Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) celebrates his victory following Saturday night's 10th Annual Bill Gardner Sprintacular at Putnamville, Indiana's Lincoln Park Speedway. (Rich Forman Photo) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Putnamville, Indiana (July 6, 2024)………Logan Seavey has made quite an impression pretty much everywhere he’s gone on the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship tour in 2024.
You can now add the 10th Annual Bill Gardner Sprintacular at Putnamville, Indiana’s Lincoln Park Speedway to his ever-growing accomplishment season checklist.
One night after the Sutter, California racer captured his initial Lincoln Park USAC win, on Saturday, he became the first driver to sweep to feature victories on both nights in the decade long history of the Sprintacular event, pocketing $10,000 for his efforts in the 40-lap finale at the 5/16-mile dirt oval.
With the triumph, the USAC National Sprint Car point leader earned his 10th victory of the series season, all of which have come in a span of 24 starts. In that same timeframe, he doubled his career output to 20 wins after tallying 10 across his first 146 starts between his 2018 debut and the opening two events of the 2024 campaign.
“I feel like I’ve been doing it a long time but really it’s only been a handful of years,” Seavey said. “Twenty is kind of crazy to believe since we just had 10 a few months ago. It took a big effort to build this race team and to come out of the gate like this is amazing.”
Seavey began his quest from the fourth spot aboard his Abacus Racing/MPV Express – CG CPAs – Indy Custom Stone/DRC/Stanton Chevy. Yet it was defending Sprintacular victor Brady Bacon who stepped out to the opening lap lead from his outside front row position.
On lap four, trouble ensued for a pair of Keystone State racers. Briggs Danner (11th) and Joey Amantea (15th) collided in turn two, resulting in Amantea flipping over. Both drivers’ nights were abruptly ended in the incident. Danner endured an interesting past 24 hours after his primary ride in the Hogue Racing Enterprises No. 39 experienced an engine issue on the opening lap of Friday night’s feature. Out of commission, Danner found work in a backup car for KO Motorsports on Saturday night with both team’s crews pitching in on the effort.
When action resumed, the battle at the front became three-pronged as the trio of Bacon, C.J. Leary and Seavey engaged in a three-wide battle for position. On lap seven, Seavey, the third driver in the triumvirate took his game to the topside where he flashed around Leary for second off turn four, then came up a wheel short of Bacon at the line for the race lead. Seavey kept digging, and by the time the pair reached turn three on the eighth circuit, Seavey dove low under Bacon to swipe the top spot.
The high line had worked for Seavey all weekend long and he seemingly remained committed to it. Nonetheless, Bacon quickly made up ground on the bottom groove and managed to pull even with Seavey. Thus, Seavey adjusted his tactics and stepped down from the top shelf to defy Bacon’s pursuit.
By lap 15, lapped traffic had forced the hand of the leaders to make a choice based on the line the car in front of them was operating with cars at the tail end of the field scattered both high and low. But all that was put to the wayside for the moment as fifth running Robert Ballou slowed with a flat right rear tire on lap 17, forcing him to the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area for fresh rubber. He’d ultimately return to finish 15th.
The second red flag of the feature was displayed on lap 19 when the third-place car driven Leary bounced atop the turn four cushion. With seemingly no place to go, fourth running Moles was unable to avoid the melee and collided with Leary, sending Moles toppling over. Subsequently, Jake Swanson (5th) collided with the flipping Moles, but was able to continue on. Moles returned to the field at the tail, driving back to 14th, ending a run of eight consecutive top-six finishes.
Daison Pursley, who had worked his way from 25th to 12th before the incident, also collided with Swanson and stopped. It had already been a turbulent evening for Pursley who set fast time in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying, then was involved in a nasty crash during a last lap battle for a heat race win with Ballou. After stepping into a Team AZ Racing backup car, Pursley made his way into the feature via a provisional. Starting from the 13th and final row, he made two separate charges through the field. When all was said and done, he’d come back to finish 13th.
With eight laps to go, Bacon had closed up the interval on Seavey’s lead to just a couple car lengths. Drawing nearer, Seavey made his escape in turn three as he split between the high/low duo of Ivan Glotzbach and Nate Schank. As Schank shook loose on the cushion, just behind him was Bacon, who momentarily became stifled as he avoided contact with the 2022 USAC CRA Sprint Car Rookie of the Year who was making his first USAC national start, which allowed Seavey to double his lead from six tenths to 1.2 seconds, though he still remained mired in the thick of gridlock.
“I was just trying to change stuff up and try to see where I felt better,” Seavey explained. “Then we get to traffic, and it seemed like every time I got to a car, they’d come from the bottom and go to the top. I don’t know if they were trying to get out of the way and they were putting themselves in the way but that’s part of racing and you’ve got to figure out how to get through it and I almost gave one up there.”
As Seavey maneuvered to the bottom to put Zack Pretorius a lap down, Bacon quickly made up ground, and with four laps remaining, drag raced past Seavey for the lead entering turn three. As Bacon slid up, Seavey slid under and was able to gain back a half car length advantage over Bacon at the stripe on lap 37. Bacon set up for another opportunity in turn one on lap 38, but snagged the cushion, then was hit in the rear bumper by Pretorius, once again allowing Seavey to break free, this time for good.
“This place was changing a lot there and I knew that being the leader early isn’t the best,” Seavey remarked. “It really makes you use everything you’ve got in your toolbox to figure out what to do. You go into one so slow and I’m just listening, thinking I can hear him running the top. I kept seeing his nose getting into three, so I knew I was losing a lot getting into one. I knew I was struggling to go by them guys. I couldn’t run the bottom as good as I needed to since they were all lined up on the cushion. So, I really didn’t have much place to go and Brady made a big move.”
Seavey held off one more furious charge from Bacon on the final go around to score a 0.665 second margin of victory. Leary brought it home third with Kevin Thomas Jr. fourth and Justin Grant fifth as the entire top-five consisted of past Sprintacular winners.
Overall, it’s Seavey’s third consecutive USAC National Sprint Car victory after notching one last Saturday at Macon (Ill.) Speedway before doubling up at Lincoln Park this weekend, thus making him the first driver to win three-in-a-row with the series since Justin Grant swept all three nights of Sprint Car Smackdown weekend at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway in August of 2023.
Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.) led the opening seven laps of the feature en route to his seventh runner-up finish of the USAC Sprint season in his Dynamics, Inc./Next Level Metal – Davis Brothers Trucking – Hutson John Deere/Triple X/Rider Chevy.
C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) posted a third-place result to capture his ninth straight top-10 finish Sprintacular feature events dating back to 2020 at the wheel of his BGE Dougherty Motorsports/Altoz – Valvoline – Hornbeck Concrete/DRC/1-Way Chevy.
Meanwhile, Chase Stockon (Fort Branch, Ind.) went +12 in the main event, starting 23rd and advancing his way up to an 11th place finish. Ricky Lewis (Camarillo, Calif.) became the first driver to earn a second Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night award in 2024 after executing a late-race pass to snag the final transfer spot in his heat race before collecting his second straight sixth place finish in as many nights. Sixteenth place finisher Tye Mihocko (Peoria, Aria.) was the recipient of a $550 bonus as the top weekly Lincoln Park Speedway racer in the feature.
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 6, 2024 – Lincoln Park Speedway – Putnamville, Indiana – 5/16-Mile Dirt Oval – 10th Annual IndianaOpenWheel.com Bill Gardner Sprintacular
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Daison Pursley, 21AZ, Team AZ-12.050; 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.131; 3. Ricky Lewis, 41, Stensland-12.399; 4. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.446; 5. Jake Swanson, 24, Simon-12.472; 6. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.478; 7. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-12.547; 8. Rylan Gray, 06, Gray-12.603; 9. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-12.624; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-12.656; 11. Shane Cottle, 2E, Epperson-12.665; 12. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-12.675; 13. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.703; 14. Briggs Danner, 5D, KO-12.706; 15. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.833; 16. Brent Beauchamp, 11, Beauchamp-12.844; 17. Geoff Ensign, 17, On The Gass-12.852; 18. Chance Crum, 26, Crum-12.875; 19. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-12.930; 20. Ivan Glotzbach, 2H, Hayden-12.930; 21. Nate Schank, 1, Schank-12.931; 22. Wesley Smith, 2B, 2B Racing-12.943; 23. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-12.959; 24. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-12.967; 25. Tye Mihocko, 24p, Paul-12.986; 26. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-12.997; 27. Anton Hernandez, 5, Baldwin/Fox-13.030; 28. Todd Hobson, 04, Burton-13.089; 29. Travis Thompson, 7, Thompson-13.093; 30. Kyle Johnson, 99J, Johnson-13.106; 31. Logan Calderwood, 73, Ford-13.166; 32. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-13.203; 33. Kayla Roell, 5K, KO-13.248; 34. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.262; 35. Daylan Chambers, 4c, Chambers-13.347; 36. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-13.348; 37. Hunter Maddox, 36, Maddox-13.424; 38. Nate Ervin, 11E, Algieo-13.567; 39. James Boyd, 16B, Boyd-13.703; 40. Sam Hinds, 71H, Hinds-13.893; 41. Tom Eller, 29OG, Eller-13.986; 42. Mike Larrison, 06L, American Dream-13.996; 43. Will Barnett, 88, Barnett-14.695; 44. Donny Brackett, 4B, Brackett-NT; 45. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Geoff Ensign, 4. Tye Mihocko, 5. Jake Swanson, 6. Nate Schank, 7. Kayla Roell, 8. Travis Thompson, 9. Tom Eller, 10. Hunter Maddox, 11. Daison Pursley. NT
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Briggs Danner, 5. Chance Crum, 6. Wesley Smith, 7. Chase Stockon, 8. Brandon Mattox, 9. Kyle Johnson, 10. Mike Larrison, 11. Nate Ervin. 2:12.55
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Shane Cottle, 4. Joey Amantea, 5. Ricky Lewis, 6. Anton Hernandez, 7. Matt Westfall, 8. Logan Calderwood, 9. James Boyd, 10. Will Barnett, 11. Daylan Chambers. 2:12.30
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Carson Garrett, 3. Rylan Gray, 4. Ivan Glotzbach, 5. Brent Beauchamp, 6. Zack Pretorius, 7. Todd Hobson, 8. Trey Osborne, 9. Troy Carey, 10. Sam Hinds. 2:15.00
TRAILER ALARMS C-MAIN: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the semi) 1. Hunter Maddox, 2. Kyle Johnson, 3. Sam Hinds, 4. Troy Carey, 5. Mike Larrison, 6. James Boyd, 7. Tom Eller, 8. Will Barnett, 9. Nate Ervin. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Nate Schank, 2. Zack Pretorius, 3. Anton Hernandez, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Wesley Smith, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Daison Pursley, 8. Todd Hobson, 9. Logan Calderwood, 10. Brandon Mattox, 11. Kayla Roell, 12. Kyle Johnson, 13. Sam Hinds, 14. Trey Osborne, 15. Hunter Maddox, 16. Travis Thompson, 17. Troy Carey. 2:50.47
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (4), 2. Brady Bacon (2), 3. C.J. Leary (1), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 5. Justin Grant (9), 6. Ricky Lewis (5), 7. Shane Cottle (12), 8. Jake Swanson (3), 9. Kyle Cummins (11), 10. Carson Garrett (21), 11. Chase Stockon (23), 12. Anton Hernandez (24), 13. Daison Pursley (25-P), 14. Mitchel Moles (6), 15. Robert Ballou (8), 16. Tye Mihocko (22), 17. Chance Crum (17), 18. Brent Beauchamp (15), 19. Ivan Glotzbach (18), 20. Nate Schank (19), 21. Zack Pretorius (13), 22. Matt Westfall (26-P), 23. Rylan Gray (10), 24. Geoff Ensign (16), 25. Briggs Danner (14), 26. Joey Amantea (20). NT
(P) represents a provisional starter
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Brady Bacon, Laps 8-40 Logan Seavey.
**Daison Pursley flipped during the first heat. Joey Amantea flipped on lap 4 of the feature. Mitchel Moles flipped on lap 19 of the feature.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-1713, 2-Brady Bacon-1651, 3-C.J. Leary-1628, 4-Daison Pursley-1580, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1548, 6-Mitchel Moles-1479, 7-Robert Ballou-1452, 8-Justin Grant-1438, 9-Kyle Cummins-1361, 10-Jake Swanson-1271.
USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-113, 2-Robert Ballou-111, 3-Logan Seavey-110, 4-C.J. Leary-96, 5-Justin Grant-92, 6-Joey Amantea-89, 7-Kyle Cummins-86, 8-Chase Stockon-70, 9-Carson Garrett-63, 10-Brady Bacon-62.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 26, 2024 – Lincoln Park Speedway – Putnamville, Indiana – 5/16-Mile Dirt Oval – 37th Annual NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented By Honest Abe Roofing
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Justin Grant (12.319)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Daison Pursley (12.050)
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.
T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Justin Grant
Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Logan Seavey
Trailer Alarms C-Main Winner: Hunter Maddox
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Nate Schank
Hard Charger: Chase Stockon (23rd to 11th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Ricky Lewis
Indiana Open Wheel Highest Finishing Weekly Driver: Tye Mihocko (16th)
The Frolic Bar & Grill Second Highest Finishing Weekly Driver: Ivan Glotzbach (19th)