggling, he’s the guy cheerleading and picking us up. That’s rare in a car owner.”

Grant is relatively fresh off a Sprint Car Smackdown victory at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway 14 days earlier, a score that tied Dave Darland atop the winners’ list at 62. When Grant was rising up the ranks as the young upstart, he was consistently battling the legendary veteran, Darland, tooth and nail on the USAC trail. In fact, when Darland tied Tom Bigelow’s then record of 52 series wins at Kokomo in 2014, he passed Grant for the win late in the going to get the job done. It was one of the finest rivalries of its time, and the respect Grant has for Darland has only continued to grow over the years.

“It almost felt more special to tie Dave Darland than it does to pass him,” Grant admitted. “He’s an absolute legend and a hero and I shared something on Facebook today about him going into the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame. I wanted to make note that we’re all now reaping the benefits of the things that guys like Dave Darland did for our sport. When I moved to Indiana, these guys were racing for $3,000-to-win every night and $10,000 to win the championship that they had to split with the car owner. Now, thanks to guys like Dave, we race for big money and we get to make a living doing this. I support a family by doing this, and it’s really, really special to get to do that.”

Turning the wrenches on the TOPP No. 4 is Jeff Walker, a man who has been immensely instrumental to Grant throughout the years, dating back to their first meeting in 2009, a time in which Grant recalled his humble beginnings as a teenager migrating from the west coast to the Midwest to pursue his racing dreams.

“Jeff told me I could move to Indiana and go racing with him and just live with him and work on his cars,” Grant reflected. “That was an incredible opportunity for me. I was so excited to go do it for the summer. I liked it so much, I just never went home. Jeff ended up being the first guy to let me drive a 410 sprint car and we’ve known each other now for years and years and years, and he’s always helped me. Even when we weren’t racing together, he’s helped me a lot.”

Walker reunited with Grant during a particularly rough

REDEMPTION SONG! OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, DANNER DELIVERS AT TRI-CITY

Rich Forman

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Granite City, Illinois (September 5, 2025)………Briggs Danner and Hogue Racing Enterprises were counting down the days until they could get their chance at redemption on Friday night at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Illinois.

Just 13 days earlier, the Allentown, Pennsylvania driver’s wall contact and subsequent flip on the final lap of Sprint Car Smackdown XIV at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway resulted in heartbreak that weighed heavily on their minds until they got a crack at their next opportunity.

When opportunity knocked, Danner answered at Tri-City. Starting fourth in the 30-lap feature, Danner tracked down Kyle Cummins for the lead on the 14th circuit, then ran away from the pack to earn his third USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory of the season in his E. Schneider & Sons – Aw Shucks Roasted Corn/DRC/Rider Chevy.

“I’ve got to thank Tim (Hogue) and Tyler; this one’s for them,” Danner said. “They put a lot of work in after Kokomo, and we’ve just tried to forget about it and move on. Tonight made that a little easier.”

In what was the first visit by the USAC Sprint Cars to Tri-City’s 3/8-mile dirt oval since 2019, for both Danner and Hogue, it was the first time they’d ever laid eyes on the joint.

“It’s awesome,” Danner exclaimed. “It’s a place we’ve never been to and it’s really cool traveling to these new places and running well. I knew right from qualifying it was going to be pretty sweet. I wasn’t quite sure what the track was going to do there during the feature after a little bit of track work. I felt like it started to clean off in some spots but it was so dirty, it was hard to hit. So I kept running where I felt good.”

Danner’s sixth career USAC National Sprint Car triumph moved him into 76th place all-time alongside the likes of Emerson Axsom, Chad Boespflug, Kevin Briscoe, Shane Cottle, Jac Haudenschild, Jason McCord, Jan Opperman, Tom Sneva, George Snider, Jake Swanson and Dick Tobias.

Initially, it was front row counterparts Chase Stockon and Kyle Cummins who shared the lead for the first half of the event. Stockon paced the field for the first three laps before Cummins slid up across Stockon’s nose in turns one and two on the fourth lap to move to the top of the pylon. Danner followed suit moments later and ripped around the outside of Stockon to grab second.

On the 12th lap, the front three of Cummins, Danner and Stockon all found themselves in the thick of lapped traffic. Fourth running Justin Grant had just entered the fray in turn three when, suddenly, 20th running Dakota Earls spun directly in front of him, backed into the outside wall and performed a cartwheel before landing back on his wheels. Earls was okay. Grant, meanwhile, narrowly escaped contact and continued onward.

With traffic cleared out of the equation, the leaders were free to roam and duke it out themselves. Cummins successfully thwarted off Danner for the first two laps following the restart. That said, once Danner got wound up, he was ready to pounce. Utilizing a big run down the back straight, Danner slid Cummins for the top spot on the entry into turn three. Cummins attempted to retaliate a half lap later in turn one, but didn’t have enough oomph to clear Danner, and instead, fell into line as Danner raced away in the nighttime horizon.

Danner almost instantaneously pushed his lead to a full two seconds over Cummins. That said, traffic became sort of a nightmare down the stretch with cars racing three-wide and sliding each other on both ends of the racetrack. All the while, Danner was just trying to solve the jigsaw without getting caught up in any of it.

“It was tough,” Danner admitted. “I didn’t feel like I could enter good while following somebody. The bottom was just so slow to try to slide somebody unless you got a run, so I lost a lot of ground trying to slide guys and not clearing them. Then I got a stretch of six or seven lapped cars in a row. You don’t want to wreck yourself and you don’t want to wreck other guys, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to stay out front. Guys like Kyle, Chase and Justin, they’re definitely coming.”

Despite that trio making a beeline for the front, they still didn’t have quite enough to reach Danner, although they made it somewhat close. In the end, Danner crossed the line 0.562 seconds ahead of Kyle Cummins who finished as the runner-up for the fourth consecutive race. Chase Stockon solidly finished third while Justin Grant had another fine showing despite his broken left foot to score fourth while Mario Clouser rounded out the top-five.

In fact, in Clouser’s first 59 career USAC National Sprint Car starts, he had never once cracked the top-five. This time around, he changed all that by tallying a fifth place result in what was his first USAC Sprint Car start of the year. That earned the Auburn, Illinois racer the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.

Cale Coons continues to impress. In making just his seventh career USAC National Sprint Car appearance, he started 14th in the feature and raced his way up eight spots to a sixth place result and Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. Overall, it’s already his third series finish inside the top-six this season.

Justin Grant sure got off on the right foot at Tri-City. He delivered a new one-lap USAC National Sprint Car track record, setting the new standard of 14.002 seconds in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying. That shattered the former mark of 14.316, set by Kevin Thomas Jr. in 2019. For Grant, it was his fifth fast qualifying time this season and the 39th of his USAC National Sprint Car career, moving him ahead of five-time series champion Levi Jones and into sole possession of seventh place on the all-time list.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 5, 2025 – Tri-City Speedway – Granite City, Illinois – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.002; 2. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.007; 3. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.202; 4. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-14.206; 5. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.216; 6. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.251; 7. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-14.374; 8. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.400; 9. Jadon Rogers, 5, Baldwin/Fox-14.401; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-14.430; 11. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-14.442; 12. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-14.500; 13. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-14.529; 14. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-14.669; 15. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-14.820; 16. Wesley Smith, 44, Smith-14.821; 17. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-14.859; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.950; 19. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-14.983; 20. Anthony Nicholson, 16, Nicholson-15.207; 21. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Cromwell-15.218; 22. Dakota Earls, 15E, Earls-15.668.

CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Wesley Smith, 2. Kale Drake, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Justin Grant, 6. Mario Clouser, 7. Brandon Mattox, 8. Dakota Earls. 2:01.013

K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Gunnar Setser, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Kyle Cummins, 6. Kobe Simpson, 7. Anthony Nicholson. 2:06.965

USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Ricky Lewis, 2. Cale Coons, 3. Briggs Danner, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Braydon Cromwell. 2:03.996

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (4), 2. Kyle Cummins (2), 3. Chase Stockon (1), 4. Justin Grant (6), 5. Mario Clouser (3), 6. Cale Coons (14), 7. Logan Seavey (5), 8. Mitchel Moles (7), 9. Kevin Thomas Jr. (12), 10. Jake Swanson (13), 11. Gunnar Setser (16), 12. Kale Drake (10), 13. C.J. Leary (15), 14. Jadon Rogers (11), 15. Brandon Mattox (19), 16. Hayden Reinbold (18), 17. Kobe Simpson (17), 18. Braydon Cromwell (21), 19. Wesley Smith (9), 20. Anthony Nicholson (20), 21. Dakota Earls (22), 22. Ricky Lewis (8). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Chase Stockon, Laps 4-13 Kyle Cummins, Laps 14-30 Briggs Danner.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-2390, 2-Mitchel Moles-2116, 3-Logan Seavey-2103, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2004, 5-Briggs Danner-1979, 6-Justin Grant-1972, 7-C.J. Leary-1855, 8-Jake Swanson-1820, 9-Kale Drake-1699, 10-Robert Ballou-1693.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-208, 2-Briggs Danner-132, 3-Gunnar Setser-127, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-121, 5-Logan Seavey-105, 6-C.J. Leary-104, 7-Justin Grant-102, 8-Kyle Cummins-94, 9-Chase Stockon-85, 10-Hayden Reinbold-83.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 6, 2025 – Lucas Oil Speedway – Wheatland, Missouri – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – Rod End Supply Diamond Dirt Duel

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Justin Grant (14.205)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (14.002)

Car IQ First Heat Winner: Wesley Smith

K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Mitchel Moles

USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Ricky Lewis

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Cale Coons (14th to 6th)

Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Mario Clouser

LOGAN SEAVEY TOPS LOUIE VERMEIL CLASSIC FINALE AT CALISTOGA

A.J. Johnson

By: Lance Jennings

Calistoga, California (August 31, 2025)………Taking command from Ryan Bernal on lap 26, Logan Seavey led the rest of the way to claim Sunday’s finale of the 14th Louie Vermeil Classic at Calistoga Speedway.

The Sutter, California driver piloted the Kevin Kozlowski owned Works Limited “W” Schnee to the $10,000 victory with the Avanti Windows & Doors USAC CRA Sprint Car Series. Bernal, previous night winner J.J. Yeley, R.J. Johnson, and fast qualifier Max Adams followed Seavey to the checkered flags.

Loomis, California’s Max Adams opened the night by posting the second Woodland Auto Display / WC Friend Company Access Systems Fast Time Award of his career. The driver of the Dwight Cheney owned #42 Barnes Oil Systems Inc. DRC recorded a time of 20.083 seconds over the 31 car roster.

Multi-time Arizona Sprint Car Champion, “Chargin” Charles Davis Jr. of Buckeye, Arizona powered his #47 MP Environmental Services Triple X to victory in the 8-lap In Honor of Wiley Miller Sr. & Wiley Miller II / Sexton Fire Protection First Heat Race. Sebastopol, California’s “The Human Highlight Reel” Geoff Ensign returned to USAC CRA action in the PHR Racing #92 Pacific Highway Rentals Maxim and won the Silbermann Solar / Factory Wraps Second Heat Race. Ryan Bernal of Hollister, California claimed the WC Friend Company Access Systems / In Memory of Jim & Chet Gardner Third Heat Race aboard the Josh Ford Motorsports #73 NOS Energy Drink Triple X.

Using a 360 cubic inch engine, Sacramento, California’s Mark Hanson raced to victory in the 10-lap Factory Wraps Semi Main event in Danny Matranga’s #79 Dependable Crane DRC. Ricky Lewis, Brecken Guerrero, Ryan Timmons, Marty Hawkins, and Connor Speir earned the final transfer spots to the feature.

Starting twentieth, Blake Bower of Brentwood, California earned the In Memory of Jim and Chet Gardner / Steve Lafond Photos / Brian & Alicia Garges Hard Charger Award / “Best Passing Job” honors. The former USAC Western States Midget Champion and rookie of the year placed ninth on the big half-mile oval.

The Avanti Windows & Doors USAC CRA Sprint Car Series will return to action on Saturday, September 13th at Perris Auto Speedway. That night, the non-winged 410s will join the famed World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at the “So-Cal Showdown.”

For more information on the Avanti Windows & Doors USAC CRA Sprint Car Series, visit www.usacracing.com and the social media for USAC Racing. You can also find exclusive content on the USAC CRA Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.

AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: August 31, 2025 – Calistoga Speedway – Calistoga, California – 14th Louie Vermeil Classic Presented By Quick Change Liquid Energy Drink & West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame

WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY / WC FRIEND COMPANY ACCESS SYSTEMS QUALIFYING: 1. Max Adams, 42, Cheney-20.083; 2. Logan Seavey, W, Kozlowski-20.257; 3. R.J. Johnson, 33p, Petty-20.333; 4. J.J. Yeley, 33, Petty-20.466; 5. Kaleb Montgomery, 3, Montgomery-20.493; 6. Ryan Bernal, 73, Ford-20.496; 7. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-20.641; 8. Austin Williams, 17w, Dunkel-20.652; 9. Cody Williams, 44, Williams-20.858; 10. Tommy Malcolm, 5x, Napier-20.954; 11. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-21.064; 12. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-21.203; 13. A.J. Bender, 21, Bender-21.220; 14. Geoff Ensign, 92, PHR-21.326; 15. Nate Schank, 1, Lawson-21.377; 16. Mark Hanson, 79, Matranga-21.521; 17. Ryan Timmons, 29T, Timmons-21.530; 18. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-21.544; 19. Andrew Sweeney, 98A, Guerrero-21.587; 20. Blake Bower, 17x, Dunkel-21.646; 21. Jacob Tuttle, 87, Tuttle-21.657; 22. Brecken Guerrero, 98B, Guerrero-21.708; 23. Marty Hawkins, 3m, Cheney/Hawkins-21.745; 24. Verne Sweeney, 98, Guerrero-21.849; 25. Connor Lundy, 97, Lundy-21.868; 26. Connor Speir, 57, Speir-22.011; 27. Heath Holdsclaw, 33H, Holdsclaw-22.016; 28. Josh Gillis, 18, Gillis-22.162; 29. Elexa Herrera, 5E, Herrera-22.484; 30. Kyle Shipley, 0G, Black Gold-22.548; 31. T.J. Hartman, 67x, Walker-22.584.

IN HONOR OF WILEY MILLER SR. & WILEY MILLER II / SEXTON FIRE PROTECTION FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Charles Davis Jr., 2. J.J. Yeley, 3. Tommy Malcolm, 4. A.J. Bender, 5. Max Adams, 6. Andrew Sweeney, 7. Connor Lundy, 8. Mark Hanson, 9. Brecken Guerrero, 10. Josh Gillis, 11. T.J. Hartman. NT

SILBERMANN SOLAR / FACTORY WRAPS SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Geoff Ensign, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Austin Williams, 4. Kaleb Montgomery, 5. Blake Bower, 6. Logan Calderwood, 7. Ryan Timmons, 8. Marty Hawkins, 9. Connor Speir, 10. Elexa Herrera. NT

WC FRIEND COMPANY ACCESS SYSTEMS / IN MEMORY OF JIM & CHET GARDNER THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Ryan Bernal, 2. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 3. Nate Schank, 4. Jacob Tuttle, 5. Cody Williams, 6. R.J. Johnson, 7. Kyle Shipley, 8. Verne Sweeney, 9. Heath Holdsclaw, 10. Ricky Lewis. NT

FACTORY WRAPS SEMI: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Mark Hanson, 2. Ricky Lewis, 3. Brecken Guerrero, 4. Ryan Timmons, 5. Marty Hawkins, 6. Connor Speir, 7. Verne Sweeney, 8. Heath Holdsclaw, 9. Elexa Herrera, 10. T.J. Hartman, 11. Josh Gillis, 12. Kyle Shipley, 13. Connor Lundy. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (5), 2. Ryan Bernal (1), 3. J.J. Yeley (3), 4. R.J. Johnson (4), 5. Max Adams (6), 6. Tommy Malcolm (10), 7. Kaleb Montgomery (2), 8. Logan Calderwood (11), 9. Blake Bower (20), 10. A.J. Bender (13), 11. Austin Williams (8), 12. Connor Lundy (25-P), 13. Geoff Ensign (14), 14. Jacob Tuttle (21), 15. Connor Speir (24), 16. Mark Hanson (16), 17. Brecken Guerrero (22), 18. Marty Hawkins (23), 19. Cody Williams (9), 20. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (18), 21. Charles Davis Jr. (7), 22. Andrew Sweeney (19), 23. Nate Schank (15), 24. Ryan Timmons (17), 25. Ricky Lewis (12). NT

(P) represents a provisional starter

**Charles Davis Jr. flipped on lap 17 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-25 Ryan Bernal, Laps 26-30 Logan Seavey.

IN MEMORY OF JIM & CHET GARDNER / STEVE LAFOND PHOTOS HARD CHARGER: Blake Bower (20th to 9th)

AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-R.J. Johnson-1002, 2-Ricky Lewis-991, 3-Austin Williams-853, 4-A.J. Bender-830, 5-Tommy Malcolm-796, 6-David Gasper-716, 7-Blake Bower-714, 8-Charles Davis Jr.-660, 9-Connor Lundy-597, 10-Cody Williams-567.

NEXT AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: September 13 – Perris Auto Speedway – Perris, California – So-Cal Showdown

GAVIN FUEGO! MILLER MINES $10,000 AT ANGELL PARK’S 40TH FIREMEN’S NATIONALS

Rich Forman

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Sun Prairie, Wisconsin (August 31, 2025)………Throughout the first 63 feature starts of his USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship career, Gavin Miller possessed just a single, solitary victory.

Now, after his latest triumph in Sunday night’s 40th running of the Firemen’s Nationals at Sun Prairie, Wisconsin’s Angell Park Speedway, it’s safe to say the Allentown, Pennsylvania racer is heating up at just the right time.

Over his past four series starts, Miller has amassed three victories, including two in a three day span this weekend starting with Friday’s round at Indiana’s Bloomington Speedway and again on Sunday at Angell Park where he led the final 38 circuits of the 40-lapper to earn a cool $10,000 reward.

In addition, Miller led a complete sweep of the podium with each of the top-three finishers all hailing from the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports stable as Cannon McIntosh and Kale Drake crossed the line first and second, respectively.

“Everyone’s clicking well and I’m feeling the best I ever have in this car,” Miller said in praise of his team led by Beau Binder, the crew chief on the Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/SoundGear – Toyota – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota.

In 2023, Miller led a race high 20 laps and finished as the runner-up at the Firemen’s Nationals. Starting third this time around, he made quick work of the frontrunners. On a lap three restart following 15th running Zach Wigal’s bike and spin in turn three, Miller got busy grooving the low line as he blew by Drake for second in turn one, then overtook Brecken Reese for the lead on the back straight moments later. Meanwhile, McIntosh followed suit to second a lap later past Reese.

Nearing halfway, Miller had ballooned his lead over McIntosh to more than three seconds as he fought through traffic, all while trying to navigate a tricky surface on the 1/3-mile dirt oval that had many a driver flabbergasted at the prospect of the exit of turn four, snagging right rear tires and snapping their front wheels to the right, straight toward the front straightaway wall.

A number of cautions in the second half – five to be precise – didn’t allow Miller to scurry too far away for any prolonged period of time. In relatively short spurts, the main mover was Drake who had fallen back to sixth after running as high as second during the opening laps. By lap 32, Drake was back up to third as he blasted by Grant on the front straightaway after Grant got corked up sideways off turn four.

With two laps remaining, Miller found himself in full command of the race with a 1.341 second advantage in his pocket. However, Mack Leopard (16th) came to a stop in turn four on lap 39 to necessitate a yellow, which completely wiped out Miller’s lead, therein forcing a green-white-checkered finish between the triumvirate of KKM team cars driven by Miller, McIntosh and Drake.

That said, soon after the restart, Cale Coons became the next victim of the turn four cushion of voodoo. He came to a stop just moments after Drake snuck by McIntosh for second and was setting up to make his run at Miller for the lead. But with the yellow flag, all of Drake’s work was negated due to scoring reverting to the last completed lap, which slotted Drake back into third behind McIntosh.

With restart after restart stifling Miller’s rhythm, the yellow flag wasn’t a pleasant sight, especially with McIntosh in prime position to pounce and a surging Drake prepared to pose a threat to Miller’s near racelong lead.

“I kind of messed up a little bit on some of those restarts and I was thinking, hopefully there’s not another yellow,” Miller admitted. “I saw one on the last lap and I was getting a little nervous. Luckily, on the next restart, I was able to hit the bottom good and slide myself.

I wasn’t really worrying about him,” Miller continued on the subject of McIntosh. “It was just about hitting my marks and focusing on myself without anyone around me. It was tricky there off turn four where it bit me. I almost hit the wall a couple times in lapped traffic there. I just had to figure out how to maneuver around it and try not to slap it that hard, especially later in the race.”

On the final restart, once and for all, nobody had a thing for Miller as he closed the deal out with pinpoint precision to lock down his fourth career USAC victory, 0.771 seconds ahead of runner-up Cannon McIntosh who earned his seventh consecutive podium finish with the series, thus assisting him in expanding his championship point lead from 32 to 39. Kale Drake took third with Justin Grant fourth and Kevin Thomas Jr. rounding out the top-five.

In the early afternoon hours, Daison Pursley was airborne on a flight from Washington to Wisconsin after finishing third the night before with the High Limit Sprint Cars at Skagit Speedway. Throughout the feature at Angell Park, it would be fair to say that he was still flying come feature time where he advanced 13 positions from his 20th starting spot to finish in the seventh position. That earned him the night’s Rod End Supply Hard Charger award.

Initially, Gunnar Setser ran up through the field at Angell Park from 19th to 11th. Forced to the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area with a mud-packed right rear tire, Setser raced his way back through the pack to finish ninth, passing four cars on the final restart alone. That was good enough to earn the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.

In Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying, Jacob Denney set a new Angell Park Speedway USAC National Midget track record with a lap of 14.203 seconds. That broke Bryan Clauson's decade old record of 14.316 set in 2015. Overall, it was Denney's fourth career USAC National Midget fast qualifying time with the series, and his second of the 2025 season.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 31, 2025 – Angell Park Speedway – Sun Prairie, Wisconsin – 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval – 40th Firemen’s Nationals

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.203 (New Track Record); 2. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.245; 3. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.246; 4. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.278; 5. Mack Leopard, 86x, CBI-14.364; 6. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-14.376; 7. Brecken Reese, 20Q, Reese-14.410; 8. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-14.428; 9. Karter Sarff, 7x, Engler-14.440; 10. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-14.492; 11. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-14.507; 12. Jakeb Boxell, 14JB, 4 Kings-14.533; 13. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-14.534; 14. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.539; 15. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-14.547; 16. Zach Wigal, 40x, McDermand-14.547; 17. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-14.565; 18. Rylan Gray, 4R, RMS-14.597; 19. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-14.616; 20. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-14.711; 21. Zach Boden, 51, Boden-15.157; 22. Mark Chisholm, 56x, Chisholm-15.182; 23. Cody Weisensel, 20, Weisensel-15.712; 24. Parker Jones, 6G, DGRD-NT.

CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Zach Wigal, 3. Brecken Reese, 4. Jacob Denney, 5. Drake Edwards, 6. Gavin Miller, 7. Gunnar Setser, 8. Mark Chisholm. 1:59.577

K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Cale Coons, 2. Steven Snyder Jr., 3. Colton Robinson, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Cannon McIntosh, 6. Ethan Mitchell, 7. Mack Leopard, 8. Cody Weisensel. 2:00.306

USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Jakeb Boxell, 3. Kale Drake, 4. Rylan Gray, 5. Karter Sarff, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Parker Jones. 1:59.601

FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gavin Miller (3), 2. Cannon McIntosh (5), 3. Kale Drake (4), 4. Justin Grant (7), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (8), 6. Hayden Reinbold (2), 7. Daison Pursley (20), 8. Karter Sarff (12), 9. Gunnar Setser (19), 10. Steven Snyder Jr. (11), 11. Jacob Denney (6), 12. Jakeb Boxell (15), 13. Brecken Reese (1), 14. Rylan Gray (18), 15. Zach Wigal (17), 16. Colton Robinson (16), 17. Cale Coons (9), 18. Cody Weisensel (21), 19. Mack Leopard (10), 20. Ethan Mitchell (14), 21. Drake Edwards (13), 22. Parker Jones (22), 23. Mark Chisholm (23). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Brecken Reese, Laps 3-40 Gavin Miller.

**Parker Jones flipped during hot laps. Mark Chisholm flipped during the first heat.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Cannon McIntosh-1055, 2-Justin Grant-1016, 3-Jacob Denney-969, 4-Kale Drake-956, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-945, 6-Gavin Miller-944, 7-Steven Snyder Jr.-848, 8-Drake Edwards-832, 9-Logan Seavey-783, 10-Gunnar Setser-747.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-208, 2-Briggs Danner-129, 3-Gunnar Setser-122, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-118, 5-Logan Seavey-105, 6-C.J. Leary-102, 7-Justin Grant-100, 8-Kyle Cummins-94, 9-Chase Stockon-85, 10-Hayden Reinbold-81.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 18, 2025 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Kale Drake (14.277)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Jacob Denney (14.203)

Car IQ First Heat Winner: Justin Grant

K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Cale Coons

USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Daison Pursley (20th to 7th)

Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Gunnar Setser

J.J. YELEY SWEEPS LOUIE VERMEIL OPENER, WINS WILD USAC CRA CALISTOGA RETURN

A.J. Johnson

By: Lance Jennings

Calistoga, California (August 30, 2025)………Starting sixth on the grid, J.J. Yeley of Phoenix, Arizona swept the opening night of the 14th Louie Vermeil Classic Presented By Quick Change Liquid Energy Drink & the West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame at California’s Calistoga Speedway.

Driving the Petty Performance Racing #33 Sherman chassis, Yeley earned the first USAC CRA victory of his career and became the 87th winner with the series. “The Big Game Hunter” Austin Williams, hard charger Logan Seavey, Max Adams, and A.J. Bender rounded out the top-five finishers.

The scheduled 25-lap main event was dominated by R.J. Johnson. However contact between Johnson and Ryan Bernal on the 24th circuit handed the curfew shortened triumph to J.J. Yeley. Yeley started the night by posting his first career Woodland Auto Display / WC Friend Company Access Systems Fast Time Award with a time of 20.414 seconds over the 34 car roster.

Starting sixth, Yeley also took the checkered flags in the 8-lap In Honor of Wiley Miler Sr. & Wiley Miller II First Heat Race. Driving the Ted Finkenbinder owned #3F DRC, Dave Lindt of Sebastopol, California topped the WC Friend Company Access Systems Second Heat Race. Logan Seavey of Sutter, California raced the Kevin Kozlowski owned “W” Schnee to victory in the Silbermann Solar Third Heat Race. Templeton, California’s Kaleb Montgomery won the Sexton Fire Protection Fourth Heat Race in the Montgomery Family #3 Maxim.

Loomis, California’s Max Adams won the 10-lap Factory Wraps Semi Main event in Dwight Cheney’s #42 DRC. Tommy “Thunder” Malcolm, Eddie Tafoya Jr., and Logan Calderwood earned the final transfer spots to the feature.

Seavey earned Calistoga’s In Memory of Jim and Chet Gardner / Steve Lafond Photos Hard Charger Award / “Best Passing Job” honors. The USAC National Series regular had a third place run from nineteenth.

On Sunday, August 31st, the Avanti Windows & Doors USAC CRA Sprint Car Series will tackle Calistoga Speedway for the final night of the 14th Louie Vermeil Classic Presented by Quick Change Liquid Energy Drink and West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame.

AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: August 30, 2025 – Calistoga Speedway – Calistoga, California – 14th Louie Vermeil Classic Presented By Quick Change Liquid Energy Drink & West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame

WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY / WC FRIEND COMPANY ACCESS SYSTEMS QUALIFICATIONS: 1. J.J. Yeley, 33, Petty-20.414; 2. Ryan Bernal, 17x, Dunkel-20.594; 3. R.J. Johnson, 33p, Petty-20.769; 4. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-21.113; 5. Max Adams, 42, Cheney-21.473; 6. A.J. Bender, 21, Bender-21.945; 7. Austin Williams, 17w, Dunkel-21.955; 8. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-21.994; 9. Geoff Ensign, 92, PHR-22.078; 10. Kyle Shipley, 0G, Black Gold-22.247; 11. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-22.258; 12. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-22.450; 13. Tanner Carrick, 83T, Carrick-22.455; 14. David Lindt, 3F, Finkenbinder-22.480; 15. Connor Lundy, 97, Lundy-22.509; 16. Kaleb Montgomery, 3, Montgomery-22.521; 17. Nate Schank, 1, Lawson-22.575; 18. Verne Sweeney, 98, Guerrero-22.594; 19. Logan Seavey, W, Kozlowski-22.670; 20. Blake Bower, 17, Dunkel-22.697; 21. Cody Williams, 44, Williams-22.786; 22. Tommy Malcolm, 5x, Napier-22.912; 23. Jacob Tuttle, 87, Tuttle-22.975; 24. Connor Speir, 57, Speir-23.074; 25. Mark Hanson, 79, Matranga-23.116; 26. Heath Holdsclaw, 33H, Holdsclaw-23.478; 27. Marty Hawkins, 3m, Cheney/Hawkins-23.733; 28. Ryan Timmons, 29T, Timmons-23.779; 29. Bill Cornwell, 3c, Garrison-23.815; 30. Josh Gillis, 18, Gillis-23.887; 31. Brecken Guerrero, 98B, Guerrero-24.255; 32. Andrew Sweeney, 98A, Guerrero-24.505; 33. Elexa Herrera, 5E, Herrera-28.635; 34. T.J. Hartman, 67X, Walker-NT.

IN HONOR OF WILEY MILLER SR. & WILEY MILLER II FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. J.J. Yeley, 2. Cody Williams, 3. Tanner Carrick, 4. Geoff Ensign, 5. Nate Schank, 6. Max Adams, 7. Mark Hanson, 8. Elexa Herrera. NT

WC FRIEND COMPANY ACCESS SYSTEMS SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. David Lindt, 2. Ryan Bernal, 3. Kyle Shipley, 4. Verne Sweeney, 5. A.J. Bender, 6. Josh Gillis, 7. Heath Holdsclaw, 8. Tommy Malcolm, 9. T.J. Hartman. NT

SILBERMANN SOLAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. R.J. Johnson, 3. Jacob Tuttle, 4. Austin Williams, 5. Connor Lundy, 6. Logan Calderwood, 7. Marty Hawkins, 8. Brecken Guerrero. NT

SEXTON FIRE PROTECTION FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kaleb Montgomery, 2. Charles Davis Jr., 3. Blake Bower, 4. Connor Speir, 5. Ricky Lewis, 6. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 7. Andrew Sweeney, 8. Ryan Timmons. NT

FACTORY WRAPS SEMI: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Max Adams, 2. Tommy Malcolm, 3. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 4. Logan Calderwood, 5. Marty Hawkins, 6. Mark Hanson, 7. Heath Holdsclaw, 8. Andrew Sweeney, 9. Ryan Timmons, 10. Brecken Guerrero, 11. Josh Gillis, 12. Elexa Herrera. NT

FEATURE: (shortened from 25 to 24 laps due to curfew, starting positions in parentheses) 1. J.J. Yeley (6), 2. Austin Williams (1), 3. Logan Seavey (19), 4. Max Adams (7), 5. A.J. Bender (2), 6. Logan Calderwood (11), 7. Ricky Lewis (12), 8. Geoff Ensign (9), 9. R.J. Johnson (4), 10. Ryan Bernal (5), 11. Kaleb Montgomery (16), 12. Blake Bower (20), 13. Tanner Carrick (13), 14. Charles Davis Jr. (3), 15. Cody Williams (21), 16. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (8), 17. Nate Schank (17), 18. Connor Speir (24), 19. Connor Lundy (15), 20. Jacob Tuttle (23), 21. Kyle Shipley (10), 22. Verne Sweeney (18), 23. David Lindt (14), 24. Tommy Malcolm (22). NT

**Tommy Malcolm flipped on lap 4 of the feature. David Lindt flipped on lap 6 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Austin Williams, Laps 2-23 R.J. Johnson, Lap 24 J.J. Yeley.

IN MEMORY OF JIM & CHET GARDNER / STEVE LAFOND PHOTOS HARD CHARGER: Logan Seavey (19th to 3rd)

NEW AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Ricky Lewis-966, 2-R.J. Johnson-934, 3-Austin Williams-806, 4-A.J. Bender-782, 5-David Gasper-716, 6-Tommy Malcolm-735, 7-Blake Bower-664, 8-Charles Davis Jr.-629, 9-Connor Lundy-558, 10-Cody Williams-538.

NEXT AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: August 31 – Calistoga Speedway – Calistoga, California – 14th Louie Vermeil Classic Presented by Quick Change Liquid Energy Drink & West Coast Stock Car Motorsports Hall of Fame

DREVICKI FLEXES HIS MUSCLE AT WILLIAMS GROVE

Steve Koletar)

By: Kurt Bettler

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (August 29, 2025)………It was a picture-perfect evening in the cornfields of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, as all roads led to one of the crown jewels of the Northeast – Williams Grove Speedway.

Twenty-four IMT USAC East Coast Sprints Presented by Baer Den Farm made the haul to the legendary 1/2-mile paperclip.

Heat wins went to Joey Amantea, Christian Bruno, and Ed Aikin, while Ronald Helmick snagged the Semi. The redraw put Chris Allen Jr. on the pole of the feature where he’s been a familiar face in recent outings, with hometown hero, “Superman” Steve Wilbur, making a rare start alongside him.

When the green dropped on the Stanley Supply & Tool A-Main, Allen jumped out to the lead. A yellow for a slowing Troy Fraker brought the field back together, but once again, Allen pulled away on the restart. Behind him, however, the action was heating up as Steven Drevicki and Christian Bruno, both starting from row three, were wasting no time slicing through the pack.

Bruce Buckwalter Jr. held a podium position early, but on lap six, the thundering herd powered by with Bruno moving into third and Drevicki into fourth. The race was on.

Allen continued to set the pace, but by lap 10, Drevicki worked past Bruno and Wilbur to claim second. Meanwhile, Kyle Spence was putting on a show of his own, charging from 12th into the top six.

On lap 14, Allen slipped off the bottom in turn one, and both Drevicki and Bruno pounced, shuffling Allen back to third. With 10 to go, a flat right rear on Aikin slowed the field and cleared lap traffic from the equation. Semi winner Ronald Helmick, who started 16th, was now storming into the top 10.

Out front, it became a duel of lines between Drevicki and Bruno. Bruno looked stronger on the short runs, but Drevicki had the pace to answer back. Spence continued his charge, cracking the top four.

When the checkers flew, it was Steven Drevicki scoring his third win of the USAC East Coast season, holding off Bruno, Allen, Spence, and local favorite Wilbur at the line.

USAC IMT EAST COAST SPRINT CARS PRESENTED BY BAER DEN FARMS RACE RESULTS: August 29, 2025 – Williams Grove Speedway – Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania

BDB GRAPHICS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Joey Amantea (#88J JPA), 2. Bruce Buckwalter Jr. (#83 Buckwalter), 3. Hunter Fulton (#7F Fulton), 4. Joe Kata (#10 Kata), 5. Mike Haggenbottom (#51 Kelly), 6. Ronald Helmick (#22R Helmick), 7. Dirk Rimrott (#27R Rimrott), 8. Lee Kauffman (#96 Kauffman). NT

E. SCHNEIDER & SONS SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Christian Bruno (#17B Bruno), 2. Bobby Butler (#5B Butler), 3. Chris Allen Jr. (#71 Allen), 4. Olivia Thayer (#39 Thayer), 5. Brett Rose (#45R Rose), 6. Gary Huston (#44 Huston), 7. Nate Emig (#58 Emig), 8. Mark Bitner (#15 Bitner). NT

BOULEVARD TRUCK REPAIR THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Ed Aikin (#7 Aikin), 2. Steven Drevicki (#19 Drevicki), 3. Steve Wilbur (#59 Prior), 4. Kyle Spence (#42 Fraker), 5. Troy Fraker (#12w Fraker), 6. Jason Cherry (#67 Cherry), 7. Dale Schweikart (#78 Schweikart), 8. Jake Galloway (#27G Galloway). NT

STANLEY & SUPPLIES SEMI: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Ronald Helmick, 2. Jason Cherry, 3. Jake Galloway, 4. Dale Schweikart, 5. Mark Bitner, 6. Nate Emig, 7. Dirk Rimrott, 8. Gary Huston, 9. Lee Kauffman. NT

STANLEY & SUPPLIES FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Steven Drevicki (6), 2. Christian Bruno (5), 3. Chris Allen Jr. (1), 4. Kyle Spence (12), 5. Steve Wilbur (2), 6. Joey Amantea (9), 7. Bruce Buckwalter Jr. (4), 8. Bobby Butler (8), 9. Ronald Helmick (16), 10. Olivia Thayer (11), 11. Joe Kata (10), 12. Mark Bitner (20), 13. Mike Haggenbottom (13), 14. Jake Galloway (18), 15. Jason Cherry (17), 16. Dale Schweikart (19), 17. Ed Aikin (7), 18. Brett Rose (14), 19. Hunter Fulton (3), 20. Troy Fraker (15). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-13 Chris Allen Jr., Laps 14-25 Steven Drevicki.

NEXT USAC IMT EAST COAST SPRINT CARS PRESENTED BY BAER DEN FARMS RACE: September 6, 2025 – Grandview Speedway – Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania

CONTINGENCY AWARDS:

JPA Racing Products Hard Luck: Lee Kauffman

Bitner Automotive Fast Time: Joey Amantea

C & C Landscaping Hard Charger: Kyle Spence (12th to 4th)

Hoosier Tire Poker Chip (15) Free Tire: Jason Cherry

J & W Home Improvements Best 305: Nate Emig

First Non-Transfer: Nate Emig

DEEP DIVE! LEARY HITS MILESTONE WITH FIRST DIRT MILE WIN AT DU QUOIN’S TED HORN 100

Rich Forman

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Du Quoin, Illinois (August 30, 2025)………C.J. Leary put his family name into an unprecedented category by capturing victory in Saturday afternoon’s 71st running of the Ted Horn 100 at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in southern Illinois.

Nine years ago, C.J. Leary became the first, and still only, son of a past USAC Silver Crown winner to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a series winner himself.

C.J. led the final 95 miles at Du Quoin to score his first career victory on a one-mile dirt track. C.J.’s dad, Chuck Leary, corralled his first and only USAC Silver Crown win on the one-mile dirt oval at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in 1997. Thus, the feat made Chuck and C.J. the first father and son to win USAC Silver Crown races on a one-mile dirt track.

Of course, all of it takes on an even more profound meaning following Chuck Leary’s passing just five months ago. Two days earlier, Chuck would’ve celebrated his 60th birthday. Two days later, C.J. achieved one of his greatest career moments on the Magic Mile, all while doing so with his father’s name adorning the visor on his Team AZ-Petty-Rossi Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – Apache Transportation/DRC/Stanton Chevy.

“I think my dad was riding with me those last couple of laps,” C.J. said. “I can’t express enough how much this would’ve meant to him, and what is does to me. He won the Hoosier Hundred in 1997 and I’ve always wanted to rub elbows with him by being a dirt mile winner, and we finally got it done.”

Leary had made eight previous Ted Horn 100 starts at Du Quoin dating back to 2014, finishing a best of second in 2023 and was leading late when a driveline failure sidelined him with just seven laps to go in 2022. It’s been a long time coming through the trials and tribulations for the Greenfield, Indiana native, and that time has finally come.

“Man, this is incredible,” C.J. exclaimed. “I’ve been trying to win on a mile for a long time and I’ve been really close. Something has always struck us and we haven’t been able to get it done. It hasn’t been from a lack of effort with all the teams I’ve driven for. But today we were really good.”

While Leary started eighth in the 28-car field, it was A.J. Fike who started from the pole position for the first time in 12 seasons when he led the field to green at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in 2013. Fike led the initial four laps but was quickly swarmed by fifth starting Chase Stockon who stormed past Fike for the lead on the front straightaway on lap five.

Stockon’s time up front was short lived as Leary made a beeline for the top spot as Leary became the third different leader in the first six laps as he shot by Stockon on the front straight to slot into the top spot on the sixth go around.

By lap 22, one of the emerging storylines was the advancement of Brian Tyler who had already advanced from 16th to sixth. However, in a three-way battle for sixth along with Matt Westfall and Jake Swanson, Tyler and Swanson touched wheels in turn four. As a result, Tyler's left rear tire went down as did Swanson's right front. Both crawled back to the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area for new rubber under the caution and subsequently restarted at the tail.

By midway, Leary had extended his advantage to 2.5 seconds over the field. Simultaneously, attention was diverted to Shane Cockrum, the two-time Ted Horn 100 winner who had started 26th and had climbed all the way up to sixth. Following qualifying, Cockrum and his teammate on the Hans Lein owned team, Ken Schrader, swapped cars and were relegated to starting at the tail, by rule. That said, Cockrum’s incredible run came to an end on lap 58 after his car lost fuel pressure, knocking him out of the race.

While Leary had the competition seemingly covered, Stockon raced into second past Grant as the field came to green on lap 63. Mario Clouser followed suit into fourth a lap later with a turn four pass of Steffens on the 64th circuit. On lap 78, Clouser surged to the “show” spot on the podium after Grant drifted high in turn two, then got caught behind the lapped car of Mahoney. Clouser took advantage and slipped under Grant for the spot. By lap 88, Tyler had reemerged into the top-five after his see-saw battle with Steffens went his way.

Down the stretch, Leary’s lead began to dwindle chunk by chunk as Stockon’s deficit receded from five seconds to four to three to two with two laps remaining. As Leary explained, he felt a bit worrisome about his right rear tire which had endured 100 laps in the daytime at a one-mile racetrack. Turns out, Leary need not worry. He had more than enough.

“I had plenty of tire left,” Leary revealed. “I don’t know why I was conserving so much at the end. I just had a lot of things going through my mind of what could go wrong. I thought our tire was probably used up a little bit. But the thing looks great, so obviously the car had a really good balance to it and I drove a really good race.”

When Leary crossed the stripe for the 100th and final time, he was 2.617 seconds ahead of Chase Stockon who finished with a Silver Crown career best runner-up result. Mario Clouser grabbed a podium finish for the second time on a dirt mile this season, finishing third at Springfield and third again at Du Quoin. Point leader Justin Grant took fourth while Brian Tyler rounded out the top-five.

In victory lane, Leary and team owner Mike Burkhart went swimming as they both dove into the infield lake in celebration of their triumph.

Technically, Brian Tyler passed 29 cars at Du Quoin. First, he went 16th to sixth before a lap 22 accident put him back on the tail. He then restarted 24th and raced his way to a fifth place finish. Officially, he went 16th to fifth to earn his second consecutive dirt mile Rod End Supply Hard Charger award after also achieving the same feat at Springfield two weeks earlier.

Will Armitage spent the last two weeks rebuilding his crashed champ car after getting upside down at Springfield. On this day at Du Quoin, initially, his car wouldn’t take off for the start. That forced him to the tail where he charged his way back to a solid 11th place finish. All of that made a surefire bet for the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Day.

USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 30, 2025 – Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Du Quoin, Illinois – 1-Mile Dirt Oval – Ted Horn 100

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. A.J. Fike, 39, Fike-30.633; 2. Matt Westfall, 54, 4 Kings-30.651; 3. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-30.712; 4. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-30.852; 5. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-30.920; 6. Will Armitage, 17, Armitage-30.974; 7. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-31.019; 8. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi-31.034; 9. Mario Clouser, 22, Rice/Abacus-31.039; 10. Saban Bibent, 88, Fetter-31.083; 11. Mitchel Moles, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-31.121; 12. Kevin Thomas Jr., 24, Haggenbottom-31.189; 13. Jake Swanson, 6, Klatt-31.231; 14. Danny Jennings, 61, Grace-31.278; 15. Jimmy Light, 118, Thomas-31.282; 16. Brian Tyler, 81, BCR-31.333; 17. Shane Cockrum, 97, Lein-31.419; 18. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-31.450; 19. Ken Schrader, 197, Lein-31.466; 20. Casey Buckman, 25, C-Buck/Sachs-31.516; 21. Korey Weyant, 99, Weyant-31.800; 22. Travis Mahoney, 65, SV-31.950; 23. Kip Hughes, 160, Hughes-32.073; 24. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-32.222; 25. Tom Savage, 38, Savage-33.170; 26. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-34.472; 27. Aric Gentry, 3, Simmons-NT; 28. Kenny Gentry, 18, Gentry-NT.

FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (8), 2. Chase Stockon (5), 3. Mario Clouser (9), 4. Justin Grant (3), 5. Brian Tyler (16), 6. Kyle Steffens (4), 7. Matt Westfall (2), 8. Kevin Thomas Jr. (12), 9. Danny Jennings (14), 10. Jimmy Light (15), 11. Will Armitage (6), 12. Russ Gamester (17), 13. Saban Bibent (10), 14. Jake Swanson (13), 15. Travis Mahoney (20), 16. Korey Weyant (19), 17. Dave Berkheimer (23), 18. Tom Savage (22), 19. Casey Buckman (18), 20. Mitchel Moles (11), 21. Shane Cockrum (26), 22. A.J. Fike (1), 23. Kyle Robbins (21), 24. Briggs Danner (7), 25. Ken Schrader (27), 26. Aric Gentry (24), 27. Kenny Gentry (25), 28. Kip Hughes (28). 1:08.06.531

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 A.J. Fike, Lap 5 Chase Stockon, Laps 6-100 C.J. Leary.

USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-774, 2-C.J. Leary-709, 3-Matt Westfall-582, 4-Kody Swanson-493, 5-Kyle Steffens-482, 6-Mario Clouser-450, 7-Dave Berkheimer-355, 8-Dakoda Armstrong-345, 9-Chase Stockon-310, 10-Taylor Ferns-299.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-207, 2-Briggs Danner-129, 3-Kevin Thomas Jr.-115, 4-Gunnar Setser-112, 5-Logan Seavey-105, 6-C.J. Leary-102, 7-Justin Grant-97, 8-Kyle Cummins-94, 9-Chase Stockon-85, 10-Hayden Reinbold-81.

NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 19-20, 2025 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 43rd 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: C.J. Leary (29.687)

Honest Abe Roofing / Southern Illinois Sports Productions / Richard Blakely Fast Qualifier: A.J. Fike (30.633)

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Brian Tyler (16th to 5th)

Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Race: Will Armitage

HOME SWEET BLOOMINGTON! MILLER MANS THE RED CLAY FOR VICTORY

Rich Forman

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Bloomington, Indiana (August 29, 2025)………For Gavin Miller, the red clay of Bloomington Speedway has been a home away from home.

Back in 2023, the Allentown, Pennsylvania native captured his first career USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship.

On Friday night, it was more of the same as Miller capitalized on the misfortune of early race front runners Jacob Denney and Justin Grant, then led the final 15 circuits of the 30-lap feature to score his third career series win, two of which have come on the southern Indiana 1/4-mile.

“I think it just fits my driving style,” Miller acknowledged. “Sometimes you’ve got to hit it nice and straight. I felt like the top was pretty good down here. I just started sliding myself because I found the moisture on entry there.”

Miller has turned up the wick of late, finishing inside the top-two in four of his last seven series starts through July and August, including two victories. Miller also scored a win in July on the opening night of the Midwest Midget Championship at Fairbury, Nebraska’s Jefferson County Speedway.

After waiting 56 races between his first and second career USAC National Midget triumph, Miller only had to wait one more race to get win number three in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/SoundGear – Toyota – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota.

Now, Miller is a two-time winner with the series in 2025 and is among the hottest contenders right now on the tour.

“I struggled last year and just had to regroup and rethink who I am as a driver,” Miller explained. “I’m working great with (crew chief) Beau (Binder) now. Working at the shop has definitely taught me what I like in my racecar a little bit better. Communication with my crew chief has been the biggest thing.”

Miller actually had to bounce back at the start of Friday night’s feature, the first USAC National Midget event held at Bloomington outside of Indiana Midget Week since Tony Stewart’s victory in August 1994, 31 years ago.

After starting from the pole position, teammate and outside front row starter Denney pounced to the lead after he and Miller sliced and diced one another on each end of the racetrack for the first pair of laps. By lap three, Miller had fallen to third as Grant zipped past on the inside of turn two to overtake the second position.

By the midway point, Denney had stretched his lead out to a full two seconds as he matriculated through lapped traffic with relative ease while Grant and Miller couldn’t seem to break free from the gridlock nearly a straightaway behind in the second and third spot.

However, on lap 16, Denney’s right rear tire was noticeably low, and on the 17th lap, it finally gave way in turn three to bring out the caution, relegating Denney to the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area. After restarting at the tail, he worked his way back up to a 12th place result.

Grant inherited the lead for the restart but soon found his own bit of right rear tire misfortune as well. As soon as the green flag was waved for the lap 17 restart, Grant was swallowed up by Miller instantaneously as Grant’s tire rapidly deflated, dropping him to third behind Brecken Reese within a lap.

Moments later, Steven Snyder Jr. (9th) got crossed up in turns three and four and nearly came to a halt. Just behind him, 15th running Thomas Meseraull was unable to avoid Snyder, and the ensuing contact sent Meseraull flipping upside down. During the red flag, Grant headed back to the work area before returning with fresh rubber, managing only to get back to 16th by the race’s end.

From there, Miller said ‘sayonara’ to the competition as the only shakeups at the upper tier of the field occurred behind him. With six laps remaining, Reese got tied up atop the turn two cushion, allowing both Kevin Thomas Jr. and Cannon McIntosh to sweep on by into second and third, respectively.

When all was said and done, Miller was 2.373 seconds ahead as he crossed under Keith Dewig’s checkered flag with Kevin Thomas Jr. taking second, Cannon McIntosh third, Brecken Reese fourth and Jakeb Boxell rounding out the top-five with his best career USAC National Midget result.

Winning isn’t easy, and even though the night didn’t exactly unfold the way he envisioned it, Miller is grateful to add another one in the win column.

“The track was great; it was racy,” Miller praised. “I didn’t really want to win it that way, especially with them cutting tires there, and I honestly thought I did the same thing on the restart. I kept spinning my tires just praying that my tire wasn’t cut. But I just had to be smart on the restarts, hit my line right and make sure I wasn’t making mistakes getting into the corners. I just had to hit my line on the bottom and slide myself the best that I could.”

In 12 USAC National Midget starts this season, Brecken Reese had grabbed just a single top-10 finish, which also happened to be his only result better than 14th! But Friday night was different as the USAC Rookie from Canyon, Texas earned his best career series finish of fourth in his first ever visit to Bloomington Speedway.

To start the night, a throttle linkage issue relegated Gunnar Setser to just one qualifying lap. Starting 17th in the feature, Setser worked his way up to a seventh place finish in the feature, which earned him the Sober Joe’s Coffee Recovery of Night award.

When Hayden Reinbold pulled off in his heat race, his night was trending downward. After going to a backup car for the feature, the Arizonan advanced +12 from his 23rd starting spot to finish 11th, good enough for Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.

In Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying, Kevin Thomas Jr. blazed to his first quick time of the USAC National Midget season, marking 4 Kings Racing’s first ever USAC fast qualifier award as the team went one-two with Jakeb Boxell also going second quickest. For KTJ, it was his 10th career USAC National Midget fast qualifying time tonight, which tied George Amick, Pancho Carter and Allen Crowe for 65th place on the all-time list.

In a statistical oddity, every race conducted during the program was won by a car sporting the number 97. Zach Wigal scored the first heat race win in Pat O’Dell’s No. 97x. The second race victory was captured by Kale Drake in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 97K. Gavin Miller, aboard his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 97, finished off the preliminaries with a win in heat race three, then completed the night as the feature victor.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 29, 2025 – Bloomington Speedway – Bloomington, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-11.852; 2. Jakeb Boxell, 14JB, 4 Kings-11.854; 3. Brecken Reese, 20Q, Reese-11.909; 4. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-11.937; 5. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.046; 6. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.061; 7. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.099; 8. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-12.100; 9. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-12.105; 10. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.111; 11. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.121; 12. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-12.121; 13. Zach Wigal, 97x, O'Dell-12.205; 14. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.255; 15. Thomas Meseraull, 7s, Engler-12.287; 16. Braxton Cummings, 71B, Cummings-12.308; 17. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-12.311; 18. Stephen Schnapf, 11s, Martin-12.320; 19. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-12.443; 20. Mack Leopard, 86, CBI-12.485; 21. Jeff Schindler, 8x, Schindler-NT; 22. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-12.861; 23. Alex Shipman, 17, Cummings-12.915; 24. Chris Hartman, 35s, Hodge-12.950; 25. Mark Chisholm, 56x, Chisholm-NT (time of 12.508 disallowed after missing the scales).

CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Zach Wigal, 2. Colton Robinson, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Cannon McIntosh, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Gunnar Setser, 7. Braxton Cummings, 8. Mark Chisholm, 9. Justin Dickerson. NT

K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Ethan Mitchell, 4. Cale Coons, 5. Drake Edwards, 6. Jakeb Boxell, 7. Mack Leopard, 8. Alex Shipman. 2:06.221

USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Gavin Miller, 2. Steven Snyder Jr., 3. Brecken Reese, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Jeff Schindler, 6. Chris Hartman, 7. Hayden Reinbold, 8. Stephen Schnapf. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gavin Miller (1), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 3. Cannon McIntosh (9), 4. Brecken Reese (4), 5. Jakeb Boxell (5), 6. Steven Snyder Jr. (11), 7. Gunnar Setser (17), 8. Kale Drake (8), 9. Zach Wigal (7), 10. Colton Robinson (12), 11. Hayden Reinbold (23), 12. Jacob Denney (2), 13. Drake Edwards (10), 14. Ethan Mitchell (16), 15. Mack Leopard (18), 16. Justin Grant (3), 17. Cale Coons (13), 18. Justin Dickerson (20), 19. Chris Hartman (21), 20. Thomas Meseraull (14), 21. Mark Chisholm (22), 22. Braxton Cummings (15), 23. Jordan Kinser (#17) (24), 24. Jeff Schindler (19). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-15 Jacob Denney, Lap 16 Justin Grant, Laps 17-30 Gavin Miller.

**Thomas Meseraull flipped on lap 18 of the feature.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Cannon McIntosh-979, 2-Justin Grant-947, 3-Jacob Denney-917, 4-Kale Drake-882, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-879, 6-Gavin Miller-868, 7-Drake Edwards-805, 8-Steven Snyder Jr.-798, 9-Logan Seavey-783, 10-Gunnar Setser-699.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-207, 2-Briggs Danner-129, 3-Gunnar Setser-112, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-111, 5-Logan Seavey-105, 6-Justin Grant-97, 7-C.J. Leary-95, 8-Kyle Cummins-94, 9-Chase Stockon-82, 10-Hayden Reinbold-81.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 31, 2025 – Angell Park Speedway – Sun Prairie, Wisconsin – 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval – 40th Firemen’s Nationals

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Jacob Denney (11.930)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Kevin Thomas Jr. (11.852)

Car IQ First Heat Winner: Zach Wigal

K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Kale Drake

USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Gavin Miller

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Hayden Reinbold (23rd to 11th)

Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Brecken Reese

Sober Joe’s Coffee Recovery of the Night: Gunnar Setser

Whiz Kid Award to Reward Western World Rookies Oct 24-25 at Central Arizona

Jack Reitz

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Casa Grande, Arizona (September 9, 2025)………The 58th annual Western World Championships on October 24-25, 2025, at Central Arizona Raceway will include a special Rookie of the Year Award honoring one of the greats from the Grand Canyon State.

Team AZ-Petty-Rossi will present The Whiz Kid Award, named for Eric Wilkins, the Arizona Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee who won 83 features and six driving championships in his sprint car and midget racing career, including a USAC National Midget victory in 1992 at Denver, Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Speedway. Wilkins now serves as a mechanic on the Team AZ-Petty-Rossi team and won the Western World as a crewman in both 2022 and 2023.

The Whiz Kid Award will reward multiple Rookies of the Year at the Western World in both the 410 portion featuring the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship and the Avanti Windows & Doors USAC CRA Sprint Car Series, as well as the 360 event for the Sands Chevrolet Wild West Sprints.

At the conclusion of Saturday night’s program, the Western World Rookie of the Year in each division will earn a $500 reward and a trophy for their efforts across the two-night event at the Casa Grande, Arizona 3/8-mile dirt oval.

It’s all part of an increased purse across the board for the Western World Championships, which is renowned as one of the most storied events in dirt track racing and boasts a rich legacy dating back to its debut in 1968.

The 2025 Western World will pay a record $35,000-to-win for the USAC portion of the event on Saturday, plus $15,000 in lap leader money and a minimum of $1,000 to start. The two-night Western World purse for USAC has already exceeded $100,000 thanks to supporting sponsors Avanti Windows & Doors, AME Electrical, Apache Transport, JUGO Superfoods, Buffalo Wild Wings and Busch Light.

All previous 57 editions of the Western World Championships have been held in the state of Arizona. Not only is the famed event a source of pride for those from around the country, but especially to those hailing from the state of Arizona.

“We are committed to making this race one of the crown jewels, as it used to be, and increase the purse every year,” said Michael Burkhart, an Arizona native and Western World winning car owner who is the originator of the Whiz Kid Award.

Tickets and camping passes for the 2025 Western World Championships can be purchased now at:

Friday Tickets: https://centralarizonaraceway.ticketspice.com/central-arizona-raceway-october-24

Saturday Tickets: https://centralarizonaraceway.ticketspice.com/central-arizona-raceway-october-25-2025

Reserve Camping: https://pinalcountyfair.ticketspice.com/car-spectator-camping

THORNTON TO MAKE USAC SPRINT CAR DEBUT AT WESTERN WORLD OCT. 24-25

Josh James

Casa Grande, Arizona (September 4, 2025)………Reigning Lucas Oil Late Model Champion and Arizona native Ricky Thornton Jr. will compete as a Rookie in the 58th Annual Western World Championships at Casa Grande’s Central Arizona Raceway on October 24-25, 2025.

Thornton, a native of Chandler, Arizona and now living in Indianola Iowa, was thrilled when team owner Jerry Petty approached him about the opportunity to run one of his Petty Performance Racing entries during the prestigious event.

“I’ve always wanted to run the Western World Championships and just never had the opportunity,” Thornton said. “When Jerry offered a car, I knew I had to accept.”

Thornton, who will pilot the 20RT Petty Performance Racing entry sponsored by Avanti Windows & Doors, will be teamed up with the current USAC National Sprint Car points leader Kyle Cummins and current USAC CRA points leader R.J. Johnson for the event.

“I am really looking forward to racing back in Arizona in front of family, friends and fans." Thornton mentioned.

The event will feature two consecutive nights of racing featuring the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship and the Avanti Windows & Doors USAC CRA Sprint Car Series. Friday night’s event will pay $7,500 to the winner while Saturday’s finale will offer $20,000 to the winner and a minimum of $1,000 to start.

Tickets for the Western World Championships and Camping spots are available now.

Visit https://www.centralazraceway.com/press/article/180179 for more information.

Inaugural Chase Johnson Classic Presents USAC Midgets & 360 Wing Sprints Nov 22 at Merced

Dave Olson

Merced, California (September 2, 2025)………The USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship’s annual late season trip to California’s Merced Speedway will honor racer Chase Johnson on Saturday night, November 22, 2025.

The Chase Johnson Classic will present USAC National Midget and 360 Winged Sprint Car racing in a one-night doubleheader on the high banked 1/4-mile dirt oval. If needed, the makeup date for the event will be held on Sunday, November 23.

Tickets are now on sale for the event at http://www.mercedspeedway.net/.

Penngrove, California’s Johnson is a past wing sprint car champion and is a multi-time winner across USAC’s CRA Sprint Car, West Coast Sprint Car and Western States Midget series. However, in August 2024, Johnson suffered injuries that resulted in him becoming a quadriplegic following a racing accident at California’s Silver Dollar Speedway. Chase is still fighting everyday with intensive therapy to recover from his injuries.

It’s now been one year since Johnson’s accident, and with the support of Merced Speedway promoter, Doug Lockwood, the inaugural race bearing his name is set commence this Fall.

“It means a lot,” Johnson said. “I never would’ve thought I’d have a race named after me. It just goes to show how awesome the racing community is with their the outpouring of love and support that’s still happening a year later.”

Johnson and Lockwood have known each other for a long time, and Johnson is honored himself to be able to work alongside Lockwood on this venture at a track that he ranks among his absolute favorites.

“Getting to work on this project is very cool,” Johnson stated. “Merced is a top notch facility, and having the midgets and sprint cars there, I feel like it’s a great fit. Something with multiple divisions showing the versatile racer that I am and was is important to me. I wouldn’t really want it to be a race specific to one or the other. I think it’s definitely more fitting that it involves multiple disciplines that I’ve raced.”

Lockwood has a picture taken several years ago of Chase and himself chatting on the back of a USAC truck at Santa Maria Speedway. For Lockwood, the picture is personally special, and as Lockwood explained, Johnson has always been one who he could always count on to conduct himself professionally, do things the right way and help out the sport in any way he could.

“Chase has always been someone who I’ve texted when I’ve had ideas or if I needed someone to show up and do a display or anything like that,” Lockwood noted. “He and his brother (Colby Johnson) were always the first ones to be there or who I’d talk to. I knew it was coming up on one year since his accident, so I texted him about a week ago and told him I’d really like to do this. He was all on board with it from the very beginning. It just means a lot to me to be able to do something with him and honor him. I can’t wait to have him at the track and work through this project together after everything he’s gone through and to honor the racer he is and was.”

Johnson holds Merced Speedway in high regard, making it a natural fit for the Chase Johnson Classic. In fact, Johnson won both a USAC Western States Midget and USAC West Coast Sprint Car feature event at Merced in 2021. He also holds the one-lap USAC West Coast Sprint Car track record at Merced.

“Doug and Merced Speedway do a phenomenal job of making every race spectacular,” Johnson praised. “They knock it out of the ballpark with track prep and you can go across the pit area and everyone there will tell you that it’s one of their favorite races of the year. We hope to make it an event, not just another race, with some special things going on throughout the night and also make it special for the racers as well.”

For anyone who is interested in being a part of the event, please contact Chase Johnson at ChaseJohnsonRacing@yahoo.com.

More details on the event will be made shortly at www.usacracing.com and www.mercedspeedway.net.

2025 National Midget Auto Racing Hall Of Fame Class Revealed

By: Richie Murray

Sun Prairie, Wisconsin (September 1, 2025)………Gene Angelillo, Leroy Byers, Dave Darland, Hank & Scot Hersh, Ralph Potter and Dave Steele are the newest inductees into the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame, class of 2025.

The announcement was made during last Sunday night’s Firemen’s Nationals event at Sun Prairie, Wisconsin’s Angell Park Speedway, the home of the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame.

Gene Angelillo notched an unprecedented 14 NEMA championships and 107 feature wins as a car owner with the series between 1980-2009 with the likes of Drew Fornoro, Russ Stoehr and Joey Payne. Furthermore, his cars won five ARDC races and the 1984 title with driver Nick Fornoro Jr. From 1995-2002, Angelillo also served as the President of NEMA.

Leroy Byers was among the most preeminent racing photographers who dedicated his life to motorsports, and quite notably, midget racing. Over four decades, he built an extensive racing collection and captured a plethora of images at events across the USA, including near his home base of Colorado and with the Rocky Mountain Midget Racing Association.

As one of the most successful drivers of his era, Dave Darland captured back-to-back USAC National Midget championships in 2001-2002. The first of those completed his quest to become a member of the USAC Triple Crown club. His 30 USAC National Midget triumphs included the Belleville Nationals, the Hut 100 and the Turkey Night Grand Prix.

Dave Steele was among the most talented and successful pavement midget racers of all-time. All 18 of his USAC National Midget triumphs came on asphalt between 1998-2007. He scored monumental victories at the Night Before the 500, thrice at the Copper World Classic, twice at the Turkey Night Grand Prix and a memorable Twin 25s victory at IRP in 2002.

A two-time USAC National Midget entrant titlist in 1992 and 1994, Ralph Potter earned 16 career USAC National Midget wins between 1991-2000 with drivers Tony Elliott, Mike Bliss, Tony Stewart, Tracy Hines and Jay Drake. Marquee wins in Potter’s V6 powered car include the Night Before the 500 with Mike Bliss & the Chili Bowl with Dave Blaney, both in 1993.

The father and son duo of Hank & Scot Hersh were the team to beat in Rocky Mountain Midget racing. With driver Mike Gregg, they collected eight titles between 1977-1987, while amassing 62 series wins. Big midget wins include the 1981 Belleville Nationals, the Kingdome in 1984, and three USAC national wins, including one televised by ESPN at IRP in 1988.

The 40th annual luncheon and induction ceremony for the six inductees will be held on Friday, January 16, 2025. The event will be held at Fair Meadow Hall at the Tulsa Fairgrounds in Oklahoma, adjacent to the Expo Center which will be hosting the Chili Bowl Nationals during the week.

For additional information on the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame, contact Barb Hellyer at kingdoodlebug@sbcglobal.net.