HALF-MILE MASTER! CUMMINS CHECKS OFF KNOXVILLE VICTORY AT CORN BELT CLASH OPENER

📸 Rich Forman

Knoxville, Iowa (May 29, 2026)……The term “Half-Mile Master” in connection with Kyle Cummins would’ve been downright preposterous just a short time ago.

Oh, how the turns have been tabled, and vice versa!

The Princeton, Indiana racer can now lay claim to capturing USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature victories at three of the most iconic 1/2-mile dirt tracks in the world.

In April, he conquered Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track for the first time. Two weeks ago, he mastered Ohio’s Eldora Speedway for the first time. On Friday night, he was triumphant at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway on the opening night of the Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash. Oh yeah. That was the first time too!

Perhaps the wildest part of it all is the fact that he’s added the entire trio of triumphs to his resume within the past seven weeks. At all three of them, he had never won a USAC feature at prior to the 2026 campaign.

At Knoxville, on his third try at a restart while running in the second position, Cummins made it a charm as he slid C.J. Leary in turn one on the lap 18 resumption, then led the remaining nine laps to earn his fourth series win of the year and the 34th of his career, picking up a $10,000 reward in his Petty Performance Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – JUGO Superfoods/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.

Before this season, Cummins owned just one career USAC win on a 1/2-mile, that being at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park just one year ago. His initial Knoxville win on Friday night came in an event sponsored by his team owner, Jerry Petty, who provided a motivational directive to prior to the race.

“He told me we had to win tonight, and if we’re going to win tonight, we have to win tomorrow,” Cummins relayed from Petty. “We’ve never won here with him. We are always terrible here and it just seems like I could never get ahold of the track. Tonight, we brought something a little different. I tried something in the heat race and it was really bad. So, we went back to what we were running again.”

While Cummins started fifth on the grid in the 25-lap main event, it was third starting Gavin Miller, in just his second career series start, who surged past both front row occupants – Leary and Mitchel Moles – to gain the lead and the upper hand early in the going.

Cummins, meanwhile, instantly entered the mix, advancing two spots up to third behind Miller and Leary.

“The first couple laps, I felt good,” Cummins related. “I think C.J. was definitely faster than I was, but as the run went on, I felt like, if I fell back far enough to see the cushion, I could start running him back down. As my tires got heat in them, I think I became a little bit better, but then we always seemed to have a yellow.”

On the fourth lap, Miller got on the bike in a major way on the turn three cushion, rising his left side wheels to the sky before landing back on all fours. The ordeal allowed Leary to instantly close up the gap for the lead. One lap later, Leary went topside around Miller in turn four to pick off the top spot.

Miller changed course after the cushion excursion by rolling around the bottom. Cummins took advantage of the situation and used the high line to escape around Miller for the runner-up position on lap seven.

Nine laps into it, sixth running Jake Swanson endured a frightening incident when his right front spindle broke as he entered the high line in turn three. The sudden jettisoning of his right front wheel from the car promptly sent his car digging into the dirt and flipping into orbit. Swanson was able to climb out and walk away.

On the ensuing restart, Cummins took his first shot at Leary for the lead, to no avail, as Leary gapped Cummins to the tune of 1.5 seconds. That lead was quickly erased when 22nd running Dakota Earls flipped upside down in turn four on the 13th lap. He too was able to climb out and walk away.

For the next restart, Cummins was able to get side-by-side with Leary through turns one and two, but Leary successfully thwarted the attack for the time being and once again matriculated out to a full second advantage. That said, yet another stoppage halted the action on lap 16 when 16th running Riley Kreisel slowed with a flat left rear tire that forced him into the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area.

That set the stage for Cummins to make his winning move as he built a head of steam on the front straightaway, then successfully cleared Leary to assume the number one position on lap 17.

“On the restart before, I was all messed up,” Cummins admitted. “The next one, I went through the middle and was like ‘naw, not good.’ But the middle was better in three and four, so I decided to not even think about sliding him. I just wanted to get a start, get around one and two, and hopefully, break some momentum and get him in three and four because I thought I could stick a lot better there. When we took off, I was backpedaling down the straightaway. I’m like, ‘come on man. Go!’ I thought this is the only time I can get it. It’s extremely tough to pass somebody, and once I got out there and could see the cushion, I thought, ‘we got to go.’ It about bit me a couple times there.”

A lap later, Grant followed suit to second while Bacon slotted into third as Leary fell back to fourth in the pecking order. Meanwhile, Cummins’ lead had blossomed to nearly two seconds with the laps winding down.

Cummins finished the job to win by a 1.777 second margin over Grant, Bacon and Leary with Briggs Danner rounding out the top-five.

Bacon always seems to find his way to the front at Knoxville, and this night was no exception. In 14 career USAC National Sprint Car starts at the track dating back to 2010, he's finished on the podium an incredible 12 times. In this one, he advanced 11th to thirrd to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.

Leary led the most laps (12) throughout the feature, and wound up finishing fourth, equaling his best result of the USAC National Sprint Car season thus far. The performance made him the K & N Filters Clean Air Award honoree.

Danner was the night’s LearnLab Fast Qualifier, pacing the field with a time of 18.562 seconds. It was the sixth career USAC National Sprint Car Fast Qualifying time for Danner, tying him for 81st place all-time with Daron Clayton, Derek Davidson, Eric Gordon, Jac Haudenschild, James McElreath, Ken Schrader, Mike Bliss, Richard Griffin and Tray House.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 29, 2026 – Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, Iowa – Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – Co-Sanctioned by the USAC Wholesale Batteries Midwest Racing Association

LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-18.562; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-18.622; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-18.627; 4. Gavin Miller, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-18.716; 5. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-18.757; 6. C.J. Leary, 53, Fox-18.760; 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-18.764; 8. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-18.765; 9. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-18.781; 10. Ryan Bernal, 17, Dunkel-18.870; 11. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-18.919; 12. Riley Kreisel, 91, Kreisel-18.946; 13. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-18.951; 14. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-19.018; 15. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-19.021; 16. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-19.191; 17. Steven Snyder Jr., 87, CB/Spire-19.229; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-19.237; 19. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-19.262; 20. R.J. Johnson, 1p, Petty-19.267; 21. Justin Zimmerman, 1, Herrell-19.499; 22. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-19.522; 23. Glen Saville, 75, Grasmere-19.694; 24. Dakota Earls, 15E, Earls-19.724; 25. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-19.910; 26. Jake Kouba, 6K, Kouba-20.402; 27. Ben Woods, 11B, B & R-20.664; 28. Clinton Bruns, 7, Bruns-21.483; 29. Lance Silvers, 7x, Silvers-23.066; 30. Jonathan Hughes, 67, Hughes-23.759.

K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (2), 2. Briggs Danner (6), 3. Ryan Bernal (3), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 5. Charles Davis Jr. (1), 6. Gavin Miller (5), 7. Kobe Simpson (7), 8. Trey Osborne (9), 9. Troy Carey (8), 10. Clinton Bruns (10). 2:38.908

TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (3), 2. Brady Bacon (4), 3. Steven Snyder Jr. (1), 4. Kyle Cummins (6), 5. Mitchel Moles (5), 6. R.J. Johnson (7), 7. Chase Stockon (2), 8. Glen Saville (8), 9. Jake Kouba (9), 10. Lance Silvers (10). NT

K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cale Coons (4), 2. Robert Ballou (2), 3. C.J. Leary (5), 4. Hayden Reinbold (1), 5. Justin Grant (6), 6. Justin Zimmerman (7), 7. Riley Kreisel (3), 8. Dakota Earls (8), 9. Ben Woods (9). NT

FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chase Stockon (2), 2. Riley Kreisel (1), 3. Kobe Simpson (3), 4. Ben Woods (9), 5. Troy Carey (7), 6. Dakota Earls (5), 7. Jake Kouba (8), 8. Clinton Bruns (10), 9. Lance Silvers (11), 10. Glen Saville (4), 11. Trey Osborne (6). 3:26.672

FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Cummins (5), 2. Justin Grant (4), 3. Brady Bacon (11), 4. C.J. Leary (1), 5. Briggs Danner (6), 6. Cale Coons (7), 7. Gavin Miller (3), 8. Mitchel Moles (2), 9. Robert Ballou (13), 10. Steven Snyder Jr. (15), 11. Chase Stockon (19), 12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (10), 13. Logan Seavey (8), 14. Kobe Simpson (21), 15. R.J. Johnson (17), 16. Justin Zimmerman (18), 17. Charles Davis Jr. (14), 18. Riley Kreisel (20), 19. Ben Woods (22), 20. Troy Carey (23), 21. Hayden Reinbold (16), 22. Ryan Bernal (12), 23. Dakota Earls (24), 24. Jake Swanson (9). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Gavin Miller, Laps 5-16 C.J. Leary, Laps 17-25 Kyle Cummins.

**Jake Swanson flipped on lap 9 of the feature. Dakota Earls flipped on lap 13 of the feature.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-1138, 2-Justin Grant-1044, 3-Mitchel Moles-1025, 4-Briggs Danner-942, 5-Logan Seavey-937, 6-Chase Stockon-897, 7-Jake Swanson-886, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-884, 9-C.J. Leary-833, 10-Robert Ballou-795.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Cale Coons-49, 2-Hayden Reinbold-43, 3-Logan Calderwood-39, 4-Chase Stockon-38, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-37, 6-Briggs Danner-36, 7-Robert Ballou-35, 8-Justin Grant-34, 9-Kyle Cummins-31, 10-Brady Bacon-31.

CORN BELT CLASH PARALLAX GROUP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-10, 2-Chase Stockon-9, 3-Ben Woods-8, 4-Kobe Simpson-7, 5-Kyle Cummins-6, 6-Briggs Danner-5, 7-Steven Snyder Jr.-5, 8-Troy Carey-5, 9-Robert Ballou-4, 10-R.J. Johnson-3.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: May 30, 2026 – Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, Iowa – Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – Co-Sanctioned by the USAC Wholesale Batteries Midwest Racing Association

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Briggs Danner (18.658)

LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Briggs Danner (18.562)

K1 RaceGear First Heat Winner: Jake Swanson

TJ Forged Second Heat Winner: Logan Seavey

K & N Filters Third Heat Winner: Cale Coons

Five Star Bodies Semi Winner: Chase Stockon

K & N Filters Clean Air Award: C.J. Leary (12 laps led)

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Brady Bacon (11th to 3rd)