Cale Thomas had a very strong 2024 season in Ohio. Eight wins, 34 top ten finishes, strong showings against national competition, and an Ohio Triple Crown contender. Alas, he found himself in search of a ride for the 2025 season. Enter the Demyan-Rudzik 49X team, a team that Thomas has raced for not once, but twice as the 27 year-old Indiana native pointed out. Those stints being Ohio Speedweek in 2021 and the first half of the 2023 season.
“Joe Demyan called me and started talking to me and asked if I had found [a ride],” said Thomas. “They asked if I wanted to do 25 races with them, and I was like, yeah.”
Thomas’ name had been brought up within the team, and the team was enthusiastic about bringing Thomas back. “A couple days later, I got a call back, where they said instead of racing 25 races, they may as well run 30 races and go run the All Stars. They asked if I would want to do that, and I thought about it for a little bit, and it made sense to do that. It’s not a 50 or 60 race schedule, and the All-Stars look different now. It sounds exciting and fun. I miss being able to travel; basically my whole career I’ve traveled, so to get the opportunity to travel again after staying more local last season is exciting,” Thomas said about deciding to run the All Star Series in 2025.
With a 30 race All Star schedule, it allows Thomas to be flexible filling in his schedule. “It opens me up a lot, if the team wants to run more races, we can, or if I want to fill in with another team, it allows me to be flexible and be able to do that. So I think it just works out for both me and the team.”
“I think there’s always a soft spot for me with the All Stars. Growing up racing in Ohio, the All Stars raced in Ohio a lot so you always looked forward to them coming, and tried to perform with them,” Thomas said about running with the All Stars.
“The All Star landscape is different this year. I feel like I’m seasoned, and the team is seasoned, so we’re more or less a true All Star combo. I feel like we can perform really well everywhere we go, and I’m really confident about that.”
As mentioned before, this is Thomas’ third stint piloting the 49X machine, which helps with the confidence going into the season, and helps with the expectations and understandings of the race team.
“I know the expectations and how everything works. We’ve had at least 25 races together, so you already know how everything goes. You’re not worried about making someone upset or not upset or you know how they want to do business– it’s just really easy. It’s like you’re working with your family or working with someone really close compared to working with someone you don’t know. You aren’t on edge or on your toes, and you can carry yourself in a different way. It’ll definitely be more relaxing in some ways, but the expectation is to go out and win or do good. But that’s no matter who I’m driving for, even if it’s my 91 car, I have that level of expectation.”
While main focus for this combination is the All Star schedule, there is potential for Thomas and the Demyan-Rudzik team to add in some races. With one track Thomas is eager to get back to. “Right now, we’re going to do the All Stars and see how it goes. I’m a big advocate for Eldora, so I would really like to run this car at Eldora. I qualified fourth at the Eldora Million and had a chance at making the Million race, so I have a lot of confidence there. That [The Kings Royal] is about the only other race I really want to do. But if their focus is wanting to do the All Stars, then that’s the focus right now.”
After a 2024 season that saw Thomas be a top two driver in Ohio, Thomas is hoping to back that up in the 2025 season and take another step forward in his career.
“After getting eight wins last year, you can always want more, but I’ll take another five to ten wins,” Thomas said about his 2025 goals. “That’s kind of my range, five wins at the least, and ten wins would be exceeding expectations. I also want to be in contention for the points going into the last night. I want to have a chance, or I want to have a lead like I did last season running at Attica and Fremont in the AFCS.”
Cale understands that this is a very important season running a more regional schedule after proving he can run extremely well in Ohio. A 2025 season that mirrors or exceeds his 2024 season could be enough to garner Thomas more national attention, which could turn into a larger, national schedule.
“If you think back five years ago, this 49X car was a national car. Maybe if we gel and there are some upticks and we do win the All Star championship and we do win those five to ten races, maybe they’ll want to take another step and hire some people that can go out on the road with me and have confidence in me. I don’t care if we’d go run High Limit or the World of Outlaws or a flex 50 race schedule. But this is definitely a year that I feel like is important for my career, and if I perform, then it’ll look good, hopefully to a lot of national teams. I’ve always felt like I’m just a step behind; I have the potential, just the wrong timing or maybe someone doesn’t believe in me when they just need to take a chance on me.”
The All Star season kicks off Friday April 11 and Saturday April 12 at Attica Raceway Park for the Core and Main Spring Nationals and will campaign through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, and Indiana.