Buddy Kofoid charged through the field from the 16th starting position to overtake Justin Grant for the lead on lap 29 and went on to lead the final 22 laps in winning the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series’ T-Town Midget Showdown on Saturday night at Port City Raceway.
Kofoid’s win is his sixth national midget feature victory of the season and his second in three USAC events. Toyota-powered drivers have now won each of the three season-opening events on the USAC circuit and have registered 13 overall national midget feature wins in 2021.
Starting from the pole position, Logan Seavey drove his Tom Malloy/Trench Shoring Rodela Toyota into the lead and dominated the first half of the event as a number of contenders were involved in incidents that brought out caution flags. Justin Grant, the winner of the previous USAC event in Ocala, moved up to second by lap 11 and settled in comfortably behind Seavey as Chris Windom, Kevin Thomas Jr., Ryan Timms and Daison Pursley all were involved in incidents while running in the top five.
Behind them, Kofoid had climbed up to the eighth spot in the first five laps and continued a steady run toward the front. By lap 27, he was in a battle for third with Cannon McIntosh when they ran up on lapped traffic, with McIntosh spinning to bring out a yellow.
As the field slowed, there would be an even bigger occurrence at the front of the pack as Seavey would go from the lead into the pits with mechanical trouble, ending his night and giving the lead to Grant with Kofoid moving up to second.
Grant held the position for one lap after the restart before Kofoid would ride the bottom line to go by Grant for the top spot on lap 29. The 19-year-old Penngrove, Calif.-native would never relinquish the lead, pulling out to more than a second lead on the way to recording his 16th national midget feature win since the start of his rookie season in 2020 – the most of any driver over the 2020-21 seasons. Brian Carber would finish second, followed by Toyota-powered drivers Thomas Meseraull, Jason McDougal and Grant.
“It wasn’t a great qualifier for us,” said Kofoid of his 16th starting position. “I had no idea I could go from the eighth row to first. It’s pretty cool. I don’t know what to say. Rolling the bottom isn’t really my expertise, but we made it work. I can’t say enough about all of these Keith Kunz Motorsports guys and to Toyota and Mobil 1 in giving me the opportunity of a lifetime. I’m kind of in shock, but we just ran a smart race and avoided the wrecks. After that last yellow, those last 23 laps went by really fast.”
Toyota drivers earned four more top-10 finishing positions with Joe B. Miller coming home in seventh, followed by Bryant Wiedeman in eighth, Emerson Axsom in ninth and Thomas Jr. placed tenth.
The USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series closes out the T-Town Midget Showdown at Port City Raceway Sunday night.
Toyota-Powered Drivers USAC Port City Raceway Saturday Results
Buddy Kofoid – 1st
Thomas Meseraull – 3rd
Jason McDougal – 4th
Justin Grant – 5th
Joe B. Miller – 7th
Bryant Wiedeman – 8th
Emerson Axsom – 9th
Kevin Thomas Jr. – 10th
Chris Windom – 12th
Daison Pursley – 13th
Trey Marcham – 14th
Jonathan Beeson – 15th
Sam Johnson – 16th
Cannon McIntosh – 18th
Logan Seavey – 21st
Brenham Crouch – 22nd
Ryan Timms – 23rd
Tyler Thomas – 24th
Toyota Racing PR
