PUTNAMVILLE, Ind. —
Carson Garrett had to wait 96 career USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature starts for this very moment. A couple late cautions weren’t going to derail him in his pursuit of victory.
The Littleton, Colorado, racer finally broke through to become a first-time series winner during Saturday night’s $10,000-to-win Sprintacular finale at Honest Abe Roofing Lincoln Park Speedway.
In a racelong duel alongside fellow first-time USAC winning hopeful Hayden Reinbold, Garrett fell in and out of the top spot four different times before making the winning move with eight laps remaining, then survived multiple restart attempts down the stretch at the wheel of his Epperson Racing/Epperson Painting – Sherwin Williams – BGE Motorsports/DRC/Claxton Chevy.
The victory was also the first for longtime competitors Epperson Racing in USAC competition in nearly six seasons.
Overall, it’s the team’s third USAC score with a third different driver after previously capturing wins with Tyler Thomas at Kokomo Speedway in 2018 and Shane Cottle at Gas City I-69 Speedway in 2019.
Garrett joined the Epperson Racing team for a part-time schedule at the beginning of the 2025 season, and it has admittedly been an up-and-down first half of the year. In four USAC attempts this year, they’ve made two feature starts together and missed the main event on two other occasions. They took 10th at Lincoln Park in April and 21st in the Sprintacular opener on Friday night.
However, when opportunity knocked on Saturday night, Garrett and Epperson were in position to make their mark. Despite losing the lead to Reinbold on two different occasions throughout the 40-lap feature, they fought back each time to park themselves in victory lane.
“We’ve struggled for quite a while this year,” Garrett admitted. “This means a lot to me and my family everyone who’s helped me along the way. I wouldn’t want to have anybody else here helping me out. It’s just awesome to put this thing in victory lane.”
Garrett’s previous best USAC National Sprint Car result was a narrow second place finish by a mere .093 seconds to Mitchel Moles at Illinois’ Macon Speedway in 2023. Starting from the outside of the front row on Saturday night, Garrett took control early on to lead the initial 13 laps around the five-sixteenths-mile dirt oval.
Early race contender, series point leader and April Lincoln Park USAC winner Kyle Cummins spun to a stop after contact with Reinbold in turn three amid a battle for the second position. Later in the race, while running 13th on lap 30, Cummins found himself turned around again after contact with Geoff Ensign. Cummins ultimately finished 16th, thus ending his incredible streak of 22 top-ten finishes to begin the season.
On the ensuing lap-14 restart, Reinbold churned the bottom of turns three and four to dig his way into the lead for the second night in a row following a strong runner-up finish the night before. Kevin Thomas Jr., meanwhile, was also on the move as he dipped under Robert Ballou for third on lap 19.
Firmly established in their respective grooves, Reinbold occupied the low line around the infield tires while Garrett cruised the high line.
On lap 25, Garrett used the momentum off the top rope to surge ahead of Reinbold to reassume the point by a two-car-length margin at the stripe.
The first red flag of the feature was displayed following contact between Robert Ballou and Daison Pursley in the battle for eighth.
Pursley got the worst end of the ordeal as he flipped upside down atop the turn two cushion while Ballou continued on. After repairs, Pursley restarted at the tail and finished 12th.
On the 32nd circuit, Reinbold found a second wind and tip-toed the bottom to perfection in turns three and four while Garrett briefly stumbled atop Lincoln Park’s famous monster of a cushion, which allowed Reinbold to bolt back ahead to the front with less than 10 laps remaining.
“When I lost the lead, I was just trying not to make a mistake,” Garrett told. “A couple times, I bobbled over the cushion and I don’t really have experience running a cushion this big.”
But Garrett wasn’t about to throw in the towel anytime soon. Two laps after losing grip of the lead, Garrett put together two of his best latter race laps in succession to roll by Reinbold for the top spot once more on the 34th go around.
Behind him, a lap later, Kevin Thomas Jr. took two on the back straight to charge from fourth to second past C.J. Leary and then Reinbold.
A duo of stoppages followed, first on lap 39 for first-time USAC feature starter Austin Nigh (21st) who spun to a stop in turn three. Upon the restart, just as Garrett was one turn away from finishing the deal off, the red flag was displayed for 11th running Ensign who flipped wildly down the back straightaway.
The agonizing anticipation for multiple restarts, plus a red flag period, had Garrett analyzing how he was going to handle the next restart which would decide the race’s fate.
“I didn’t want to give it up on the bottom,” Garrett explained. “It’s so hard to run the top and you have fast guys who are wanting the same thing as you. We had caution after caution and I’ve lost several races coming down to the last laps. Having a caution just kills you mentally and you have to try to boost yourself up to say you can do it and keep running where you are because they’re going to try to run something different and try to pass you.”
Garrett stuck to his guns, stuck to his line and it worked out in his favor. Two smooth laps later on the top side, Garrett was a first-time USAC feature winner by a 0.569-second margin over Kevin Thomas Jr., Logan Seavey and Hayden Reinbold with Robert Ballou rounding out the top five.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Lincoln Park Speedway, Putnamville, Ind., July 5, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-12.747; 2. Beau Brandon, 21B, Brandon-12.748; 3. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.785; 4. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-12.799; 5. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.831; 6. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-12.870; 7. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-12.901; 8. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.919; 9. Carson Garrett, 2E, Epperson-12.996; 10. Todd Hobson, 77, Wingo-12.997; 11. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.018; 12. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-13.068; 13. Geoff Ensign, 00, Anderson-13.097; 14. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.147; 15. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-13.162; 16. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-13.198; 17. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-13.253; 18. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.258; 19. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-13.299; 20. Colin Parker, 16K, Knight-13.346; 21. Austin Nigh, 97, Nigh-13.369; 22. Wesley Smith, 44, Smith-13.384; 23. Rob Caho Jr., 78, Caho-13.389; 24. Stevie Sussex, 77s, Sturgeon-13.413; 25. Tye Mihocko, 24p, Paul-13.421; 26. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-13.482; 27. Bryce Andrews, 17, MSR-13.569; 28. Kyle Johnson, 99J, Johnson-13.586; 29. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-13.613; 30. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.624; 31. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-13.643; 32. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-13.674; 33. Chelby Hinton, 71p, Phillips-13.723; 34. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-13.762; 35. Nate Ervin, 11, Algieo-13.777; 36. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-13.914; 37. Shane Cottle, 86, Stamper-13.934; 38. Gabriel Gilbert, 10G, GGR-13.968; 39. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Boyd-14.036; 40. Chance Crum, 83c, Crum-14.053; 41. Kole Kirkman, 81, Dice-14.195; 42. Kyle Shipley, 0G, AJR-14.277; 43. Justin Meneely, 100, Meneely-14.713; 44. Keivan Clodfelter, 19c, Clodfelter-14.871; 45. Tom Eller, 29OG, Eller-14.958.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jadon Rogers, 2. Austin Nigh, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. C.J. Leary, 5. Kale Drake, 6. Harley Burns, 7. Kole Kirkman, 8. Kayla Roell, 9. Zack Pretorius. NT
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Wesley Smith, 5. Shane Cottle, 6. Gunnar Setser, 7. Beau Brandon, 8. Kyle Shipley, 9. Bryce Andrews. NT
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Geoff Ensign, 3. Brandon Mattox, 4. Kyle Johnson, 5. Chelby Hinton, 6. Cale Coons, 7. Gabriel Gilbert, 8. Rob Caho Jr., 9. Justin Meneely. 2:23.51
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Stevie Sussex, 2. Joey Amantea, 3. Carson Garrett, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Jake Swanson, 6. Briggs Danner, 7. Logan Calderwood, 8. Braydon Cromwell, 9. Keivan Clodfelter. NT
CAR IQ FIFTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Tye Mihocko, 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Todd Hobson, 6. Colin Parker, 7. Chance Crum, 8. Nate Ervin, 9. Tom Eller. 2:26.39
HOOSIER TIRE C MAIN: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the semi) 1. Nate Ervin, 2. Rob Caho Jr., 3. Kayla Roell, 4. Braydon Cromwell, 5. Keivan Clodfelter, 6. Justin Meneely, 7. Bryce Andrews, 8. Tom Eller. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Cale Coons, 3. Todd Hobson, 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Chance Crum, 6. Chelby Hinton, 7. Harley Burns, 8. Briggs Danner, 9. Gunnar Setser, 10. Colin Parker, 11. Braydon Cromwell, 12. Beau Brandon, 13. Jake Swanson, 14. Kayla Roell, 15. Nate Ervin, 16. Rob Caho Jr., 17. Kole Kirkman, 18. Gabriel Gilbert, 19. Logan Calderwood. NT
FEATURE: (41 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Carson Garrett (2), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 3. Logan Seavey (6), 4. Hayden Reinbold (1), 5. Robert Ballou (5), 6. Cale Coons (12), 7. Justin Grant (10), 8. Kale Drake (11), 9. Mitchel Moles (15), 10. Shane Cottle (24), 11. C.J. Leary (4), 12. Daison Pursley (17), 13. Briggs Danner (25-P), 14. Tye Mihocko (21), 15. Chase Stockon (16), 16. Kyle Cummins (3), 17. Brandon Mattox (18), 18. Stevie Sussex (9), 19. Austin Nigh (19), 20. Geoff Ensign (14), 21. Jake Swanson (26-P), 22. Joey Amantea (23), 23. Wesley Smith (20), 24. Kyle Johnson (22), 25. Todd Hobson (13), 26. Jadon Rogers (8). NT
