KANSAS CITY, MO.—Nice guys don’t always finish last—and Logan Seavey’s transition to the Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing Series is a perfect example.
Throughout his career, the 28-year-old USAC Triple Crown winner discovers speed in whatever types of cars he races.
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Seavey’s latest pairing, behind the wheel of the No. 87x Chad Boat Industries winged sprint car, is no exception.
“It’s cool,” Seavey said. “Chad called me out of the blue in the offseason and wanted to do it. Obviously, at the time, I didn’t really know how many races it was, but I’ve seen Ty (Gibbs) usually runs pretty well in his car.
“So, I knew they were going to be quick.”
Spire Motorsports’ involvement wasn’t lost on Seavey either. Jeff Dickerson, co-founder and CEO of Spire holdings, has enjoyed early success supporting the No. 77 team with Gio Scelzi this year. Spire is also an associate sponsor for Tyler Courtney.
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“Then we got to put the deal together with Jeff, Spire Motorsports and all of those guys and got some of their partners involved,” Seavey added. “And yeah, we showed up and ran really well.
“So that was obviously a good start and a pretty cool first few nights there with those guys.”
Following a dozen starts or so between World of Outlaws and High Limit, Seavey’s debut with his new team was impressive. In his first three days at Central Arizona Raceway, he went from 18th-place (after a fueling issue) on Thursday to eighth on Friday. On Saturday, Seavey qualified second at the Casa Grande track, won his heat and finished seventh in the A-Main.
No doubt Seavey is a quick study. When the tour moved to Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park three days later, he qualified second and finished sixth.
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After succeeding in so many different racing disciplines, Seavey’s early success doesn’t surprise him or anyone else.
“We all have expectations of what we can do,” Seavey said. “Coming into this, we all set the bar high. Chad and Jeff and all those guys are all racing professionally. We’re not really doing it as a hobby.
“We’re there to show up, run well and compete for wins. But, yeah, I don’t know if any of us really expected to come out that first couple races and run like we did, that’s for sure.”
Seavey admits there’s still plenty to learn. With his versatility, however, the veteran’s greatest challenge might not be acclimating to the winged-sprint car but balancing an already packed racing schedule.
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Seavey will continue full-time USAC sprint car competition with Abacus Racing and compete in other “major events.” He is currently fifth in USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship standings, 59 points behind Kyle Cummings.
But Seavey couldn’t say no to this latest challenge.
“Growing up and learning the ropes of racing and professional racing, I didn’t really have a series in mind or anything like that,” Seavey said. “I just wanted to be able to feel the race and keep doing what I was doing.
“Luckily enough, I’ve been able to do that for a while now. But High Limit/Outlaws—whatever it is—it’s pretty much most young racers dream to be able to race at this level.”
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This weekend, High Limit returns to Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri. Seavey is looking forward to taking the next step with CBI in the No. 87x.
“Now, that we’ve gotten a few races under our belt and seeing that we’re pretty quick, I think our expectations are to go there and try to win the race,” Seavey said. “So that’s kind of where we’re at.
“I don’t know if any of us thought it would come this quickly. There are going to be nights where we’re going to struggle and things like that. But we know the cars are fast, and so far I’ve been able to race near the front or close to the front.
“Hopefully we can just keep doing that, keep qualifying well. It certainly makes the night a lot easier.”
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Racing the CBI/Spire joint venture is almost a full-circle moment for the multi-time champion. Boat builds the sprint cars at CBI in Mooresville, N.C., about a five-to-10-minute drive from Spire—the former Kyle Busch Motorsports shop—the team Seavey made his sole NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start in 2018. He finished eighth at Eldora Speedway.
In addition to racing a truck, Seavey made two ARCA Menards Series starts with the Toyota farm system gateway team, Venturini Motorsports (now Nitro) that year. He finished third in his first start at Springfield State Fairgrounds, then won at DuQuoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds two races later. He returned with Venturini a year later, won the pole at Springfield and finished fourth. Two weeks later at DuQuoin, he finished second.
To continue the six degrees of Seavey’s NASCAR separation, Chase Briscoe, who is teammates with Gibbs at Joe Gibbs Racing, fielded WoO and non-wing sprinters for the Sutter, Californian.
Certainly, Seavey’s fellow competitors are drawn to the affable driver, not only for his talent but also for being the consummate teammate.
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“People obviously have to like you, but you also have to be able to perform well,” Seavey said. “When you get those chances, you got to be able to run well, run up front and keep people wanting to hire you, basically.
“So just being fast or just being a person somebody likes, you kind of have to have a little bit of both. It’s just kind of how our sport goes.
“There are a lot of guys that are really fast, but people don’t like them. And there’s a lot of guys that a lot of people like, but maybe aren’t quite as fast when it comes down to it. It’s cool that guys are reaching out.”
After competing against Boat as a driver and now an owner, Seavey is surprised their paths haven’t crossed before now.
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“It’s kind of funny how I’ve been racing against Chad for eight years now, and I’ve never raced with him or on any of his cars or on his team or anything like that,” Seavey said. “I wouldn’t have expected that the first time we’d raced together would be in a sprint car or a winged sprint car.”
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