February 12, 2025 | By Richie Murray, USAC Media

Seavey tops USAC Sprints at Volusia, Cummins hoists Big Gator

BARBERVILLE, Fla. — The night before at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park, Logan Seavey did something most unusual of late in USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship competition. After starting on the front row of the feature, Seavey backed up to a sixth-place result.

After earning a front row starting spot once again on Tuesday night, Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) didn’t let the opportunity escape from his clutch as he led all 30 laps while dodging racelong challenges from Kyle Cummins and a bevy of cautions/restarts down the stretch to win night two of Winter Dirt Games XVI, part of the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals festivities.

Coming off a season in which he collected a record-tying 14 USAC National Sprint Car victories, plus the season championship, Seavey became the first driver to win three USAC feature events at Volusia. No other driver has won more than one.

Meanwhile, by virtue of a victory on Monday and a runner-up result on Tuesday, Cummins earned the Big Gator as the overall USAC champion of the 2025 DIRTcar Nationals. In fact, he and Tuesday’s third-place finisher Daison Pursley both tallied 157 points across the two nights. However, due to his Monday night win, Cummins held the tiebreaker over Pursley.

For Seavey, the victory was the 25th of his USAC National Sprint Car career, equaling him with Steve Butler, Jay Drake and Parnelli Jones for 25th place on the all-time series win list.

The 25-car feature field was greeted by a juiced up 1/2-mile dirt track courtesy of a brief rainstorm that moisturized the surface just prior to the feature, which was scheduled for 30 laps, five circuits more than Monday’s 25-lap affair.

Starting from the pole position, Seavey jetted out to the early lead on the opening lap in his Abacus Racing/Mountain Mechanical Contractors – Indy Power Sports/DRC/Stanton Chevy. The fourth starting Cummins slotted into second after racing past Jake Swanson on the opening lap, then zipped underneath Briggs Danner on the low side of turns three and four on lap two.

Seavey maintained a five car length lead over Cummins by the time the two reached the halfway mark at lap 15, leading a two-car breakaway into lapped traffic in the process. Through it all, Seavey managed to sprout his lead to 1.5 seconds over Cummins but still had a long line of tail-end lead lap cars to fight through on the battle front.

Nevertheless, the yellow flag was soon displayed for sixth running Robert Ballou who slowed to a stop atop turns one and two with a shredded right rear tire with 10 to go on lap 21. Ballou managed to restart at the tail and work his way through half the field to finish 13th. However, Seavey's 1.476 second lead had been erased with the field now bunched up following the caution.

Seavey kept the field at bay by nearly nine tenths of a second during the ensuing five laps until 20th running John Mollick slowed to a stop on the front straightaway on lap 26, necessitating another restart opportunity for Cummins to pounce on Seavey and another task for Seavey to face during the waning laps while tire wear weighed heavily on his mind.

“It's just chess,” Seavey admitted. “I’m trying different stuff, and he knows I’m going to do something different. He’s guessing and anticipating what I’m going to do. That’s just about going against a good racecar driver who is tough to defend on restarts. None of the cautions I really wanted to see. I was just nervous about the tires. I could feel how hard we were running on them. When you’re running on a big track like that, it’s super hard on them. Then to have a yellow where they cool off, shrink a bunch and move all the air, cautions make it even worse for tires for sure.”

Seavey successfully nailed the lap 26 restart along with the next 4.5 laps of action before the rug got yanked out from underneath his feet on the 30th, and seemingly, final go around. In turn, Joey Amantea (15th) stopped in the middle of the back straightaway to bring out the caution, thus setting up a second green-white-checker finish in as many nights to begin the 2025 campaign.

This time was different, however. Cummins was able to get in a word edgewise by pulling even with Seavey for the lead through turn two and turn four on the first lap of the restart. Despite that, Seavey counterpunched by entering turns one and three a lane higher on the final lap to ward off any last chance heroics from Cummins.

“I felt like, if I could get away from him down the back stretch, it would be okay as the runs were going on,” Seavey explained. “I just really had to protect going into one, but I didn’t want him to go up, get a big run and go by me too. It was kind of a sitting duck situation. I kept sliding myself as hard as I could, but he just kept getting better at sticking the middle. I just kept thinking that I could do my job better at getting across and he kept doing a better job and about passed me. So, I’d throw a big block into three and I’d get back going as fast as I could because he’s so good at racing and his car is obviously really good.”

Seavey successfully defeated the challenge, and Cummins, to the tune of 0.700 seconds as they crossed under the finish line. Daison Pursley took third for his second consecutive podium finish to open the season while Briggs Danner once again finished inside the top-five at Volusia with a fourth.

Kale Drake started 19th before working his way up to finish fifth in the feature. Not only was it his best career USAC National Sprint Car finish to date, his result also earned him hard charger honors for his plus-14 performance.

Harley Burns got the bottom line rolling in the semi-feature, and in doing so, he advanced his way from a ninth place starting spot to finish third and transfer his way into his first Volusia feature starting field. That alone earned him Inferno Armor’s Fire Move of the Night honors.

Early in the night, Pursley became the 12th USAC National Sprint Car driver ever to set fast time during the first two events of a season: Jud Larson (1965), Larry Dickson (1969), Bill Puterbaugh (1970), Lee Kunzman (1973), Tom Bigelow (1978), Eddie Leavitt (1981), Kelly Kinser (1983), Bubby Jones (1985), Max McGhee (2016), Carson Short (2019), Timmy Buckwalter (2021) and now Daison Pursley (2025).


USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: February 11, 2025 – Volusia Speedway Park – Barberville, Florida – Winter Dirt Games XVI / Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-16.275; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.304; 3. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-16.442; 4. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-16.457; 5. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-16.552; 6. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-16.573; 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-16.585; 8. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-16.594; 9. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-16.603; 10. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-16.622; 11. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-16.685; 12. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-16.711; 13. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-16.776; 14. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-16.786; 15. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.870; 16. John Mollick, 4J, Clever-16.882; 17. Kale Drake 2B, 2B Racing-16.896; 18. Mark Smith, M1, Smith-16.899; 19. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-16.917; 20. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-16.949; 21. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-16.959; 22. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-17.053; 23. Stevie Sussex, 5, Baldwin/Fox-17.061; 24. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-17.088; 25. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-17.192; 26. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-17.336; 27. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-17.352; 28. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-17.392; 29. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-17.407; 30. Mike Haggenbottom, 51, Hoagie-17.749; 31. Eddie Vancil, 7v, Vancil-17.969; 32. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-18.033; 33. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-NT.

ROD END SUPPLY FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Kale Drake, 3. Briggs Danner, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. C.J. Leary, 6. Tom Harris, 7. Trey Osborne, 8. Harley Burns, 9. Jadon Rogers

CAR IQ SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Mark Smith, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Brian Ruhlman, 7. Kobe Simpson, 8. Mike Haggenbottom.

K1 RACEGEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Stevie Sussex, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Carson Garrett, 6. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 7. Matt Goodnight, 8. Eddie Vancil.

HOOSIER TIRE FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Gunnar Setser, 2. Ricky Lewis, 3. John Mollick, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Jake Swanson, 6. Joey Amantea, 7. Kayla Roell, 8. Troy Carey.

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Tom Harris, 2. Brian Ruhlman, 3. Harley Burns, 4. Joey Amantea, 5. Kayla Roell, 6. Jadon Rogers, 7. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 8. Matt Goodnight, 9. Mike Haggenbottom, 10. Eddie Vancil, 11. Troy Carey, 12. Trey Osborne, 13. Kobe Simpson. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (1), 2. Kyle Cummins (4), 3. Daison Pursley (6), 4. Briggs Danner (2), 5. Kale Drake (19), 6. Justin Grant (5), 7. Chase Stockon (17), 8. Jake Swanson (3), 9. Brady Bacon (13), 10. C.J. Leary (24), 11. Mitchel Moles (11), 12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (10), 13. Robert Ballou (7), 14. Carson Garrett (14), 15. Gunnar Setser (9), 16. Kayla Roell (25-P), 17. Mark Smith (8), 18. Hayden Reinbold (12), 19. Stevie Sussex (22), 20. Tom Harris (16), 21. Brian Ruhlman (21), 22. Joey Amantea (20), 23. John Mollick (18), 24. Harley Burns (23), 25. Ricky Lewis (15). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Logan Seavey.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-157, 2-Daison Pursley-157, 3-Logan Seavey-142, 4-Briggs Danner-135, 5-Justin Grant-135, 6-Brady Bacon-124, 7-Kale Drake-124, 8-Chase Stockon-104, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-100, 10-C.J. Leary-100.

USAC NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-C.J. Leary-23, 2-Kale Drake-21, 3-Chase Stockon-10, 4-Ricky Lewis-9, 5-Daison Pursley-7, 6-Jadon Rogers-7, 7-Kyle Cummins-5, 8-Joey Amantea-5, 9-Brady Bacon-4, 10-Kayla Roell-4.

HUGHES RACING / INDIANA MAFIA / FLAMINGO SANDY WINTER DIRT GAMES XVI SPRINT CAR PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-C.J. Leary-27, 2-Kale Drake-22, 3-Ricky Lewis-19, 4-Daison Pursley-14, 5-Jadon Rogers-14, 6-Kyle Cummins-11, 7-Chase Stockon-11, 8-Kayla Roell-9, 9-Brady Bacon-8, 10-Briggs Danner-8.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: February 12-13-14-15, 2025 – Ocala Speedway – Ocala, Florida – Winter Dirt Games XVI – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track


CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

DIRTcar Nationals USAC Sprint Car Champion: Kyle Cummins
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Daison Pursley (16.807)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Daison Pursley (16.275)
Rod End Supply First Heat Winner: Daison Pursley
Car IQ Second Heat Winner: Mark Smith
K1 RaceGear Third Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
Hoosier Tire Fourth Heat Winner: Gunnar Setser
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Tom Harris
Hard Charger: Kale Drake (19th to 5th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Harley Burns