Chase Stockon fends off Ballou for ISW victory at Terre Haute
Photo by Rich Forman
TERRE HAUTE, Ind.—The Terre Haute Action Track has been home to many a great race and moment over the past 70-plus seasons, and Chase Stockon’s stirring drive to victory on Thursday night certainly added to the 1/2-mile dirt oval’s legendary lore.
Amid a racelong duel that saw Stockon and Robert Ballou officially exchange the lead on four occasions at the stripe and countless more times unofficially, Stockon surged to the lead on the white flag lap, then survived a green-white-checkered restart to earn his first USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature victory in nearly five years.
The Fort Branch, Indiana native’s score during USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing round six arrived after a span of 160 USAC National Sprint Car feature starts without a victory dating back to September 2020.
In the process, Stockon provided longtime car owners Tom and Laurie Sertich’s Moose Racing team their first ever USAC National Sprint Car victory. Sprint Car team owners on the west coast since 1994, the husband and wife duo migrated to Indiana from their California home in recent years, hired Stockon to drive and have now been rewarded with the greatest moment in their three-plus decade history in the sport.
Stockon also achieved his fourth career USAC National Sprint Car victory at Terre Haute and his 15th overall with the series, tying Bobby East, Cory Kruseman and Brian Tyler for 41st place all-time. Stockon’s second career triumph in the Don Smith Classic is also monumental as well as the former Terre Haute Action Track promoter and area businessman was instrumental in the early years of Stockon’s budding racing career.
As if Stockon could do any more to add to his accolades, his latest victory on Thursday night also came in what was his 500th career USAC National Sprint Car start. He’s now one of four drivers to reach the mark, joining Dave Darland, Brady Bacon and Robert Ballou.
To boot, Stockon won the race with a broken right hand suffered exactly one week earlier during a crash in the USAC Indiana Sprint Week opener at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and just five days removed from the Lawrenceburg round where the team was pitted at the track, but unable to compete in the event due to an issue with the trailer door.
It’s been a whirlwind of an Indiana Sprint Week experience thus far for Stockon, Sertich and their Brown Brothers Excavating – Dewig Meats – Lucas Oil/DRC/Kistler Chevy. But in the end, it all paid off in reigning victorious following one of the all-time great races in Action Track history.
“This is awesome,” an elated Stockon exclaimed. “We’ve had a lot of speed, but we’ve fought through a lot of adversity this year. This team has no quit in them. That’s all I can ask for. We’re definitely happy to be on the top step here and I’m really blessed to drive this thing and give this team a little bit of a reward.”
At the start of the 30-lap main event, Indiana Sprint Week point leader and fifth place starting Briggs Danner was involved in a tangle that saw him spin backwards in turn two. In attempting to escape the skirmish, Charles Davis Jr. (15th) was unable to avoid contact and flipped multiple times, ending his night just as it had begun. Danner was able to return from the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area to finish 12th.
Starting on the pole position, Stockon controlled the pace to lead the initial 11 circuits. But after a turn four spin and stop by Australian racer Travis Millar (17th), the ensuing lap 12 restart saw Ballou take advantage, driving under Stockon on the back straight for the top spot.
By the 18th lap, Ballou had built his lead to more than two seconds over Stockon until 13th running Logan Calderwood slowed to a halt on the front straight. The sequence erased Ballou’s commanding 2.873 second advantage and put Stockon right back on Ballou’s rear bumper for the restart, and the two remained in close quarters for the remaining 12 laps.
“After Robert got by us there, I didn’t think I’d be able to throw anything at him,” Stockon admitted. “I wouldn’t say ‘win it or wear it,’ but it was pretty damn close. I just kind of centered myself and said, ‘don’t make mistakes.’”
The rejuvenated Stockon immediately demonstrated that he wasn’t going to fade away quietly into the night. He drove deep into turn three and was able to pull even to the inside of Ballou on laps 20, 21, 22 and 23, each time getting closer and closer to making the pass stick. On lap 24, Stockon was able to land the punch as he slid up in front of Ballou in turn three to complete the pass and assume the race lead with only six laps remaining.
Just as Stockon refused to go away, Ballou was in the same boat. With four laps to go, Ballou rode the high line around the outside of Stockon in turn four to complete the pass for the lead once more. The next time the duo hit the first turn on the 28th lap, Stockon slid across the nose of Ballou to retake the lead, but Ballou quickly countered the haymaker to go back to the point for the moment.
With two to go, Stockon stuck the middle to low line perfectly, and stormed back past Ballou on the back straight to get to the lead one more time. Side-by-side through turns three and four, the two drivers nearly grazed wheels as chief starter Tom Hansing displayed the white flag from the flag stand. However, just as the front runners crossed under the white, 17th running Joey Amantea spun to a stop at the pit entrance while trying to exit the track to the infield off turn four.
The stoppage necessitated a green-white-checkered finish, Under the yellow flag, the audible roar from the sizable crowd overpowered the engine noise from the idling sprint cars, saluting the top-two for their highly memorable duel.
On the restart, however, Stockon put the kibosh on prolonging the duel as he pulled away from Ballou with perfect precision over the final two laps to cross under the checkered flag 1.564 seconds ahead of runner-up finisher Robert Ballou while Kyle Cummins took third with C.J. Leary fourth and Jake Swanson fifth.
Throughout this magical night for Stockon, everything set up perfectly for him from the condition of the track surface following nearly two inches of overnight rain to the setup implemented on the car. For Stockon, it couldn’t have been any finer.
“I don’t understand why I like these fast, rough racetracks but I do,” Stockon acknowledged. “I felt the track go away more than it did, so I convinced the team to tighten it up a little bit. She’s a little bit snug but I think the car was spot on.”
To add to the victory, Stockon was also the recipient of the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
Meanwhile, it was yet another terrific run by Robert Ballou who led 14 of the 31 laps en route to a second place result for his fourth podium finish in six Indiana Sprint Week starts this week. Additionally, he’s led laps in five of the six features run thus far this week.
For the second straight USAC Indiana Sprint Week round at Terre Haute, Kyle Cummins came home with a podium finish. After scoring a third in 2024, he repeated the feat on Thursday while increasing his USAC National Sprint Car point lead to a season high 211 markers.
Kayla Roell had a pretty solid Terre Haute USAC debut, winning the semi-feature, then bouncing back from a mechanical issue early in the feature to advance from 22nd to finish 14th, which earned her Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.
Santa Rosa, California's Nate Schank qualified 26th out of 32 drivers, but in the semi-feature, he stood up in the seat to matriculate from sixth to second to transfer into the feature. For his efforts, he was the recipient of the ProSource Hard Work award.
Mitchel Moles recorded his 23rd career Fast Qualifying time in USAC National Sprint Car competition, equaling him with National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee Jon Stanbrough for 20th place on the all-time list.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 31, 2025 – Terre Haute Action Track – Terre Haute, Indiana – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – Don Smith Classic / 38th Annual USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-19.895; 2. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-19.908; 3. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-20.167; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-20.199; 5. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-20.220; 6. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-20.388; 7. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-20.394; 8. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-20.451; 9. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-20.459; 10. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-20.472; 11. Nick Bilbee, 69, Bilbee/Hoffman-20.522; 12. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-20.528; 13. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-20.629; 14. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-20.708; 15. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-20.733; 16. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-21.015; 17. Kyle Shipley, 0G, Black Gold-21.083; 18. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-21.107; 19. Travis Millar, 93AU, Millar-21.227; 20. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-21.281; 21. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-21.469; 22. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-21.563; 23. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-21.711; 24. Bill Rose, 6R, Rose-21.779; 25. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-21.806; 26. Nate Schank, 1, Schank-21.813; 27. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-21.909; 28. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-21.955; 29. Sam Scott, 7s, Scott-22.196; 30. Nate Ervin, 11, Algieo-22.280; 31. Colin Parker, 16K, Knight-NT; 32. Travis Thompson, 7, Thompson-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Hunter Maddox, 4. Gunnar Setser, 5. Kyle Shipley, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Sam Scott, 8. Saban Bibent. 2:49.369
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Charles Davis Jr., 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Logan Calderwood, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Kayla Roell, 7. Nate Schank, 8. Nate Ervin. NT
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Ricky Lewis, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Nick Bilbee, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Travis Millar, 6. Kobe Simpson, 7. Troy Carey. 2:49.511
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Joey Amantea, 5. Brandon Mattox, 6. Bill Rose, 7. Aric Gentry. 2:51.085
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kayla Roell, 2. Nate Schank, 3. Saban Bibent, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Kobe Simpson, 6. Bill Rose, 7. Troy Carey, 8. Sam Scott, 9. Aric Gentry. NT
FEATURE: (31 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chase Stockon (1), 2. Robert Ballou (2), 3. Kyle Cummins (4), 4. C.J. Leary (7), 5. Jake Swanson (11), 6. Logan Seavey (10), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 8. Mitchel Moles (6), 9. Kale Drake (9), 10. Ricky Lewis (8), 11. Nick Bilbee (13), 12. Briggs Danner (5), 13. Gunnar Setser (14), 14. Kayla Roell (22), 15. Hayden Reinbold (23), 16. Travis Millar (19), 17. Brandon Mattox (17), 18. Hunter Maddox (21), 19. Joey Amantea (20), 20. Kyle Shipley (18), 21. Logan Calderwood (12), 22. Saban Bibent (16), 23. Nate Schank (24), 24. Charles Davis Jr. (15). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-11 Chase Stockon, Laps 12-23 Robert Ballou, Laps 24-26 Chase Stockon, Laps 27-28 Robert Ballou, Laps 29-31 Chase Stockon.
**Colin Parker flipped during qualifying. Charles Davis Jr. flipped on lap 1 of the feature.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-1957, 2-Mitchel Moles-1746, 3-Logan Seavey-1719, 4-Justin Grant-1693, 5-Briggs Danner-1682, 6-Robert Ballou-1614, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1598, 8-Jake Swanson-1538, 9-C.J. Leary-1499, 10-Kale Drake-1428.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK INDIANA SPRINT WEEK PRESENTED BY HONEST ABE ROOFING POINTS: 1-Kevin Thomas Jr.-337, 2-Logan Seavey-335, 3-Briggs Danner-331, 4-Robert Ballou-306, 5-Mitchel Moles-295, 6-Jake Swanson-292, 7-Kyle Cummins-283, 8-C.J. Leary-278, 9-Gunnar Setser-254, 10-Chase Stockon-250.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-174, 2-Briggs Danner-115, 3-Gunnar Setser-95, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-93, 5-C.J. Leary-88, 6-Kyle Cummins-87, 7-Justin Grant-83, 8-Logan Seavey-78, 9-Robert Ballou-69, 10-Chase Stockon-64.
USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK PARALLAX GROUP PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-40, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-37, 3-C.J. Leary-35, 4-Jake Swanson-35, 5-Kayla Roell-35, 6-Hayden Reinbold-34, 7-Briggs Danner-33, 8-Logan Seavey-31, 9-Shane Cottle-29, 10-Travis Millar-26.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 1, 2025 – Bloomington Speedway – Bloomington, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Sheldon Kinser Memorial / 38th Annual USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Briggs Danner (19.991)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Mitchel Moles (19.895)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Kale Drake
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Ricky Lewis
Cook Out Fourth Heat Winner: C.J. Leary
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Kayla Roell
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Kayla Roell (22nd to 14th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Chase Stockon
ProSource Hard Work: Nate Schank
Our Partners
.png)
