SEAVEY CROWNED INDIANA MIDGET WEEK CHAMP
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (June 9, 2019)………Last November, Logan Seavey added a USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget championship to his resume. Now, just a little over six months later, the Sutter, Calif. has gained an “Indiana Midget Week” title for 2019.
Seavey began his “Indiana Midget Week” with a flourish, leading the final 24 laps to win the opener on Tuesday at Montpelier Motor Speedway, which put him in the driver’s seat for the title right out of the box.
Wednesday’s round at Gas City I-69 Speedway proved to be the only setback to the week where he started 14th and finished 12th. Despite that, he remained 4th in the IMW standings, 18 markers behind the point leader at the time, Keith Kunz Motorsports/Curb-Agajanian teammate Tanner Thorson.
Rolling into Lincoln Park Speedway for Thursday’s third round of IMW was the turning point for the team. Although coming up short for the win, Seavey led eight laps and finished 2nd behind Thorson. Seavey managed to clip off only a single point to knock down the IMW deficit to 17. But, in championship battles, any slip can cause a loss of the grip in the position you hold. That was proven the very next night.
Onward to Bloomington on Friday, Seavey was once again in position to challenge for the win, coming up just short on a last lap, turn three slider to winner Tyler Courtney, his closest suitor in the IMW standings. The fortuitous wavering of the standings saw point leader Thorson walk away uninjured from a flip over the turn one banking on lap seven, giving Thorson a last-place result of 24th and the minimum 23 points. Seavey’s consistent consistency provided him with a 67-point feature night, swaying the IMW title race completely in his direction where he now held a six-point bump over Courtney.
In what turned out to be the 2019 IMW finale due to Sunday’s Kokomo rain out, like he did the night before at Bloomington, Seavey was once again right in the thick of the hunt for the victory. With less than three laps remaining, he actually claimed the lead briefly and was engaged in a side-by-side battle with Chris Windom for the win before being relegated to 2nd for the restart. He wound up 3rd in the end as Chad Boat got by on the final lap to finish in the runner-up spot.
However, once again, it pays to have the fortitude and the fortune to finish up front consistently without having a mechanical issue or the misfortune that Tyler Courtney encountered when he had a right rear tire go down on lap 22 while running third. He was relegated to a 15th place finish in the end, putting him, as it turned out, out of contention for a first IMW title after consecutive runner-up finishes the last two years.
Seavey claimed he felt like he had a car to win four of the five races and indicated a bit of remorse on not being able to pull out at least one more victory during the week. However, it’s a race all its own for a driver just to simply put themselves in a position to win at the end. Seavey has time and again accomplished that on the regular, a major reason why you can now call him both a National Champ and an “Indiana Midget Week” champ.
Seavey’s IMW title was also the fifth for car owner Keith Kunz who also captured IMW crowns with Christopher Bell (2013), Rico Abreu (2014-15) and Spencer Bayston (2018).
In the meantime, Seavey also became the sixth driver to win the IMW title the year directly after winning the USAC National Midget championship, joining Jerry Coons, Jr. (2007), Brad Kuhn (2010), Bryan Clauson (2011), Rico Abreu (2015) and Spencer Bayston (2018).
FINAL 2019 INDIANA MIDGET WEEK STANDINGS
1. (352) Logan Seavey
2. (316) Tanner Thorson
3. (316) Tyler Courtney
4. (276) Shane Golobic
5. (267) Chris Windom
6. (253) Chad Boat
7. (247) Kevin Thomas, Jr.
8. (231) Jerry Coons, Jr.
9. (222) Jason McDougal
10. (222) Zeb Wise
11. (217) Justin Grant
12. (216) Zach Daum
13. (207) Tanner Carrick
14. (200) Cannon McIntosh
15. (200) Michael Pickens
16. (180) Tucker Klaasmeyer
17. (177) Jesse Colwell
18. (165) Andrew Layser
19. (155) Thomas Meseraull
20. (144) Brady Bacon
21. (124) Holley Hollan
22. (124) Dave Darland
23. (118) Karsyn Elledge
24. (117) C.J. Leary
25. (105) Ethan Mitchell
26. (103) Kyle Larson
27. (97) Dillon Welch
28. (74) Cole Bodine
29. (68) Noah Gass
30. (56) Kyle Cummins
31. (53) Zane Hendricks
32. (50) Sterling Cling
33. (40) Michael Koontz
34. (30) Anton Hernandez, Chris Baue & Oliver Akard
37. (20) Sam Johnson
38. (10) Billy Wease, Tyler Nelson, Ryan Padgett, Justin Peck, Critter Malone, Brent Watson, Kendall Ruble, Davey Ray & Justin Dickerson
