Cummins Makes Quick Work Of USAC Field

BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Kyle Cummins won Monday night’s USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season opener at Volusia Speedway Park.

His 18th career victory was his first on a half-mile race track.

Starting fourth, Cummins made quick work of the field as he split between Logan Seavey and Mitchel Moles on the back straightway on the first lap, then chased down and swept around the outside of polesitter Brady Bacon in turns three and four to occupy the lead.

Cummins was never headed for the remainder of the 25-lap event, only losing ground due to a pair of late-race cautions which bunched up the field and evaporated his lead momentarily. Still, nobody was in the same stratosphere as Cummins and his Petty Performance Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – Premier Recycling/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.

“There at the beginning, the car was just great,” Cummins noted. “I felt like I was struggling there at the end and I didn’t know where to go. A caution when you’re coming to the checkered is like the most terrible thing ever, but we got it done and we’re pretty excited to chalk this one up. I’ve never won here before and it’s a big half-mile. People say I can’t run half miles. I think we proved them wrong a little bit tonight.”

The victory was the second for Cummins in his Winter Dirt Games career following his triumph in February of 2023 at Ocala Speedway.

The win was the third in USAC National Sprint Car competition for the Petty team with Cummins as the driver after the two competed together on the full season tour in 2024.

Whereas their first win together came in their 28th try in 2024, this one came right off the bat, swiftly and decisively.

Among the items Cummins was eying redemption for was the first of two 2024 USAC National Sprint Car events at Volusia. In the first of those, Cummins led a race-high 14 laps before being surpassed by Seavey with 11 laps remaining. Seavey went on to celebrate the victory, and ultimately, the series championship at season’s end.

“Last year was rough,” Cummins admitted. “The team that we’ve got is like family. We’re jelling really well, and I knew after the first practice yesterday at Ocala, the car was as good as I’ve had down here in Florida. I’ve just got to give it up to (team owner) Jerry Petty for believing in me and giving me this opportunity. It took a year, and it was a lot of work. We’ve finally found a good balance and all the guys are working great together.”

Just prior to halfway, on lap 10, Cummins had upped his lead to more than two seconds with Bacon and Daison Pursley both in tow several car lengths behind. Cummins kept Bacon and Pursley at bay.

“I ran that thing the first 10 laps, and I think I never lifted off the floor,” Cummins stated. “It was hooked up good.”

By lap 15, Cummins had pushed his lead to four seconds as Justin Grant rushed his way into third past Pursley in traffic. However, on the 20th lap, 17th running Kobe Simpson’s ride slowed to a halt in turn three surrounded in smoke with an apparent engine issue.

Thus, Cummins’ 4.235-second lead was stricken from the record, and now he had to firm up his grip on the steering wheel with the field on his rear bumper with five laps remaining.

That was of no issue to Cummins who immediately separated himself from Bacon et al. to the tune of 1.096 seconds over the next four-plus laps and had a checkered flag just within his reach.

However, moments after taking the white flag, the yellow flag was displayed for Jake Swanson, who slowed dramatically on the final lap in the middle of turn four.

The stoppage necessitated a green-white-checkered finish. It proved to be no big thing for Cummins who once more stomped his competition by thumping them on the restart, stretching his advantage to 0.840 seconds by the time he crossed the line.

Coming to the white flag, Pursley stuck the bottom between turns three and four to zip past both Grant and Bacon to climb from fourth to second.

Bacon took third with Grant fourth and Briggs Danner rounding out the top five.

USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Volusia Speedway Park, Barberville, Fla., Feb. 10, 2025

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-16.156; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.228; 3. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-16.304; 4. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-16.342; 5. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-16.379; 6. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-16.413; 7. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-16.440; 8. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-16.531; 9. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-16.643; 10. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-16.667; 11. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-16.708; 12. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.718; 13. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-16.719; 14. Kale Drake 2B, 2B Racing-16.720; 15. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-16.725; 16. Nic Harris, N2, Harris-16.751; 17. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-16.763; 18. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-16.773; 19. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-16.779; 20. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-16.825; 21. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-16.914; 22. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-16.958; 23. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-16.988; 24. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-16.991; 25. John Mollick, 4J, Clever-17.013; 26. Mark Smith, M1, Smith-17.063; 27. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-17.090; 28. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-17.155; 29. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-17.554; 30. Eddie Vancil, 7v, Vancil-17.942; 31. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-18.276; 32. Mike Haggenbottom, 51, Hoagie-18.579; 33. Kyle Jones, 79, Hall-NT; 34. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-NT.

ROD END SUPPLY FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Carson Garrett, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Kobe Simpson, 5. Kayla Roell, 6. John Mollick, 7. Eddie Tafoya Jr. 2:23.752

CAR IQ SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Kale Drake, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Jadon Rogers, 6. Ricky Lewis, 7. Mark Smith, 8. Brian Ruhlman, 9. Eddie Vancil. NT

K1 RACEGEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Briggs Danner, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Joey Amantea, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Hayden Reinbold, 6. Tom Harris, 7. Harley Burns, 8. Troy Carey. 2:22.162

HOOSIER TIRE FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Mitchel Moles, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Nic Harris, 6. Gunnar Setser, 7. Matt Goodnight, 8. Mike Haggenbottom. 2:20.744

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Ricky Lewis, 2. Gunnar Setser, 3. Tom Harris, 4. Brian Ruhlman, 5. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 6. Mark Smith, 7. John Mollick, 8. Matt Goodnight, 9. Harley Burns, 10. Mike Haggenbottom, 11. Troy Carey, 12. Eddie Vancil.

FEATURE (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (4), 2. Daison Pursley (6), 3. Brady Bacon (1), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Briggs Danner (7), 6. Logan Seavey (2), 7. Kale Drake (14), 8. Kevin Thomas Jr. (10), 9. C.J. Leary (18), 10. Mitchel Moles (3), 11. Robert Ballou (8), 12. Chase Stockon (9), 13. Jadon Rogers (20), 14. Jake Swanson (15), 15. Ricky Lewis (24), 16. Joey Amantea (21), 17. Hayden Reinbold (12), 18. Carson Garrett (19), 19. Kayla Roell (23), 20. Brian Ruhlman (11), 21. Gunnar Setser (22), 22. Nic Harris (16), 23. Tom Harris (17), 24. Kobe Simpson (13).