Buddy Kofoid came out on top of an early slider-fest with championship rival Justin Grant and went on to lead the final 28 laps to record his fourth consecutive USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series victory on night two of Indiana Midget Week at Lawrenceburg Speedway. Grant would come home in second with Bryant Wiedeman rounding out the podium in a Toyota one-two-three finish.
Kofoid is the first driver to win four consecutive USAC national midget features since Kyle Larson captured four in a row in 2013 both coming with Keith Kunz Motorsports. With the victory, Kofoid ties Rico Abreu for third for the most career victories by a Toyota midget driver with 32, behind only Christopher Bell (59) and Larson (35).
Right from the start, the race would become a showdown between the two point leaders in Kofoid and Grant, who had combined to win the first six championship features in 2022. The duo exchanged sliders four times before Kofoid took over the point from Grant on lap 3.
After a caution on lap six, Kofoid would begin to pull away, stretching out a 1.2-second lead. Grant would eventually close the gap, though, and threw a slider for the lead at Kofoid in turn one on lap 11 but came up short. It would be the last real threat of the night against Kofoid, who would take the checkered flag 1.5 seconds ahead of Grant, who earned his sixth podium finish of the season, while Wiedeman made a late move to pass Jacob Denny for third place on the final lap.
In addition to the top-three finishers, four more Toyota drivers captured top-10 showings with Jace Park finishing fifth, Thomas Meseraull was seventh, Mitchel Moles was eighth and Logan Seavey came home in tenth.
Indiana Midget Week heads to Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt Sunday for night three of the seven-race event.
Quotes:
Buddy Kofoid, Keith Kunz Motorsports: “It’s so fun here at Lawrenceburg. The first time I came here I fell in love with it. I didn’t feel great after the heat race. I kept tweaking my entry into turn three and finally got it to where I knew I could carry a ton of speed. It’s a good string of races we’ve got going right now. I owe this all to Keith Kunz and Pete Willoughby for believing in me a few years ago and to all of the KKM guys – and to Mobil 1 Toyota for all of their continued support.”
Justin Grant, RMS Racing: “Buddy was really good. I tried to slide him when I got close to him (on lap 11). We made big gains tonight with our NOS Energy Drink RMS 2J. We’ve been struggling a little bit to start Indiana Midget Week. I feel like we’ve got a race car again now and we just need to fine tune it a little bit to finish getting to Buddy. They’re really good right now.”
Toyota-Powered Drivers USAC Lawrenceburg Speedway Results
Buddy Kofoid – 1st
Justin Grant – 2nd
Bryant Wiedeman – 3rd
Jace Park – 5th
Thomas Meseraull – 7th
Mitchel Moles – 8th
Logan Seavey – 10th
Taylor Reimer – 11th
Brenham Crouch – 12th
Cade Lewis – 13th
Jade Avedisian – 14th
Kaylee Bryson – 16th
Mariah Ede – 17th
Blake Brannon – 18th
Cannon McIntosh – 23rd
Indiana Midget Week Standings (after two races)
1. Buddy Kofoid – 166
2. Justin Grant – 145
3. Bryant Wiedeman – 128
Toyota Racing PR
