Seavey & Abacus Gunning For USAC Triple Crown

INDIANAPOLIS – Two-time reigning Chili Bowl Nationals champion Logan Seavey is setting his sights on a prize that only two drivers in history have ever earned: the single-season USAC Triple Crown.

Seavey, who earned his second Golden Driller in January, revealed Wednesday that he plans to tackle the full AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Series, NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series, and USAC Silver Crown Champ Car Series schedules this year.

The combined efforts create a 99-race calendar for Seavey across the three premier divisions of the United States Auto Club.

However, unlike the Triple Crown efforts put together by Tony Stewart in 1995 and J.J. Yeley in 2003, Seavey will attempt to achieve the feat with a single organization – as he returns to Abacus Racing.

Seavey and Abacus team principal Brent Cox will attempt to defend both their USAC national midget title as well as their USAC Silver Crown championship, which was earned in conjunction with Rice Motorsports.

Adding a USAC national sprint car effort, however, allows the duo to chase a mark that would place them among immortality in the short-track landscape.

“Only a couple of guys have won all three in one year, and not many even get the opportunity to try it, so to get the chance to try for all three series titles in one year is pretty cool,” said Seavey, a native of Sutter, Calif. “I never thought I would get to race out here and now we’re out here full-time, 100-some races a year … and it definitely doesn’t happen often, to basically [be able to] do it with one team.

“We’re living the dream.”

Seavey’s Abacus/Rice Racing Silver Crown entry will be a Felker Racing Engine-powered DRC chassis on dirt, with a Beast Chassis car for the tour’s pavement events.

The Abacus Racing sprint car will be a DRC Chassis with engines from 1-Way Technologies and Stanton, while the team’s familiar midget returns as a Stanton SR/11x-powered Spike chassis car.

For context, Stewart drove for both Glen Niebel and Steve Lewis during his Triple Crown season, while Yeley drove for both the combined Bob East-Tony Stewart Racing team and for Lewis on his way to the USAC trifecta.

Seavey’s Triple Crown rival, fellow Californian Justin Grant, will drive for three different organizations in his pursuit of all three championships this year.

Grant, from Ione, Calif., will pilot a Hemelgarn Racing Silver Crown entry, a TOPP Motorsports sprint car, and an RMS Racing midget on the USAC national trail this season.

But for Seavey, consistency stood out as something he desired as he was putting his season plans together.

Thus, the 26-year-old will have reigning USAC Chief Mechanic of the Year Ronnie Gardner alongside him once again, as Gardner turns the wrenches on Seavey’s Silver Crown car.

Seavey will be joined by crew chief Kirk Simpson on the new Abacus sprint car team, while Johnny Cofer crew chiefs the Abacus midget operation.

It’s a veteran lineup that Seavey knows can lead him to success, despite the grueling calendar ahead.

“It’s going to be tough with a brand-new team, new cars and engines, and all this stuff, as well as the other variables that come into it,” noted Seavey of adding the sprint car schedule to his existing endeavors. “I don’t even know if it’s the toughest one, per se, but the sprint car schedule is just so long, that anything can happen throughout the season. It kind of allows you to make some mistakes, maybe, and rebound from them.

“But when you’re racing against guys like Brady Bacon, Justin Grant, Robert Ballou, Kevin Thomas Jr., Kyle Cummins and more, those guys are pretty good every single night, so you don’t really have a lot of room to miss.”

Cox tipped that Abacus’ plans with Seavey were leading to this moment from the beginning, when the duo first teamed up prior to last season to chase the USAC National Midget Series title together.

“When I met with Logan in December of 2022 to get him to drive the midget, the deal was to run the midget and help to kind of put our team on the map, then go sprint car racing in 2024,” Cox saud. “We certainly exceeded expectations in the midget, so we felt inclined to give it a shot and see what we can do with that while also going sprint car racing, which has always been a dream of mine.

“Now, here we are.”

Abacus Racing excelled last year with their midget program, winning eight times en route to the USAC title, while also co-entering the Silver Crown field alongside Rice Motorsports and earning three victories in that series to capture the championship.

Cox hopes that his team’s sprint car effort can quickly achieve the same levels of success, and with Seavey at the controls, he believes that performance will come sooner rather than later.

“Our expectations are high, but we also know how competitive the USAC Sprint Car Series is,” Cox noted. “The midget was a bit of an outlier, and we won the Silver Crown [title] by seven points. We’re confident we’ll do well in the sprint car, but we also know it’s a brand-new thing for us and for Logan.

“We don’t feel like we could have a better driver to do it with than Logan, though.”

The Rice and Abacus teams joined forces in name at the start of last year’s Silver Crown season, but it wasn’t until a broken wheel at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway led to a crash and nearly took Seavey out of contention for the points title that the association shifted into high gear.

“We really didn’t know each other all that well until Winchester. When we crashed there, it was a massive effort by a lot of people, and if we hadn’t had the Abacus guys to help and to take it up to their shop so they could work on it while Ronnie was at work, we would’ve never been ready,” recalled Rice Motorsports team owner Robbie Rice. “That’s when the team really came together as more of a ‘team’ rather than individual teams. This year, I think we’re going to be more prepared and more organized.”

Seavey finished fifth in the ensuing Silver Crown race at Toledo (Ohio) Speedway, keeping his title hopes alive at that point.

“Logan’s a huge part of how quickly the race team grew as fast as it did,” Rice added. “Without him being able to bring a fifth-place car home fifth instead of crashing it, that allowed us to go to the next race and learn even more. If he had crashed a couple cars, we would’ve been in a lot of trouble.

“By Logan taking care of the equipment early on in our development, it was very crucial to where we are now.”

For winning both the USAC national midget and Silver Crown titles last season, Seavey earned a $100,000 bonus payout. Should he capture all three championships this year, that check will quadruple to a staggering $400,000 prize.

It’s a pursuit that Seavey is eager to take on, particularly knowing the teams surrounding him.

“Overall, it gives me comfort and confidence knowing that every time I go to the track this year, I’m working with the same people,” Seavey tipped. “With the momentum we have, I don’t want to say ‘we expect [to win]’ because it’s going to be tough. But I don’t think you can ever not be disappointed to not win a championship. Obviously, that’s the goal.

“If you’re not a little bit disappointed when you get beat, you’re not doing the right things,” he added. “It’s a competitive sport, and if you’re not looking for more when you’re getting beat, you’re not going to catch up. Our goal is to win all three, and if we don’t, we’re going to be a little disappointed.

“We’re going to give it our best effort, and to win all three in one year would be crazy.”

Seavey’s USAC Triple Crown campaign begins Feb. 9 at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway, formerly known as Bubba Raceway Park, with the AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Series.

The USAC Silver Crown Series calendar starts April 20 at Toledo, while the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series season kicks off April 26-27 at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway.

Every lap of all three of USAC’s national series can be streamed live through FloRacing.