Thomas Aces USAC Sprint Test At Williams Grove Again

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. – A year ago, Kevin Thomas Jr. found Williams Grove Speedway victory lane by leading just one lap. Friday night, he did a lot more than that.

Thomas controlled all 30 circuits of the USAC Eastern Storm presented by Levan Machine & Truck Equipment stop at the historic half-mile dirt oval en route to victory with Rock Steady Racing.

The Cullman, Ala., veteran held a .397-second edge over rival Kyle Cummins at the checkered flag in earning his second USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series win of the season and third overall at Williams Grove.

It marked the 46th victory of Thomas’ standout USAC national sprint car career, tying him with the legendary Jack Hewitt for sixth on the tour’s all-time win list.

“That’s pretty cool,” Thomas remarked. “When you start out, you look at all the guys on the list. I looked at (Jon) Stanbrough and Jerry Coons Jr. and Dave Darland, and I was like, ‘Damn, if I could ever just get one win, that would be pretty cool,’ and just to say I raced with these guys and got a win is special.

“Jack is the coolest damn dude ever. He’ll whoop your ass and then pray with you. To be level with him … that’s a big deal.”

Thomas now sits just one win behind A.J. Foyt for the most USAC national sprint car wins at Williams Grove, and he’s the first since the late Jan Opperman (1973) to score back-to-back at the facility.

The race was slow to begin when the track lights went dark just before the green flag, due to a nearby car accident that knocked out power to the area. It led to a 20-minute delay before action got going.

Once it did, however, chaos was quick to unfold.

J.T. Ferry flipped in turn three on the initial start from 18th, collecting Abby Hohlbein and series debutant Dirk Rimrott, and the second try at going green saw Daison Pursley spin from seventh and stall in the middle of three and four to spark additional carnage.

Joey Amantea and C.J. Leary collided with Pursley, eliminating all three drivers as a result, while Hohlbein and Mike Haggenbottom went flipping simultaneously further back in a wild incident that fortunately saw all drivers walk away unscathed.

Thomas noted that restarts are often a challenge when it comes to USAC sprint car competition at Williams Grove.

“It’s hard here, especially with the way the corners are shaped and change up your approach to it,” Thomas explained. “If you do it wrong, you can really open yourself up to failure down there in turn one. I overcooked the first one. I thought I had just a little more grip than what I did and wound up there in the marbles and stuff. I got another shot at it and I felt good there. I just had to be patient.

“It’s such a long straightaway for a non-winged car. You lift before you think you have to, and you’re pretty hard on the brakes. Even when you’re running the top, you’re pretty hard on the equipment.”

After that, it was clean and green, at least for a little while. Thomas’ lead was a full second by lap seven and he seemed comfortable out front when both Robert Ballou and Logan Seavey slowed on lap 14 with separate mechanical issues.

Mitchel Moles was third and challenging for more at that point, but his race went sideways after he spun backward into the outside guardrail in turn three a lap past halfway. Moles did, however, continue.

Cummins became the pursuer late after passing Jake Swanson for second with nine to go, but it was Thomas’ race to lose – and a caution with a half-lap to go tried to deny him of the spoils.

Ninth-running Kayla Roell slowed to a halt on the frontstretch, scuttling her dreams of becoming the first woman in series history to record a top-10 finish, but it did nothing to keep Thomas out of victory lane.

He mastered the ensuing green-white-checkered restart to prevent any late heroics from those behind him.

“I was just hoping I didn’t run out of fuel like Briggs [Danner] did last year,” Thomas said, referring to Danner’s last-lap trouble in 2024 at Williams Grove. “Last year, we got lucky, but we were in position to win. We’ll take those, but I felt that, this year, we put ourselves in position to control the race. As tough as this place is to pass and to get around in general, it’s very odd for a non-wing car.

“Being that it’s super-fast and also extremely technical, you can overshoot the corners and miss the bottom and get out into no man’s land. By being able to process those into one on each straightaway, having a clean track in front of you is important, and we did that tonight.”

Cummins was second ahead of Danner, Swanson, and Justin Grant, with Steven Drevicki, Hayden Reinbold, Moles, Gunnar Setser, and Kale Drake closing out the top 10.

While Cummins retains a 101-point lead over Grant in the overall USAC national sprint car standings, he has a much slimmer seven-point edge in Eastern Storm points over Danner with two races left in the week-long miniseries.

USAC Eastern Storm heads to Port Royal Speedway Saturday night for the penultimate race in this year’s northeastern gauntlet.

The finish:

Feature (30 laps): 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1), 2. Kyle Cummins (2), 3. Briggs Danner (10), 4. Jake Swanson (3), 5. Justin Grant (5), 6. Steven Drevicki (14), 7. Hayden Reinbold (12), 8. Mitchel Moles (6), 9. Gunnar Setser (11), 10. Kale Drake (13), 11. Robert Ballou (8), 12. Logan Seavey (9), 13. Braydon Cromwell (17), 14. Kayla Roell (16), 15. Olivia Thayer (21), 16. Bruce Buckwalter Jr. (19), 17. Dirk Rimrott (23), 18. Daison Pursley (7), 19. Joey Amantea (15), 20. Mike Haggenbottom (20), 21. C.J. Leary (4), 22. Abby Hohlbein (22), 23. J.T. Ferry (18).

Lap Leader(s): Kevin Thomas Jr. 1-30.