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SPEEDWAY, Ind. — In what was the closest first 12 months driver battle in USAC AMSOIL Dash Automobile Nationwide Championship historical past, Gunnar Setser prevailed by a mere 4 factors to earn Max Papis Improvements Rookie of the 12 months honors.
The Columbus, Ind., native put collectively a stable first 12 months with the sequence, which included a pair of top-five finishes and a finest results of fifth at each Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway and Indiana’s Circle Metropolis Raceway to complete tenth within the standings.
At 16 years outdated, and just some days earlier than his seventeenth birthday, Setser turned the third youngest Rookie of the 12 months within the historical past of USAC Nationwide Dash Automobile racing. Solely Chad Boat (2008) and C.J. Leary (2012) had been youthful.
Setser turned the second KO Motorsports driver previously three seasons to attain USAC Nationwide Dash Automobile Rookie of the 12 months together with Daison Pursley in 2023.
Racing was ever-present in Gunnar’s upbringing. His father, Jason Setser, was the 2016 UMRA King of the TQs midget champion. Jason additionally raced midgets, inventory automobiles and late fashions, and was additionally proficient in dash automobiles, capturing the 2000 Lawrenceburg Speedway monitor title.
Gunnar, himself, lower his tooth within the micro dash ranks at such Indiana dust tracks as Logansport’s U.S. 24 Speedway and Peru’s Circus Metropolis Speedway the place successful was a frequent prevalence, together with a staggering 16 in his first 12 months of competitors.
Gunnar has been racking up the rookie of the 12 months accolades in every single place he turns, incomes the identical award on the 2025 Chili Bowl Nationals, in addition to with the POWRi Midgets in 2024 and the Hoosier Auto Racing Followers in 2024.
All through the 49-race sequence schedule in 2025, Setser and Hayden Reinbold traded barbs back-and-forth, exchanging the Rookie level lead seven totally different instances. On a number of events, the 2 drivers completed inside a spot of one another within the characteristic outcomes. To be exact, that occurred eight totally different instances.
It appeared in every single place you seemed on any given night time, Setser’s No. 5G and Reinbold’s No. 19 had been battling for place.
“It appeared like one in every of us would do higher one night time, after which the opposite would do higher the subsequent night time,” Setser stated. “It was all the time fairly shut, however throughout the previous couple of races, we went forward a little bit bit and that gave us a little bit little bit of respiration room. We had been simply going at it forwards and backwards the entire time. It by no means ended. It was very shut, and it was battle.”
Getting into the ultimate weekend of the season at Central Arizona Raceway in late October, Setser’s lead over Reinbold stood at 14 factors. It grew to 31 getting into the ultimate night time, and just about required Setser to complete mid-pack or higher with the intention to clinch. Nonetheless, issues didn’t become so easy.
“We had been simply attempting to do our factor, however over the past two nights, I actually began to really feel the stress,” Setser admitted. “We knew we had a reasonably good lead stepping into, and we knew we needed to end the races to have the ability to do this.”
Whereas working twelfth with six laps remaining within the characteristic, Setser’s right-rear tire shredded. Restarting on the tail with recent rubber, Setser managed to muster a nineteenth. In the meantime, Reinbold had carved his manner up from his 18th beginning spot to complete seventh. The ultimate tally confirmed that Setser took the Rookie title by a mere two on monitor positions.
Over the previous 18 seasons, Setser is simply the third Rookie driver to complete contained in the top-10 of the USAC Nationwide Dash Automobile standings, becoming a member of Tyler Courtney (ninth in 2013), Tanner Thorson (fourth in 2021) and Emerson Axsom (fifth in 2022). Now, he joins the listing of those that’ve achieved the last word reward for freshman success in USAC Nationwide Dash Automobile racing.
“It means quite a bit,” Setser said. “It was undoubtedly a troublesome season with quite a lot of ups and downs with all the brand new tracks I obtained to run and the robust competitors we confronted.”
Setser’s greatest studying curve with the sequence went proper alongside that line at quite a lot of venues starting from flat bullrings to half-mile excessive banked dust ovals.
“Studying methods to run the cushion was in all probability the most important one for me,” Setser recollected. “I figured it out pretty shortly, but it surely’s totally different at each monitor you go to. Additionally, it’s arduous to qualify properly on a regular basis. There could be a pair nights the place we’re arduous charging and getting up by way of the sector, then one thing would occur. I’d favor to begin up entrance because it normally will get you a greater ending spot, however when you get close to the top-five, it’s actually arduous to get previous these guys. They’re a extremely robust group and all people’s fairly even up there.”
USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR ROOKIES OF THE YEAR
1971 Darl Harrison, Tiffin, Ohio
1972 Billy Cassella, Weirton, West Virginia
1973 Wealthy Leavell, Elwood, Indiana
1974 Lee Osborne, Lebanon, Pennsylvania
1975 Marvin Carman, Union Metropolis, Michigan
1976 Roger Rager, Mound, Minnesota
1977 Eddie Leavitt, Kearney, Missouri
1978 Tim Richmond, Ashland, Ohio
1979 Jerry Carman, Burlington, Michigan
1980 Frank Riddle, Tampa, Florida
1981 Steve Lengthy, Indianapolis, Indiana (co)
1981 Johnny Coogan, Alexandria, Indiana (co)
1982 Danny Milburn, Indianapolis, Indiana
1983 Dean Shirley, Middletown, Illinois
1984 Jerry Russell, Springfield, Illinois
1985 Terry Shepherd, Warsaw, Indiana
1986 Kenny Jacobs, Holmesville, Ohio
1987 Rick Ungar, Garrettsville, Ohio
1988 Dean Jacobs, Fredericksburg, Ohio
1989 Eric Gordon, Greenfield, Indiana
1990 Rick Howerton, Indianapolis, Indiana
1991 Tony Stewart, Columbus, Indiana
1992 Gary Cameron II, Tulsa, Oklahoma
1993 Kenny Irwin Jr., Indianapolis, Indiana
1994 Bobby Smith, Martinsville, Indiana
1995 Mark Cassella, Weirton, West Virginia
1996 Gus Wasson, Bloomdale, Ohio
1997 J.J. Yeley, Phoenix, Arizona
1998 Tracy Hines, New Fort, Indiana
1999 Ryan Newman, South Bend, Indiana
2000 Bud Kaeding, Campbell, California
2001 Ed Carpenter, Indianapolis, Indiana
2002 Boston Reid, Logansport, Indiana
2003 Michael Lewis, Noblesville, Indiana (co)
2003 Mat Neely, Robinson, Illinois (co)
2004 Josh Ford, Camarillo, California (co)
2004 Josh Smart, Riverside, California (co)
2005 Darren Hagen, Riverside, California
2006 Scotty Weir, Marion, Indiana
2007 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Olive Department, Mississippi
2008 Chad Boat, Phoenix, Arizona
2009 Henry Clarke, Villa Park, California
2010 Justin Grant, Ione, California
2011 Coleman Gulick, Binghamton, New York
2012 C.J. Leary, Greenfield, Indiana
2013 Tyler Courtney, Indianapolis, Indiana
2014 Jarett Andretti, Mooresville, North Carolina
2015 Aaron Farney, Brookston, Indiana
2016 Isaac Chapple, Willow Department, Indiana
2017 Stevie Sussex, Tempe, Arizona
2018 Timmy Buckwalter, Douglassville, Pennsylvania (co)
2018 Logan Seavey, Sutter, California (co)
2019 Dustin Clark, Washington, Indiana
2020 Jadon Rogers, Worthington, Indiana
2021 Tanner Thorson, Minden, Nevada
2022 Emerson Axsom, Franklin, Indiana
2023 Daison Pursley, Locust Grove, Oklahoma
2024 Hunter Maddox, Bedford, Indiana
2025 Gunnar Setser, Columbus, Indiana
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