Trey Osborne captured his first career USAC National Sprint Car win Wednesday in Ocala, Florida.
Submitted photo
In his still young career, Trey Osborne has experienced just about the widest array of emotions any one person can have at Florida’s Ocala Speedway.
By far, none of those emotions were as good as they were following Wednesday’s Winter Dirt Games Presented by Yokohama Tire round at the 3/8-mile D-shaped dirt track where the tall redhead survived through traffic, through fatigue, through a brief airborne flight and through every piece of pressure thrown his way to capture his first career USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory.
For you see, the grind to get to this point has taken its toll. Take into account that Osborne serves as his own chief mechanic, and his notoriously low budget and friendly personality have made him a torch bearer for those who not only dream of making it big in the sport, but to those who dare to put it all on the line in pursuit of their dreams.
Add to it this fact regarding his most recent appearance at Ocala in February 2024. It was then that he vaulted upside down over the Turn 3 wall, resulting in a broken vertebra in his back, plus a compression fracture in two more vertebrae while shearing off the top of a fourth vertebra.
Sidelined with a back brace and a bevy of checkups, X-rays and MRIs in the following months, Osborne estimated that the accident knocked off an inch of his towering 6-foot-8 frame.
Furthermore, during his most recent trip to Florida one year ago in 2025, issues with multiple engines resulted in him missing out on a feature transfer spot in all three of his appearances at Volusia and Ocala. To add to the turmoil, a broken quad was the final straw that told him to make the trek back home to the Midwest after participating in just three of the six events, worn out, frustrated, broke down and busted.
Thereafter, the 23-year-old Osborne continued to grind, and Wednesday night, all he could do was smile. Sometimes, the greatest achievements in life defy explanation. For Osborne, this was one of those moments.
“I can’t even explain this,” Osborne admitted. “I know it’s real, but it really doesn’t feel real.”
Swanson wins Volusia finale
Jake Swanson has, quite literally, put his all into competing on the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship as a driver/car owner.
Tuesday, his “all,” quite frankly, trampled the field in a master class of pure domination in the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals finale at Barberville, Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park, Round 2 of Winter Dirt Games XVII Presented by Yokohama Tire.
When all was said and done at the conclusion of the 30-lap feature, the Anaheim, California, native was a whopping 6.951 seconds ahead of the field, pocketing $12,000 for his efforts while also earning himself a Little Gator trophy. Swanson was also victorious in USAC’s debut race at Volusia in 2023, collecting both the Little Gator and the Big Gator as the overall DIRTcar Nationals champion that year.
The third-place starting Swanson took over the lead from C.J. Leary on the sixth lap and ran away from the pack in relative ease aboard his Daming Swanson Motorsports/Inland Rigging – Snake Enterprises/DRC/1-Way Chevy. Swanson’s eighth career USAC National Sprint Car feature victory tied him for 62nd place all-time alongside Mike Bliss, Chet Fillip, Johnny Rutherford and Joe Saldana.
After taking 47 starts to put his team into USAC victory lane for the first time in 2025, it only took two races for the 32-year-old racer to hit paydirt for the first time in 2026.
Seavey wins USAC opener
Just as Victory Lane was where Logan Seavey left last season. It was the exact same place he entered to begin the 2026 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship campaign as well during MOnday’s series season opener at Volusia Speedway Park.
The Sutter, California, native countered Brady Bacon’s last-lap, last-ditch effort for the lead in Turns 1 and 2. However, Seavey passed Bacon back at the exit of Turn 3 and led the final half lap to resume his winning ways in Round 1 of Winter Dirt Games XVII Presented by Yokohama Tire.
At the helm of the Abacus Racing/Mountain Mechanical – Droplight – Indy Powersports/DRC/Stanton Chevy, Seavey established a new USAC track record for the 25-lap distance at Volusia in green-to-checkered style with a run of 8:10.705.
Dating back to the final weekend of the 2025 season at Central Arizona Raceway’s Western World Championships, Seavey now has won three consecutive USAC National Sprint Car feature events.
Furthermore, Seavey is just the eighth USAC National Sprint Car driver to capture victory in the preceding season’s finale and the following season’s opener in succession, joining A.J. Foyt (1959-60), Jim Hurtubise (1961-62), Rich Vogler (1986-87), Jim Keeker (1991-92), Bryan Clauson (2015-16), Brady Bacon (2022-23) and Justin Grant (2023-24).
Over the past three seasons, Seavey has proven that he practically owns the deed for Volusia’s 1/2-mile dirt oval, having won four of the past five USAC National Sprint Car events held there since 2024, including two in one night back in 2024, along with the final show of 2025 and now the lid-lifter for 2026.
Seavey’s latest score was the 34th of his USAC National Sprint Car career, moving him to within one of Rich Vogler and Jon Stanbrough for 14th place on the all-time list.
O’Neal wins at Volusia
It doesn’t matter what car he’s driving – when Hudson O’Neal of Hope rolls onto the track at Volusia Speedway Park, he’s going to be in contention.
Three weeks after wheeling the K&L Rumley Enterprises No. 6 to Victory Lane in the Friday portion of DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals, O’Neal returned to Volusia in February in his primary ride, the SSI Motorsports No. 71. Following a sixth-place run Monday, the “New Deal” led all 25 laps of Tuesday’s DIRTcar Late Model Feature to become the second winner of the week at Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals.
“It’s so awesome to be able to get back in the 71 car, to come down to a fresh start to Speedweeks and be able to get us a win on the second night is pretty awesome,” O’Neal said. “We knew that it was going to be a little bit of a tire game. We were lucky to be able to get out to the lead there early. It started to lane up down in (Turns) 1 and 2 especially, and we were just lucky to have good track position.”
The third-generation driver became the first repeat winner of 2026 at the “World’s Fastest Half Mile” in the fifth Super Late Model race hosted at the track this year. Not only is O’Neal now a five-time Volusia winner dating back to his first triumph in 2023, he has now won at the track with three different teams in Rocket1 Racing, Rumley and SSI.
When combined with his pair of victories in January at the Wild West Shootout, O’Neal’s four wins in 2026 have him tied with Monday winner Brandon Overton as the winningest Late Model driver in the nation in the young 2026 season.
James Essex writes a motorsports notebook for The Republic. Send comments to sports@therepublic.com
