Kyle Cummins tops USAC return to Millstream
Photo by Michael Fry
FINDLEY, Ohio—Throughout the 2025 season, Kyle Cummins hadn’t gone more than four races without scoring a USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature victory.
The Princeton, Indiana driver wasn’t about to let the “skid” slip to five on Sunday night at Findlay, Ohio’s Millstream Speedway.
Cummins wired all 30 laps to become the first USAC winner at Millstream’s 4/10-mile dirt oval since Brad Doty’s victory in 1988, and the first USAC winner at the track without a wing affixed to the top of his car since Jac Haudenschild in 1982.
The series point leader’s triumph was his seventh of the season in the Petty Performance Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors - Premier Recycling/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy. His 27th career USAC National Sprint Car feature win moved him to 19th on the all-time, surpassing the likes of Tony Elliott, Logan Seavey and Dave Steele on the series win list.
Cummins’ latest victory also broke Justin Grant’s string of three consecutive USAC National Sprint Car wins. As Cummins’ closest rival in the championship standings, Cummins was determined to stay one step ahead of Grant.
“With Justin winning a few in a row like that, that’ll really lean on you a little bit,” Cummins admitted.
Cummins also ran his streak of top-10s in 2025 USAC National Sprint Car competition to 21 straight, the most to begin a season since C.J. Leary reeled off 21 consecutive top-10 results during his 2019 championship season.
Despite his prowess everywhere USAC National Sprint Cars have traveled this year, Cummins felt his performances on drier and slicker tracks was an area that had room for improvement. On Sunday night, they found something new to add to the ol’ notebook.
“We’ve been getting super tight,” Cummins explained. “Every night we go, we’re just tight, tight, tight. I think we’ve just been over tightening it, so tight that we actually get loose. At the beginning of the race last night, I couldn’t even race it. It was trying to turn me over. As the race went on, we lost the fuel load and the car finally loosened up and came to us. Tonight, we just started a little bit on the freer side and it stayed free all night long, as loose as we’ve been, and the car still had good drive.”
At the start, Cummins immediately shot out to the lead from his outside front row starting spot to pace the opening five circuits over pole sitter Jake Swanson and defending champion Logan Seavey.
However, on lap six, eighth place running Hayden Reinbold endured a vicious turn three flip that brought out the red flag. Reinbold was ultimately able to climb out and walk away under his own power.
Although Reinbold was, thankfully, able to walk away, in a roundabout way, the stoppage was helpful in assisting Cummins on his route to victory.
“The open red was really important,” Cummins explained. “Thank the lord Jesus Christ, but I think he saved us there a little bit. We were going to run out of fuel because we did a little bit of track warming up and we wouldn’t have made it on fuel, so I bet we were close and we filled back up. I think we got really lucky there.”
On the restart, third running Seavey bounced once, twice, thrice and four times through turn three, but was able to stay on the gas and continue on. Nonetheless, the hop, skip and a jump dropped him from third to seventh in a snap.
Through the middle stages of the 30-lap main event, Robert Ballou was the mad man on the move. Starting ninth, he advanced to fourth under Grant in turn two on lap 11, then raced to third past Swanson on the back straight on lap 14, then engaged in an all-out war with Mitchel Moles that lasted the balance of the race.
Moles and Ballou went toe-to-toe, side-by-side lap-after-lap with Moles cruising the high line and Ballou edging along the bottom. Between the two, they officially swapped the lead four times in a seven lap span, and that’s not taking into account the twice-a-lap unofficial passes for position.
Ballou swiped second from Moles on lap 18 only for Moles to edge back ahead of Ballou moments later on lap 19. Ballou turned it back up to get to second on lap 22, only to have Moles strike back on lap 24 as Ballou lost ground on the bottom in lapped traffic.
Up front, Cummins was all by his lonesome, aside from a healthy dose of lapped traffic, as his lead grew to more than a half-straightaway and never wavered.
In the end, Cummins’ advantage as he crossed the finish line as the winner was 1.646 seconds over Mitchel Moles, Robert Ballou, Briggs Danner and Justin Grant.
Meanwhile, Kevin Thomas Jr. took a 14th place starting position and cut it in half. KTJ finished seventh to earn his second Rod End Supply Hard Charger award in his last three series starts.
Ricky Lewis went topside from fourth to first on the opening lap to win his heat race. That one big, bold move carried him to the heat victory and the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
Mitchel Moles rewrote the record book on his Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying run. His lap of 16.331 seconds set a new track record for USAC National Sprint Cars at Millstream, which broke the 43-year-old mark of 17.941 set by Jac Haudenschild in 1982. Moles’ 22nd career USAC National Sprint Car fast qualifying time moved him past A.J. Foyt and into a tie for 21st all-time with Steve Butler. During qualifying, 23 of the 24 drivers on hand were under the former track record.
Furthermore, Justin Grant's time of 2:16.001 in his heat race victory set a new eight lap USAC National Sprint Car track record at Millstream. That shattered Chet Johnson's 1982 time of 2:36.69 by an astounding 20 seconds.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 29, 2025 – Millstream Speedway – Findlay, Ohio – 4/10-Mile Dirt Track
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-16.331 (New Track Record); 2. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-16.352; 3. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-16.501; 4. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-16.543; 5. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-16.551; 6. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-16.568; 7. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-16.643; 8. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-16.650; 9. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-16.653; 10. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-16.683; 11. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-16.697; 12. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-16.741; 13. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.756; 14. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.784; 15. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-16.942; 16. Shawn Westerfeld, 4J, Fischesser/Owen-17.007; 17. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-17.105; 18. Steve Irwin, 0, Flying Zero-17.179; 19. Nate Carle, 14c, Carle-17.262; 20. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-17.306; 21. John Mollick, 4JM, Mollick-17.482; 22. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-17.512; 23. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-17.602; 24. Jeremy Atchison, 0J, Atchison-20.365.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Mitchel Moles, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Kale Drake, 6. Shawn Westerfeld, 7. Saban Bibent, 8. Nate Carle. 2:16.001 (New Track Record)
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Briggs Danner, 4. Logan Calderwood, 5. Gunnar Setser, 6. Chase Stockon, 7. Ryan Barr. 2:18.915
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Ricky Lewis, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Kayla Roell, 6. Steve Irwin, 7. John Mollick. 2:21.128
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (2), 2. Mitchel Moles (6), 3. Robert Ballou (9), 4. Briggs Danner (5), 5. Justin Grant (8), 6. C.J. Leary (12), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (14), 8. Jake Swanson (1), 9. Ricky Lewis (7), 10. Kale Drake (3), 11. Logan Seavey (4), 12. Chase Stockon (11), 13. Logan Calderwood (17), 14. Shawn Westerfeld (16), 15. John Mollick (20), 16. Kayla Roell (15), 17. Ryan Barr (22), 18. Saban Bibent (21), 19. Steve Irwin (18), 20. Hayden Reinbold (10), 21. Gunnar Setser (13), 22. Jeremy Atchison (23), 23. Nate Carle (19), 24. Matt Westfall (24). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Kyle Cummins.
**Hayden Reinbold flipped on lap 6 of the feature.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-1525, 2-Justin Grant-1418, 3-Mitchel Moles-1280, 4-Briggs Danner-1207, 5-Logan Seavey-1180, 6-Robert Ballou-1158, 7-Jake Swanson-1136, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1079, 9-C.J. Leary-1065, 10-Kale Drake-1051.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-135, 2-Briggs Danner-81, 3-C.J. Leary-73, 4-Robert Ballou-66, 5-Gunnar Setser-64, 6-Kyle Cummins-62, 7-Justin Grant-62, 8-Chase Stockon-50, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-46, 10-Jacob Denney-35.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: July 4-5, 2025 – Honest Abe Roofing Lincoln Park Speedway – Putnamville, Indiana – 5/16-Mile Dirt Track – Sprintacular
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Justin Grant (16.284)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Mitchel Moles (16.331)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Justin Grant
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Ricky Lewis
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Kevin Thomas Jr. (14th to 7th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Ricky Lewis
Our Partners
.png)
