Kevin Thomas Jr. earned $10,000 as the winner of Sunday night's 41st Firemen's Nationals at Sun Prairie, Wisconsin's Angell Park Speedway. (Rich Forman Photo) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin (September 6, 2026)………For Kevin Thomas Jr. and the 4 Kings Racing team, Sunday night’s victory during the 41st running of the Firemen’s Nationals at Sun Prairie, Wisconsin’s Angell Park Speedway hit differently.
This one felt like the first time. This one felt like the real deal. This one was the Real McCoy.
For you see, on the last day of June during a prelim night of the BC39 Presented by Avanti Windows & Doors at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, KTJ delivered 4 Kings Racing its first ever USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship triumph as a team.
But it didn’t go down in the customary manner. As a matter of fact, they crossed the finish line in second place at IMS behind Drake Edwards. However, early the next day, it was announced that Drake Edwards and Chase McDermand Racing had been stripped of their win due to a rules infraction. Thus, KTJ and 4 Kings were elevated one position in the running order and were declared the winners.
In turn, KTJ and team accepted their props and laurels in a brief ceremony prior to the next day’s event, nearly 24 hours later. While it was a proud moment for sure, it certainly was a bit of a subdued occasion considering the circumstances.
That said, at Angell Park, they finally got their reward, and a fitting victory lane celebration to boot.
“This is their second win, but this is the first time being able to be up here right after a race win. So, it feels like the first,” Thomas acknowledged. “Much appreciation to those guys who really do a lot of stuff, especially behind the scenes, and make sure we’ve got the right equipment, and we do. It’s just been about making the right calls and me doing the right things behind the wheel. All of those things lined up tonight.”
Thomas’ win was worth a $10,000 reward, and it was the eighth such victory of his USAC National Midget career, moving him up to 86th place on the all-time series win list alongside such names as Brady Bacon, Merle Bettenhausen, Tony Bettenhausen, Hank Butcher, Kevin Doty, Dan Drinan, Ronnie Duman, Brian Gerster, Kenny Irwin Jr., Eddie Johnson, Michael Lewis, Andy Michner, and Josh Wise.
None of KTJ’s previous seven USAC wins had come at Angell Park before Sunday night. It was a full circle moment. In May of 2015, the Cullman, Alabama native won his very first midget race, and it just so happened to be at Angell Park, during the Thiel Memorial co-sanctioned by Badger and POWRi.
“I'm pretty sure I got my first midget win here for Keith Kunz, heck, a century ago, it seems like,” Thomas recalled. “I've been coming here a long time. We've been good. We've been bad. It's never been necessarily my style. But whenever you’ve got good racecars like this, every racetrack is your style. Tonight, they did a great job on the racetrack after getting a bunch of rain.”
Thomas lined up fifth in the 40-lap main event but was on his way toward the front from the drop of the green behind the wheel of his 4 Kings Racing/Purple Heart Foundation – AccroSeal – Metalloid1 – AccroLube/LynK/Stanton SR-11x No. 14. He was fourth by lap one, third by lap two, second by lap four, and into the lead by lap seven.
A couple of those gained positions, admittedly, were aided by an apparent curse hexed upon the early race leaders. Justin Grant led the initial three laps before his engine went sour with a dropped valve. The lead then changed hands to Kale Drake who led laps four, five, and six before he too fell out with a mechanical issue.
It was Thomas’ turn as the leader from lap seven onward, but he showed no signs of any voodoo, bad juju or what have you. This one belonged to KTJ and KTJ only from there on out, even when faced with multiple late race restarts after accruing sizable leads.
Thomas Jr.’s lead was 1.475 seconds when sixth running Colton Robinson clipped an infield tire and damaged his suspension, leaving a dangling donut on the front left of his ride, which necessitated a caution to be displayed. Over the next seven laps, Thomas shoved his advantage to 1.247 seconds until Brandon Waelti (14th) nosed into the outside turn one wall on the 30th circuit. That caution once again erased KTJ’s handiwork.
Over the last 10 trips around the 1/3-mile dirt oval, Thomas just kept on keeping on, building his lead back to 1.924 seconds as he crossed the finish line $10,000 richer. Jacob Denney took second with Gavin Miller third, Jakeb Boxell fourth, and Gunnar Setser fifth.
As the leader of the most laps in the feature (34 of 40), Thomas was the recipient of the K & N Filters Clean Air Award.
Gunnar Setser's night began with engine issues that prevented him from even making a qualifying attempt. In the feature, he raced his way up 12 positions to earn a top five result and a Rod End Supply Hard Charger bonus.
Hayden Reinbold set an all-time Angell Park record in LearnLab Qualifying with a time of 14.166 seconds. Not only did that time break Jacob Denney’s one-lap USAC track record of 14.203. It also broke the all-time Angell Park one-lap midget mark of 14.172 set by fellow Arizonan Jerry Coons Jr., which had stood for 27 years since the 1999 season! Reinbold earned $300 for his run.
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin's own Brandon Waelti set a new eight lap USAC National Midget track record at Angell Park during his victory in the first heat race. His time of 1:58.031 surpassed the former record held by Jade Avedisian, a 1:59.520 set in 2024. Incredibly, it was Waelti’s first USAC heat race win since 2004 during the Buckeye Nationals round at Ohio’s Limaland Motorsports Park 22 summers ago!
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 6, 2026 – Angell Park Speedway – Sun Prairie, Wisconsin – 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval – 41st Firemen’s Nationals
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-14.166 (New Track Record); 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-14.170; 3. Brecken Reese, 20Q, Reese-14.176; 4. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.195; 5. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.233; 6. Kale Drake, 4, RMS-14.266; 7. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-14.267; 8. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-14.279; 9. Jakeb Boxell, 54, 4 Kings-14.301; 10. Drake Edwards, 40x, McDermand-14.358; 11. Kyle Jones, 7TX, Engler-14.364; 12. Mack Leopard, 40L, McDermand-14.427; 13. Luke Wackerlin, 7w, Guithues-14.458; 14. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.465; 15. Alex Midkiff, 11, Midkiff-14.576; 16. Brandon Waelti, 55, TK2-14.612; 17. Adam Taylor, 7T, ATM-14.647; 18. Bradley Cox, 45, Mason-14.703; 19. Brian Peterson, 57R, RAB-14.874; 20. Cody Weisensel, 20, Burrington-15.053; 21. Jake Dohner, 2, Burrington-15.401; 22. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-NT.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brandon Waelti (1), 2. Jacob Denney (5), 3. Drake Edwards (3), 4. Luke Wackerlin (2), 5. Hayden Reinbold (6), 6. Gunnar Setser (8), 7. Ethan Mitchell (4), 8. Brian Peterson (7). 1:58.031 (New Track Record)
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Colton Robinson (2), 2. Justin Grant (4), 3. Adam Taylor (1), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr (6), 5. Gavin Miller (5), 6. Kyle Jones (3), 7. Cody Weisensel (7). 2:00.328
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jakeb Boxell (4), 2. Kale Drake (5), 3. Bradley Cox (1), 4. Alex Midkiff (2), 5. Jake Dohner (7), 6. Mack Leopard (3), 7. Brecken Reese (6). NT
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 2. Jacob Denney (4), 3. Gavin Miller (3), 4. Jakeb Boxell (7), 5. Gunnar Setser (17), 6. Drake Edwards (10), 7. Bradley Cox (15), 8. Mack Leopard (19), 9. Kyle Jones (11), 10. Brecken Reese (22), 11. Adam Taylor (14), 12. Alex Midkiff (13), 13. Luke Wackerlin (12), 14. Brian Peterson (20), 15. Colton Robinson (8), 16. Hayden Reinbold (6), 17. Brandon Waelti (9), 18. Ethan Mitchell (18), 19. Cody Weisensel (21), 20. Kale Drake (2), 21. Justin Grant (1), 22. Jake Dohner (16). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Justin Grant, Laps 4-6 Kale Drake, Laps 7-40 Kevin Thomas Jr.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Jacob Denney-919, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-854, 3-Gavin Miller-816, 4-Kale Drake-798, 5-Jakeb Boxell-795, 6-Justin Grant-792, 7-Cannon McIntosh-712, 8-Hayden Reinbold-626, 9-Brecken Reese-621, 10-Colton Robinson-563.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kevin Thomas Jr.-127, 2-Hayden Reinbold-125, 3-Justin Grant-113, 4-Robert Ballou-109, 5-Briggs Danner-108, 6-Cale Coons-105, 7-Jacob Denney-102, 8-Chase Stockon-94, 9-Jake Swanson-87, 10-Mitchel Moles-78.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 7, 2026 – Coles County Speedway – Mattoon, Illinois – 1/5-Mile Dirt Oval – Lake Land College King of Coles
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver:
LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Hayden Reinbold (14.166)
K1 RaceGear First Heat Winner: Brandon Waelti
TJ Forged Second Heat Winner: Colton Robinson
K & N Filters Third Heat Winner: Jakeb Boxell
K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Kevin Thomas Jr. (34 laps led)
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Gunnar Setser (17th to 5th)