ROSSBURG, Ohio — In a season in which he’s already captured a Chili Bowl victory, a USAC Indiana Midget Week title and even posted two USAC National feature wins in one day, Logan Seavey managed to top himself.
The Sutter, Calif. native scored not one, not two but three USAC National feature wins on Saturday night during the 41st running of the 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO at Rossburg, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.
Seavey clicked off an avalanche of successive feature victories, first earning a 25-lap USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget main, followed by a wire-to-wire 30-lap USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship triumph and a dominating 50-lap USAC Silver Crown score to cap the night.
In doing so, he joined an exclusive list of three drivers who’ve been able to achieve the monumental task and turn a Saturday night in western Ohio into a fairytale night.
Jack Hewitt swept all three USAC wins during the 1998 4-Crown National and added a UMP Modified win to boot. Kyle Larson followed suit by knocking out three consecutive wins on 4-Crown night in 2011.
On this night, Seavey collected $10,000 for each feature victory, totaling $30,000 in all. But to put together one of the greatest nights of racing in the 68-year history of the United States Auto Club, well, that’s priceless.
“This is probably one of the coolest nights of my life,” Seavey basked in the moment. “I’m just driving three good racecars and I can do whatever I want, wherever I want with them. It’s just one of those nearly perfect nights. You just have to be driving great racecars and I’ve got three incredible racecars.”
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FEATURE
First up was the midget main event, which saw Seavey starting from the outside of the front row alongside Daison Pursley. By the end of lap one, Wiedeman had raced his way to the front of the field from the inside of the second row. However, on four, Seavey was ready to make his move.
There, Seavey dove to the inside of turn one to overtake Wiedeman for the top spot. Wiedeman fought back to retake the position with a slider entering turn three. However, Seavey quickly countered back under off the exit of turn four and beat Wiedeman back to the line by a single car length.
On lap six, major trouble ensued when sixth place running Jade Avedisian clipped the turn one wall, which sent her flipping wildly. Meanwhile, Thomas Meseraull (10th), in an effort to avoid the incident, ramped the wall and also found himself upside down. Both drivers walked away, but their rides were finished for the evening.
Down the stretch, Wiedeman took shot after shot at Seavey. Wiedeman continuously hugged the bottom while Seavey embraced the high side. Wiedeman was able to draw close time after time, but the low line was unable to match the high side momentum that pushed Seavey back out front at the exit of turns two and four each and every time.
Under green, Seavey admitted to glancing up at the video board located between turns one and two at the facility to see where Wiedeman was. Ultimately, Seavey worked himself out of the habit, and instead, refocused his attention away from what Wiedeman was doing and hammered it late to win going away.
In the final tally, Seavey claimed his first career Eldora midget victory by a 1.215 second margin in his Abacus Racing/Honest Abe Roofing – Indy Custom Stone – Laura Kopetsky Tri-Ax/Spike/Stanton SR-11x. Seavey had previously finished as the runner-up during the midget feature at the 2021 4-Crown. This weekend also marked Abacus Racing’s first ever visit to Eldora.
Wiedeman (Colby, Kan.) took second for the third time in his four career midget starts at Eldora, with no finish worse than third. Rico Abreu (St. Helena, Calif.) took third with Gavin Miller (Allentown, Pa.) fourth and Jacob Denney (Galloway, Ohio) rounding out the top-five. Hayden Reinbold (Gilbert, Ariz.) was the night’s hard charger, finishing a career best seventh after starting 15th.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. Logan Seavey (2), 2. Bryant Wiedeman (3), 3. Rico Abreu (4), 4. Gavin Miller (9), 5. Jacob Denney (11), 6. Daison Pursley (1), 7. Hayden Reinbold (15), 8. Ryan Timms (7), 9. Mitchel Moles (12), 10. Chris Windom (6), 11. Jake Andreotti (14), 12. Briggs Danner (17), 13. Daniel Whitley (13), 14. Justin Grant (8), 15. Taylor Reimer (16), 16. Jade Avedisian (5), 17. Thomas Meseraull (10), 18. Ethan Mitchell (18). NT
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FEATURE
With the first crown in his pocket, at this point in the night, Seavey felt the confidence brewing going into feature number two.
“After last night, I knew we had some work to do with our midget and we got that way better,” Seavey explained. “After we won the midget race, I was really, really excited knowing that my sprint car was on the pole. I knew that thing was going to drive good.”
As it turned out, Seavey was right on the mark with that remark as he immediately stepped out in front in command of the USAC Sprint Car field. However, the major breaking story at the moment was the tumultuous night for Brady Bacon.
On lap six, Bacon suffered an engine woe that forced him to the pits and a 22nd place finish, dropping him from 15 points out of the championship point lead to 66 behind Grant now with just three races remaining. With that said, it was just the latest in a nightmarish night, starting with methanol splashing into his eye during a pit mishap, which caused his eye to swell shut. During his qualifying run, Bacon tagged the turn four wall and flipped, forcing him into a backup ride.
Up front, Seavey never relented control as he maintained roughly a one second lead throughout the duration, although Grant was able draw closer than anyone with 10 laps to go until smacking the outside turn one wall.
At that point, Seavey worked lapped traffic with ease and coasted to victory lane in his 2B Racing/Honest Abe Roofing – Benic Enterprises – Goodnight Racing/DRC/Claxton Chevy. The nine-year old chassis dubbed “Barney” for its age resembling that of a dinosaur in the realm of sprint car equipment helped the 2B team with Scott Benic at the helm to their first 4-Crown victory since Levi Jones in 2005.
Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) was 1.131 sec. behind Seavey at the finish line in second with Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) third, Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) fourth and Briggs Danner (Allentown, Pa.) fifth. Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) scored hard charger honors with an 18th to 10th run in his first 4-Crown sprint car experience.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. Logan Seavey (1), 2. Justin Grant (5), 3. Emerson Axsom (7), 4. C.J. Leary (6), 5. Briggs Danner (11), 6. Robert Ballou (8), 7. Jake Swanson (13), 8. Thomas Meseraull (2), 9. Matt Westfall (3), 10. Daison Pursley (18), 11. Chase Stockon (4), 12. Chance Crum (19), 13. Carson Garrett (20), 14. Mitchel Moles (15), 15. Paul Dues (14), 16. Kody Swanson (16), 17. Korbyn Hayslett (9), 18. Mario Clouser (10), 19. Brian Ruhlman (21), 20. Kevin Thomas Jr. (22), 21. Max Adams (12), 22. Brady Bacon (17). NT
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FEATURE
It was two down and one to go for Seavey entering the USAC Silver Crown night capper. But after two front row starts, Seavey was slated to start sixth in the Silver Crown finale. However, that was just a temporary holdup in his pursuit to the front.
Silver Crown Rookie Chase Dietz was the first big mover and shaker in the field as he burst through to the opening lap lead from his fourth starting position. After a lap six caution for Matt Mitchell who stalled with a car that jumped out of gear, Seavey began to haul.
On the ensuing lap seven restart, Seavey scooted under pole sitter Justin Grant in turn three to slot into third. Seavey did the same to Matt Westfall in turn two to grab second on lap nine. One lap later, Seavey broadsided past Dietz in turns one and two to corral the lead on the 10th circuit.
Seavey rode the rim the rest of the way aboard his Rice Motorsports-Abacus Racing/STIDA.com – CG CPAs – Indy Custom Stone/DRC/Felker Chevy, controlling the remaining 41 laps with relative ease and precision, crossing the line 2.169 seconds ahead of Westfall to complete the USAC portion sweep of the night.
Rounding out the top-five behind Seavey and Westfall (Pleasant Hill, Ohio) were Chase Dietz (York, Pa.) followed by a career-best fourth place run for Carmen Perigo (Stoystown, Pa.) while Kody Swanson (Kingsburg, Calif.) rounded out the top-five.
Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, Calif.) drove from 14th to 7th, earning himself ProSource Passing Master honors for the 4-Crown weekend with 18 total positions advanced throughout the three USAC divisions combined. Furthermore, Tyler Courtney (Indianapolis, Ind.), subbing for Bacon in Chris Dyson’s No. 9, made a major charge from the 26th starting spot to finish 8th. Russ Gamester (Peru, Ind.), a 25th place finisher, equaled Brian Tyler with the most career Silver Crown starts, making his 212th on Saturday night at Eldora.
But the headline story was Seavey who joined Jack Hewitt in a multitude of manners on Saturday night. Another feather in the cap for Seavey was his third straight USAC Silver Crown win at Eldora, a feat that only Hewitt had achieved before him with three consecutive in 1994-95-96. It was par for the course for Seavey on a historical night at The Big E.
“I feel so confident when we get in this thing anywhere, especially this dirt car, miles, half-miles, it doesn’t really matter, but especially these half-miles,” Seavey noted. “This thing drives so good and A.J. Felker does such a great job with our engine. This is exactly what you need for the dirt stuff we do.”
Seavey now exits Eldora with a 16-point lead over Kody Swanson in the pursuit of his first Silver Crown championship with one race remaining on October 14 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Feature Finish (50 Laps)
1. Logan Seavey (5), 2. Matt Westfall (6), 3. Chase Dietz (4), 4. Carmen Perigo (8), 5. Kody Swanson (7), 6. Justin Grant (1), 7. Mitchel Moles (14), 8. Tyler Courtney (#9) (26), 9. C.J. Leary (2), 10. Chase Stockon (9) 11. Jake Swanson (3), 12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (10), 13. Wayne Johnson (23), 14. Emerson Axsom (11), 15. Brian Ruhlman (13), 16. Kaylee Bryson (16), 17. Trey Burke (21), 18. Jerry Coons Jr. (19), 19. Kyle Robbins (15), 20. Taylor Ferns (24-P), 21. Trey Osborne (12), 22. Travis Welpott (27-P), 23. Zach Hampton (20), 24. Dallas Hewitt (18), 25. Russ Gamester (22), 26. Matt Mitchell (17), 27. Kyle Steffens (25), 28. Mario Clouser (28). NT