February 10, 2026 | By Richie Murray, USAC Media

Logan Seavey outguns Brady Bacon in USAC Sprint Car opener

BARBERVILLE, Fla.—Just as victory lane was where Logan Seavey left last season. It was the exact same place he entered to begin the 2026 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship campaign as well during Monday’s series season opener at Barberville, Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park.

The Sutter, California native countered Brady Bacon’s last lap, last ditch effort for the lead in turns one and two. However, Seavey passed Bacon back at the exit of turn and led the final half lap to resume his winning ways in round one of Winter Dirt Games XVII Presented by Yokohama Tire.

At the helm of the Abacus Racing/Mountain Mechanical – Droplight – Indy Powersports/DRC/Stanton Chevy, Seavey established a new USAC track record for the 25-lap distance at Volusia in green-to-checkered style with a run of 8:10.705.

Dating back to the final weekend of the 2025 season at Central Arizona Raceway’s Western World Championships, Seavey has now won three consecutive USAC National Sprint Car feature events.

Furthermore, Seavey is just the eighth USAC National Sprint Car driver to capture victory in the preceding season’s finale and the following season’s opener in succession, joining A.J. Foyt (1959-1960), Jim Hurtubise (1961-1962), Rich Vogler (1986-1987), Jim Keeker (1991-1992), Bryan Clauson (2015-2016), Brady Bacon (2022-2023) and Justin Grant (2023-2024).

Over the past three seasons, Seavey has proven that he practically owns the deed for Volusia’s 1/2-mile dirt oval, having won four of the past five USAC National Sprint Car events held there since 2024, including two in one night back in 2024 along with the final show of 2025 and now the lid lifter for 2026.

Seavey’s latest score was the 34th of his USAC National Sprint Car career, moving him to within one of Rich Vogler and Jon Stanbrough for 14th place on the all-time list.

Although he started the main event from the pole position, Seavey spent much of his time starting at the tail tank of outside front row starter Bacon who scurried to the lead on the opening lap and ran his advantage out to a half second in the early going.

That said, by lap 10, things began to jumble up at the front as Seavey clamped down on Bacon for the lead and looming lapped traffic lie in wait. With a now four car length lead to his advantage, Bacon squirmed away from Seavey’s budding pressure by splitting between Kobe Simpson and Logan Calderwood in turn one to put both drivers a lap down, and thereby, providing himself a bit more breathing room for the time being.

That ordeal proved to be somewhat short lived as Seavey got to Bacon’s back bumper down the straightaway on lap 15, then fired off a slide job in turn one, which soared Seavey past Bacon for the moment. However, Bacon slashed back underneath at the exit of turn two to retain the lead and even put a little bit of distance between himself and Seavey to the tune of eight car lengths.

Seavey was just getting wound up, though, and over the course of the next five laps, quickly reeled his way back into contention. But when the deciding moment arrived, Seavey was in position to pounce.

On the 20th lap, Bacon toured the bottom line through turns three and four while Seavey scoured the top. As Bacon entered low, he encountered the tail end lead lap car of Rookie Chelby Hinton. When Bacon realized his momentum was going to be stifled, he attempted to move up a lane and subsequently slid across the slick of the racing surface. As Bacon drifted to the cushion in turn four, Seavey shifted his plan back to the middle and sifted his way to the front with a mere six laps remaining.

“I just kind of stalked him and stalked him,” noted Seavey. “Then, he kind of slowly slid across the track with a lapped car and I knew I had to get down and cut across and get back in line. I kind of squeezed in there, I’m not sure how close it was, but I kind of jammed it in there.

I was little bit better off two and into three,” Seavey continued. “He could get into one maybe a little bit harder. I could pick up the throttle a little bit and inch up on him, I wasn’t expecting to run the top of one and two, honestly. I had just enough of a little dirt packed up against the wall and we could lean on it.”

Once in the lead, Seavey wasn’t exactly in the clear.

“Then, I started struggling there those last four or five laps to get down the front stretch,” Seavey revealed. “I couldn’t get off of four as good as I wanted to. I could hear and feel that he was close and I did the same thing. I slowly slid across three and four and he blew back by me coming to the white.”

Off turn four with the white flag in sight, Bacon set up his move and pointed his nose toward the bottom of turn one and successfully slid past Seavey for the lead with less than a lap remaining, but the moment was fleeting with the 14th place car of Trey Osborne occupying the same lane that lie directly in front of Bacon on the back straightaway.

“I felt okay about getting slid in one and two, just because I was already turning down off two,” Seavey explained. “I wouldn’t say I wasn’t worried because he picked up the cushion and got going. But there was just enough grip on the bottom and there was a lapped car in his way, and that set it up perfectly for me there.”

Once Seavey reemerged with his lead, he finished the job, crossing the line 0.646 seconds ahead of Bacon at the stripe. Justin Grant finished third with C.J. Leary fourth and Briggs Danner rounding out the top-five.

Bacon came home a valiant second in the feature after leading a race high 19 of 25 laps in the feature, giving him the night's K & N Filters Clean Air Award.

Chase Stockon started way back in the 17th spot in the feature, but after 25 laps, he was the biggest mover, advancing nine spots to finish eighth and earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.

For the 13th time in his career, Jake Swanson was a USAC National Sprint Car fast time award winner in LearnLab Qualifying with a lap of 16.489 seconds. Dating back to last season, he's now been the quickest in three of the past four qualifying sessions. His 13 career fast times put him 40th all-time alongside Bobby East and Bruce Walkup.


USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: February 9, 2026 – Volusia Speedway Park – Barberville, Florida – Winter Dirt Games XVII Presented by Yokohama Tire / Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track

LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-16.489; 2. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-16.560; 3. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-16.566; 4. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.676; 5. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-16.701; 6. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-16.721; 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-16.757; 8. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-16.762; 9. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-16.797; 10. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-16.922; 11. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-16.970; 12. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-16.985; 13. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-16.987; 14. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-16.993; 15. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-16.994; 16. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-17.011; 17. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-17.035; 18. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-17.036; 19. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-17.038; 20. Ryan Harrison, 97K, Harrison-17.048; 21. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-17.145; 22. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-17.247; 23. Bill Rose, 6R, Rose-17.261; 24. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-17.320; 25. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-17.405; 26. Chase Howard, 13, Howard-17.456; 27. Chelby Hinton, 2B, 2B Racing-17.746; 28. Mike Haggenbottom, 51, Tin Hoagie-18.322.

K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr (4), 2. Jake Swanson (6), 3. Gunnar Setser (2), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Hayden Reinbold (1), 6. Robert Ballou (9), 7. Harley Burns (7), 8. Tom Harris (8), 9. Brian Ruhlman (3), 10. Mike Haggenbottom (10). 2:28.564

TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (3), 2. Brady Bacon (5), 3. Cale Coons (4), 4. Logan Calderwood (1), 5. Ryan Harrison (7), 6. Trey Osborne (6), 7. Chase Howard (9), 8. Bill Rose (8), 9. Ricky Lewis (2). 2:29.496

K & N THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (4), 2. C.J. Leary (6), 3. Chase Stockon (7), 4. Logan Seavey (5), 5. Mitchel Moles (3), 6. Kobe Simpson (1), 7. Chelby Hinton (9), 8. Saban Bibent (8), 9. Jadon Rogers (2). NT

FIVE STAR RACE CAR BODIES SEMI: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ricky Lewis (2), 2. Chelby Hinton (5), 3. Jadon Rogers (9), 4. Harley Burns (3), 5. Tom Harris (6), 6. Saban Bibent (8), 7. Brian Ruhlman (1), 8. Chase Howard (4), 9. Bill Rose (7), 10. Mike Haggenbottom (10). 3:11.755

FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (1), 2. Brady Bacon (2), 3. Justin Grant (3), 4. C.J. Leary (4), 5. Briggs Danner (8), 6. Jake Swanson (6), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 8. Chase Stockon (17), 9. Mitchel Moles (11), 10. Cale Coons (10), 11. Kyle Cummins (9), 12. Gunnar Setser (12), 13. Hayden Reinbold (13), 14. Trey Osborne (5), 15. Jadon Rogers (21), 16. Ricky Lewis (19), 17. Robert Ballou (18), 18. Chelby Hinton (20), 19. Saban Bibent (24), 20. Logan Calderwood (14), 21. Kobe Simpson (15), 22. Ryan Harrison (16), 23. Harley Burns (22), 24. Tom Harris (23). 8:10.705 (New Track Record)

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-19 Brady Bacon, Laps 20-25 Logan Seavey.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-76, 2-Brady Bacon-76, 3-Justin Grant-72, 4-C.J. Leary-72, 5-Jake Swanson-68, 6-Briggs Danner-66, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-60, 8-Chase Stockon-55, 9-Mitchel Moles-50, 10-Cale Coons-49.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chase Stockon-9, 2-Jadon Rogers-6, 3-Saban Bibent-5, 4-Briggs Danner-3, 5-Ricky Lewis-3, 6-Mitchel Moles-2, 7-Chelby Hinton-2, 8-Robert Ballou-1.

WINTER DIRT GAMES XVII PARALLAX GROUP PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chase Stockon-13, 2-Jadon Rogers-12, 3-Chelby Hinton-7, 4-Saban Bibent-7, 5-Briggs Danner-6, 6-C.J. Leary-4, 7-Jake Swanson-4, 8-Ricky Lewis-4, 9-Robert Ballou-4, 10-Brady Bacon-3.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: February 10, 2026 – Volusia Speedway Park – Barberville, Florida – Winter Dirt Games XVII Presented by Yokohama Tire / Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track

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CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: C.J. Leary (16.352)
LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Jakes Swanson (16.489)
K1 RaceGear First Heat Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.
TJ Forged Second Heat Winner: Kyle Cummins
K & N Filters Third Heat Winner: Briggs Danner
Five Star Race Car Bodies Semi Winner: Ricky Lewis
K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Brady Bacon (19 laps led)
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Chase Stockon (17th to 8th)