SWEET SPRINGS, Mo. — Less than a week ago, Cannon McIntosh was busy becoming the first multi-time winner of the BC39 at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
On Tuesday night, McIntosh became the first three-time USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget winner at Missouri’s Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex.
While his BC39 victory required him to charge from 19th to the win, his Sweet Springs score didn’t require as much flair for the dramatic.
During Tuesday’s Mid-America Midget Week opener at the sixth-mile dirt oval, McIntosh led all 40 laps en route to his third career USAC National Midget victory at Sweet Springs, following previous triumphs in 2020 and 2022.
“I grew up going to small tracks like this,” McIntosh reflected. “There’s usually a pretty good bottom to roll and a cushion as well. I like places where you can do both. It’s not just dedicated to one line. I feel like it suits me pretty well. Actually, I feel like the last few times I’ve been here, I’ve really struggled to find my speed and rhythm. To get back in victory lane here is pretty special.”
McIntosh’s latest win was his second consecutive on the USAC National Midget trail and his third overall during the 2025 season. For his career, McIntosh has now tallied 12 USAC National Midget feature wins.
McIntosh started on the outside of the front row in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – Toyota – Curb Records/LynK/Speedway Toyota.
But instead of using the outside line, McIntosh quickly cut to the bottom behind Grant entering turn one. As Grant drifted up the track in turn two, McIntosh poked under and wheelied his way to the lead midway down the back straight before beating Grant back to the line by a single car length.
That began McIntosh’s search of where exactly to be on the racetrack. However, he soon came to realize he was exactly where he needed to be.
“I feel like I was fighting to find my line the whole race,” McIntosh explained. “I was tuning on the shocks as we went because I started to realize that the bottom was probably going to be there all the way to the end. I just kept cranking on the right rear shock to try and make the car better as the race went on. This thing was fantastic all night. We qualified right where we needed to put ourselves in position. We got a good start, got under Justin there and just tried to pace ourselves from then on.”
Behind McIntosh, the battle raged on for second as rookie Gunnar Setser slipped under Grant to slot into second on lap seven. Zach Daum followed Setser’s lead and bolted underneath Grant entering turn three a lap later on the eighth circuit.
Grant soon found his footing and went back to work. He took Daum for third at the exit of turn two on the 11th lap. By the 19th go around, Grant had risen to second as he finagled up a lane and advanced around the outside of Setser.
“I could hear, at times, him coming behind me,” McIntosh revealed. “But it was probably one of the toughest races I’ve ever ran. I feel like I’m usually pretty good at running the bottom. It had slime, a little bit of grip and then slick. If you got in too low to try and miss the slick, you’d hit the grease and push out of the groove. If you tried to miss the grease, you’d get caught in the slick and completely miss the corner.”
By lap 28, McIntosh was fully engulfed in lapped traffic. As McIntosh stayed true to the low line, Grant began to fish McIntosh in while working the middle groove and was able to pull right to McIntosh’s rear bumper.
Just as that was happening, trouble found Daum as he sat backwards, stopped in the middle of turn one. Daum was running sixth at the time but had run as high as second for a brief moment early in the race.
For the remaining 12 laps, McIntosh went relatively unchallenged, winning by 1.296 seconds over Grant with Daison Pursley third. Hayden Reinbold earned his best career USAC National Midget finish in fourth while Setser recorded his best series performance in fifth.
Logan Seavey captured his 20th career USAC National Midget Honest Abe Roof Fast Qualifying award with a time of 11.692 seconds.
USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Championship, Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex, Sweet Springs, Mo., July 8, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-11.692; 2. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-11.781; 3. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.811; 4. Zach Daum, 5D, O’Dell-11.813; 5. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-11.821; 6. Cannon Mcintosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.823; 7. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-11.830; 8. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.850; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-11.885; 10. Riley Kreisel, 19K, Cox-11.950; 11. Garet Williamson, 6G, DGRD-12.001; 12. Mack Leopard, 86x, CBI-12.002; 13. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.012; 14. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-12.015; 15. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-12.025; 16. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-12.036; 17. Brecken Reese, 00, Chandler-12.065; 18. Kameron Key, 21J, TKH-12.066; 19. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-12.181; 20. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.222; 21. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-12.250; 22. Trey Zorn, 00s, Chandler-12.288; 23. Mark Chisholm, 56x, Chisholm-12.302; 24. Todd McVay, 89, McVay-12.311; 25. Andrew Felker, 11A, Felker-12.331; 26. Branigan Roark, 33, Roark-12.464; 27. Zack Merritt, 43m, Oerter-12.467; 28. Chad Winfrey, 321, Winfrey-12.518; 29. Chelby Hinton, 4B, Klatt-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Jones, 2. Brecken Reese, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Kale Drake, 5. Gunnar Setser, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Andrew Felker. 2:02.90
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Hayden Reinbold, 2. Kameron Key, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Riley Kreisel, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Branigan Roark, 7. Trey Zorn. 2:00.55
USACGEAR.COM THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Steven Snyder Jr., 2. Drake Edwards, 3. Jacob Denney, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Garet Williamson, 6. Mark Chisholm, 7. Zack Merritt. 2:03.80
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Cale Coons, 2. Zach Daum, 3. Mack Leopard, 4. Gavin Miller, 5. Ethan Mitchell, 6. Todd McVay, 7. Chad Winfrey. 2:05.76
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Trey Zorn, 3. Andrew Felker, 4. Chad Winfrey, 5. Zack Merritt, 6. Mark Chisholm, 7. Branigan Roark, 8. Todd McVay. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cannon McIntosh (2), 2. Justin Grant (1), 3. Daison Pursley (6), 4. Hayden Reinbold (7), 5. Gunnar Setser (3), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. (13), 7. Kale Drake (17), 8. Steven Snyder Jr. (8), 9. Jacob Denney (5), 10. Logan Seavey (11), 11. Drake Edwards (21), 12. Gavin Miller (12), 13. Ethan Mitchell (18), 14. Zach Daum (4), 15. Cale Coons (9), 16. Riley Kreisel (14), 17. Trey Zorn (22), 18. Brecken Reese (19), 19. Mack Leopard (16), 20. Andrew Felker (23), 21. Garet Williamson (15), 22. Chad Winfrey (24), 23. Kyle Jones (10), 24. Kameron Key (20).
