SWANSON SCHOOLS FIELD AT WESTERN WORLD OPENER, CUMMINS CLINCHES USAC SPRINT TITLE

Jake Swanson hoists the guitar trophy over his head after winning Thursday night’s 59th Western World Championships
opener at Central Arizona Raceway. (Rich Forman Photo)

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Casa Grande, Arizona (October 22, 2026)………Arizona isn’t exactly home for Jake Swanson. But it sure felt like it during Thursday night’s 59th annual Western World Championships at Casa Grande’s Central Arizona Raceway.

Swanson (Anaheim, California) jumped out to the front early from his outside front row starting spot and led all 30 circuits to capture victory in the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship and Avanti Windows & Doors USAC CRA Sprint Car combined event on the 3/8-mile dirt oval.

Meanwhile, with his third place result in the feature, Kyle Cummins clinched his second consecutive USAC National Sprint Car driving title with still two races remaining while also earning Petty Performance Racing its second straight USAC National Sprint Car entrant championship.

But as for Swanson, the 2022 Western World titlist, it was his fourth USAC National Sprint Car victory of the year at the wheel of his Daming Swanson Motorsports/Inland Rigging – Snake Enterprises/DRC/1-Way Chevy No. 5T, and his second triumph over the past three events.

It’s all part of a late season flourish for Swanson that has seen him finish five of his last seven starts inside the top five.

“A good start to the weekend,” Swanson grinned. “We’ve carried a lot of momentum at the end of this year. After summertime, we’ve really come on strong. We finally got our engine package where we want it and we’ve got our shock package really good.”

Swanson chalks it up to the details, no matter how big or small. All things matter in the grand scheme when it comes to life or motorsports whether it’s on the racetrack or off.

“Just working on the details and really paying attention to the finer details,” Swanson explained. “We’ve got good systems in place. (Crewman) Caleb (Stelzig) and I spend a lot of time in the shop just trying to make things more efficient, better, and last longer. Attention to detail, I think, is really key. It sounds silly, but even like cleaning the trailer so you know where everything’s at and keeping everything organized and tidy. That stuff saves time over the course of the weekend.”

An opening lap main event melee in turns one and two involved five drivers and cars in the middle of the pack, including Ricky Lewis, Dayton Shelton, Briggs Danner, J.J. Yeley, and Ricky Thornton Jr. Only Thornton was eliminated for the evening, while Lewis and Yeley bounced back into contention by carving their way through the pack from the tail to finish 10th and 11th, respectively, in the 27-car field.

Up front, however, Swanson was dialed in after he and his crew massaged the car throughout the evening, fine-tuning it to where it was all gravy and felt exactly where he felt it needed to be.

Swanson built up a 1.6 second lead during the first half of the race, while jockeying for position was all the rage back behind him. Cummins slid into fifth on the 18th lap after Jacob Denney slipped over the turn four cushion, while Mitchel Moles followed suit into seventh. Cummins masterfully scurried into fourth as he marched by Justin Grant to move up another rung on lap 20.

By lap 24, original pole starter Gavin Miller had closed to within striking distance on Swanson for the lead when the yellow was displayed following Grant’s excursion with the turn three wall, which saw him nearly come to halt with the field bearing down on him. A blink of an eye after the call for the yellow had been made, Grant got back up to speed and continued onward. Deemed an inadvertent yellow, Grant was blended back into the on-track position he was in when the caution call was made, which was seventh.

On the ensuing lap 24 restart, Miller snagged the turn four cushion coming back to the green flag and immediately lost the runner-up spot to the pouncing Stevie Sussex. The next time around, Cummins took third from Miller with a turn three slider.

At the same time, Swanson was in a zone with a full second advantage on the field but still had to play his cards right to get to the finish line first in this instance as he balanced out speed and preservation.

“I really didn’t know how fast to run,” Swanson admitted. “I was trying to take care of my tires because this place is pretty tough and abusive on tires. I just didn’t want to give it away because I felt like I kept on making mistakes as the curb was getting trickier and bigger in spots. I was trying to not smash it in those bigger spots. I wanted to use it to build momentum where it wasn’t that big.”

With a dangling right rear shock cover waving in the breeze, Swanson could now be at ease on the final lap as he crossed the finish line to notch the $7,500 score ahead of Sussex, who earned his best career USAC National Sprint Car finish of second in what was his 74th career series start.

Cummins locked up the USAC National Sprint Car crown with a third place result and his 45th consecutive top 10 finish with the series dating back to February of this year. Gavin Miller, who ran second for 23 of the 30 laps, finished a distant fourth while Jacob Denney rounded out the top five for his fourth top five finish in six career series starts.

Swanson also left no doubt about his winning intentions by leading all 30 laps en route to victory lane, which earned him the K & N Filters Clean Air Award for the night.

J.J. Yeley made a valiant comeback from his opening lap incident. Yeley advanced from his official 23rd starting spot to finish 11th in the feature and earn a total of $951.27 for his hard charging +12 performance with $150 coming from Rod End Supply and $801.27 from the Lafond Jar of Change.

Cummins also opened the evening with his ninth USAC National Sprint Car LearnLab fast qualifying time of the season, and the 28th of his career with the series, moving him past Dave Steele and into 17th place on the all-time list.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP & AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: October 22, 2026 – Central Arizona Raceway – Casa Grande, Arizona – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – 59th Western World Championships

LEARNLAB / WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY QUALIFYING: 1. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-15.339; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-15.347; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.397; 4. Stevie Sussex, 3R, Rock Steady-15.464; 5. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming Swanson-15.490; 6. Gavin Miller, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-15.494; 7. Jacob Denney, 87, CB/Spire-15.523; 8. Kevin Thomas Jr., 15, BBI-15.547; 9. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-15.600; 10. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-15.621; 11. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-15.630; 12. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-15.645; 13. Ricky Thornton Jr., 20RT, Petty-15.676; 14. R.J. Johnson, 1p, Petty-15.680; 15. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-15.684; 16. Ricky Lewis, 41, Lewis-15.707; 17. David Gasper, 18, Gasper/Kittle-15.748; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.772; 19. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-15.814; 20. Cole Wakim, 17x, Dunkel-15.906; 21. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-15.936; 22. Jadon Rogers, 5, Baldwin/Fox-15.947; 23. Ryan Bernal, 17, Dunkel-15.952; 24. Dayton Shelton, 4D, Shelton-16.012; 25. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-16.028; 26. J.J. Yeley, 33p, Petty-16.040; 27. Austin Williams, 17w, Dunkel-16.084; 28. Robert Ballou, 6, Calderwood-16.088; 29. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-16.123; 30. Connor Lundy, 97, Lundy-16.137; 31. Chet Williams, 38, Williams-16.157; 32. Daylin Perreira, 21p, Perreira-16.215; 33. Tyler Cato, 38x, Cato-16.453; 34. Alex Peck, 67x, Walker-16.487; 35. Marty Hawkins, 3m, Hawkins-16.534; 36. Brecken Guerrero, 98B, Guerrero-16.583; 37. Wayne Siddle, 007, Siddle-16.633; 38. Verne Sweeney, 98, Guerrero-17.386; 39. Elijah Gile, 17GP, Dutcher-NT.

K1 RACEGEAR / SEXTON FIRE PROTECTION FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. David Gasper (2), 2. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (1), 3. Kyle Cummins (6), 4. Logan Seavey (4), 5. Jake Swanson (5), 6. Ricky Thornton Jr. (3), 7. Trey Osborne (8), 8. Kobe Simpson (7), 9. Wayne Siddle (10), 10. Tyler Cato (9). 2:10.363

TJ FORGED / ROY MILLER FREIGHT LINES SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. R.J. Johnson (3), 2. Justin Grant (6), 3. Gavin Miller (5), 4. Chase Stockon (4), 5. Hayden Reinbold (2), 6. Jadon Rogers (1), 7. Connor Lundy (8), 8. J.J. Yeley (7), 9. Alex Peck (9), 10. Verne Sweeney (10). NT

K & N FILTERS / RESCUE MISSION ALLIANCE THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ryan Bernal (1), 2. C.J. Leary (3), 3. Briggs Danner (4), 4. Mitchel Moles (6), 5. Jacob Denney (5), 6. Charles Davis Jr. (2), 7. Austin Williams (7), 8. Elijah Gile (10), 9. Chet Williams (8), 10. Marty Hawkins (9). 2:14.646

INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Dayton Shelton (1), 2. Stevie Sussex (6), 3. Ricky Lewis (3), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 5. Cale Coons (4), 6. Cole Wakim (2), 7. Robert Ballou (7), 8. Daylin Perreira (8), 9. Brecken Guerrero (9). NT

FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ricky Thornton Jr. (1), 2. Cole Wakim (3), 3. Jadon Rogers (4), 4. J.J. Yeley (10), 5. Austin Williams (5), 6. Robert Ballou (6), 7. Trey Osborne (7), 8. Charles Davis Jr. (2), 9. Connor Lundy (8), 10. Alex Peck (14), 11. Kobe Simpson (9), 12. Daylin Perreira (11), 13. Chet Williams (13), 14. Wayne Siddle (16), 15. Verne Sweeney (19), 16. Tyler Cato (17), 17. Brecken Guerrero (15), 18. Elijah Gile (12), 19. Marty Hawkins (18). NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jake Swanson (2), 2. Stevie Sussex (3), 3. Kyle Cummins (6), 4. Gavin Miller (1), 5. Jacob Denney (9), 6. Mitchel Moles (4), 7. Ryan Bernal (12), 8. Logan Seavey (11), 9. Chase Stockon (14), 10. Ricky Lewis (19), 11. J.J. Yeley (23), 12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (10), 13. Justin Grant (5), 14. Trey Osborne (24-P), 15. Hayden Reinbold (20), 16. R.J. Johnson (7), 17. David Gasper (8), 18. Cale Coons (16), 19. Cole Wakim (25), 20. Briggs Danner (15), 21. Dayton Shelton (13), 22. C.J. Leary (18), 23. Jadon Rogers (22), 24. Connor Lundy (26-P), 25. Austin Williams (27-P), 26. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (21), 27. Ricky Thornton Jr. (17). NT

(P) represents a provisional starter

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Jake Swanson.

**Marty Hawkins flipped during the semi.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-3257, 2-Justin Grant-3031, 3-Mitchel Moles-2979, 4-Jake Swanson-2737, 5-Briggs Danner-2586, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2521, 7-C.J. Leary-2404, 8-Chase Stockon-2419, 9-Logan Seavey-2365, 10-Robert Ballou-2301.

AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES POINTS: 1-R.J. Johnson-1460, 2-Austin Williams-1157, 3-Connor Lundy-988, 4-Verne Sweeney-891, 5-Brecken Guerrero-875, 6-Ricky Lewis-757, 7-Dayton Shelton-676, 8-Eddie Tafoya Jr.-623, 9-Charles Davis Jr.-583, 10-Daylin Perreira-571.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-147, 2-Hayden Reinbold-147, 3-Kevin Thomas Jr.-142, 4-Robert Ballou-133, 5-Chase Stockon-117, 6-Briggs Danner-113, 7-Cale Coons-109, 8-Jacob Denney-106, 9-Jake Swanson-103, 10-Logan Seavey-95.

WESTERN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS PARALLAX GROUP / PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-J.J. Yeley-18, 2-Ricky Lewis-9, 3-Cole Wakim-7, 4-Kyle Cummins-6, 5-Stevie Sussex-5, 6-Ryan Bernal-5, 7-Chase Stockon-5, 8-Hayden Reinbold-5, 9-Jacob Denney-4, 10-Justin Grant-4.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP & AVANTI WINDOWS & DOORS USAC CRA SPRINT CAR RACES: October 23-24, 2026 – Central Arizona Raceway – Casa Grande, Arizona – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – 59th Western World Championships

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Kevin Thomas Jr. (15.245)

LearnLab / Woodland Auto Display Fast Qualifier: Kyle Cummins (15.339)

K1 RaceGear / Sexton Fire Protection First Heat Winner: David Gasper

TJ Forged / Roy Miller Freight Lines Second Heat Winner: R.J. Johnson

K & N Filters / Rescue Mission Alliance Third Heat Winner: Ryan Bernal

Indy Powersports Fourth Heat Winner: Dayton Shelton

Five Star Bodies Semi Winner: Ricky Thornton Jr.

Rod End Supply Hard Charger / Lafond Jar of Change: J.J. Yeley (23rd to 11th)

K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Jake Swanson (30 laps led)