KTJ WINS USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK TITLE

2025 United States Auto Club (USAC) NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roof champion Kevin Thomas Junior celebrates with his wife, Whitney, following his victory on Saturday night at Haubstadt’s Tri-State Speedway. (Rich Forman Photo)

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Haubstadt, Indiana  (August 2, 2025)………Kevin Thomas Junior captured both the battle and the war during Saturday night’s (August 2) United States Auto Club (USAC) NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing finale at Haubstadt’s Tri-State Speedway.

As it turned out, the Cullman, Alabama racer was faced with fending off the same driver, Logan Seavey, to accomplish both goals in pursuit of the feature victory and the 38th annual Indiana Sprint Week championship.

Thomas checked both off the list in one swoop as he led the remaining 21 circuits of the 31-lap feature to earn the victory while also accruing enough points to surpass Seavey and become a three-time ISW titlist, following previous crowns in 2017 and 2021.

He’s also the first driver in 12 seasons, since Bryan Clauson in 2013, to walk off with both a victory during the final race of Indiana Sprint Week and the ISW championship trophy in hand.

In achieving his record extending ninth career USAC AMSOIL Sprintcar National Championship feature victory at Tri-State, Thomas notched his 47th career series victory, surpassing Jack Hewitt and moving himself into a tie with Tracy Hines for fifth place on the all-time win list.

Additionally, Thomas provided car owner Hank Byram of Rock Steady Racing his first Indiana Sprint Week championship after a quarter century of trying. For Byram and his #3R team, it was their 33rd career USAC National Sprintcar feature victory, tied for 12th most all-time in series history. At the end of the night, Byram was grinning from ear-to-ear in the seat of the traditional custom-made rocker that is annually awarded by John Youngs of Vincennes, Indiana to the Indiana Sprint Week entrant champion.

For his efforts, Thomas pocketed $33,000 on the night between his $8,000 for winning the feature to go along with a $25,000 payday for his Indiana Sprint Week Championship, which he now owns three in his career. He’s now one of only three drivers to capture three or more ISW titles along with four-time champs Kevin Thomas (no relation) and Levi Jones along with fellow three-timer Dave Darland.

“My team did a great job with the racecar,” Thomas praised. “From IMS on, I don’t think we ran off the podium but maybe three times (in eight races). We’ve been really working all year. We struggled for the first half of the year but these guys, they just don’t quit. They kept trying and trying and trying until we finally found something. I spoke on it probably a month and a half ago. That just transformed into this week, and we got good at the right time.”

Thomas was seemingly a man on a mission from the get-go on Saturday night, nearly maximizing every opportunity on the board, garnering 83 of the maximum 84 points available throughout the evening. Trailing Seavey by four markers going into the event, Thomas gained five via qualifying second quickest to leapfrog ahead of Seavey in the standings by one. Thomas then advanced from sixth to first to win his heat and gain eight more points, two more than Seavey added in his third place heat race run.

Entering the final feature of the 38th edition of Indiana Sprint Week, Thomas’ lead in the series stood at three over Seavey. For all intents and purposes, the objective for Thomas was to finish ahead of Seavey and the points would take care of itself.

As the wheelman of the Rock Steady Racing/Inferno Armor – Lucas Oil Center – Creative Finishing/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy, Thomas started his race from the fifth position while fellow title contender Seavey lined up 13th on the grid.

Meanwhile, outside front row starter Briggs Danner possessed an outside chance of claiming the title, needing to win the feature and also have Thomas and Seavey both finish 20th or worse in order to have an opportunity. Danner did his part in the early stages of the race by pacing the field for the initial 10 laps while facing a challenge from Jadon Rogers and being closed in on by Thomas who had slotted into third.

By lap 11, traffic loomed for Danner up front. While he worked on trying to find his way around the 22nd place car driven by Rookie Eli Wilhelmus, Thomas had disposed of Rogers for second with an inside move along turns one and two. By the time Thomas reached turns three and four a half lap later, he was right on Danner’s back bumper for the lead. Finding an opening on the bottom, Thomas used Wilhelmus as a pick with Danner getting pinned behind him while Thomas shot underneath to lead at the stripe by a half car length over Danner while Rogers moved ahead of Danner on the 14th lap.

At the halfway mark, Seavey was still mired in 10th, 30 points out of contention for the ISW crown while Thomas was enjoying his ride at the front of the pack. Suddenly, Thomas had company in the form of Robert Ballou who slid up in front of Danner off turn four for the third spot on lap 20. Three trips around the 1/4-mile dirt oval later, Ballou took second from Rogers with a back straightaway pass for the runner-up spot on lap 23.

With four laps to go, Thomas was in complete control with an eight car length advantage ahead of Ballou. Behind him, the battle for fourth was getting hot and heavy between Danner, Mitchel Moles and the surging Seavey. But as Danner attempted to slide Moles for the spot in turn one, his rear wheels locked up directly in front of Moles. As Moles whoa’d up on the binders, he subsequently tapped Danner’s rear bumper, refiring Danner’s car, while Moles became a casualty himself, gliding to a halt to bring out the yellow on lap 27.

Now, Seavey suddenly found himself in fifth, and over the next couple of laps following the restart, he charged past Danner then Rogers to climb his way into third. A caution for a 360 degree spin performed by Kayla Roell necessitated a caution on the final lap and halted Thomas’ beeline to the finish line.

Seavey was positioned in third behind Thomas and Ballou for the first green-white-checkered attempt, which spelled doom for Ballou who dramatically slowed due to a lack of fuel on the white flag lap. Behind him, a calamity ensued as drivers scattered to avoid contact with Ballou’s sputtering machine. Danner (5th) first got into the back of Ballou and spun to a stop in turn four. Several more drivers became entangled in the web, including Carson Short (11th), Hayden Reinbold (12th), Chase Stockon (16th) and Kendall Ruble (20th), all of whom also stopped on the course.

Ballou, meanwhile, pulled off toward the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area, which moved Seavey up a spot to second right behind Thomas with two laps remaining coming back to green. At that point, the picture became crystal clear. Between Thomas and Seavey, whoever finished ahead of the other was going to be the Indiana Sprint Week champion. That certainly caught the attention of Thomas.“I was feeling good, but I kept seeing that 57 (of Seavey) up on the board,” Thomas noticed. “I was like, ‘I better not screw this up.’ He kept me honest. I was glad to do battle with him all week. He’s one of my better friends, so I knew that whenever I saw Ballou roll into the work area, I was pretty nervous, but nervous is good. Nervous is pressure and you deserve it if you put yourself in that spot.”

Thomas staved off the pressure and kept his cool on the lap 29 restart, plus the final pair of tours around Tri-State to beat Seavey to the line for the win and the Indiana Sprint Week championship by 0.839 seconds and six points, respectively. Rogers finished third while C.J. Leary took fourth and Kyle Cummins rounded out the top-five.

Over the course of his USAC National Sprintcar career at Tri-State, Thomas had won the annual Haubstadt Hustler on five occasions and the Spring Showdown three different times. That said, in 14 previous tries, he had never won the Indiana Sprint Week round at the track, finishing a best of second in 2015-2017-2021. That all changed on Saturday night.

While Seavey came up just one position and six points short of becoming the first back-to-back Indiana Sprint Week champion since Bryan Clauson in 2013-2014, he did make an all-out effort in advancing from 13th to second to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. He also grabbed the Indiana Sprint Week Parallax Group Passing Master title after passing 52 cars throughout the eight race series.

Jadon Rogers returned to action following a six-race suspension by USAC for a tire infraction. In doing so, he came back strong in turning in his best career Indiana Sprint Week finish at The Class Track by rounding out the podium with a third place result.

It was a historical night for Kayla Roell as she became the first woman to win a USAC National Sprint Car heat race. She followed that up with the best feature finish by a woman in series history with a 9th despite a late race spin. Couple all that together, her performance proved to be the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.

Kentucky’s Collin Ambrose raced his way into the final transfer spot in the semi-feature, which forwarded him to his first USAC National Sprint Car feature start since 2022, making him the evening’s ProSource Hard Work award winner.

Mitchel Moles notched the 24th career Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying time of his USAC National Sprintcar career, tying him with USAC Champions Gary Bettenhausen and JJ Yeley for 18th place all-time. For his qualifying efforts, Moles banked $400 with a 13.340 second run to extend his series lead in the qualifying department to nine fast times thus far in 2025.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINTCAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 2, 2025 – Tri-State Speedway – Haubstadt, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – 38th Annual USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.340; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-13.389; 3. Jadon Rogers, 5, Baldwin/Fox-13.419; 4. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.576; 5. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-13.656; 6. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-13.674; 7. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-13.700; 8. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-13.714; 9. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.717; 10. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-13.745; 11. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.758; 12. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-13.855; 13. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-13.948; 14. Kendall Ruble, 17, Ruble-13.978; 15. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-13.978; 16. Carson Short, 21m, Edwards-13.984; 17. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-14.010; 18. Eli Wilhelmus, 55, Wilhelmus-14.017; 19. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-14.044; 20. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-14.063; 21. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-14.166; 22. Adyn Schmidt, 12s, Schmidt-14.227; 23. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-14.245; 24. Travis Millar, 93AU, Millar-14.302; 25. Brady Short, 61m, Edwards-14.333; 26. Sam Scott, 7s, Scott-14.417; 27. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-14.440; 28. Collin Ambrose, 36, Ambrose-14.474; 29. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-14.482; 30. Sam Hinds, 71H, Hinds-14.518; 31. Donny Brackett, 4B, Brackett-14.644; 32. Geoff Ensign, 00, Anderson-14.653; 33. Kyle Shipley, 0G, Black Gold-14.710; 34. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-14.716; 35. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-14.733; 36. James Boyd, 16B, Boyd-14.857; 37. Tony Helton, 87, Helton-15.101; 38. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-15.537; 39. Steve Justis, 12J, Justis-15.913.

CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Harley Burns, 3. Mitchel Moles, 4. Kale Drake, 5. Hayden Reinbold, 6. Chase Stockon, 7. Brady Short, 8. Troy Carey, 9. Kyle Shipley, 10. Tony Helton. 2:15.367

K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Eli Wilhelmus, 3. Gunnar Setser, 4. Kendall Ruble, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Sam Scott, 7. Adyn Schmidt, 8. Sam Hinds, 9. Kobe Simpson, 10. Carson Garrett. 2:18.975

USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kayla Roell, 2. Charles Davis Jr., 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Logan Calderwood, 6. Aric Gentry, 7. Chance Crum, 8. Donny Brackett, 9. Brandon Mattox, 10. Steve Justis. NT

COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Carson Short, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Ricky Lewis, 6. Collin Ambrose, 7. Travis Millar, 8. James Boyd, 9. Geoff Ensign. 2:19.258

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Adyn Schmidt, 3. Aric Gentry, 4. Collin Ambrose, 5. Sam Scott, 6. Travis Millar, 7. Chance Crum, 8. Donny Brackett, 9. Sam Hinds, 10. James Boyd, 11. Troy Carey, 12. Tony Helton, 13. Kobe Simpson, 14. Kyle Shipley, 15. Geoff Ensign, 16. Steve Justis. NT

FEATURE: (31 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 2. Logan Seavey (13), 3. Jadon Rogers (4), 4. C.J. Leary (7), 5. Kyle Cummins (8), 6. Jake Swanson (14), 7. Logan Calderwood (1), 8. Kale Drake (18), 9. Kayla Roell (9), 10. Mitchel Moles (6), 11. Harley Burns (21), 12. Robert Ballou (3), 13. Ricky Lewis (20), 14. Hayden Reinbold (11), 15. Chase Stockon (10), 16. Briggs Danner (2), 17. Carson Short (17), 18. Charles Davis Jr. (16), 19. Adyn Schmidt (22), 20. Kendall Ruble (15), 21. Gunnar Setser (12), 22. Eli Wilhelmus (19), 23. Aric Gentry (23), 24. Kobe Simpson (25-P), 25. Collin Ambrose (24). NT

(P) represents a provisional starter

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Briggs Danner, Laps 11-31 Kevin Thomas Jr.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINTCAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-2094, 2-Logan Seavey-1875, 3-Mitchel Moles-1872, 4-Briggs Danner-1762, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1758, 6-Justin Grant-1693, 7-Robert Ballou-1693, 8-Jake Swanson-1649, 9-C.J. Leary-1616, 10-Kale Drake-1492.

FINAL USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK INDIANA SPRINT WEEK PRESENTED BY HONEST ABE ROOFING POINTS: 1-Kevin Thomas Jr.-497, 2-Logan Seavey-491, 3-Mitchel Moles-421, 4-Kyle Cummins-420, 5-Briggs Danner-411, 6-Jake Swanson-403, 7-C.J. Leary-395, 8-Robert Ballou-385, 9-Chase Stockon-345, 10-Gunnar Setser-322.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-184, 2-Briggs Danner-126, 3-Gunnar Setser-100, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-99, 5-Logan Seavey-94, 6-C.J. Leary-91, 7-Kyle Cummins-90, 8-Justin Grant-83, 9-Robert Ballou-69, 10-Jake Swanson-69.

FINAL USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK PARALLAX GROUP PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-52, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-51, 3-Kale Drake-50, 4-Jake Swanson-50, 5-Briggs Danner-47, 6-C.J. Leary-45, 7-Hayden Reinbold-40, 8-Kayla Roell-40, 9-Kyle Cummins-33, 10-Gunnar Setser-33.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINTCAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: August 21-22-23, 2025 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Sprint Car Smackdown XIV

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented by Honest Abe Roofing Champion: Kevin Thomas Jr.

USAC Indiana Sprint Week Parallax Group Passing Master Champion: Logan Seavey (52)

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Kyle Cummins (13.450)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Mitchel Moles (13.340)

Car IQ First Heat Winner: Kyle Cummins

K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.

USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Kayla Roell

Cook Out Fourth Heat Winner: CJ Leary

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Chase Stockon

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Logan Seavey (13th to 2nd)

Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Kayla Roell

ProSource Hard Work: Collin Ambrose