Knoxville, Iowa (May 31, 2025)………For Kevin Thomas Jr., Knoxville Raceway provided the perfect setting for a transformation weekend for both himself and his Rock Steady Racing team.
KTJ’s beginning to the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season saw him finish no better than eighth in any of his first 10 series starts, and a point ranking of 11th entering this weekend’s Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash.
On Saturday night at the 1/2-mile dirt oval in Iowa, Thomas parlayed an inside second row starting position into victory. First, the Cullman, Alabama racer narrowly avoided a major catastrophe during the opening laps, then put a clamp on the top spot on a lap eight restart en route to his first USAC victory of the season and the first of his career at Knoxville, one that was worth a cool $15,000.
At this time last year, Thomas was on his way to a five-win campaign in USAC National Sprint Car competition. The kind of performances that the team had longed for throughout the first several months of the season have now come back around, and the good times are back again for KTJ and the No. 3R.
“I’m pretty hard on myself in general, but this year has been pretty trying,” Thomas admitted. “To be able to win here at Knoxville is historic and this was also our first time having an opportunity and then capitalizing on it.”
After a seventh place result in Friday’s opener, Thomas knew the capability was there, but everything had to align, from himself and his machine to qualifying well (4th) and setting the tone for the rest of the night at the wheel of his Rock Steady Racing/Inferno Armor – Lucas Oil Center – Creative Finishing/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.
“There are a lot of people who put up with stuff from me and what I like to feel in a racecar,” Thomas explained. “We have tried and tried and tried and there was something that was very much staring us right in the face that we changed. Now it’s so much better. Like last night, it was an unfortunate thing that we had a situation with a right rear shock but we were still running good. This was the first time all year that we’ve been in the invert, and that gave ourselves a chance to win.”
The victory moved Thomas another rung up the leader as his 45th career USAC National Sprint Car win sent him to seventh place on the all-time win list alongside 1968-1970-1975 series champion Larry Dickson.
The opening laps to the 30-lap feature were as arduous as they were hazardous. On the first try, A.J. Johnson (17th) and Jadon Rogers (24th) simultaneous flipped hard through turn two to necessitate the first red flag of the night. Both drivers were able to climb out and walk away.
On the ensuing restart, pole sitter Jake Swanson established the early lead, pacing laps one and two with Justin Grant slotting into second. However, the action halted on the third lap when pre-race favorites C.J. Leary (3rd) and Brady Bacon (4th) touched wheels entering turn three.
The resulting contact launched Leary into a series of four barrel-rolls accentuated by major airtime and a meeting with the outside guardrail. Bacon, meanwhile, spiraled three times into the outer guardrail. Each driver was able to climb out and walk away. At the same time, the fifth place running Thomas just narrowly missed contact with the flying car of Leary, appearing to drive completely under and just to the right of the airborne Leary, continuing on without harm.
Swanson continued to maintain possession of the lead through lap eight when Robert Ballou (11th) and Kale Drake (12th) tangled in turn two, sending Drake ramping over Ballou’s hood, yet still managing to go onward. Ballou’s misfortune in the deal sent him into a 360 degree spin from which Ballou was able to recover from. Restarting at the tail in 19th, Ballou raced his way back up to eighth by the checkered while Drake was unable to continue on.
Just before the yellow, Grant had taken possession of the lead with an outside turn two move on Swanson. However, the yellow flag negated the move, thus sending Grant back to second and reasserting Swanson as the leader.
Things soon changed on the lap eight restart as leader Swanson went to the top of turns one and two while Grant dabbled in the middle and Thomas scoured the bottom. Thomas’ low riding groove led him past Grant on the back straight, and when Swanson biked on the cushion in turn four, Thomas zipped on by to take over up front with 23 laps remaining.
Ryan Bernal made a sudden surge to go from fourth to third on lap eight before securing the runner-up position on lap 13 as he drove under Grant in turns three and four to occupy the spot. All the while, Kyle Cummins was carving a path from his 18th starting position, grabbing third from Grant on the 20th circuit.
Thomas’ lead stood at 1.2 seconds as he worked traffic while Bernal inched forward to his back bumper with eighth laps to go. But when Bernal chrome-horned the rear bumper of 19th running Braydon Cromwell in turn two, the contact stifled Bernal and resulted in Thomas gaining precious time on Bernal to the tune of 1.8 seconds.
Finishing his business from there, Thomas led the balance of the distance to the stripe for the biggest payday of the year 1.486 seconds ahead of Bernal as Cummins, Grant and upstart Gunnar Setser rounded out the top-five.
Hank Byram’s Rock Steady Racing team garnered their 31st career USAC National Sprint Car triumph, which elevated them into a tie for 15th all-time along with Clauson Marshall Newman Racing.
Ryan Bernal doesn't run USAC National Sprint Cars too often, but when he does, he's always a contender. On this night, he advanced from his seventh starting spot to finish second, all while providing the Tom & Christy Dunkel owned No. 17x its best USAC National Sprint Car result to date.
Kyle Cummins was in the zone as he traveled +15 from 18th to a third place finish to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. Cummins also maintained his USAC National Sprint Car point lead, which stands at 53.
Wyatt Burks passed a total of 19 cars throughout the two nights of competition at Knoxville over the weekend, most in the field. As a reward, the Topeka, Kansas racer earns the Corn Belt Clash Parallax Group Passing Master title.
Gunnar Setser grabbed his first career top-five finish with the USAC National Sprint Cars. The new Rookie point leader with the series was also the recipient of the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night for his fifth place finish.
It was 20/20 vision for Mitchel Moles as he collected his 20th career USAC National Sprint Car fast qualifying time during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying. That increased his series-high mark of fast qualifying performances this season to five. Overall, his 20 fast times place him 23rd on the all-time USAC National Sprint Car fast qualifying list along with series champions Jerry Coons Jr., Tony Elliott and Roger McCluskey.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 31, 2025 – Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, Iowa – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-18.868; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-18.994; 3. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-19.010; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-19.019; 5. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-19.050; 6. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-19.178; 7. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-19.186; 8. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-19.189; 9. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-19.227; 10. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-19.351; 11. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-19.363; 12. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-19.373; 13. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-19.376; 14. Ryan Bernal, 17x, Dunkel-19.377; 15. A.J. Johnson, 93, Germar-19.384; 16. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-19.439; 17. R.J. Johnson, 33p, Petty-19.581; 18. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-19.599; 19. Kale Drake 2B, 2B Racing-19.691; 20. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-19.783; 21. Stevie Sussex, 2, Yeley-19.792; 22. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Boyd-19.961; 23. Wesley Smith, 44, Smith-20.026; 24. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-20.029; 25. Wyatt Burks, 11w, Burks-20.100; 26. Ben Woods, 11B, B & R-20.142; 27. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-20.193; 28. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-20.437; 29. Tyler Graves, T4, Graves-20.543; 30. Glen Saville, 75, Grasmere-20.874; 31. Dakota Earls, 15E, Earls-21.342.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. R.J. Johnson, 3. Wyatt Burks, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Stevie Sussex, 7. Charles Davis Jr., 8. Tyler Graves. NT
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Ryan Bernal, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Braydon Cromwell, 5. Logan Calderwood, 6. Kobe Simpson, 7. Ben Woods. 2:46.070
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. A.J. Johnson, 6. Wesley Smith, 7. Hayden Reinbold, 8. Dakota Earls. 2:46.018
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Gunnar Setser, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Carson Garrett, 5. Kyle Cummins, 6. Chase Stockon, 7. Kayla Roell. 2:48.806
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Kobe Simpson, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Charles Davis Jr., 5. Ben Woods, 6. Wesley Smith, 7. Stevie Sussex, 8. Kayla Roell, 9. Dakota Earls, 10. Tyler Graves. 3:38.964
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 2. Ryan Bernal (7), 3. Kyle Cummins (18), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Gunnar Setser (9), 6. Chase Stockon (11), 7. Logan Seavey (15), 8. Robert Ballou (10), 9. Briggs Danner (12), 10. Mitchel Moles (6), 11. Jake Swanson (1), 12. Logan Calderwood (13), 13. R.J. Johnson (19), 14. Wyatt Burks (23), 15. Charles Davis Jr. (16), 16. Carson Garrett (22), 17. Hayden Reinbold (14), 18. Kobe Simpson (20), 19. Braydon Cromwell (21), 20. Kale Drake (8), 21. C.J. Leary (2), 22. Brady Bacon (4), 23. A.J. Johnson (17), 24. Jadon Rogers (24). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Jake Swanson, Laps 8-30 Kevin Thomas Jr.
**A.J. Johnson & Jadon Rogers flipped on lap one of the feature. C.J. Leary & Brady Bacon flipped on lap 3 of the feature.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-943, 2-Justin Grant-890, 3-Mitchel Moles-730, 4-Robert Ballou-728, 5-Logan Seavey-715, 6-Briggs Danner-676, 7-Jake Swanson-671, 8-Kale Drake-667, 9-C.J. Leary-654, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-647.
PARALLAX GROUP USAC NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-112, 2-C.J. Leary-54, 3-Briggs Danner-44, 4-Chase Stockon-42, 5-Robert Ballou-41, 6-Kyle Cummins-39, 7-Gunnar Setser-38, 8-Justin Grant-33, 9-Jadon Rogers-30, 10-Logan Seavey-25.
FINAL CORN BELT CLASH PARALLAX GROUP PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Wyatt Burks-19, 2-Kyle Cummins-18, 3-Gunnar Setser-13, 4-Logan Seavey-13, 5-Ryan Bernal-12, 6-Brady Bacon-11, 7-Robert Ballou-11, 8-Kale Drake-11, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-9, 10-R.J. Johnson-9.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 13, 2025 – Red Hill Raceway – Sumner, Illinois – 1/3-Mile Dirt Track – Salute to Levi Jones
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Jake Swanson (18.927)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Mitchel Moles (18.868)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: C.J. Leary
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Ryan Bernal
Hoosier Tire Third Heat Winner: Kale Drake
Cook Out Fourth Heat Winner: Gunnar Setser
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Chase Stockon
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Kyle Cummins (18th to 3rd)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Gunnar Setser
Corn Belt Clash Parallax Group Passing Master Champion: Wyatt Burks (19)
a.jpg)
