Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) pocketed $10,000 for capturing Thursday night's USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature at Circle City Raceway. (Indy Racing Images Photo) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Indianapolis, Indiana (May 23, 2024)………Following their least successful run of the season a mere 24 hours earlier, Logan Seavey and Abacus Racing were champing at the bit for the opportunity to get a do-over during Thursday night’s Circle City Salute finale at Indianapolis, Indiana’s Circle City Raceway.
The dynamic duo of Seavey and Abacus made a complete turnaround from one night to the next, discarding Wednesday’s 11th place struggle with a most dominant victory on Thursday at the 1/4-mile dirt oval, leading the final 30 laps in their CG CPAs – Indy Custom Stone – Forecheck Marketing/DRC/Stanton Chevy.
In turn, Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) became just the second driver to earn multiple USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature wins at Circle City following last September’s photo finish victory. On Thursday, the only other multi-time winner was the driver Seavey passed to take the cake as he zipped past on lap 11 of the 40-lap main event to earn a $10,000 payday.
For Seavey, it’s already his fifth USAC National Sprint Car win of the year, a rare feat for any driver in the 69-year history of USAC to achieve by this juncture. In fact, it’s the earliest in the season (May 23) that any driver has picked up his fifth win of the year since Larry Dickson on May 10, 1970. Furthermore, Seavey became the first driver since Bryan Clauson in 2016 to win five races within the first 14 events of the season.
Furthermore, Seavey moved up another rung on the all-time USAC National Sprint Car win list. With his 15th career triumph, Seavey moved into 40th all-time alongside Bobby East, Cory Kruseman and Brian Tyler. Needless to say, Seavey loved today more than yesterday.
“Yesterday, it was really bad all day; we sucked,” Seavey said without reservation. “It was probably one of our worst nights all together. We went back to the drawing board and did a lot of stuff different. I had a bunch of speed on the cushion, but at this place, if you want to race and pass people, you’ve got to be good everywhere. We went to work and put a whole night together that went really well. We timed in well, and we could run the cushion really hard and then it got really slick and clean. I could peel off and run through the middle and carry speed, which is what I struggled with last night. I could cut the middle, but I didn’t have any grip or speed.”
Seavey’s 2024 USAC Sprint Car record has been impeccable, you could say, with 11 podium finishes in just 14 starts to begin the year. This week alone, outside of Wednesday night at Circle City, has been fruitful. In a four-race, five-day span, he’s won three features worth $26,000 in total, including a USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship A-Main at Missouri’s Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex on Sunday followed by a pair of USAC Sprint wins at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track on Tuesday and Circle City on Thursday.
“These guys just didn’t give up,” Seavey praised. “We were all scratching our heads last night. This thing has been so good everywhere. This place threw us for a little bit of a loop yesterday but that’s what great teams are made of. It was nice to have two days in a row here so we could come back and try stuff right away and get better. Sure enough, they did that really well.”
Starting third, Seavey slotted into second on the opening lap while Cummins patrolled the pace up front. Shortly after a spin by 20th running Joey Amantea, Seavey was right on Cummins’ bumper for the ensuing restart. One circuit later, on lap 10, Seavey made his bid and slid past Cummins for the top spot in turn one. Seavey out-drag-raced Cummins into turn three, then slid himself to fend off Cummins’ comeback. From that point onward, Seavey was in his own area code, zip code and township.
As a change of pace from the night before, Seavey did his work in the the middle of the track as he threaded his way away from any pressure levied by all challengers second place on back.
“This place usually races pretty good, and it normally gets a big cushion and all that,” Seavey explained. “For some reason, it was hard to carry speed up there tonight. It was just a little bit easier to run through the middle. The pace gets really slow when you get running through the middle like that. I didn’t feel like I was running super-fast. I got behind Chance (Crum) there and he was right in the same line I was, and he was blowing by guys with me, so I wasn’t pushing too hard on him.”
As Seavey routinely glanced up at the back straightaway video screen, he couldn’t help but notice that the battle cam was not pointed at him, which has proven to be a good thing when you’re running alone up front like Seavey was.
“Every time I looked at the screen, they kept showing Brady (Bacon) and a few other guys racing for third or fourth. I noticed they weren’t showing me, which is usually a good thing. I was just trying to watch the board and watch other things and see if there was anybody running up the board or not. I felt so good in the middle. I figured I’d probably hear something. I figured as much as you’re idling around, you can hear everything in the center of the corner. If someone’s really running hard, you’d be able to hear them.”
Meanwhile, the battle for second raged on. Daison Pursley cruised the low line to gravitate to the runner-up position on lap 29 past Cummins when he lost momentum after tapping the turn two wall while the pair ran wheel-to-wheel. Bacon took third a lap later as Cummins again clipped the wall, this time in turn four. Working through traffic off turn four coming to the white flag, Bacon was able to drive under Pursley to corral the second spot.
However, by that point, Seavey was Long Gone Silver’s as he crossed the line 4.266 seconds ahead of the field to score a dominant victory. Bacon crossed the line in second just ahead of Brady Bacon, Daison Pursley and Ricky Lewis (in a 360 c.i. powered engine) while Robert Ballou rounded out the top-five.
I think we can finally say Brady Bacon is back. After a tumultuous beginning, the Broken Arrow, Okla. native recorded three top-three finishes in as many starts in as many nights aboard his Dynamics, Inc./Next Level Metal – Davis Brothers Trucking – Hutson John Deere/Triple X/Rider Chevy.
For Daison Pursley, it was another race and another third-place result. The Locust Grove, Okla. racer posted a fine third-place finish for the second consecutive night at Circle City aboard his Team AZ Racing/Apache Transport – Oak Craft Elegant Cabinetry/DRC/1-Way Chevy. It’s his fifth consecutive top-six finish with the series.
Chance Crum (Snohomish, Wash.) picked up hard charger honors for the night courtesy of Baldwin Brothers Racing. On Thursday, he advanced nine positions in the feature from 23rd to 14th. This came after traveling +11 on Wednesday night at Circle City when he moved from 20th to ninth.
During Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying, C.J. Leary recorded his 49th career USAC National Sprint Car fast qualifying award, tying him with Brady Bacon for fourth all-time. Only Tom Bigelow (65), Dave Darland (62) and Tracy Hines (60) stand above them in the record book.
=====================
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 23, 2024 – Circle City Raceway – Indianapolis, Indiana – Circle City Salute – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-12.371; 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.397; 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-12.518; 4. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-12.530; 5. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.546; 6. Shane Cottle, 2E, Epperson-12.552; 7. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-12.575; 8. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.629; 9. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.685; 10. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-12.698; 11. Daison Pursley, 21AZ, Team AZ-12.708; 12. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.743; 13. Jadon Rogers, 17GP, Dutcher-12.745; 14. Anton Hernandez, 5, Baldwin/Fox-12.783; 15. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-12.788; 16. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-12.802; 17. Ricky Lewis, 41, Stensland-12.804; 18. Jake Swanson, 2B, 2B Racing-12.806; 19. Kayla Roell, 5K, KO-12.889; 20. Colin Grissom, 00, Grissom-12.897; 21. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-12.904; 22. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-12.926; 23. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-12.950; 24. Brent Beauchamp, 11, Beauchamp-12.955; 25. Gabriel Gilbert, 10G, GGR-12.965; 26. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-12.967; 27. Frankie Guerrini, 63, F & F-12.984; 28. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.068; 29. Rylan Gray, 06, Gray-13.101; 30. Logan Calderwood, 73, Ford-13.113; 31. Chance Crum, 26, Crum-13.116; 32. Lee Dakus, 21x, Dakus-13.230; 33. Kyle Johnson, 99J, Johnson-13.306; 34. Jake Simmons, 7s, Simmons-13.690; 35. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Ricky Lewis, 2. Jadon Rogers, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Charles Davis Jr., 5. C.J. Leary, 6. Rylan Gray, 7. Gabriel Gilbert, 8. Kyle Johnson, 9. Mitchel Moles. 2:11.25
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Joey Amantea, 5. Shane Cottle, 6. Anton Hernandez, 7. Hunter Maddox, 8. Logan Calderwood, 9. Jake Simmons. NT
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Matt Westfall, 4. Frankie Guerrini, 5. Chance Crum, 6. Harley Burns, 7. Zack Pretorius, 8. Kayla Roell, 9. Kevin Thomas Jr. NT
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Brent Beauchamp, 3. Carson Garrett, 4. Brandon Mattox, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Matt Goodnight, 7. Colin Grissom, 8. Lee Dakus. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Anton Hernandez, 4. Harley Burns, 5. Rylan Gray, 6. Hunter Maddox, 7. Matt Goodnight, 8. Zack Pretorius, 9. Lee Dakus, 10. Logan Calderwood, 11. Kyle Johnson, 12. Colin Grissom, 13. Gabriel Gilbert. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (3), 2. Brady Bacon (5), 3. Daison Pursley (7), 4. Ricky Lewis (9), 5. Robert Ballou (8), 6. Kyle Cummins (1), 7. C.J. Leary (6), 8. Chase Stockon (10), 9. Carson Garrett (4), 10. Mitchel Moles (13), 11. Shane Cottle (2), 12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11), 13. Justin Grant (12), 14. Chance Crum (23), 15. Jake Swanson (18), 16. Jadon Rogers (14), 17. Matt Westfall (16), 18. Brent Beauchamp (20), 19. Brandon Mattox (17), 20. Joey Amantea (21), 21. Harley Burns (24), 22. Anton Hernandez (15), 23. Charles Davis Jr. (19), 24. Frankie Guerrini (22). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Kyle Cummins, Laps 11-40 Logan Seavey.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-996, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-910, 3-C.J. Leary-900, 4-Daison Pursley-836, 5-Brady Bacon-815, 6-Robert Ballou-756, 7-Kyle Cummins-755, 8-Justin Grant-740, 9-Mitchel Moles-733, 10-Chase Stockon-727.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-69, 2-Robert Ballou-69, 3-Daison Pursley-65, 4-C.J. Leary-62, 5-Joey Amantea-54, 6-Brady Bacon-44, 7-Matt Westfall-41, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-38, 9-Chase Stockon-38, 10-Carson Garrett-38.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: May 31 & June 1, 2024 – Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, Iowa – Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Logan Seavey (12.447)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: C.J. Leary (12.371)
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Ricky Lewis
Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Chase Stockon
T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Daison Pursley
Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.
Baldwin Brother Racing Hard Charger: Chance Crum (23rd to 14th)