Fans of Big Diamond Speedway got a double dose of headliner features Thursday evening starting with night two of the 2025 edition of the Levan Machine & Truck Equipment Eastern Storm for the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Cars and followed by the Quandel Concrete 358 Modifieds.
Princeton, Indiana’s Kyle Cummings wired the field in scoring the USAC victory while two-time defending Modified track champion Brett Kressley of Orefield turned in a stellar drive en route to his first win of the ’25 season here.
Coming off a fourth place tally the night before at Bridgeport Motorsports Park, Cummings was intent on improving three more spots and he was off to a good start in doing so as he started the 30-lap contest from the pole and made it known quite quickly that he was going to be a factor as he jumped out front at the drop of the green and was then able to keep a few car lengths ahead over fourth starting Mitchel Moles.
Moles quickly overtook Kevin Thomas Jr. for second at the end of the first lap. Despite closing in on the leader, Cummings pulled away effortlessly, leaving Moles and others to compete for second place.
“Last night we were pretty disappointed with fourth and we had a pretty good car all night long and just missed it (setup) for the feature. We weren’t happy with that, and we wanted to get a win,” said Cummings, who claimed his sixth victory of the season.
“I want to give a big shoutout to Mark Smith. We had two Mach-1s (chassis) on the front row tonight. He’s run a bunch around here and he said whatever at all costs come off the bottom in turn four and no matter what happened, if I came off the top or wherever, I made sure I came off the bottom in turn four,” he continued.
“It felt like I was super slow getting in (turn) three and I felt someone was going to come around me, but I was getting pretty good drive coming down the backstretch.”
For Cummings the victory also helped pad his points lead over Justin Grant and Moles.
While Cummings was upholding his lead over Moles, there was a close dogfight taking place for spots 3-4-5 as Daison Pursley, Briggs Danner and Jake Swanson were engaged in a thrilling battle.
Swanson had been holding down third but a few laps after halfway Pursley and Danner, who had been zipping around side-by-side, caught Swanson and the trio were now running under a blanket. It wouldn’t be until the closing laps that Pursley secured third with Danner fourth and Swanson settling for fifth.
Moles, who finished second at Big Diamond last year, was runner-up at Bridgeport the night prior and, although he has finished as the runner-up multiple times, he is now just three points behind the Eastern Storm lead after winning the title one year ago.
“This is pretty frustrating for me and I’m definitely not here to run second and I feel like I have to be the most second place finisher of all-time in USAC. Congrats to Kyle (Cummings) and his team, they were the best car and won tonight,” said Moles.
During qualifying Grant set a new track record with USAC turning a lap of 14.527 seconds. That broke the record of 14.785 set by Pursley in 2023.
For the start of the Modified feature Wayne Witmer and Ron Haring Jr., shared the front row and at the outset it would be Witmer taking the opening lap lead while fourth starting Kressley powered his way by Corey Renninger and Haring to nag second spot by the conclusion of the first circuit.
At the same time a caution was out and on the ensuing restart Kressley made quick work of Witmer and took control of the top spot. The rest of the race became a rapid affair as the next 24 laps went caution free. In the process Kressley was able to stretch his lead, getting around with relative ease.
While Kressley was on cruise control and Witmer held down second, a heated battle was under way for third spot between Haring, Ken Eckert Jr., and Louden Reimert. It was actually Reimert who was in the spotlight of that group, having started from 16th and then carved his way into the top five by lap 10.
After completing a dozen laps, Eckert’s night concluded unexpectedly when he collided with the inside turn four tire barrier and withdrew from the race. Consequently, Haring was left to contend with Reimert. Following several laps of side-by-side racing, Reimert, utilizing the bottom groove, secured third place and then began to reel in Witmer, doing so with eight laps to go.
At the same time Daune Howard was making haste, driving past Haring for fourth and then doing the same to Witmer with five laps to go.
All the while, however, Kressley had built an insurmountable lead that ensured him of his first Big Diamond win of the season and 21st overall at the 3/8-mile oval.
“Last week wasn’t the best for us and we had a little bit of a mechanical failure and I feel like we’ve been building each week on the car and trying to get a little bit better handle on it and not having enough lap time to know what you’re doing and if it’s working or not,” said Kressley.
“Tonight, starting position really helped but we also had a stout piece, and it was fun to drive. The track seemed pretty good, and they had a pretty good handle on it, sprinkled some water on it before our feature and widened it up and that seemed to make it racy.”
In the closing laps Kressley had come upon a few cars at the tail end of the field and wasn’t sure to play I safe and ride behind them or take the chance and make the pass. He opted for the latter after realizing who was following him.
“I was questioning about that and I was maintaining a little bit of a pace but then I looked up at the scoreboard and saw it was the 16 (Reimert) and 15 (Duane Howard) and I know they always have speed and figured at some point I should do something rather then sit there and wait to get pounced on,” admitted Kressley.
With his second-place finish and third top five in four starts, Reimert leaped-frogged into the points lead over Mike Gular.
“We haven’t really struggled but I just wasn’t happy with my Friday night car for here or my Saturday night car for Grandview so we did a lot of work in the shop over all the rainouts and we put our heads together and kind of figured out a new package and I couldn’t be happier with it,” explained Reimert.
“To do a nonstop race like that and come from 16th, I felt comfortable all over the track. I felt when I wanted to pass someone, I could pass them, and I’m really pleased with the direction we’re going,” he went on to say.
“The last couple of races I just couldn’t get a hold of the track, and we were thinking of what we were doing last year and trying to figure it out and apply it to this right side Panhard Bar deal. We pieced together something and hopefully we can keep building on it and getting faster yet.”
Witmer held on to fourth for his first top five of the year while Rick Laubach drove from 14th and rounded out the top five.
USAC Sprint Car Feature Finish (30 laps): 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Briggs Danner, 5. Jake Swanson, 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 7. Justin Grant, 8. Robert Ballou, 9. Kale Drake, 10. Logan Seavey, 11. Hayden Reinbold, 12. Gunnar Setser, 13. C.J. Leary, 14. Steven Drevicki, 15. J.T. Ferry, 16. Joey Amantea, 17. Kayla Roell, 18. Abby Hohlbein, 19. Olivia Thayer, 20. Braydon Cromwell, 21. Billy Ney
358 Modified Feature Finish (25 laps): 1. Brett Kressley, 2. Louden Reimert, 3. Duane Howard, 4. Wayne Witmer, 5. Rick Laubach, 6. Ryan Watt, 7. Mike Gular, 8. Jeff Strunk, 9. Ron Haring Jr., 10. Jax Yohn, 11. Tyler Dippel, 12. Tim Fitzpatrick, 13. Brandon Edgar, 14. Logan Watt, 15. Kevin Beach Jr., 16. Jack Butler, 17. Matt Yoder, 18. Dan Hineline, 19. Brian Malcolm, 20. Corey Renninger, 21. Ken Ekert Jr., 22. Craig Von Doren, 23. Joel Smith 24. Mike Lisowski DNQ: Doug Smith Jr., Kevin Olenick, Cliff Quinn, Mike Burrows