Mitchel Mole scores in USAC Sprint Car weekend opener at Red Hill
Photo by Rich Forman
SUMNER, Ill.—In sickness and in health, Mitchel Moles has had quite the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season thus far in 2026.
During Friday night’s Illinois Sprint Car Championship weekend opener at Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, Illinois, Moles set a new career high in USAC National Sprint Car wins for a season with his third triumph of the year after fending off an attack from Jadon Rogers down the stretch to the checkered.
For Moles, this one had a bit of a different feeling as well as a different landing than usual. The Raisin City, California native reported he had been a bit under the weather this past week. Then, as he climbed from the car to celebrate the triumph with a cage stand in victory lane, he promptly lost his footing and fell to the ground.
Moles didn't quite stick the landing, but he sure stuck his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME – Mesilla Valley Transportation/Spike/Stanton Chevy in victory lane.
“While I was racing, I probably didn’t look like I was sick. But when I did that cage stand there, it definitely looked like my equilibrium was off a little bit,” Moles admitted. “I've been sick all week and I haven't seen these guys since Knoxville last week, really. I'm still not feeling 100 percent. They pretty much did all the work tonight. I didn't do anything other than just drive the thing.”
The eighth career USAC National Sprint Car win for Moles moved him into a share for 63rd place on the all-time series win list alongside Mike Bliss, Chet Fillip, Johnny Rutherford, Joe Saldana and Jake Swanson.
Moles, who owns Red Hill’s USAC National Sprint Car one-lap track record, lined up sixth in the 25-lap feature in an event that was co-sanctioned by both USAC and the Midwest Thunder 410 Sprint Car Series. Robert Ballou, just as he did in USAC’s early April race at Red Hill, established the early lead after starting on the pole position.
By lap seven, Ballou’s lead had ballooned to 1.5 seconds when Briggs Danner (5th) got sideways in turn two. Rogers had no place to go and wound up tapping Danner’s rear bumper, which sent Danner spinning to a stop and brought out the first caution. Danner restarted at the tail of the 23-car field, and managed to drive all the way back to finish ninth.
Following the restart, Moles turned it up. Slotting into the fourth spot, Moles made his way to third when he dove under Logan Seavey in turn three on lap seven, then grabbed the second position on lap nine as he whistled underneath Leary entering turn one.
Moles quickly erased Ballou’s lead, and on lap 12, made his move for the lead as he split between Ballou to his outside and the lapped car of Collin Jackson to his inside entering turn one. Yet, at the same moment, the yellow flag was displayed for the slowing car of Kevin Thomas Jr. (13th), negating the move, and placing Ballou back in front of Moles for the restart.
Wasting no time flat, Moles moved to the inside of Ballou as he got into turn one on the lap 13 restart. All the while, Moles was using a trick line to get around the 3/8-mile dirt oval, as he sort of diamonded the corner by going high on entry, then slicing down to the bottom to get a big run down the straightaways, which worked ever so perfectly and just in the nick of time.
“It went away fast,” Moles said of the line. “I knew that pretty much when I cleared Robert, it was damn near done. Then, I had to revert back to the top, which was just like moving snow. It was just blowing as fast as it could to get to the wall and I got into the wall there a couple times. I was just trying not to crash thing. Nobody wants to crash while leading.”
Rogers rose to second on lap 16 as he narrowly slid by Ballou in turn two. Now, the mission was on to track down Moles and his 1.7 second advantage out front. Lapped traffic assisted Rogers in that endeavor, much to the chagrin of Moles. Rogers took advantage and was right on Moles’ tail as the front two encountered Troy Carey and Michael Clark.
Once cleared of both lappers, Rogers had Moles in his crosshairs with the white flag just about to be displayed on lap 24, and was in the process of sliding Moles for the lead in turn two when the yellow flag was thrown for seventh running Chase Stockon who stopped in turn four with a flat right rear tire.
Rogers, whose last and only USAC National Sprint Car win to date came four years earlier in 2022, stuck right with Moles on the first circuit of the two-lap shootout. Rogers made slight contact with Moles back bumper in turn two, then chased Moles down the back straightaway and the pair went side-by-side entering turn three. Both drivers slid up the track in turn four, but Moles never gave an inch and used the high side momentum to secure the lead exiting turn four.
On the final go around, Rogers was never close enough to mount one final bid for the win as Moles passed underneath the checkered flag to win by about two car lengths, 0.255 seconds ahead of Rogers at the line. Ballou third with USAC point leader Kyle Cummins fourth and Cale Coons fifth.
“He was getting through one and two a lot better, then he tag bumped me on the start and I knew, okay, he's running up here, at least,” Moles said of Rogers on the final restart. “He was just better than me up there (in turns one and two), and I felt like I was better down there (in turns three and four) than him. So, I just changed it up, licked the stamp and just tried to finish it off for these guys.”
Moles led the most laps and he also led the last lap. He did it all tonight at Red Hill, taking the lead just before the halfway point of the feature, then paced the final 13 to score the win as well as the K & N Filters Clean Air Award.
Coons has been impressive all year as the driver who has passed the most cars in USAC national competition (59). On this night, he gained 10 more on a 15th to fifth place run to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.
Justin Grant recorded his 43rd career USAC National Sprint Car fast qualifying time with his lap of 14.545 seconds in LearnLab Qualifying. That moved Grant past Kevin Thomas Jr. and into sole possession of sixth place all-time.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 5, 2026 – Red Hill Raceway – Sumner, Illinois –Illinois Sprint Car Championship – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – Co-Sanctioned by the Midwest Thunder 410 Sprint Car Series
FIRST LEARNLAB QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-14.654; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.691; 3. C.J. Leary, 24x, Maddox-14.730; 4. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-14.945; 5. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-15.306; 6. Kent Schmidt, 5K, Schmidt-15.345; 7. Michael Clark, 8, Clark-16.043; 8. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-18.081.
SECOND LEARNLAB QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. David Gasper, 77s, Sturgeon-15.046; 2. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-15.065; 3. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-15.068; 4. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-15.182; 5. J.J. Hughes, 76J, Hughes-15.188; 6. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.200; 7. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-15.676; 8. Glen Saville, 75, Grasmere-15.894.
THIRD LEARNLAB QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.545; 2. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.854; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.900; 4. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.991; 5. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-15.010; 6. Steve Thomas, 20, Thomas-17.117; 7. Collin Jackson, 64c, Jackson-17.399.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jadon Rogers (1), 2. C.J. Leary (2), 3. Kyle Cummins (3), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 5. Kent Schmidt (6), 6. Troy Carey (5), 7. Michael Clark (7), 8. Jake Swanson (8). 2:06.88
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (1), 2. Robert Ballou (3), 3. Charles Davis Jr. (2), 4. Hayden Reinbold (6), 5. David Gasper (4), 6. J.J. Hughes (5), 7. Aric Gentry (7), 8. Glen Saville (8). 2:10.48
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Briggs Danner (1), 2. Mitchel Moles (2), 3. Chase Stockon (3), 4. Justin Grant (4), 5. Cale Coons (5), 6. Steve Thomas (6), 7. Collin Jackson (7). 2:10.42
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mitchel Moles (6), 2. Jadon Rogers (5), 3. Robert Ballou (1), 4. Kyle Cummins (7), 5. Cale Coons (15), 6. Justin Grant (12), 7. C.J. Leary (2), 8. Logan Seavey (4), 9. Briggs Danner (3), 10. Hayden Reinbold (11), 11. J.J. Hughes (16), 12. Aric Gentry (18), 13. Michael Clark (17), 14. Troy Carey (20), 15. Steve Thomas (22), 16. Collin Jackson (23), 17. Chase Stockon (9), 18. David Gasper (14), 19. Kent Schmidt (13), 20. Kevin Thomas Jr. (10), 21. Charles Davis Jr. (8), 22. Glen Saville (21), 23. Jake Swanson (19). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Robert Ballou, Laps 13-25 Mitchel Moles.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-1245, 2-Justin Grant-1157, 3-Mitchel Moles-1118, 4-Briggs Danner-1067, 5-Logan Seavey-1038, 6-Jake Swanson-1004, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1004, 8-Chase Stockon-987, 9-C.J. Leary-950, 10-Robert Ballou-883.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Cale Coons-59, 2-Hayden Reinbold-44, 3-Briggs Danner-42, 4-Justin Grant-40, 5-Logan Calderwood-39, 6-Chase Stockon-38, 7-Brady Bacon-37, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-37, 9-Robert Ballou-37, 10-Kyle Cummins-34.
ILLINOIS SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONSHIP PARALLAX GROUP PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Cale Coons-10, 2-Steve Thomas-7, 3-Collin Jackson-7, 4-Justin Grant-6, 5-Aric Gentry-6, 6-Troy Carey-6, 7-Mitchel Moles-5, 8-J.J. Hughes-5, 9-Michael Clark-4, 10-Jadon Rogers-3.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 6, 2026 – Red Hill Raceway – Sumner, Illinois –Illinois Sprint Car Championship – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – Co-Sanctioned by the Midwest Thunder 410 Sprint Car Series
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Justin Grant (14.545)
LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (14.545)
K1 RaceGear First Heat Winner: Jadon Rogers
TJ Forged Second Heat Winner: Logan Seavey
K & N Filters Third Heat Winner: Briggs Danner
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Cale Coons (15th to 5th)
K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Mitchel Moles (13 laps led)
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