Chase McDermand will race out of the Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports stable during the upcoming national midget season.
Two weeks ago, the 23-year-old parted ways with Mounce-Stout Motorsports — the team he’s competed for the last two seasons. On the heels of the announcement, McDermand found a new home with Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports.
As McDermand already inked a deal with Trifecta Motorsports to wheel the No. 7u at the Chili Bowl Nationals, the Illinois native will make his debut with Dave Mac-Dalby following the January indoor racing event.
“I was bummed I didn’t get him before he committed to a Chili Bowl ride,” team owner Dave McIntosh said. “I really had planned on him running my personal Chili Bowl car. That was my goal. But either way, he’ll be with us right after.”
The pair plans to chase the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series championship and contest several USAC national midget races. But at the same time, McIntosh and McDermand have their own personal items to check off their list next season — and they need each other to do it.
McIntosh confessed that he’s had his eye on McDermand for a while now, and with driver Cannon McIntosh exploring other professional opportunities, the team was looking for someone to fill his shoes.
For the elder McIntosh, his first choice was McDermand.
“When you look at some of the younger guys that are coming up, there are so many unknowns with new people coming in,” McIntosh said. “I felt like, in watching Chase, there was just something there from the very beginning.”
The team owner knew he had the green light to approach McDermand after the Mounce-Stout announcement, then he took his shot when the two partnered for a micro sprint race at Millbridge (N.C.) Speedway on Oct. 31.
“Before he got out of there, I said, ‘Hey, I need to tug on your ear for a minute.’ And then we just kind of went from there. It was cold, but we got it done,” McIntosh recalled.
The seed was planted, and within the next two weeks, McDermand and McIntosh hashed out most of the specifics for 2024 over the phone.
“Really, we just came to an agreement within the last few days,” McDermand said on Tuesday, adding that there are still a few details to iron out.
But overall, the deal is twofold.
First, in light of McIntosh’s plan to move the Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports operation from Oklahoma to North Carolina next year — which puts both the midget team and Dave Mac-Barnhill Motorsports micro sprint team under one roof — McDermand will follow suit and relocate from his Illinois home to Mooresville, N.C.
Secondly, with McIntosh’s partner Robert Dalby accepting a new full-time role in the NASCAR world, McDermand’s addition to the team will give McIntosh someone to lean on for the day-to-day operations — which also fits into McDermand’s overall career vision.
“One day, I want to be a team owner,” McDermand said. “So knowing the ins and outs of a team operation is going to be very important. Dave Mac presented an opportunity to, not only be a driver, but also have more of a role in the team operation itself.”
For McDermand, the whole thing is a bit of a “now or never” situation.
The Illinois native has wrenched on his own car for quite some time, which was part of his deal with Mounce-Stout, but the chance to take on a management role with Dave Mac-Dalby was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
On top of that, as a driver, McDermand felt confident in the speed he’s seen from Dave Mac-Dalby and believes that combining his notebook with the team’s will pave the way for more of the on-track success he craves.
“I’m 23. I feel super old in the midget world. So it was something that I kind of needed to jump on and, you know, luckily I had the right opportunity to do so,” McDermand said.
After collecting six Xtreme Outlaw victories this season, McDermand will be looking for more once he finds his groove with the Dave Mac-Dalby crew.
“I obviously have to have high expectations after the success that we’ve had this year, so that probably makes it a little hard on myself and everybody else, because we know what the potential is,” McDermand said. “I expect to go out and win races. That’s my goal, that’s Dave Mac’s goals, that’s everybody’s goal. That’s why we do it.”