Seavey wins at Lawrenceburg, Grant suffers broken foot following violent multi-car crash
Photo by Ryan Sellers
LAWRENCEBURG, Ind.—”This is my favorite racetrack.”
It’s easy to see why Logan Seavey would utter those words. When it comes to USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing, Lawrenceburg Speedway has proven to be his personal ATM.
On Sunday night, the Sutter, California racer led the final 13 laps to capture his third Indiana Sprint Week victory at the 3/8-mile dirt oval in his last four tries in 2021, 2024 and now 2025. It’s Seavey’s fourth career USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature triumph at Lawrenceburg after winning twice there during the 2024 campaign.
Overall, it’s Seavey’s fourth USAC National Sprint Car victory of the year, and 28th of his career, tying him with fellow series champions Don Branson, A.J. Foyt, Levi Jones and J.J. Yeley for 19th place on the all-time series win list. Furthermore, it’s Seavey’s eighth career Indiana Sprint Week main event score, which now ranks as the sixth most all-time.
Seavey’s latest performance also vaulted him from fifth to first in the $25,000-to-win USAC Indiana Sprint Week championship standings where he now enjoys a slim two-point lead in his pursuit to repeat as an ISW champion.
“This is really cool to get back to victory lane,” Seavey exclaimed. “I know this one means a lot to everybody. It means a lot to me and our whole team. We’ve been turning around this season a lot lately. We were way behind but we’re digging hard to get back up.”
The month of July has been a renaissance month for Seavey and his Abacus Racing/Mountain Mechanical – Droplight – Elbrecht Concrete/DRC/Stanton Chevy. Together, they’ve posted finishes of 1st, 3rd, 2nd, 5th and 1st since July 4, the latter three of which have come during Indiana Sprint Week.
“Overall, it’s just an unbelievable start to Sprint Week,” Seavey stated. “I couldn’t be happier to drive this thing. I dropped a little bit of power there around halfway, but it didn’t really matter. I just held this thing to the floor and this Stanton engine stayed together for me and we got the win.”
The event didn’t start off as hot as rain plagued the late afternoon hours, dumping quite a bit of precipitation on the grounds and delaying the festivities for more than an hour before track activity began. When track activity finally got underway, Seavey was fired up from the get-go, turning the top speed in Dirt Draft Hot Laps, then setting quick time in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying to get the ball rolling.
Initially, Mitchel Moles took control up front to lead the first eight laps from his pole starting position. However, fourth starting Brady Bacon rose to the point on lap nine as he slid Moles in turn one. Robert Ballou followed suit and made a similar maneuver to grab second from Moles on the very next lap in turn one.
Ballou, who started eighth on the grid, pointed his pursuit toward Bacon for the lead. In a span of five laps, this pair of all-time USAC Sprint Car greats exchanged the top spot seven different times as they danced their machines in, out and through traffic.
The seventh time was the charm for Ballou as he stuck the number one spot on lap 16, then swept up the high banks to put Kayla Roell a lap down. Exiting turn two, Bacon’s momentum on the high side got hung up just enough to break his stride, allowing the rapidly closing Seavey to blaze by Bacon down the back straight to slot into second just past the halfway mark of the 30-lap event.
For Seavey, maintaining momentum in open air and through traffic is essential to any driver’s success at Lawrenceburg.
“It’s everything here,” Seavey explained. “You can get so much speed built up on the top. Then you could lose it with one bad decision. Early, I made a couple of bad ones. Robert went by me and Justin went by me and I was like seventh or eighth in the first few laps. Once we got into traffic, it kind of turned into what you’d normally see in a wing race. Everyone started losing momentum and I made a few good moves, and snuck by brady at the right time, then Robert hit the wall right in front of me and gave me the lead.”
As Seavey foreshadowed, just two laps later, heartbreak struck Ballou as he snagged the turn one cushion with his right rear tire, then slammed his right front wheel into the outside concrete wall where he ground to a halt on lap 18. Ballou’s misfortune was Seavey’s good fortune as he became the new race leader with 13 laps to go.
“That was really it,” Seavey point blanked. “Once this thing’s out front, it’s going to be really hard to beat. This thing just drives itself on the curb. Even down a little power, we were locked right in. I didn’t know what was going on behind us, but I knew my car was driving really good.”
On the ensuing restart, one of the most harrowing crashes of the year took place on the front straightaway involving each of the top three drivers in the current USAC National Sprint Car point standings.
Coming back to green, third place running Grant’s front wheels got airborne as he hopped the turn four cushion and nosed into the outside wall. As Grant ricocheted off the wall, his car performed a 180 degree turn. At that same moment, fourth running Moles’ right rear tire ramped over Grant’s left rear, sending both drivers into a violent tumble. Moles helicoptered over six times while Grant got t-boned by Kyle Cummins who was running sixth, which sent Grant’s car airborne before flipping over five times. Cummins also toppled over following his contact with Grant.
In an accident that began with cars flipping at the exit of turn four, Grant and Moles landed very near the entry to turn one three quarters of a full straight away from where it started. Moles was able to climb out and walk away while USAC point leader Cummins was able to restart and finish 10th after his car was repaired in the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area. However, Grant was helped out of his car and taken via ambulance to the hospital with the diagnosis being a broken left foot.
Meanwhile, under the red flag, Ballou returned to the track and restarted at the tail of the field after his crew swapped out the front axle. Up front, however, Seavey established his dominance as he quickly constructed a 1.5 second lead by lap 24. That’s when second running Bacon’s right rear tire shredded on the back straight to bring out the yellow flag. Bacon restarted at the back and finished 14th after leading seven laps through the middle stages of the race.
Down the stretch, no one had anything for Seavey who crossed the line to complete the victory just as Ballou found trouble once again in turns one and two, flipping over multiple times after working his way back to 12th. Ballou was ultimately credited with a 17th place result.
Behind Seavey, Kale Drake made an impressive drive to take second ahead of Kevin Thomas Jr. in third, Briggs Danner in fourth and Ricky Lewis in fifth.
Kale Drake’s ninth to second run proved to be his best career USAC National Sprint Car finish, surpassing his previous best of fourth at Bloomington Speedway this past May.
Not only did Kevin Thomas Jr. race his way to a podium finish, he also did it by advancing nine spots from his 12th place starting position to finish third and earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.
Kayla Roell was buried back in the 11th starting position in the semi-feature. But immediately, she went to work, passing seven cars to grab the fourth and final transfer spot to make her way into the feature. That was more than good enough to be the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
Prior to his feature victory, Logan Seavey earned the 20th quick time of his USAC National Sprint Car career during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying. That tied him with series champions Jerry Coons Jr., Tony Elliott and Roger McCluskey for 24th place all-time.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 27, 2025 – Lawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – 38th Annual USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.016; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.081; 3. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-14.144; 4. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-14.193; 5. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-14.245; 6. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.255; 7. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.261; 8. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.265; 9. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.337; 10. Shawn Westerfeld, 4J, Fischesser/Owen-14.413; 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-14.446; 12. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-14.462; 13. Carson Garrett, 2E, Epperson-14.479; 14. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.540; 15. Kyle Shipley, 0G, Black Gold-14.571; 16. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-14.594; 17. Nick Bilbee, 69, Bilbee/Hoffman-14.610; 18. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-14.621; 19. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-14.673; 20. Austin Nigh, 97, Nigh-14.707; 21. Max Adams, 23s, Simon-14.714; 22. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-14.740; 23. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-14.854; 24. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-14.875; 25. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-14.900; 26. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Boyd-15.039; 27. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-15.056; 28. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-15.070; 29. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-15.083; 30. Travis Millar, 93AU, Millar-15.101; 31. Nate Carle, 14c, Carle-15.160; 32. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-15.340; 33. Owen Barr, 43, Wolf-15.878; 34. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Nick Bilbee, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Carson Garrett, 5. Ricky Lewis, 6. Max Adams, 7. Harley Burns, 8. Kayla Roell, 9. Owen Barr. 1:56.695
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Joey Amantea, 3. Mitchel Moles, 4. Shawn Westerfeld, 5. Gunnar Setser, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Travis Millar, 8. Braydon Cromwell. 1:58.481
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Briggs Danner, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Kyle Shipley, 5. Logan Calderwood, 6. Nate Carle, 7. Zack Pretorius, 8. Troy Carey. 2:00.926
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Austin Nigh, 5. Jake Swanson, 6. Kobe Simpson, 7. Saban Bibent, 8. Ryan Barr. 2:00.682
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Hayden Reinbold, 2. Max Adams, 3. Nate Carle, 4. Kayla Roell, 5. Travis Millar, 6. Saban Bibent, 7. Zack Pretorius, 8. Kobe Simpson, 9. Braydon Cromwell, 10. Troy Carey, 11. Harley Burns, 12. Ryan Barr, 13. Owen Barr, 14. Hunter Maddox. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (6), 2. Kale Drake (9), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (12), 4. Briggs Danner (7), 5. Ricky Lewis (2), 6. Jake Swanson (13), 7. C.J. Leary (3), 8. Kyle Shipley (16), 9. Hayden Reinbold (15), 10. Kyle Cummins (10), 11. Gunnar Setser (18), 12. Shawn Westerfeld (11), 13. Nick Bilbee (17), 14. Brady Bacon (4), 15. Austin Nigh (20), 16. Carson Garrett (14), 17. Robert Ballou (8), 18. Kayla Roell (23), 19. Logan Calderwood (19), 20. Nate Carle (24), 21. Justin Grant (5), 22. Mitchel Moles (1), 23. Max Adams (21), 24. Joey Amantea (22). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-8 Mitchel Moles, Laps 9-15 Brady Bacon, Laps 16-17 Robert Ballou, Laps 18-30 Logan Seavey.
**Justin Grant, Mitchel Moles & Kyle Cummins flipped on the lap 17 restart of the feature. Robert Ballou flipped on lap 30 of the feature.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-1759, 2-Justin Grant-1670, 3-Mitchel Moles-1537, 4-Logan Seavey-1532, 5-Briggs Danner-1497, 6-Robert Ballou-1425, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1404, 8-Jake Swanson-1360, 9-Kale Drake-1311, 10-C.J. Leary-1292.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK INDIANA SPRINT WEEK PRESENTED BY HONEST ABE ROOFING POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-148, 2-Briggs Danner-146, 3-Kevin Thomas Jr.-143, 4-Brady Bacon-118, 5-Jake Swanson-118, 6-Robert Ballou-117, 7-Gunnar Setser-97, 8-Hayden Reinbold-93, 9-Mitchel Moles-86, 10-Kale Drake-85.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-174, 2-Briggs Danner-102, 3-Gunnar Setser-94, 4-Kyle Cummins-86, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-84, 6-Justin Grant-83, 7-C.J. Leary-81, 8-Logan Seavey-73, 9-Robert Ballou-68, 10-Chase Stockon-64.
USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK PARALLAX GROUP PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-38, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-19, 3-Jake Swanson-18, 4-C.J. Leary-18, 5-Logan Seavey-17, 6-Kyle Shipley-16, 7-Justin Grant-15, 8-Hayden Reinbold-15, 9-Gunnar Setser-15, 10-Kayla Roell-15.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 29, 2025 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – 38th Annual USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Logan Seavey (14.200)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Logan Seavey (14.016)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Justin Grant
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Briggs Danner
Cook Out Fourth Heat Winner: Kale Drake
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Hayden Reinbold
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Kevin Thomas Jr. (12th to 3rd)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Kayla Roell
ProSource Hard Work: Nate Carle
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