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The Moose Is Loose As Stockon Wins At Ocala Speedway

By Pat and Bruce Eckel

Friday, February 13 – We met Dale O’Brien for a large Mexican lunch before heading to the track for night three of the Winter Dirt Games XVII at the Ocala Speedway featuring the USAC National Sprint Cars. Twenty four sprinters were assembled along with 25 Mod-Lites for tonight’s racing.

Unfortunately, two of the sprints owned by Chase Howard, one driven by him and the other tonight to be wheeled by Kobe Simpson never made it out of hot laps so the field was reduced to 22. Time trials pushed off at 6:29 and by 6:44 Justin Grant was being interviewed for the 41st time in his career, 7th on the all-time list, after turning a lap of 13.910 seconds around the D-shaped 3/8 mile dirt oval.

Three USAC sprint car heats were the next order of business with the top six advancing to the 35 lap feature event. Ricky Lewis would garner his third heat win of the Florida tour outrunning Briggs Danner,

Jake Swanson, Kyle Cummins, Tom Harris and Justin Grant in heat one. Brady Bacon wheeled the Dyson #20 to victory in heat two beating Robert Ballou, Gunnar Setser, Logan Seavey, Mitchel Moles and Kevin Thomas Jr to the finish. Heat three was captured by CJ Leary outbattling Jadon Rogers for the win with
Chase Stockon, Chelby Hinton, Trey Osborne and Harley Burns chasing. Three heat races for the mod lites were contested and with no semi feature needed the next race on the dance card was the 35 lap main event for the USAC sprints.

The green flag waved on the 22 car starting field with Chase Stockon quick to motor into the lead from the first starting spot. Kevin Thomas Jr and Kyle Cummins took up the early chase of Chase. Lap four saw tenth running Logan Seavey tag the homestretch wall with his right rear tire and spin backwards in front of the field. Jake Swanson attempted to avoid Seavey but touched wheels with Robert Ballou sending Swanson in the air landing on all fours on the apron of the track with front end damage. Both Seavey and Swanson were surprisingly able to rejoin the field after trips to the work area.

On the restart havoc reigned as Robert Ballou slipped off the turn four edge catching the wall and sending him into a series of nasty end over end flips flying right past the starter in the scary incident. Ballou quickly climbed from his sprinter uninjured but with a lot of damage needing to be repaired. Ricky Lewis got caught up in the accident suffering front end damage and ending his evening prematurely. On the next restart Stockon surged out front back into the lead with Thomas and Cummins in pursuit. Lap six saw Cummins executed a pass on the dogleg in the backstretch to snatch second from Thomas and begin the pursuit of Stockon. Lap seven saw Stockon drift high in turn four getting all four tires over the cushion allowing Cummins to move past him for the lead but Stockon quickly recovered steering his sprinter inside Cummins off turn four and barely beating Cummins to the line retaining his lead. Stockon would lead the race past the halfway mark trailed by Cummins, Thomas and Brady Bacon moving forward from eighth into fourth. Lap traffic became an issue with ten to go. Gunnar Setser and Greg Mitchell loomed ahead and Stockon would split the pair racing down the homestretch to gain some breathing room but Cummins was not done yet. He stuck his nose underneath Stockon several times over the remaining ten circuits but Stockon was up to the challenge and fended him off. On lap twenty nine CJ Leary, running eighth at the time, bounced off the wall between turns one and two ending up backwards facing traffic with everyone missing him.

With a clear track ahead on the restart Stockon had clear sailing over the last seven laps though Cummins was right there looking for a chance to strike. Even though the right rear was slipping off the rim on Stockon’s sprinter he was able to hang on to cross the finish line almost a second in front in the Tom and Laurie Sertich Moose Racing #92 earning them their second career USAC National sprint car owner’s win and Stockon’s first win at Ocala since 2018. It was a sweet victory for all as the team celebrated in victory lane. Cummins would finish second with Thomas third, Bacon fourth and Mitchel Moles rounding out the top five. Justin Grant could make up no ground after starting sixth ending up there with Briggs Danner notching the hard charger award moving from 13th to seventh with Trey Osborne eighth, Jake Swanson rebounding from his accident to finish ninth with Jadon Rogers finally getting some luck and finishing tenth after various mechanical woes. For Stockon that was his 16th career USAC National sprint car win tying him with Jud Larson and Damion Gardener for 39th on the all-time win list.

With the first three nights in the books the top five in accumulated points are now locked into the 40 lap, $10,000 to win feature on Saturday and will compete in a dash race to determine the starting order for the top five.

That’s it for this column and check back to see what happens on the final night of USAC racing in Florida at the Ocala Speedway. In the meantime, plot your 2026 racing schedule and be safe out there. Comments, news, stories or rumors can reach us at eckel9K77@gmail.com. As always thanks for reading our efforts and hope you continue to enjoy them as much as we enjoy bringing them to you. In closing, remember to be good and be kind to everyone you meet.

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