Buddy Kofoid led 95 of 100 laps on the way to winning both the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series Hangtown 100 finale and the three-race points championship at Placerville Speedway, Saturday. In sweeping both, he collected a $32,000 paycheck on the night ($20,000 for the feature, $12,000 for the championship). The defending USAC National Midget champion also won Friday’s feature at the track, while placing third in the Hangtown 100 opener on Thursday.
The victory is the 12th in USAC competition this season for the Penngrove, Calif., native, tying him for the fifth-highest single season total in series history with each of the four drivers ahead of him competing in seasons that featured 45 races or more compared to the 34 events Kofoid has run to date this season. Tonight’s win also marked his 40th career national midget feature win since joining Keith Kunz Motorsports and Toyota full-time in 2020. He’s the second winningest Toyota Midget racer ever, trailing only Christopher Bell.
As the high point scorer heading into Saturday’s feature, Kofoid would start the race on the front row next to Cannon McIntosh and immediately flew straight to the lead at the start, something Kofoid would continue throughout the evening’s restarts. Kofoid would maintain a solid lead through the first 40 laps before McIntosh would close in heavy lapped traffic and begin a fierce battle between the two Toyota drivers. McIntosh would overtake Kofoid for the lead on lap 49, only to see Kofoid come right back to the front on lap 50. The two would trade the lead four times over an eight-lap span with Kofoid taking the lead on lap 56 heading into the scheduled full-field pit stop on lap 60.
When the race restarted on lap 61, Kofoid would once again pull away on the restart, while behind him Chance Crum was charging through the field, overtaking McIntosh for second. The Rudeen Racing Toyota driver made a number of runs at Kofoid as the leaders battled traffic, but to no avail with Kofoid leading a Toyota one-two-three-four finish with Crum placing second, Justin Grant finishing third and Carson Macedo coming home in fourth.
The USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series opens the final week of the season with a pair of races at Merced Speedway, November 22-23 before closing out the 2022 campaign with the 81st running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix at Ventura Raceway on Saturday, Nov. 26.
Quotes:
Buddy Kofoid, Keith Kunz Motorsports: “This is one of the biggest midget wins I’ve gotten – and winning $32,000 is pretty cool too. I can’t thank USAC enough for bringing us out to this track. (On battling heavy lapped traffic) Lapped cars are running their own race, too. When you get into traffic, it’s not just one car running by themselves, it’s five cars running against each other. A couple of times, it got a little bit tricky. I just tried to put as many cars as possible between myself and whoever was running second at the time. I haven’t felt great in traffic the past few nights, but I guess we were good enough to win. Being here in front of the hometown fans was pretty cool and I hope they come out to Merced. It was long race and it’s hard to lead that many laps. That was all my team’s doing. I’m just lucky to get to drive the car. I’m proud to be one of the guys that Keith (Kunz) and Pete (Willoughby) and selected the past few years and I can’t thank them enough – and Mobil 1 and Toyota for their continued support and believing in me.”
Toyota-Powered Drivers USAC Placerville Speedway Saturday Results
Buddy Kofoid – 1st
Chance Crum – 2nd
Justin Grant – 3rd
Carson Macedo – 4th
Spencer Bayston – 6th
Cannon McIntosh – 7th
Tanner Carrick – 9th
Bryant Wiedeman – 10th
Thomas Meseraull – 11th
Kevin Thomas Jr. – 12th
Chris Windom – 13th
Mitchel Moles – 14th
Ryan Timms – 15th
Kaylee Bryson – 17th
Jade Avedisian – 18th
Michael Pickens – 19th
Emerson Axsom – 21st
Brenham Crouch – 24th
Colby Copeland – 25th
Toyota Racing PR
