Buddy Kofoid earned his second Oklahoma win in two nights at the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League’s Meents Memorial at I-44 Riverside Speedway, with Christopher Bell placing second and Daison Pursley third as Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyotas swept the podium on Friday night.
The victory is the 13th national midget feature triumph for Kofoid in 2021.
The early portion of Friday’s feature would be a two-car duel between Kofoid and Cannon McIntosh as the two traded the lead four times in the first seven laps before McIntosh settled in at the head of the pack, behind them Pursley had taken over the third spot on lap three.
McIntosh, who started from the pole for the second consecutive night as high point scorer in the heat races, would settle into the lead and held the top spot through the midway point of the 30-lap feature. Further back in the field, Bell would work his way up from the 17th starting position into the top-10 in the first 10 laps and into the top five by lap 18.
McIntosh led through lap 22 when Kofoid was able to overtake him for the lead and just four laps later, McIntosh would run into problems, bringing his night to an end after having the dominant car in the field for much of the race for the second night in a row.
From that point on, it was all Kofoid and just a question of who would join him on the podium as Pursley moved up into second and Bell into third after McIntosh’s retirement. Bell would finally move past Pursley on lap 28 to claim second, dropping Pursley back to third and that’s how they would finish.
Brenham Crouch make it four KKM cars in the top five with a fifth-place finish, while Ryan Timms placed sixth, Joe B. Miller was eighth, Kaylee Bryson ninth and series point leader Bryant Wiedeman came home in tenth giving Toyota eight of the top 10, including six Kunz drivers.
After suffering early problems, Brent Crews would finish 18th as Wiedeman expanded his point lead to 360 with just three races remaining as he attempts to become the youngest national midget series champion in history at age 16.
POWRI closes out the Oklahoma triple-header weekend at I-44 Riverside Speedway Saturday night.
Toyota-Powered Drivers POWRi I-44 Riverside Speedway Friday A Main Results
Buddy Kofoid – 1st
Christopher Bell – 2nd
Daison Pursley – 3rd
Brenham Crouch – 5th
Ryan Timms – 6th
Joe B. Miller – 8th
Kaylee Bryson – 9th
Bryant Wiedeman – 10th
Gavan Boschele – 12th
Sam Johnson – 13th
Cade Lewis – 14th
Cannon McIntosh – 16th
Brent Crews – 18th
Austin Barnhill – 19th
Jade Avedisian – 24th
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