OCALA, Fla. — For 25 consecutive laps, Kyle Cummins stalked his prey.
When Cummins noticed a bit gentle across the exterior of C.J. Leary on a green-white-checkered restart, he reached for it and got here out the opposite aspect of the tunnel as the primary multi-time winner of the USAC AMSOIL Dash Automotive Nationwide Championship season on Friday night time at Ocala Speedway.
Cummins was so clutch, he turned the quickest lap of the race when he took the lead on the exact same lap-30 restart. It was not simply his private finest lap of the race, it was the most effective lap of anyone within the 24-car discipline all through the characteristic.
Cummins, who scored a gap night time Winter Grime Video games XVI victory at Volusia Speedway Park on Monday, mesmerized the group along with his daring transfer aboard his Petty Efficiency Racing/Avanti Home windows & Doorways – Premier Recycling/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy, which offered him along with his twenty second profession USAC Nationwide Dash Automotive win.
“On that white flag, I used to be going to attempt to sneak, and we in all probability would’ve each crashed,” Cummins revealed. “I believed I used to be going sneak, however then they referred to as yellow, and I used to be all around the brakes. If (Leary) simply would’ve moved up, he would’ve received that. However he left me simply sufficient room to get by way of.”
For Cummins, his third profession sequence victory in Florida made him the primary driver to win Winter Grime Video games fundamental occasions at each Ocala and Volusia, the place he additionally received at to start the week.
Cummins started his quest from the fifth beginning place on the three-eighths-mile egg-shaped dust monitor, however earlier than he might even actually get going, the warning was displayed for tenth working Joey Amantea who slammed the flip 4 wall and rode alongside the highest edge ala skateboarder Tony Hawk earlier than coming to a relaxation on all 4 wheels, ending his night time prematurely.
On the resumption, pole sitter Leary established a lead that he finally held for almost all of the race, a much-needed increase for him and his Workforce AZ / Curb-Agajanian Racing crew after ending no higher than eighth of their first 4 begins collectively this week.
Cummins had picked his approach as much as second by the fifth lap as he streamed underneath Jadon Rogers in flip two, thus starting his pursuit of Leary.
By the midway level, Leary started to work by way of visitors, first surpassing Mark Smith to place him a lap down, adopted by a slew of others. But Cummins was capable of match Leary every step of the best way and finagled his approach by way of the gridlock as properly with out shedding sizable floor, staying put roughly eighth tenths of a second in arrears.
Cummins tried excessive and low as he inched ahead towards Leary, slicing down the interval to a miniscule couple of automobile lengths. However when Leary bobbled in flip 4 on the twenty fifth lap, Cummins was capable of get proper to Leary’s again bumper. Seemingly, Cummins discovered a lift every time on the exit of flip two, which enabled him to almost pull even on the again straightaway on a number of events inside the remaining 5 laps.
“I stored exhibiting the underside down there and I knew he wasn’t actually positive the place to go,” Cummins defined. “He needed to be listening to that motor as a result of, across the bottom there, as soon as I might rise up into it, I might actually go.”
On what was considered the thirtieth and deciding lap, Cummins acquired the identical launch off flip two, which thrusted him proper to the precise rear of Leary halfway down the again straight. On the identical second of uncertainty for the lead, the yellow flag was thrown for the stopped automobile of Kayla Roell who caught the flip three wall earlier than sliding to a cease.
Site visitors was of no issue at this level with the sphere bunched up for the ultimate restart on lap 30. Cummins went to the properly once more as he bolted down the again straightaway with a few automobile width of area obtainable between Leary and the skin wall. Cummins made it by way of to the opposite aspect, and had free reign on the highest by way of turns three and 4, which allowed him to shoot previous Leary off flip 4 to imagine management with a single lap remaining.
One lap later, Cummins had completed off essentially the most dramatic ending of the season by .659 seconds.
Daison Pursley took second for his fifth consecutive podium end to start out the season. Leary fell to 3rd on the finish after main 29 of the 31-lap distance. Justin Grant crossed the stripe in fourth whereas Brady Bacon was fifth.
“We tried one thing new final night time as a result of we have been too tight the primary night time, so we went again to the identical actual stuff we’d been working the entire time,” Cummins acknowledged. “We didn’t second guess ourselves and we had a reasonably good automobile tonight.”
USAC AMSOIL Dash Automotive Nationwide Championship, Ocala Speedway, Ocala, Fla., Feb. 14, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-14.041; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.097; 3. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-14.128; 4. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.139; 5. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-14.193; 6. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Workforce AZ/Curb-Agajanian-14.197; 7. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.226; 8. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-14.231; 9. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.282; 10. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-14.284; 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Regular-14.301; 12. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.355; 13. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.358; 14. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-14.370; 15. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-14.411; 16. Nic Harris, N2, Harris-14.463; 17. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.508; 18. Ricky Lewis, 74B, Lewis-14.561; 19. Kale Drake 2B, 2B Racing-14.571; 20. Mark Smith, M1, Smith-14.626; 21. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-14.646; 22. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-14.673; 23. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-14.695; 24. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-14.718; 25. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-14.855; 26. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-14.895; 27. John Mollick, 4J, Intelligent-14.922; 28. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-15.079; 29. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-15.244; 30. Eddie Vancil, 7v, Vancil-15.464; 31. Dustin Burtron, 51, Holston-16.216; 32. Stevie Sussex, 5, Baldwin/Fox-NT; 33. Oliver Akard, 32, Rase-NT.
ROD END SUPPLY FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 switch to the characteristic) 1. Joey Amantea, 2. Hayden Reinbold, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Jadon Rogers, 6. Robert Ballou, 7. Kobe Simpson, 8. Troy Carey. 1:59.224
CAR IQ SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 switch to the characteristic) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Ricky Lewis, 4. Carson Garrett, 5. C.J. Leary, 6. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 7. Matt Goodnight, 8. Eddie Vancil. 1:57.253
K1 RACEGEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 switch to the characteristic) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Harley Burns, 4. Gunnar Setser, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 7. John Mollick, 8. Dustin Burtron. 1:58.297
HOOSIER TIRE FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 switch to the characteristic) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Mark Smith, 5. Nic Harris, 6. Kayla Roell, 7. Tom Harris. 1:58.365
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 switch to the characteristic) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 4. Kayla Roell, 5. Tom Harris, 6. Matt Goodnight, 7. Kobe Simpson, 8. Troy Carey, 9. Dustin Burtron, 10. John Mollick, 11. Eddie Vancil. NT
FEATURE: (31 laps, beginning positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (5), 2. Daison Pursley (6), 3. C.J. Leary (1), 4. Justin Grant (3), 5. Brady Bacon (7), 6. Jadon Rogers (2), 7. Briggs Danner (4), 8. Chase Stockon (8), 9. Robert Ballou (15), 10. Jake Swanson (12), 11. Mitchel Moles (11), 12. Logan Seavey (13), 13. Kale Drake (9), 14. Kevin Thomas Jr. (14), 15. Carson Garrett (16), 16. Gunnar Setser (17), 17. Hayden Reinbold (19), 18. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (22), 19. Harley Burns (23), 20. Kayla Roell (24), 21. Mark Smith (21), 22. Ricky Lewis (20), 23. Nic Harris (18), 24. Joey Amantea (10).
