Hayden Reinbold races to career first USAC Midget win at Eldora
Photo by Ryan Sellers
ROSSBURG, Ohio—When Hayden Reinbold set quick time for the first time in his USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship career during Thursday night’s Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying session, that particular feat made everyone on the grounds of Rossburg, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway stand up and take notice.
As it turned out, it was just a harbinger of more good things to come on this most magical night for the Gilbert, Arizona racer.
In what was his 101st career USAC National Midget feature start, Reinbold sliced a path to the lead from his sixth place starting position, taking the lead by lap eight, then running away with it in his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – Mesilla Valley Transportation/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.
That is until his ride began to run out of fuel on the 25th and final lap of the opening night feature at the 43rd 4-Crown Nationals Presented by NKTELCO.
As Reinbold dove to the bottom between turns three and four and onto the straightaway in order to take the shortest way around the 1/2-mile dirt oval, his car sputtered across the line 0.336 seconds ahead of Kevin Thomas Jr. No extra style points needed.
Long at last, Reinbold had become a first-time USAC National Midget feature winner after six consecutive seasons of trying. In doing so, Reinbold became just the third driver to earn his first career USAC National Midget main event win at Eldora, joining Jack Hewitt (1987) and Danny Stratton (2005).
“It’s pretty freaking cool to get your first quick time and feature win on the same night,” Reinbold stated. “Not only that, but at Eldora!”
To put Reinbold’s achievement into perspective, in his first 100 career USAC National Midget starts, he had earned just two top-five finishes consisting of a fourth at Missouri’s Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex in July 2025 and a fifth in June 2024 at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg.
This will surely be a night in which Reinbold will fondly remember forever. But perhaps it’s just the beginning of more to come for the 21-year-old. But this particular one nearly ended in heartache if it were to go even one lap longer.
As Reinbold breezingly coasted across the finish line with just enough juice, he had earned his place as the second first-time USAC National Midget winer of the 2025 campaign, joining Drake Edwards.
“I got pretty nervous there,” Reinbold admitted. “We were chugging along at the end, and it just stopped running, but I think we barely got it.”
The first part of the race was marred by multiple massive accidents. On the initial try of the start, eighth row starters Kale Drake and Chase Stockon collided on entry into turn one, promptly sending Stockon toppling over while Drake barrel-rolled six times up the banking. Both drivers were able to walk away from their respective cars under their own power.
On the second try of the start, the field successfully maneuvered through turn one, but turn two proved to be most detrimental, especially for Zach Wigal who tripped over the turn two cushion, smacked the outside concrete wall and was subsequently sent hurdling over 5.5 times before coming to a rest. He too was eliminated from the evening before a lap was even in the books.
Once the race finally went green and stayed green, Kevin Thomas Jr. slotted himself into the lead from the pole position, exactly as he did in the preceding USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature. While Thomas and Daison Pursley were dueling at the head of the field, Reinbold was closing in. Reinbold took second from Pursley on the low line on lap five.
By the eighth lap, Reinbold was prepared to pounce as he worked the bottom and swept past Thomas in between turns three and four, a spot he’d never relinquish.
Pursley (lap 13), and later on, his CB Industries teammate Drake Edwards (lap 20), were both running third when they fell victims to shredded right rear tires, each of which necessitated yellow flags. All the stoppages did was stifle Reinbold’s pursuit of victory and forced him to lead the way on multiple restarts down the stretch, a quite precarious position to be in, especially when you very well could become a sitting duck.
“It’s pretty nerve wracking to have (Kevin Thomas Jr.) behind you, especially when the track is like this, very technical. He’s really good at that stuff,” Reinbold related. “I’m just thankful that our car was so good. I didn’t even really have to think about it. I could put it anywhere I wanted to and it stuck.”
Following Reinbold to the finish line were Kevin Thomas Jr. as the runner-up, series Rookie Jakeb Boxell in third and defending series champion Justin Grant fourth with Jacob Denney rounding out the top-five, best among the Ohio natives in the field.
Remember the name of Jakeb Boxell. In just his 10th career USAC National Midget start, Boxell puts it on the podium in his 4-Crown debut after racing from ninth to third to earn his best career series finish as well as Inferno Armor USA Fire Move of the Night honors.
Oklahoman Tim Kent wasn't just making his first career run at Eldora. It was his first career USAC National Midget start of any kind. He picked up the Rod End Supply Hard Charger award for his +7 advancement in the feature from his 21st place starting position to finish 14th.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 18, 2025 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 43rd 4-Crown Nationals Presented by NKTELCO
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-16.072; 2. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-16.230; 3. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.266; 4. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-16.279; 5. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-16.336; 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-16.345; 7. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-16.409; 8. Jakeb Boxell, 14JB, 4 Kings-16.527; 9. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.580; 10. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.636; 11. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-16.642; 12. Zach Wigal, 97x, O'Dell-16.762; 13. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-16.811; 14. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-16.899; 15. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.903; 16. Chase Stockon, 7x, Engler-17.013; 17. Ronnie Gardner, 4R, RMS-17.041; 18. Braxton Cummings, 71B, Cummings-17.373; 19. Cord Kisthardt, 21K, Kisthardt-19.822; 20. Mack Leopard, 40x, McDermand-NT; 21. Tim Kent, 07, Gariss/Jenkins-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Cannon McIntosh, 5. Gunnar Setser, 6. Chase Stockon, 7. Cord Kisthardt. NT
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Steven Snyder Jr., 2. Jakeb Boxell, 3. Cale Coons, 4. Drake Edwards, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Ronnie Gardner. 2:16.074
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Kale Drake, 3. Jacob Denney, 4. Zach Wigal, 5. Gavin Miller, 6. Tim Kent, 7. Braxton Cummings. 2:14.845
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Hayden Reinbold (6), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1), 3. Jakeb Boxell (9), 4. Justin Grant (7), 5. Jacob Denney (4), 6. Steven Snyder Jr. (8), 7. Logan Seavey (5), 8. Gavin Miller (10), 9. Cannon McIntosh (11), 10. Drake Edwards (2), 11. Daison Pursley (3), 12. Cale Coons (14), 13. Ronnie Gardner (17), 14. Tim Kent (21), 15. Cord Kisthardt (19), 16. Gunnar Setser (13), 17. Zach Wigal (12), 18. Kale Drake (15), 19. Chase Stockon (16), 20. Braxton Cummings (18), 21. Mack Leopard (20). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Kevin Thomas Jr., Laps 8-25 Hayden Reinbold.
**Kale Drake & Chase Stockon flipped on lap 1 of the feature. Zach Wigal flipped on the lap 1 restart of the feature.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Cannon McIntosh-1106, 2-Justin Grant-1085, 3-Jacob Denney-1037, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1021, 5-Gavin Miller-997, 6-Kale Drake-990, 7-Steven Snyder Jr.-911, 8-Drake Edwards-882, 9-Logan Seavey-844, 10-Hayden Reinbold-802.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-213, 2-Briggs Danner-143, 3-Gunnar Setser-134, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-124, 5-C.J. Leary-113, 6-Justin Grant-112, 7-Logan Seavey-108, 8-Chase Stockon-100, 9-Kyle Cummins-99, 10-Hayden Reinbold-94.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 20, 2025 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 43rd 4-Crown Nationals Presented by NKTELCO
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Daison Pursley (16.218)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Hayden Reinbold (16.072)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Justin Grant
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Steven Snyder Jr.
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Tim Kent (21st to 14th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Jakeb Boxell
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