Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in western superstition.

For Logan Seavey, Friday the 13th signified a new beginning after a somewhat tepid start to his 2025 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season.

The defending series champion from Sutter, California executed swiftly through traffic, then fended off repeated challenges from series point leader Kyle Cummins and survived multiple restarts down the stretch to win Friday’s inaugural Salute to Levi Jones at Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, Illinois.

The $10,000 score was the second of the USAC National Sprint Car season for Seavey, and his first since four months prior in February at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park. Overall, it was Seavey’s 26th career USAC National Sprint Car feature victory, tying him with Tony Elliott and Dave Steele for 23rd place all-time.

“We’ve had a tough year after coming off the one we did last year,” Seavey stated. “You expect to have the same results, but man, we’ve been close. These guys have been doing a good job. I’ve just been doing a poor job. So tonight, I feel like I ran a good race in the feature and finally rewarded these guys with a win. I couldn’t be happier.”

Friday the 13th certainly lived up to its reputation with a series of rain delays interrupting the proceedings, and qualifying not wrapping up until just before the clock struck 11pm local time. But in what was the fifth attempt at holding the event named in honor of Levi Jones, the show was a go. The event was rained out three separate times in 2024, and once more earlier this spring. Perhaps it was fitting that it took five times to run the event. After all, Jones, from nearby Olney, Illinois, captured five USAC National Sprint Car driving championships in his decorated career.

In what was the first USAC event held at Red Hill since nearly 27 years ago in 1998, Seavey started the 30-lap feature from the pole position. Originally slated to start on the outside of the front row, Seavey was slotted over to the pole after original front row starter C.J. Leary was deemed to have jumped the initial start, and thus, was docked one row and started third.

Early on, it was a three-horse race at the front as Seavey, Cummins and Grant all edged away from the field, running lock step in formation through lapped traffic, with no driver able to capitalize on any other’s missteps around the 3/8-mile dirt oval.

Mitchel Moles shook things up as he split between Grant and a lapped car entering turn one on lap 24 to take over third but remained in the distance behind Seavey and Cummins who ran one-two with a couple car lengths of separation. A yellow flag for a spun out Hayden Reinbold (10th) in turn four on lap 29 re-racked the field with two laps remaining.

Fourth running Grant emerged into the fray on the lap 29 restart as he slid Moles for third between turns one and two. One lap later, Grant tried the exact same move on Cummins for second, but his plans were foiled when his car over-rotated at the exit of turn two, pitching him completely sideways before Cummins’ gentle nudge while trying to avoid contact with his back bumper sent Grant around to a stop. Grant restarted at the tail and finished 14th.

The second attempt at a green-white-checkered was halted when ninth running Robert Ballou slowed dramatically with a caved in tail tank. As Ballou coasted, Cummins slid past Seavey for the lead in turn four, but Seavey answered by cutting back under Cummins to retain the spot, completing the lap just before Ballou’s ordeal necessitated a yellow, which pushed the race to a 32-lap distance, and gave Cummins another chance to take the reins from Seavey.

“It was as tough as it gets,” Seavey exhaled. “When the best guy in USAC right now is on your bumper and you’ve got to restart a couple times with him back there, there’s only so much you can do as a leader. The track was changing a lot there at the end. I was just doing everything I could to hold him off. That one when he slid me, I didn’t do a good job. I said, ‘let’s get up and slide myself a little bit,’ but then bash the cushion and try to get away. I think I did a little bit better job at the end.”

On the final restart attempt, Seavey had Cummins covered and checked out over the final two laps to cross the stripe 1.075 seconds ahead of runner-up Cummins, who retained his point lead while also grabbing his 14th consecutive top-10 result to begin the series campaign. Chase Stockon came home third with Mitchel Moles fourth and C.J. Leary fifth.

Results USAC National Sprints Salute To Levi Jones At Red Hill Raceway

 1. Logan Seavey (2)

 2. Kyle Cummins (3)

3. Chase Stockon (11)

4. Mitchel Moles (5)

5. C.J. Leary (1)

6. Jake Swanson (7)

7. Kale Drake (13)

8. Briggs Danner (10)

9. Carson Garrett (14)

10. Charles Davis Jr. (15)

 11. Kevin Thomas Jr. (12)

12. Gunnar Setser (8)

13. Kayla Roell (17)

14. Justin Grant (4)

15. Logan Calderwood (19)

 16. Abby Hohlbein (21)

17. Tony Helton (22)

18. Kobe Simpson (20)

19. Robert Ballou (9)

20. Hayden Reinbold (6)

21. Jadon Rogers (18)

22. Sam Scott (16)

23. Harley Burns (23). NT