Seavey out-duels Bacon to become first to win two USAC Features in one day since 2001 (Dave Shank Photo)
Logan Seavey put together an unforgettable 2023. A Chili Bowl Nationals Golden Driller. Four Crown Nationals sweep. United States Auto Club (USAC) Championships in both the Silver Crown and National Midget divisions. And he may be heading for an even better 2024.
The Sutter, CA native already kicked off the year with a second straight Chili Bowl triumph. He climbed aboard the Abacus Racing #57 for the USAC National Sprint Car season and made a massive statement on Tuesday night at Volusia Speedway Park.
After topping the first Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals $10,000-to-win Feature of the night on Tuesday, Seavey charged to victory again later in the evening when Monday’s rain-postponed main event was made up. A Lap 14 slider on Brady Bacon lifted Seavey to the win as he pulled away from the “Macho Man” on his way to a sweep of the night.
The two trips to Victory Lane marked his 11th and 12th with the Series. A driver topping two USAC National Sprint Car wins in the same day hadn’t been accomplished since Bud Kaeding in 2001 at Terre Haute. They were the first pair of USAC National Sprint Car victories for Abacus Racing. Overall, Seavey and company netted $16,000 for their efforts and also claimed the DIRTcar Nationals Big Gator trophy. In overall USAC Sprint Car competition this season, Seavey owns four podiums in four starts and an average finish of second.
“It’s incredible,” Seavey said. “It’s hard to rank any of them. These races are so hard to win. To win any of them is a dream come true for me and to be out here driving race cars and just driving for awesome teams like Abacus.”
Seavey began Feature number two from row two in the fourth starting spot with Bacon alongside him. Up front, pole-sitter Chase Stockon grabbed the initial lead and paced the opening lap, but on Lap 2 Bacon quickly pounced to take over the lead. On Lap 4 Seavey muscled his way into second with eyes ahead on Bacon.
An early trip on the Turn 2 cushion cost Seavey some time, but he quickly rallied and began to close back in on the lead. Seavey steadily reeled Bacon in, and with 14 laps remaining an opportunity opened. The same spot where Seavey had stumbled earlier in the 25-lapper tripped Bacon up and allowed Seavey to look to his inside heading down the back straightaway. But the yellow lights flashed for a spinning car in Turn 4.
The caution saved the lead for Bacon, but it seemed to only delay the inevitable. Only a few laps after the restart, Seavey pulled the trigger on a slider that stuck, and Bacon wasn’t able to cross him over to reclaim the top spot.
Last year’s Four Crown sweep at Eldora Speedway offered perhaps the best evidence of Seavey’s comfort on half miles. And he delivered more on Tuesday at Volusia after taking the lead. The 26-year-old absolutely checked out. He could move his car wherever he wanted and worked easily through traffic.
“These big half miles really suit me well,” Seavey said. “Once you get going and get momentum going, it’s easy to keep it going. We won earlier, and then to come out there and start fourth and pass somebody like Brady for the lead is cool. Obviously he’s one of the best in the business. He probably doesn’t get passed for the lead very often. It just shows how good this car is. Like I said, you get momentum going and it’s easy to keep it up.”
The lead grew and grew for Seavey in the second half of the race. At one point the margin between himself and Bacon ballooned to four seconds.
A late caution gave the others a chance to challenge Seavey in the closing laps. But he continued to prove to be too strong as he powered away and lengthened his lead to nearly two seconds by the time the checkered flag dropped on the 25-lap main event.
“These big, fast half miles with a big curb are tricky, and that’s why we love them,” Seavey said. “I’m just super, super happy to be here.”
Bacon held on for the second spot to end his stretch of bad luck to start the season. Multiple problems outside of his control left him without a top 10 finish through the first three races, but he turned things around with a runner-up to end the night.
“It’s a lot easier to run good when people don’t crash in front of you,” Bacon said. “We’ve had pretty much two almost-DNFs that were completely out of our control where other people made mistakes and we had to pay the brunt of the price. We’ve had a good car.”
CJ Leary completed the podium to close out USAC’s portion of the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals. It was an impressive weekend of Leary who broke the USAC track record at Volusia during Monday’s qualifying session and then broke his own record again on Tuesday.
“I think it’s a super momentum-based racetrack,” Leary said of his Volusia prowess. “I felt like me and Brady were about the same speed. Logan was in his own zip code. I don’t think anybody could’ve beat him there.”
Daison Pursley and Justin Grant completed the top five.
UP NEXT: The DIRTcar Late Models have another night of action on Wednesday, Feb 14 along with making up Monday’s rain-postponed Feature. With USAC’s portion of the event complete, the Late Models will be joined by the invasion of the Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modifieds. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.