That may be true enough, but the Chili Bowl is as tough as it gets, and no one gets a break on this stage. Cannon didn‘t wilt under the pressure. On his preliminary night he recorded a rare clean sweep punctuated by holding off Tyler Courtney and Aaron Reutzel in the feature. His performance in Saturday night‘s finale was also one to savor. It is one thing to finish on the podium, given the plethora of top teams and drivers from all racing disciplines who show up each year, but he shared the limelight with, of all people, Kyle Larson, and runner-up Christopher Bell. It truly was a pinch me moment for a teenager.
It proved to be more than just a great week. Not long after the confetti had been swept up and people dispersed from Tulsa to face a long winter, a deal had been forged for Cannon to race for Keith Kunz Motorsports in the 2020 season. In some ways the pandemic was a help, as he joined many other high school students who now had no choice but to finish their education on-line, and that alone gave him more freedom to spend time in the shop.
Rarely noted is the sacrifice this entails. He was embarking on an exciting life, but one at variance with what a person his age normally experiences. Pondering the decision he has made, Cannon says, “It isn‘t a regret, but I see the free time some of my high school friends have. But I look at some of them, and some are just hanging out and haven‘t thought about what they are going to do for a career. I think I am halfway there. To do this you have to put yourself in the right positions, treat everyone the same, and be respectful. That‘s the name of the game.”His father has his own unique take on the trajectory of his son‘s life. “He is like an old man,” Dave says. “I tell him he has an old soul. He moved out when he turned 18, got his own house, and is just real mature.”
In essence, McIntosh had all the ingredients needed to handle the stress of racing on a national tour and spend days away from home and family. Keith Kunz was prepared to field one of his youngest teams in years, and to survive this trial by fire Cannon needed to call upon his own resources and those of his team.
He quickly gained an appreciation for Keith Kunz and surmised why he has been so successful. “Keith is intense,” Cannon says. “He‘s competitive, and he has been doing this for a long time, but he is still so invested. When you have a bad night, he just says, ‘Load up and let‘s go to the next one.‘ I think there was a night when we had four cars not finish a race and had torn some stuff up and he said to just move on.”
Then there was the emotional and tangible support he received from Pete Willoughby. “Pete, as everyone says, is as good as it gets,” he notes. “He stays cool. He has seen it all. So, you can talk to him and learn from him. I just think he is a knowledgeable guy to go to, even about things outside of racing. Sometimes I went to his office to solve the world‘s problems.”
In retrospect, he says that the 2020 racing season was a fun year. “I really learned a lot,” he says. “And I won a total of six races between USAC and POWRi.” Beyond the mere numbers, McIntosh‘s dramatic September win at Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex was a vital victory for a team that had been locked out of victory circle in USAC National competition for 13 long months. Three weeks later he was in the sweet spot again at Gas City. When the points were tallied, McIntosh landed in a more-than-respectable fifth position in the final standings.
When the calendar turned to 2021 many were concerned about the fate of the annual Chili Bowl. Even with a reduction in capacity in place for spectators, the race was still a prime time event. Back with Keith Kunz, McIntosh was impressive once more. He again scored a preliminary win and backed it all up with a strong fourth-place run on Saturday night. He was pleased with his result given that he had finished with a broken right shock. By now it is clear that this race and race track are a good fit for him. “I love that track,” he says. “It is a small technical track with a curb. It is just a cool place.”
When the season began in earnest, McIntosh had come full circle. He was back in his father‘s car with a goal to build his team into a contender. A few months into this new chapter he observed, “I‘m not just trying to make it in my career, but I‘m working hard to put this team together and get all the pieces in place so we can compete against huge teams like Chad Boat and Keith Kunz Motorsports. We have to keep going. It is hard, but I think we can put it all together.”
There was no other way to cut it. By the time he left the Florida openers it was clear that to become a frontrunner again was going to be a process. He realized quickly that, beyond the years of experience and resources he had behind him at KKM, some of the advantages his former team had were as basic as it gets. “They have all those notes and all that knowledge,” he says. “So, you have a really good baseline every night. That is something I can see now. We don‘t have a really big notebook; that‘s why we were so much better when we went back to a race track for a second time.”
He also was searching to develop the most critical relationship and enjoy the synergy that comes when a driver and a crew chief are on the same page. He had this in 2020 with Kaz Townsend. “Kaz was awesome and we built some momentum,” Cannon says. “He‘s legit. It was an experience like no other, and it really furthered my career. Dave McIntosh agrees with his son‘s assessment, observing, “I think Kaz could tell him to run through a brick wall and he would have done it. There was a lot of confidence built up.”
As early as the openers at Ocala, Florida, Dave McIntosh thought he might have the man that could fill a similar role that Townsend had played for his son — former USAC Western Midget champion Robert Dalby. Robert had moved to Indiana to race more, but was slowly allowing others to fill the seat of his car while he twisted wrenches. One such time came at North Carolina‘s Millbridge Speedway, when it was McIntosh who got the nod.