Buddy Kofoid overtook Cannon McIntosh on lap 20 and then held him off on two late restarts to win his second straight race at the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series’ USAC Nationals at Huset’s Speedway, Saturday. Kofoid has now finished fourth, third, second, first and first in his five career midget features at Huset’s. He also took home his first-ever World of Outlaws win at the track in late June.
The reigning USAC champion has now won six of the last nine USAC events. Overall, he has nine national midget feature wins this season and 34 for his career.
Saturday night’s race marked the second consecutive night that Kofoid and McIntosh entered the feature as the top-two in points after qualifying and the heat races, as they would start fifth and sixth in the inverted field.
At the green flag, Chance Crum would take the lead with Jacob Denney running second, but McIntosh and Kofoid quickly moved through the field to challenge with McIntosh taking over the top spot on lap 11, going third to first as he split the two leaders coming out of turn two, then slid Crum for the lead through turn three and into four.
Not far behind was Kofoid who climbed up into third on lap 13 and then moved past Denney for second one lap later. From that point on, it was a two-car battle for the win between the two Toyota development drivers. McIntosh would hold the lead through lap 19 but biked it on the cushion through turn three with Kofoid going underneath him for the lead.
The two continued their battle before Kofoid was able to split a pair of lapped cars to open up a gap before a late-race caution on lap 29 set up a green-white-checkered finish. Kofoid was able to hold off his rival for the win with McIntosh placing second in earning his third consecutive USAC top-five finish. Mitchel Moles would place fourth to give Toyota-powered drivers three of the top-four finishing positions on the night.
The 100-lap finale of the USAC Nationals at Huset’s Speedway will be run on Sunday, with the winner earning a $10,000 first prize, while the overall champion from the three nights will take home $12,000 for the title.
Quotes:
Buddy Kofoid, Keith Kunz Motorsports: “I had a really great race car. I knew we’d be really good on the fence. It feels really awesome to go two for two. Hopefully, this will put us in a good place for tomorrow. Now we need to make this even faster tomorrow for more laps and more money. This is all Jarrett Martin (crew chief). We’ve been together for the last two and a half years. He’s so talented. Shane Marquez does a great job out here and having Tanner Ashmore come on-board this year has been really good as well. Keith Kunz and Pete Willoughby are amazing and without the support of Mobil 1 and Toyota I wouldn’t be here right now. I’m just a lucky guy to be able to drive this car.”
Cannon McIntosh, Dave Mac Dalby Motorsports: “At the end I was just trying to run the top all the way around in one and two, but it was pretty choppy up there. We gave it a try. We kind of gave it away mid-race when we just caught that little pile of dirt on the wall. One little mistake cost us. We were running him back down there a little bit, but then it got a little tricky in traffic. We’ll take second. We have a good car and lots of speed. We just need to stay consistent and that will put us there at the end of tomorrow’s 100-lap race. I can’t thank my guys enough – and Crescent, Mobil 1, K1, Toyota and everyone who’s on board with us.”
Toyota-Powered Drivers USAC Huset’s Speedway Saturday Results
Buddy Kofoid – 1st
Cannon McIntosh – 2nd
Mitchel Moles – 4th
Bryant Wiedeman – 7th
Brenham Crouch – 8th
Chance Crum – 9th
Thomas Meseraull – 10th
Kaylee Bryson – 11th
Justin Grant – 12th
Taylor Reimer – 16th
Jade Avedisian – 17th
Jace Park – 18th
Logan Seavey – 19th
Cade Lewis – 21st
Trey Gropp – 22nd
Blake Brannon – 25th
Toyota racing PR
