Hayden Reinbold captured his first career USAC Silver Crown victory in his first career USAC Silver Crown start on Saturday night at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson. (Chris Pedersen Photo) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Hutchinson, Kansas (May 9, 2026)………Any way you slice it, the odds were stacked against Hayden Reinbold during Saturday night’s 3rd running of the Evans Building Salt City 100 at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson.
In what was his first career USAC Silver Crown appearance, Reinbold didn’t even make it to the green flag on the initial start after wall contact in turn four. Restarting 17th, he even went a lap down to the leader just 10 circuits into the 100-lapper.
Even after surging forward in the second half of the race, with 13 laps to go, Reinbold still ran fifth. With three laps to go, he occupied third behind the top-two drivers in series points a year ago. Furthermore, a half-straightaway deficit to the leader still stood in his path.
But at the end of it all, the 22-year-old Gilbert, Arizona native could proudly proclaim that he owned a perfect winning percentage of 100 in his USAC Silver Crown career.
One-for-one.
Reinbold made his winning move on lap 99 of 100 when racelong leader Justin Grant’s fuel tank ran dry just 1.5 laps from the finish line. Capitalizing on the situation, Reinbold scurried along the bottom of turns three and four on the 1/2-mile dirt oval, leading the final two laps to earn one of the most stunning victories in series history, considering all the circumstances.
“This is so much fun,” Reinbold exclaimed. “I don’t know if anybody has ever come from a lap down and went on to go win it. I’m kind of gassed. My legs are cooked. I fell off the cage.”
Reinbold did, in fact, fall off the roll cage on his victory lane celebration, but it was no harm, no foul. Funny thing is it took 101 starts for Reinbold to score his first career USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature victory in 2025 at Eldora. The Silver Crown car took just one try, and he now shares a unique stat with Jimmy Horton as the holder of an unblemished 100 percent Silver Crown winning percentage.
It had been nearly 42 years since a driver won in his first career USAC Silver Crown start, but Reinbold decided to take it upon himself to become the latest to achieve the feat at the wheel of his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – RDI Development – JUGO/DRC/Stanton Chevy.
Marv Carman was the most recent driver to win in his first ever USAC Silver Crown start at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in 1984. In fact, only eight drivers have ever pulled off the feat: Jim McElreath (1971 Nazareth), A.J. Foyt (1971 Illinois State Fairgrounds), Danny Smith (1982 Eldora), Rick Hood (1982 Indiana State Fairgrounds), Jimmy Horton (1983 Nazareth), Herb Copeland (1983 Oklahoma City), Marv Carman (1984 Minnesota State Fairgrounds) and now Reinbold.
The way it all played out at Hutch could not have possibly been more dramatic. As the field was approaching the green flag on the initial start, Reinbold’s wheels got caught in the wet, causing the car to push straight into the outside turn four wall before coming to a stop and necessitating a yellow flag.
The contact was slight, but with a full fuel load and it being his first time in the car, it can be chalked it up to a inexperience and a learning moment.
“At the start, I just got tight and the track was greasy,” Reinbold explained. “I got caked in mud and I couldn’t get a tear-off off.”
Initially, it didn’t seem to get all that much better for Reinbold. While continuing to gain footing and gather laps, Reinbold lost a lap as pole starter Justin Grant blitzed by him just 10 laps into the race. However, with the aid of a lap 21 caution, Reinbold received his lap back per a rule that was instituted by the series a few years ago.
From there on, Reinbold got to work. He marched his way into the top-five by lap 64, using a part of the racetrack that had been relatively underutilized, much to his surprise.
“No one was going to the bottom of three and four, surprisingly,” Reinbold offered. “I felt like it was really juiced up down there, so I asked if I should go to the bottom (over the two-way radio). Since no one else was going down there, I went down there.”
Running the infield berm with his front wheels elevated on top of it at times, Reinbold still ran fifth with as little as 13 laps to go. He got to fourth on lap 88 when Chase Stockon fell out of contention due to a lack of fuel. He rose to third on lap 93 as he ducked under defending race winner Briggs Danner in turns three and four. Reinbold finally won a tug-of-war with C.J. Leary for second entering turn one with three laps to go.
But Reinbold still had to track down Grant who remained about a second ahead of him at the time with the laps dwindling. However, Grant noticeably didn’t have quite the drive off the corners as he did just moments earlier. Reinbold quickly ate up Grant’s interval on the back straight on lap 99, and completed the pass for the lead on the bottom of turns three and four just moments later.
On the final lap, Grant remained within a couple car lengths of Reinbold’s back bumper on the high side of turns one and two. That’s when Grant’s car appeared to practically shut off as the last fumes of fuel sloshed around. That allowed Reinbold to turn a narrow lead into an astonishing 3.042 second victory.
Grant crossed the line a disappointing second just inches in front of C.J. Leary in third. Kyle Steffens came home a strong fourth after starting 10th while Mario Clouser rounded out the top-five, bouncing back after suffering a flat right rear tire on lap 39 and running out of fuel on lap 88.
Additionally, Reinbold not only won the race, but he also did it with a flourish. Officially, he advanced seven positions to the lead from his eighth starting spot. That said, everyone saw him win the thing after restarting 17th. Either way you slice it, his spectacular back-to-front victory earned him Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.
Motorsports, like life, can deliver a cruel fate when everything is seemingly going perfect. That was the case for Grant who won the pole and led 98 of the 100 laps before running out of fuel on the white flag lap. By leading the most laps, he was the night’s K & N Filters Clean Air Award recipient.
Grant’s start to the night was quite an adventure, as it was for all competitors. Grant literally broke the Hutchinson one-lap USAC Silver Crown track record three times during the night.
He did it once in the first qualifying session before rain hit and washed the session out. With everybody required to requalify, Grant lowered the record twice more on his LearnLab re-Qualifying run with a lap of 20.789 seconds. It was the 13th career USAC Silver Crown fast qualifying time for JG, tying him with J.J. Yeley for sixth place all-time.
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 9, 2026 – Kansas State Fairgrounds – Hutchinson, Kansas – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 3rd Evans Building Salt City 100
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-20.789 (New Track Record); 2. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-21.031; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-21.060; 4. Mario Clouser, 20, Team AZ/Petty/Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-21.218; 5. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-21.394; 6. Kale Drake, 92, Kazmark-21.542; 7. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-21.598; 8. Hayden Reinbold, 119, Reinbold/Underwood-21.684; 9. Jake Swanson, 6, Klatt-21.749; 10. Kyle Steffens, 8, Steffens-22.274; 11. Bret Tripplett, 65, SV-22.525; 12. Kip Hughes, 160, Hughes-22.617; 13. Steve Gennetten, 64, GGR-22.694; 14. Danny Jennings, 61, Jennings-22.827; 15. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-23.405; 16. Bryan Gossel, 06, Gossel-NT; 17. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Hayden Reinbold (8), 2. Justin Grant (1), 3. C.J. Leary (2), 4. Kyle Steffens (10), 5. Mario Clouser (4), 6. Chase Stockon (7), 7. Briggs Danner (5), 8. Steve Gennetten (13), 9. Danny Jennings (14), 10. Kip Hughes (12), 11. Gregg Cory (15), 12. Jake Swanson (9), 13. Bret Tripplett (11), 14. Mitchel Moles (3), 15. Kale Drake (6), 16. Dave Berkheimer (17), 17. Bryan Gossel (16). 48:06.009
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-98 Justin Grant, Laps 99-100 Hayden Reinbold
**Bryan Gossel flipped during practice.
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-73, 2-Hayden Reinbold-70, 3-C.J. Leary-64, 4-Kyle Steffens-61, 5-Mario Clouser-58, 6-Chase Stockon-55, 7-Briggs Danner-52, 8-Steve Gennetten-49, 9-Danny Jennings-46, 10-Kip Hughes-43.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Cale Coons-38, 2-Logan Calderwood-36, 3-Robert Ballou-30, 4-Justin Grant-29, 5-Briggs Danner-28, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-28, 7-Hayden Reinbold-27, 8-Chase Stockon-24, 9-Chelby Hinton-22, 10-Jadon Rogers-21.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: May 22, 2026 – Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park – Brownsburg, Indiana – .686-Mile Paved Oval – 69th Hoosier Hundred
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Justin Grant (21.019)
LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (20.789)
K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Justin Grant (98 laps led)
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Hayden Reinbold (8th to 1st)