KNOXVILLE, Iowa — For Kevin Thomas Jr., Knoxville Raceway supplied the proper setting for a metamorphosis weekend for he and his Rock Regular Racing workforce.
KTJ’s starting to the USAC AMSOIL Dash Automotive Nationwide Championship season noticed him end no higher than eighth in any of his first 10 collection begins, and a degree rating of eleventh getting into this weekend’s Avanti Home windows & Doorways Corn Belt Conflict.
On Saturday night time on the half-mile dust oval in Iowa, Thomas parlayed an inside second row beginning place into victory. First, the Cullman, Alabama racer narrowly averted a serious disaster throughout the opening laps, then put a clamp on the highest spot on a lap eight restart en path to his first USAC victory of the season and the primary of his profession at Knoxville, one which was value a cool $15,000.
Right now final yr, Thomas was on his solution to a five-win marketing campaign in USAC Nationwide Dash Automotive competitors. The form of performances that the workforce had longed for all through the primary a number of months of the season have now come again round, and the great instances are again once more for KTJ and the No. 3r.
“I’m fairly onerous on myself on the whole, however this yr has been fairly attempting,” Thomas admitted. “To have the ability to win right here at Knoxville is historic and this was additionally our first time having a chance after which capitalizing on it.”
After ending seventh on Friday, Thomas knew the potential was there, however every part needed to align, from himself and his machine to qualifying effectively (4th) and setting the tone for the remainder of the night time on the wheel of his Rock Regular Racing/Inferno Armor – Lucas Oil Heart – Inventive Ending/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.
“There are lots of people who put up with stuff from me and what I wish to really feel in a race automotive,” Thomas defined. “We have now tried and tried and tried and there was one thing that was very a lot staring us proper within the face that we modified. Now it’s so a lot better. Like final night time, it was an unlucky factor that we had a state of affairs with a proper rear shock however we have been nonetheless working good. This was the primary time all yr that we’ve been within the invert, and that gave ourselves an opportunity to win.”
The opening laps of the 30-lap function have been as arduous as they have been hazardous. On the primary strive, A.J. Johnson (seventeenth) and Jadon Rogers (twenty fourth) simultaneous flipped onerous by flip two to necessitate the primary pink flag of the night time. Each drivers have been capable of climb out and stroll away.
On the restart, polesitter Jake Swanson established the early lead, pacing laps one and two with Justin Grant slotting into second. Nonetheless, the motion halted on the third lap when pre-race favorites C.J. Leary (third) and Brady Bacon (4th) touched wheels getting into flip three.
The ensuing contact launched Leary right into a collection of 4 barrel-rolls accentuated by main airtime and a gathering with the skin guardrail. Bacon, in the meantime, spiraled thrice into the outer guardrail. Every driver was capable of climb out and stroll away. On the similar time, the fifth place working Thomas simply narrowly missed contact with the flying automotive of Leary, showing to drive utterly beneath and simply to the best of the airborne Leary, persevering with on with out hurt.
Swanson continued to take care of possession of the lead by lap eight when Robert Ballou and Kale Drake tangled in flip two, sending Drake ramping over Ballou’s hood, but nonetheless managing to go onward.
Simply earlier than the yellow, Grant had taken possession of the lead with an out of doors flip two transfer on Swanson. Nonetheless, the yellow flag negated the transfer, sending Grant again to second and reasserting Swanson because the chief.
Issues modified on the lap eight restart as chief Swanson went to the highest of turns one and two whereas Grant dabbled within the center and Thomas scoured the underside. Thomas’ low using groove led him previous Grant on the again straight, and when Swanson biked on the cushion in flip 4, Thomas zipped on by to take over up entrance with 23 laps remaining.
Ryan Bernal made a sudden surge to go from fourth to 3rd on lap eight earlier than securing the runner-up place on lap 13 as he drove beneath Grant in turns three and 4 to occupy the spot. All of the whereas, Kyle Cummins was carving a path from his 18th beginning place, grabbing third from Grant on the twentieth circuit.
Thomas’ lead stood at 1.2 seconds as he labored visitors whereas Bernal inched ahead to his again bumper with eighth laps to go. However when Bernal chrome-horned the rear bumper of nineteenth working Braydon Cromwell in flip two, the contact stifled Bernal and resulted in Thomas gaining valuable time on Bernal to the tune of 1.8 seconds.
Thomas led the stability of the space to the stripe for the most important payday of the yr 1.486 seconds forward of Bernal as Cummins, Grant and Gunnar Setser rounded out the highest 5.
USAC AMSOIL Dash Automotive Nationwide Championship, Knoxville Raceway, Knoxville, Iowa, Could 31, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-18.868; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-18.994; 3. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-19.010; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Regular-19.019; 5. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Group AZ/Curb-Agajanian-19.050; 6. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-19.178; 7. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-19.186; 8. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-19.189; 9. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-19.227; 10. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-19.351; 11. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-19.363; 12. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-19.373; 13. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-19.376; 14. Ryan Bernal, 17x, Dunkel-19.377; 15. A.J. Johnson, 93, Germar-19.384; 16. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-19.439; 17. R.J. Johnson, 33p, Petty-19.581; 18. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-19.599; 19. Kale Drake 2B, 2B Racing-19.691; 20. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-19.783; 21. Stevie Sussex, 2, Yeley-19.792; 22. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Boyd-19.961; 23. Wesley Smith, 44, Smith-20.026; 24. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-20.029; 25. Wyatt Burks, 11w, Burks-20.100; 26. Ben Woods, 11B, B & R-20.142; 27. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-20.193; 28. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-20.437; 29. Tyler Graves, T4, Graves-20.543; 30. Glen Saville, 75, Grasmere-20.874; 31. Dakota Earls, 15E, Earls-21.342.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 switch to the function) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. R.J. Johnson, 3. Wyatt Burks, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Stevie Sussex, 7. Charles Davis Jr., 8. Tyler Graves. NT
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 switch to the function) 1. Ryan Bernal, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Braydon Cromwell, 5. Logan Calderwood, 6. Kobe Simpson, 7. Ben Woods. 2:46.070
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 switch to the function) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. A.J. Johnson, 6. Wesley Smith, 7. Hayden Reinbold, 8. Dakota Earls. 2:46.018
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 switch to the function) 1. Gunnar Setser, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Carson Garrett, 5. Kyle Cummins, 6. Chase Stockon, 7. Kayla Roell. 2:48.806
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-4 switch to the function) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Kobe Simpson, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Charles Davis Jr., 5. Ben Woods, 6. Wesley Smith, 7. Stevie Sussex, 8. Kayla Roell, 9. Dakota Earls, 10. Tyler Graves. 3:38.964
FEATURE: (30 laps, beginning positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 2. Ryan Bernal (7), 3. Kyle Cummins (18), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Gunnar Setser (9), 6. Chase Stockon (11), 7. Logan Seavey (15), 8. Robert Ballou (10), 9. Briggs Danner (12), 10. Mitchel Moles (6), 11. Jake Swanson (1), 12. Logan Calderwood (13), 13. R.J. Johnson (19), 14. Wyatt Burks (23), 15. Charles Davis Jr. (16), 16. Carson Garrett (22), 17. Hayden Reinbold (14), 18. Kobe Simpson (20), 19. Braydon Cromwell (21), 20. Kale Drake (8), 21. C.J. Leary (2), 22. Brady Bacon (4), 23. A.J. Johnson (17), 24. Jadon Rogers (24).
