Buddy Kofoid earned his 11th win of the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series season with a 1.372-second win over Cannon McIntosh on night two of the Hangtown 100 at Placerville Speedway, Friday.
Kofoid is the first USAC Midget driver to score double-digit wins since 1988 and his next victory would tie him for the fifth-highest total in a single season with each of the four drivers ahead of him competing in seasons that featured 45 races or more compared to this year’s projected 37 events. Overall, Kofoid has registered 39 career national midget feature wins with 20 of those coming in USAC competition.
Friday’s feature kicked off with Thomas Meseraull taking the point position on the opening lap, with Bryant Wiedeman moving up to the top spot after the two leaders made contact in turn four on lap two with Kofoid having moved up from his fifth starting position up to second after Meseraull went over the berm on the high side. It wouldn’t take long for Kofoid to move to the front of the pack, though, as he overtook his Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) teammate on lap four. Behind him, fellow KKM driver Ryan Timms and McIntosh would take over the second and third positions.
As the laps began to wind down, Timms began to close on Kofoid and had a big run into turn one on lap 23, but the two KKM drivers would get together with Timms coming to a stop resulting in a yellow with Timms restarting from the back of the field.
While the field would be bunched, no one had anything for Kofoid who mastered the restarts while running the top side of the track and quickly pulled away from McIntosh. Behind them Jade Avedisian had moved past Thursday’s winner Tanner Carrick, but as the two ran side-by-side coming back to the starter’s stand, Carrick would push up to the outside of the track, making contact with Avedisian who would hit the wall and had a vicious flip going into turn one. The 16-year-old Avedisian would quickly climb out of the car, but her night was over.
On the final restart, Kofoid once again pulled out to a second lead over McIntosh and that’s how they would finish, with Tanner Thorson placing third, followed by Carrick and Chris Windom rounding out the top five.
With the win, Kofoid stretched out his championship lead over Justin Grant to 209 points with just four races remaining. In addition, Kofoid now holds an eight-point lead over McIntosh in the Hangtown 100 standings.
The USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series closes out the 2022 Hangtown 100 at Placerville Speedway on Saturday night, with a $20,000 first prize on the line, as well as a $12,000 championship payout for the point winner of the three-day event.
Quotes:
Buddy Kofoid, Keith Kunz Motorsports: “This is where I cut my teeth in sprint cars. It’s cool to come back home. Feels really good to win at what I consider a home track. The track was more my style tonight than it was yesterday. I tightened my car up as the race went on. Overall, a good night and we’re sitting in a good position for tomorrow. I owe it all to Keith Kunz and the people who took a chance on me four years ago and now we’re chasing a second midget championship with 11 wins this year. And of course, I wouldn’t be here without Mobil 1 and Toyota.”
Cannon McIntosh, Dave Mac Dalby Motorsports: “There really wasn’t much we could do at the end. Buddy had those really good restarts, so we never really had a chance to throw a slider. We were better on the long runs tonight. Buddy had a really good car and I had one as well. I was just missing a little bit of something. We were pretty even on the long run toward the end. I have to thank everyone who works so hard on this team.”
Toyota-Powered Drivers USAC Placerville Speedway Friday Results
Buddy Kofoid – 1st
Cannon McIntosh – 2nd
Tanner Carrick – 4th
Chris Windom – 5th
Spencer Bayston – 7th
Bryant Wiedeman – 8th
Carson Macedo – 10th
Justin Grant – 13th
Mitchel Moles – 14th
Chance Crum – 15th
Jacob Denney – 17th
Michael Pickens – 18th
Ryan Timms – 20th
Colby Copeland – 21st
Kaylee Bryson – 22nd
Jade Avedisian – 23rd
Thomas Meseraull – 24th
Toyota racing PR
