Toyota driver Buddy Kofoid clinched his second consecutive USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series championship with a second-place finish in Tuesday night’s feature at Merced Speedway. The title is the ninth for a Toyota-powered driver in the last 10 years.
With two races remaining on the 2023 schedule, the 20-year-old Penngrove, Calif. native, has registered 12 USAC wins this season. He’s the first driver in more than 30 years to register double-digit wins. Kofoid is currently tied for fifth all-time in single season USAC wins. He became the first Toyota-powered driver to win two USAC National Midget Series titles and is the second-winningest Toyota midget driver with 40 career national midget feature wins, behind only NASCAR star Christopher Bell.
“Congratulations to Buddy Kofoid on his second consecutive USAC national championship,” said David Wilson, president of TRD, U.S.A. “At just 20 years of age, Buddy joins an elite company of back-to-back champions, including the likes of Bryan Clausen, Dave Darland and Jason Leffler, to name just a few. For Team Toyota, Buddy becomes our first multi-time USAC champion and our ninth USAC champion in the last 10 years. Of course, none of this would be possible without the likes of Keith Kunz, Pete Willoughby, and Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM). Sweeping the USAC and POWRi titles for the second consecutive year underscores just how special the entire KKM organization is and how much Toyota and TRD value this truly special partnership.”
In addition to Kofoid’s two titles, others earning USAC Midget championships with Toyota were Bell (2013), Rico Abreu (2014), Tracy Hines (2015), Tanner Thorson (2016), Spencer Bayston (2017), Logan Seavey (2018) and Chris Windom (2020). Kofoid’s title is the seventh USAC crown for Keith Kunz Motorsports drivers with Toyota.
In addition to this year’s USAC championship, KKM driver Brenham Crouch captured the Lucas Oil POWRi National Midget League title in October. It marks the sixth time since 2013 that Toyota-powered drivers have won both the USAC and POWRi championships in the same season.
Toyota Racing PR
