LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — Logan Seavey won Sunday night’s USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week feature at Lawrenceburg Speedway, making him the third driver to win Indiana Midget Week and Sprint Week features at the same track during the same season.
Jerry Coons Jr. won both an IMW and ISW feature at Kamp Motor Speedway in 2007 while Bryan Clauson equaled the feat at Bloomington Speedway in 2013.
Seavey’s USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car score on this night was the third of his career and was also the second triumph added to his Indiana Sprint Week resume, coming exactly a year and a day following his first one in the 2020 opener at Gas City.
Meanwhile, Seavey, who joined the Baldwin-Fox team in early May, provided the distinctive orange No. 5 its first USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature win since an Eastern Storm victory at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway more than three years ago in 2018 with driver Chris Windom.
“It feels so good,” Seavey exclaimed. “I feel like every time I’ve been here, I’ve been good. This year, everything’s coming together.”
The fourth-starting Seavey was in the hunt throughout the duration of the 30-lapper despite the race for the lead over the first two-thirds of the event being hotly contest by front row starters Jake Swanson and Tanner Thorson who exchanged slide jobs on both ends of the race track, first coming courtesy of Thorson in turn one and then Swanson following in kind in turn two.
Thorson fired another shot in turn one on the lap, getting by momentarily until Swanson countered off two to secure the lead, which he’d hold onto for the first 17 laps.
Thorson thwarted Seavey’s advances a third of the way through the event, responding to Seavey’s slider for second with a crossover exiting turn two to reoccupy the position.
By midway, the chapter had been turned to a quagmire of heavy traffic for the frontrunners. Swanson commanded the race by eight car lengths, but his progress stalled out as he attempted to put reigning Indiana Sprint Week champion Chase Stockon a lap down.
On the 18th lap, Thorson followed Stockon on the top line, which opened the bottom door for Thorson to slot his way into the top spot.
However, Swanson wasn’t apt to fall by the wayside so quickly and so easily, returning to the inside of Thorson off turns three and four, and just barely being nipped at the line by Thorson. Swanson glided from the bottom of turn one to the top of turn two to put his number 21azback on the top of the pylon.
Seavey entered into the fray on the bottom of the back straightaway when Thorson sliced between Seavey and Swanson in an attempt to slide past Swanson into turn three. Swanson kept his foot in it, never lifting, no hesitating, and eked around Thorson’s rightside wheels to reassume the number one position.
Thorson reengaged and, using the machine of Stockon as a sort of “pick,” climbed the ladder from the bottom of turn one to the top of turn two to pocket the top spot back for himself on lap 22. However, simultaneously, 22nd running Paul Nienhiser stopped in turn four to bring out the yellow, negating Thorson’s move and sending him back to second behind Swanson, who was now clear of traffic after the caution.
On the restart, the man on the move was Seavey who quickly surpassed Thorson on lap 22, then set his sights on running down Swanson. On lap 24, Seavey’s eyes were affixed on the ride of Swanson. Just then, Swanson became sideways on the topside at the exit of turn two, allowing Seavey to charge under for the lead.
Six laps later, just one corner from the race win and with the checkered flag literally within his sight, a half-track behind him, Justin Grant and Jadon Rogers made wheel-to-wheel contact with each other while battling for eighth, sending Rogers tumbling upside down on the 30th lap.
With the incident taking place, for Seavey, the altercation put the kibosh on a surefire feature win and forced him to partake in a tense green-white-checkered finish with Swanson and Thorson right on his tail tank.
Undeniable is the label Seavey was working under on the final restart as the battle raged for second behind him between Thorson and Swanson, with Thorson edging ahead initially before Swanson, with a severely bent radius rod and all, scraped his way back into the runner-up spot.
The advantage went to Seavey with the second-place bicker between Swanson and Thorson firing on all cylinders.
With absolutely nothing serving as a deterrent, Seavey went free and easy to the finish line, gapping Swanson and Thorson in the process to the tune of a 1.161 second margin at the finish line. Swanson took second with Thorson third, Brady Bacon fourth and Kevin Thomas Jr. fifth.
“I had a pretty decent restart and just tried to protect from there,” Seavey explained. “I kind of slid myself there on the last lap. I knew doing that would probably be safe if I didn’t screw it up. It’s just so hard to cross over a slider. I couldn’t afford to get slid there on the last lap.”
After leading a race-high 22 laps, Jake Swanson (had to settle with a runner-up finish.
“It’s getting old running second,” Swanson admitted. “I can’t hang my head too much, though. I’ve got really smart guys on my racecar and, if I keep doing my job, it’s going to come. I just couldn’t get off turn two there; I started to get tight. But man, it definitely hurts to run second again.”
To see full results, turn to the next page.