By Richie Murray, USAC Media

KNOXVILLE, Iowa (May 29, 2026) – The term ‘Half Mile Master’ being used to describe Kyle Cummins would’ve been downright preposterous just a short time ago.

Oh, how the tables have turned.

With his win at Knoxville Raceway Friday night during the Avanti Corn Belt Clash opener, the Princeton, Ind., racer has now claimed USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series feature victories at three of the most iconic half-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 Knoxville for his first win at the Sprint Car Capital of the World, as well.

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 Knoxville, on his third try at a restart while running in the second position, Cummins slid C.J. Leary in turn one on the lap-17 resumption and then led the remaining nine laps to earn his fourth series win of the year and the 34th of his career.

Cummins banked $10,000 as a result 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 half mile, a win 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 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 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 by advancing two spots up to third behind Miller and Leary.

“The first couple laps, I felt good,” Cummins said. “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, raising 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 Swanson’s car digging into the dirt and flipping into orbit.

Thankfully, 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 ‘No, 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. 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 that was the only time I could get it,” Cummins continued. “It’s extremely tough to pass somebody, and once I got out there and could see the cushion, I thought, ‘I’ve 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 earned his 12th podium finish in 14 career USAC National Sprint Car starts at Knoxville, dating back to 2010, advancing from 11th to third to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.

Leary led the most laps (12) during the feature and wound up finishing fourth, equaling his best result of the USAC National Sprint Car season thus far.

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

The finish:

Feature (25 laps): 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

Lap Leader(s): Laps 1-4 Gavin Miller, Laps 5-16 C.J. Leary, Laps 17-25 Kyle Cummins.

ARTICLE CREDIT: USAC Media