Spencer Bayston led all 30 on the way to winning the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series’ feature at Merced Speedway, Tuesday, with Buddy Kofoid finishing second and Tanner Carrick third in a Toyota one-two-three finish on the night.
Bayston, a regular in the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, won the 2017 USAC Midget title with Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) and Toyota has returned to a midget for the USAC West Coast Swing with Dyson Motorsports. It his 13th career national midget feature win and the 39th for a Toyota-powered driver in 2023.
Starting from the pole, Bayston went straight to the lead and pulled away from the field early, stretching out a 1.248-second lead over Carrick by lap 10 and would extend that to over 1.4 seconds by the midway point of the race and to 1.6-seconds by lap 23.
Lapped traffic would play a role late, though, as Carrick cut the lead to .59 seconds with just three laps to go. As Carrick closed on Bayston, Kofoid was doing the same thing to Carrick and would eventually get past him for second on the final lap. Bayston would take the win by .893 seconds over Kofoid with Carrick in third. Jesse Love placed fifth to give Toyota four of the top five finishers on the night.
Four more Toyota-powered drivers secured top-10 finishes on the night as Carson Macedo was seventh, followed by Jacob Denny in eighth, Ryan Timms was ninth and Jade Avedisian came home in tenth.
The USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series returns to Merced Speedway Wednesday night before closing out the 2023 season with the 82nd running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix at Ventura Raceway, November 25.
Quotes
Spencer Bayston, Dyson Motorsports Toyota: “It feels really good. Getting back in a midget is a lot harder than I realized it was going to be. We knew we were going to be fast. A huge thanks to the Dyson Motorsports team. They’ve done a phenomenal job. It’s a blast coming out here and racing. It’s a fun challenge to try to put it on top of the podium.”
Buddy Kofoid, Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyota: “I feel like Merced fits my driving style well. Ever since I first started racing here, I fell in love with it. I wanted to win that one. I felt like we were catching him. My car kept getting better as the race went on. Overall, a good night. I ran second the first night here last year and won the second night, so let’s hope that trend continues tomorrow. I can’t thank the KKM team enough for all their hard work and Pete Willoughby and Keith Kunz for giving me the opportunity to drive this Mobil 1 Toyota.”
Toyota-Powered Drivers USAC Merced Speedway Sunday Feature Results
Spencer Bayston – 1st
Buddy Kofoid – 2nd
Tanner Carrick – 3rd
Jesse Love – 5th
Carson Macedo – 7th
Jacob Denney – 8th
Ryan Timms – 9th
Jade Avedisian – 10th
Justin Grant – 12th
Bryant Wiedeman – 14th
Taylor Reimer – 16th
Cannon McIntosh – 17th
Emerson Axsom – 19th
Gavin Miller – 23rd
Toyota Racing PR
