"Cowboy" Cummins Rides to Win in Larry Rice Classic

Kyle Cummins celebrates after winning the Larry Rice Classic at Bloomington Speedway. Photo courtesy: USAC Media - Photographer: David Nearpass Photo

Series News Release - USAC Media

Bloomington, Indiana (May 9, 2025) - Before Friday night, each of Kyle Cummins’ 23 previous USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victories featured distinct characteristics shared across the board.

However, the Princeton, Indiana driver couldn’t recall winning a race that resembled anything like his 24th score during Friday’s running of the Larry Rice Classic at Indiana’s Bloomington Speedway.

“That was a treacherous one,” Cummins noted. “There was a lot of turning left and bouncing, but that’s what sprint cars do. Sometimes it’s smooth and fast and slick and sometimes it’s ‘cowboy up.’ It’s kind of cool to get a ‘cowboy up’ win. The other ones we’ve won have been pretty slick. To be able to gas it up, get some wheelies going and bike up a little bit, I’m glad we got this one tonight.”

The newly installed red clay of Bloomington’s 1/4-mile had been doused by the moisture of a rainy Midwest Spring, which produced a track surface with character that required grit, sticktoitiveness and pure guts in order to navigate successfully.

Starting from the outside of the front row, Cummins eventually tracked down pole sitter and defending Larry Rice Classic winner Logan Seavey on the 17th lap and controlled the final 14 circuits of the 30-lap feature despite a bevy of cautions down the stretch which produced several restarts.

Through 10 starts on the 2025 season, Cummins’ latest score was his fourth of the year at the wheel of his Petty Performance Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors - Premier Recycling/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy. Already, Cummins’ four series victories equal his winningest seasons in USAC National Sprint Car competition. Cummins also scored four triumphs in both 2022 and 2023.

Overall, Cummins’ 24th career USAC National Sprint Car feature win moved him into sole possession of 29th place on the all-time list after advancing ahead of C.J. Leary and Roger McCluskey. Coupled with Justin Grant’s issues during the Bloomington feature, Cummins’ series point lead has also ballooned from two markers to 49.

Seavey got the initial jump from the pole position as Cummins stayed within arm’s reach throughout the entire first half. As the front two worked lap traffic between turns three and four on lap 17, Seavey popped his front wheels into the air after bouncing through a crevice in the track’s surface which caused him to drift up the track and leave the door open to the inside.

Meanwhile, Cummins had diamonded from the top of turn three to the bottom of turn four, breezing past Seavey off the corner and past the stripe to lead with 14 trips remaining. And it all started with a change of direction borne out of necessity, and a lack of tear-offs.

“I was just trying to stay calm,” Cummins explained. “There at the beginning, (Seavey) got me and I was being a little easy with the car. We have a really, really good, smooth slick track car. Man, that baby’s hooked up. All night, we were loosening it up and loosening it up and there, for about the first five six laps, it was super tight, but I was running out of tear-offs. I was kind of getting a little impatient. It was time to get out there so I could at least see where the ruts were at. I think that was the key getting to where you could actually see a little bit and at least try to hit your marks a little bit.”

Cummins’ lead grew to 2.2 seconds over the next handful of laps until 13th running Rylan Gray stopped backwards over the cushion beyond turn four on lap 21. That sparked a chain of misfortune that reared its ugly head down the stretch with seventh running Justin Grant feeling the brunt of it on lap 26 when he bounced over the top of the turn one cushion before coming to rest. He’d restart at the tail but ultimately bowed out with a flat right rear tire and a 20th place result.

On the ensuing restart, Robert Ballou was hustling. Using the high line, he raced his way to third around Jadon Rogers on lap 27. On the 28th go around, he took Seavey for second, albeit briefly, when Gunnar Setser (15th) dramatically dropped off the pace with a flat right rear tire, necessitating a yellow flag. Without the lap complete, Ballou was shuffled back to third.

At that same moment, Cummins felt fairly comfortable with his situation, knowing that he held the upper hand and his challengers had to put everything on the line in order to defeat him.

“They could’ve been better than I was but I knew if I got in and got it turned, they were not going to drive around me,” Cummins relayed. “They’d have a good shot but being the leader was definitely the place to be. I didn’t like to see all those cautions though. It was the longest three last laps that I’ve ran in a long time.”

When activities resumed, Ballou went straight to the top, and to the whip almost instantaneously, to surpass Seavey on lap 28. With two laps left, Ballou’s time ran short as Cummins maintained his grip of the top spot as he crossed the line first, completing his 30th and final lap as the fastest lap any driver turned during the entire course of the race. Cummins completed the task 1.064 seconds ahead of Ballou, with Seavey third, Kale Drake an impressive fourth and Jadon Rogers a season best fifth.

Ballou (Rocklin, California) believed that a slight turn one bobble earlier in the race might’ve cost him a shot at the win late, dropping his track position from fifth to seventh after starting ninth aboard his Ballou Motorsports/Suburban Subaru – Mountain Mechanical Contractors/DRC/Ott Chevy. Although the slight slip had its consequences, Ballou put on an absolute clinic from there, charging to second on the high side. All of that came on the heels of his heat race run from seventh to the win, including a single moment in which he passed three cars on the straightaway in one fell swoop, practically clinching the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night before the sun had even set.

Logan Seavey (Sutter, California) returned to the podium with a third place feature finish in his Abacus Racing/Mountain Mechanical Contractors – Indy Power Sports/DRC/Stanton Chevy. In doing so, Seavey also led the most laps in the main event with 16. While he wasn't able to repeat his Larry Rice Classic victory from a year ago, it was Seavey’s third straight podium at the event: (3rd 2023), (1st 2024) & (3rd 2025).

Jack Hoyer (Frankfort, Indiana) earned himself Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors in his season debut with the USAC National Sprint Cars. His plus-nine run from 22nd to 13th run on the red clay made him the biggest mover in the feature.

Sixth place feature finisher Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, California) turned his 18th career USAC National Sprint Car Fast Qualifying time, which tied him for 27th on the series all-time list alongside 1960-1961-1962 USAC Sprint Car champ and 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones. Moles has now set fast time in three of the last four USAC National Sprint Car events.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 9, 2025 – Bloomington Speedway – Bloomington, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Larry Rice Classic

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-11.513; 2. Kyle Shipley, 4u, AJR-11.613; 3. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-11.614; 4. Carson Garrett, 2E, Epperson-11.616; 5. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-11.632; 6. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-11.655; 7. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-11.681; 8. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-11.709; 9. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-11.747; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-11.783; 11. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-11.795; 12. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-11.808; 13. Matt Westfall, 23s, Simon-11.819; 14. Stevie Sussex, 77a, Sturgeon-11.855; 15. Chelby Hinton, 71p, Phillips-11.861; 16. Rylan Gray, 42, Cheney-11.871; 17. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-11.887; 18. Jake Scott, 33, Miller-11.896; 19. Abby Hohlbein, 2A, 2B Racing-11.955; 20. Todd Hobson, 77, Wingo-11.975; 21. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Boyd-11.997; 22. Tye Mihocko, 24p, Paul-12.012; 23. Matt Thompson, 26, Thompson-12.012; 24. Kale Drake 2B, 2B Racing-12.017; 25. Gabriel Gilbert, 10G, GGR-12.022; 26. Jack Hoyer, 11, Hoyer-12.071; 27. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.135; 28. Austin Cory, 00, Cory-12.181; 29. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.185; 30. Sam Hinds, 71H, Hinds-12.189; 31. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-12.207; 32. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-12.229; 33. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-12.357; 34. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-12.381; 35. Bryce Andrews, 17, MSR-12.700; 36. Hunter Wilson, 07, American Dream-12.777; 37. Justin Meneely, 100, Meneely-12.780; 38. Mike Larrison, 06, American Dream-12.986; 39. Adyn Schmidt, 12s, Schmidt-13.273.

CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Jadon Rogers, 3. Chance Crum, 4. Matt Westfall, 5. Gabriel Gilbert, 6. Gunnar Setser, 7. Braydon Cromwell, 8. Mitchel Moles, 9. Hayden Reinbold, 10. Justin Meneely. 2:04.800

K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Tye Mihocko, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Kyle Shipley, 5. Jake Scott, 6. Harley Burns, 7. Jack Hoyer, 8. Sam Hinds, 9. Mike Larrison, 10. Stevie Sussex. NT

HOOSIER TIRE THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Matt Thompson, 5. Chelby Hinton, 6. Kayla Roell, 7. Kobe Simpson, 8. Bryce Andrews, 9. Abby Hohlbein, 10. Adyn Schmidt. 2:05.841

COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Todd Hobson, 4. Brandon Mattox, 5. Rylan Gray, 6. Carson Garrett, 7. Briggs Danner, 8. Austin Cory, 9. Hunter Wilson. NT

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Gunnar Setser, 3. Kobe Simpson, 4. Jack Hoyer, 5. Braydon Cromwell, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Briggs Danner, 8. Bryce Andrews, 9. Adyn Schmidt, 10. Kayla Roell, 11. Abby Hohlbein, 12. Austin Cory, 13. Hunter Wilson, 14. Carson Garrett, 15. Harley Burns, 16. Stevie Sussex, 17. Justin Meneely. NT

FEATUE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (2), 2. Robert Ballou (9), 3. Logan Seavey (1), 4. Kale Drake (8), 5. Jadon Rogers (4), 6. Mitchel Moles (10), 7. Tye Mihocko (7), 8. Jake Swanson (5), 9. C.J. Leary (3), 10. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11), 11. Chance Crum (17), 12. Kobe Simpson (12), 13. Jack Hoyer (22), 14. Kyle Shipley (6), 15. Hayden Reinbold (26-P), 16. Jake Scott (18), 17. Briggs Danner (25-P), 18. Matt Thompson (20), 19. Gunnar Setser (24), 20. Justin Grant (13), 21. Rylan Gray (16), 22. Gabriel Gilbert (21), 23. Chelby Hinton (15), 24. Brandon Mattox (23), 25. Matt Westfall (14), 26. Todd Hobson (19). NT

(P) represents a provisional starter

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-16 Logan Seavey, Laps 17-30 Kyle Cummins.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-736, 2-Justin Grant-687, 3-Logan Seavey-580, 4-Mitchel Moles-556, 5-Daison Pursley-543, 6-Robert Ballou-541, 7-Jake Swanson-537, 8-C.J. Leary-533, 9-Kale Drake-526, 10-Briggs Danner-509.