Logan Seavey breaks drought with Salute to Levi Jones victory at Red Hill
Photo by Rich Forman
SUMNER, Ill.—Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in western superstition.
For Logan Seavey, Friday the 13th signified a new beginning after a somewhat tepid start to his 2025 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season.
The defending series champion from Sutter, California executed swiftly through traffic, then fended off repeated challenges from series point leader Kyle Cummins and survived multiple restarts down the stretch to win Friday’s inaugural Salute to Levi Jones at Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, Illinois.
The $10,000 score was the second of the USAC National Sprint Car season for Seavey, and his first since four months prior in February at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park. Overall, it was Seavey’s 26th career USAC National Sprint Car feature victory, tying him with Tony Elliott and Dave Steele for 23rd place all-time.
“We’ve had a tough year after coming off the one we did last year,” Seavey stated. “You expect to have the same results, but man, we’ve been close. These guys have been doing a good job. I’ve just been doing a poor job. So tonight, I feel like I ran a good race in the feature and finally rewarded these guys with a win. I couldn’t be happier.”
Friday the 13th certainly lived up to its reputation with a series of rain delays interrupting the proceedings, and qualifying not wrapping up until just before the clock struck 11pm local time. But in what was the fifth attempt at holding the event named in honor of Levi Jones, the show was a go. The event was rained out three separate times in 2024, and once more earlier this spring. Perhaps it was fitting that it took five times to run the event. After all, Jones, from nearby Olney, Illinois, captured five USAC National Sprint Car driving championships in his decorated career.
In what was the first USAC event held at Red Hill since nearly 27 years ago in 1998, Seavey started the 30-lap feature from the pole position. Originally slated to start on the outside of the front row, Seavey was slotted over to the pole after original front row starter C.J. Leary was deemed to have jumped the initial start, and thus, was docked one row and started third.
Early on, it was a three-horse race at the front as Seavey, Cummins and Grant all edged away from the field, running lock step in formation through lapped traffic, with no driver able to capitalize on any other’s missteps around the 3/8-mile dirt oval.
Mitchel Moles shook things up as he split between Grant and a lapped car entering turn one on lap 24 to take over third but remained in the distance behind Seavey and Cummins who ran one-two with a couple car lengths of separation. A yellow flag for a spun out Hayden Reinbold (10th) in turn four on lap 29 re-racked the field with two laps remaining.
Fourth running Grant emerged into the fray on the lap 29 restart as he slid Moles for third between turns one and two. One lap later, Grant tried the exact same move on Cummins for second, but his plans were foiled when his car over-rotated at the exit of turn two, pitching him completely sideways before Cummins’ gentle nudge while trying to avoid contact with his back bumper sent Grant around to a stop. Grant restarted at the tail and finished 14th.
The second attempt at a green-white-checkered was halted when ninth running Robert Ballou slowed dramatically with a caved in tail tank. As Ballou coasted, Cummins slid past Seavey for the lead in turn four, but Seavey answered by cutting back under Cummins to retain the spot, completing the lap just before Ballou’s ordeal necessitated a yellow, which pushed the race to a 32-lap distance, and gave Cummins another chance to take the reins from Seavey.
“It was as tough as it gets,” Seavey exhaled. “When the best guy in USAC right now is on your bumper and you’ve got to restart a couple times with him back there, there’s only so much you can do as a leader. The track was changing a lot there at the end. I was just doing everything I could to hold him off. That one when he slid me, I didn’t do a good job. I said, ‘let’s get up and slide myself a little bit,’ but then bash the cushion and try to get away. I think I did a little bit better job at the end.”
On the final restart attempt, Seavey had Cummins covered and checked out over the final two laps to cross the stripe 1.075 seconds ahead of runner-up Cummins, who retained his point lead while also grabbing his 14th consecutive top-10 result to begin the series campaign. Chase Stockon came home third with Mitchel Moles fourth and C.J. Leary fifth.
For Seavey, it was a sigh of relief after an 11-race run without a victory, especially coming on the heels of a 2024 season in which he captured the season championship and equaled Tom Bigelow’s all-time record of 14 feature wins, but this night hit different.
“I think I’ve been struggling a little bit with rough racetracks and I’ve not been doing a good job when it’s rough,” Seavey explained. “I don’t think the car has really been too far off. I just haven’t been putting myself in position to win these races and I’m just not doing a good enough job throughout the night unless the track suits me really well, which it kind of did about halfway through the feature tonight.”
Seavey is now just the ninth driver to win a USAC National Sprint Car feature on Friday the 13th, following Jim Mahoney (1991 Lakeside), Billy Pauch (1996 Williams Grove), Brian Tyler (2001 Toledo), Daron Clayton (2007 Gas City), Bryan Clauson (2012 Gas City), Robert Ballou (2015 Perris), Justin Grant (2019 Terre Haute) and Kyle Cummins (2024 Circle City).
Starting 11th, Chase Stockon picked his way through the field late in the going. He ran seventh with two laps to go, fourth with one to go, and in the fourth turn on the final lap, he raced into third to land a podium finish. That earned the Fort Branch, Indiana racer the Rod End Supply Hard Charger award (+8).
Jake Swanson (Anaheim, California) hustled from fourth to third to second to first to win his heat race. He then finished the night with a solid sixth place result in the feature. That earned him Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night honors.
Hayden Reinbold (Gilbert, Arizona) earned his first career USAC Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying award by setting a new track record. His time of 15.009 seconds broke the Red Hill Raceway USAC National Sprint Car track record of 15.498 set by Tony Elliott in 1998.
Robert Ballou (Rocklin, California) also rewrote the record books in his heat race by setting a new eight lap USAC track record at Red Hill with a time of 2:05.197, more than six seconds faster than the previous mark held by NHRA Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta in 1996.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 13, 2025 – Red Hill Raceway – Sumner, Illinois – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – Salute to Levi Jones
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.009 (New Track Record); 2. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.089; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-15.144; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-15.239; 5. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-15.251; 6. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-15.313; 7. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-15.342; 8. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-15.359; 9. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-15.406; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-15.456; 11. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-15.502; 12. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-15.506; 13. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-15.570; 14. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-15.573; 15. Sam Scott, 7s, Scott-15.617; 16. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-15.692; 17. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-15.746; 18. Jadon Rogers, 61m, Edwards-15.816; 19. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-15.975; 20. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-16.144; 21. Abby Hohlbein, 2A, 2B Racing-16.208; 22. Tony Helton, 87, Helton-16.245; 23. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Charles Davis Jr., 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Kyle Cummins, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Tony Helton, 8. Logan Calderwood. 2:05.197 (New Track Record)
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Gunnar Setser, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Mitchel Moles, 4. Kayla Roell, 5. Kale Drake, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Kobe Simpson. 2:06.748
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Sam Scott, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Carson Garrett, 7. Abby Hohlbein. 2:08.283
FEATURE: (32 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (2), 2. Kyle Cummins (3), 3. Chase Stockon (11), 4. Mitchel Moles (5), 5. C.J. Leary (1), 6. Jake Swanson (7), 7. Kale Drake (13), 8. Briggs Danner (10), 9. Carson Garrett (14), 10. Charles Davis Jr. (15), 11. Kevin Thomas Jr. (12), 12. Gunnar Setser (8), 13. Kayla Roell (17), 14. Justin Grant (4), 15. Logan Calderwood (19), 16. Abby Hohlbein (21), 17. Tony Helton (22), 18. Kobe Simpson (20), 19. Robert Ballou (9), 20. Hayden Reinbold (6), 21. Jadon Rogers (18), 22. Sam Scott (16), 23. Harley Burns (23). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-32 Logan Seavey.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-1017, 2-Justin Grant-933, 3-Mitchel Moles-802, 4-Logan Seavey-790, 5-Robert Ballou-761, 6-Jake Swanson-734, 7-Briggs Danner-732, 8-Kale Drake-723, 9-C.J. Leary-719, 10-Chase Stockon-696.
PARALLAX GROUP USAC NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-131, 2-Kyle Cummins-54, 3-C.J. Leary-54, 4-Chase Stockon-50, 5-Gunnar Setser-50, 6-Briggs Danner-46, 7-Justin Grant-44, 8-Robert Ballou-41, 9-Jacob Denney-35, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-34.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 17, 2025 – Grandview Speedway – Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania – 1/3-Mile Dirt Track – USAC Eastern Storm / Jesse Hockett Classic
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Kyle Cummins (14.970)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Hayden Reinbold (15.009)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Gunnar Setser
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Jake Swanson
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Chase Stockon (11th to 3rd)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Jake Swanson
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