Logan Seavey’s late charge came up just short as he earned runner-up honors at the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series feature at Bloomington Speedway on night four of Indiana Midget Week. Chad Boat finished third to give Toyota drivers two of the three podium positions on the night.
Tonight’s second-place finish marks the third top-two finish of the week for Seavey, who won Tuesday’s opener at Montpelier and finished second behind Keith Kunz Motorsports teammate Tanner Thorson on Thursday.
Boat began the race in the fourth position, but quickly moved by his Tucker-Boat Motorsports teammate Karsyn Elledge on the opening lap as he fell in behind Justin Grant and Thomas Meseraull. The top three stayed intact through the first four laps before the first caution flag waved.
On the restart, Boat pushed past Meseraull for second as the 18-year-old Elledge continued to run in the top five. The race would be halted again for a red flag after six laps when Thorson flipped in turn two. When the race resumed, Boat closed on Grant running low before Elledge slid off the track, ending her night after nine laps.
After another restart, Boat quickly reeled in Grant as the two cars came to the start/finish line side-by-side on lap 12, with Grant holding just a .012 second lead with Tyler Courtney running third, followed by Ethan Mitchell, Brady Bacon, who returned to the FMR Toyota team Friday night, and Seavey, who had started eighth, but fell back early in the heavy traffic.
The battle upfront continued to heat up as Courtney slipped by Boat for second on lap 17, but it remained a three-car battle. As Courtney and Boat continued to chase Grant down, he would slide up the track on lap 20 with Courtney and Boat passing him as a yellow flag would eventually come out for Grant.
By that point, Seavey had moved up to fourth and then quickly passed Mitchell for third on the restart and started to close the gap to the leaders. At the same time, Boat made a run at Courtney and briefly took the lead, only to be passed back by Courtney on lap 22. As the two leaders went head-to-head, Seavey took advantage and ran the high side past Boat for second with seven laps remaining.
As the laps wound down, Seavey had closed up on Courtney as the two leaders ran nose to tail with three laps remaining. At that point, Courtney moved high to block Seavey and held the lead as they came to the white flag. Seavey had one last move for Courtney as he tried a slider into four and went side-by-side with Courtney, but couldn’t quite pull off the race-winning pass. Courtney took the victory, followed by Seavey and Boat in third. Bacon made it three Toyotas in the top-six with his sixth-place finish.
“I think coming from the B tonight might have been the reason we lost this race,” said Seavey afterward. “We just got stuck behind some cars and couldn’t get clean air early and just needed a few more laps. Thanks to everyone at Keith Kunz Motorsports and Toyota, they gave me a great car. I’m looking forward to getting back out there the next two nights.”
With his third top-two finish of the week, Seavey takes over the Indiana Midget Week point lead by just six points over Courtney, with Thorson in third with just two races remaining.
USAC Indiana Midget Week moves on to Lawrenceburg Speedway on Saturday before closing out at Kokomo Speedway on Sunday.
| Finish | Toyota Feature Results at Bloomington |
| 2nd | Logan Seavey |
| 3rd | Chad Boat |
| 6th | Brady Bacon |
| 11th | Zach Daum |
| 13th | Jerry Coons Jr. |
| 14th | Tanner Carrick |
| 15th | Tucker Klaasmeyer |
| 16th | Jesse Colwell |
| 19th | Holley Hollan |
| 21st | Kevin Thomas Jr. |
| 22nd | Karsyn Elledge |
| 24th | Tanner Thorson |
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Courtney-730, 2-Seavey-637, 3-Thomas-611, 4-Windom-584, 5-Wise-573, 6-Boat-525, 7-C.J. Leary-490, 8-Carrick-470, 9-Klaasmeyer-469, 10-Coons-450.
INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Seavey-280, 2-Courtney-274, 3-Thorson-251, 4-Golobic-218, 5-McDougal-212, 6-Thomas-194, 7-Windom-187, 8-Coons-183, 9-Grant-181, 10-Boat-178.
*Toyota drivers in bold
Toyota Racing PR
