The Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing Series 2026 season continued its trip out west this week in a three-day kick-off at Central Arizona Raceway on Thursday night in what was an action-packed 25-lap main event feature. As all was said and done, Rico Abreu finally achieved his first team win with Tony Stewart Racing after winning his heat race and starting in the third position.
The victory wasn’t an easy win for the St. Helena, California native as Abreu wouldn’t take the top spot until 12 laps to go on a restart and making the pass around Tanner Thorson in Turns 3 and 4 nearly half a lap later. From there, he held the top spot for what would be his 26th career win in the series still making him the all-time wins leader. The victory was a special one for Abreu as Team Owner Tony Stewart was in attendance thanks to the NHRA race weekend that is also taking place at Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Arizona.
“It’s really cool to have Tony (Stewart, Team Owner) here tonight, his whole organization, Richard Freeman (Tony Stewart’s Team Owner in NHRA Top Fuel) is here with his crew,” Abreu said in victory lane. “It’s just cool to have this collaborations of these different series that get ran at such a high level. Awesome that it’s the fourth race of the year to get this Tony Stewart Racing car to victory lane and get these partners on the front straightaway. We have SugarBee here tonight and a big group who does a lot of activating with these races. It’s just cool to be apart of the growth of the sport right now.”
The series rolled in on Thursday afternoon for what would be one of three races taking place from Thursday through Saturday night. While the action was not only hot on-track, but the action was hot literally off track as extreme temperatures will be seen for the remainder of the weekend with temperatures at or near 100 degrees causing an Extreme Heat Warning to be in effect through the race weekend.
31 entries was seen on the entry list for the Thursday portion. Most notably, Brad Sweet who recently raced full-time for Kasey Kahne Racing and retired from full-time racing at the end of the 2025 season, made his start for Paul Silva Racing that featured the W Sprint Car. Silva also fields the No. 57 entry for Kyle Larson on a part-time basis.
Additionally, Spire Motorsports fielded a second entry for USAC standout, Logan Seavey who piloted the 87X with backing from the team sponsor Freeway Insurance.
With the limited field, the Thursday race only saw three heat races with top six transferring to the feature. Winning those races was Abreu in Heat 1, Thorson in Heat 2, and James McFadden in the final and third heat race. In the dash race, Sweet would take the victory after starting in the second position holding off both Thorson and Abreu.
In the B-feature that also took the top six, Justin Peck would get the victory to help him transfer to the feature as well. Sye Lynch, Chase Randall, D.J. Netto, Sterling Cling, and Hank Davis all transferred.
When it came time to began the feature, Sweet would start on the pole position thanks to his dash series win. Thorson started in the second position and Abreu rounding out the top three. Immediately as the green flag flew, the first caution of the night was flown two laps later with 23 to go for Hank Davis who stopped right off of Turn 4. Quickly, when the race resumed, more troubles were seen with Sweet falling off the pace rapidly from the top spot allowing Thorson and Abreu to rocket by him on the backstretch. Shortly thereafter, when Sweet pulled off the track into the pit area, a big collision was had in Tuns 3 and 4 with multiple drivers in the accident. Among the contenders in the accident was Brian Brown, Brent Marks, Ryan Timms, Sye Lynch, Sterling Cling, Tyler Courtney and Seavey to name a few. Fortunately, all that were involved got their car fired up again and kept going.
However, cautions would be the theme of the race as the yellow was back out for Timms that had a left rear tire go down nearly causing a stack up coming out of Turn 4. Furthermore, Marks had his own issue with a right rear torque arm broken on his Sprint Car machine. Coming back to the green with 22 to go, there was a brief period of green flag racing until another yellow flew at 19 to go for Peck who sat backwards on the track while running in the 16th position.
Unfortunately, as the field went back racing on the restart, a flip would break out on the backstretch for the recent tour winner of Aaron Reutzel who went flipping upside down. Despite going upside down, Reutzel would climb out of the car under his own power. Meanwhile during the red flag, Courtney and the No. 7BC machine had a right rear tire go down. While changing the tire, the Clauson/Marshall team made sure to be on the safe side of things and decided to change the let rear tire as well. Courtney would resume the race by getting back on track.
After a slew of numerous yellows early on, a restart was seen with 18 to go and saw at least six laps of thrilling green-flag between the top five cars of Thorson, Abreu, Joel Myers, Jr, Tanner Holmes and Abreu. In the waning laps of the race, Abreu began his hunt on race leader of Thorson. Before the Tony Stewart Racing driver could pounce on Thorson, the final yellow of the night flew with 12 laps to go for Danny Sams III that came to a stop off Turn 2.
The caution period was brief and the field fired off once more for what was a short distance to the checkered flag. On the restart, Abreu had a big run off Turns 1 and 2, and almost had the lead from Thorson on the backstretch for a split second. Thorson threw a slider on Abreu out of Turn 4, but wasn’t enough to prevent Abreu who eventually took the lead and his first victory of the 2026 season.
Abreu, Thorson, Daison Pursley, Giovanni Scelzi, Myers Jr, Kerry Madsen, Netto, Timms, and Courtney rounded out the Top 10 finishers.
Thorson had a solid night winning the second heat race leading Laps 3 through 13 before ultimately settling in the second position.
“A little bit disappointed in myself, I felt like I let that one go and car was really good,” Thorson said to Flo Racing. “We’re go back to the drawing board and do some studying, and try to get better to perfect of my race craft there. I never would’ve thought Rico would go to the bottom and pull away from me on the bottom. Him and his team are obviously one of the best for a reason. We’re going to go back and regroup, and try again. Just really happy with this team, they went through a lot and we had a lot of growing pains. Just to show how much speed we have consistently is very beneficial for myself and the team. Thanks to the crowd for coming out and we’ll see if we can put up a better spot Friday or Saturday night.”
Wrapping up the podium finishers was Kasey Kahne’s Racing Pursley who started 10th and wound up third.
“I got lucky on that wreck in (Turns) 3 and 4,” Pursley joked to Flo Racing. “I just blinked and all of a sudden, I was running fifth. It was super cool to race those guys and everything, it’s just awesome. Super cool to get the Kasey Kahne Racing/Mike Curb car up front there. It’s our first podium to start the year and everyone is doing an awesome job. A lot of cool partners who come out here. It was a jumbled race and I felt like I didn’t exactly know where to be to make speed. Nonetheless, it was all about trying to get into a rhythm, and we were able to do that with the last 15 or so laps.”
Following Abreu’s victory, he moved into the second position of the championship standings, just nine points back from points leader Thorson.
Up Next – The Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing Series continues their three-day trip at Central Arizona Raceway, Friday night live on Flo Racing.
