CHARLESTON, Ill. — Michael “Buddy” Kofoid earned his third POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League victory Friday at Charleston Speedway.
Starting eighth for the 30-lap feature, Kofoid kept his nose clean and tried to make his way through traffic and found himself fifth on lap two. When going back green after a restart Kofoid charged from the fifth position to take over third from Noah Gass.
Still charging the top side, Kofoid took second from Keith Kunz Motorsports teammate Daison Pursley on lap seven. Jake Neuman sitting in the lead, settled in and found himself almost a second ahead of the field until the caution flag flew for Andy Bishop on lap 11.
Neuman took to the top side after the restart and checked out as Gass running fourth threw a wild slide job for the second position but fell back into third.
As the laps wound down, Kofoid closed in on Neuman with three hundredths of a second each lap. Neuman continued to work the high side and Kofoid tried everything, but to no avail.
Finally, with two laps to go Kofoid tried to slide Neuman for the lead in turns one and two, as Neuman got over the cushion and Kofoid capitalized for the top position.
“I got to second pretty quick and I felt I was pretty good on those restarts and could slide them and kind of keep them behind me,” stated Kofoid. “I noticed Jake was tight on entry of both corners and I started cheating it and I wouldn’t get near as tight. A couple of times I did, but I found that when I get tight, it would shoot me down off two, and it was better to turn the corner down instead of trying to ride it all the way down.”
“I really think I used my tires up early, the left rear looks like it’s gone,” commented second place runner Jake Neuman. “Hats off to him, they’re just a little better at the end.”
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. 67 –Michael Kofoid 2. 3N – Jake Neuman 3. 5T – Noah Gass 4. 21KS – Jason McDougal 5. 71K – Cannon Mcintosh 6. 9 – Daison Pursley 7. 28 – Ace McCarthy 8. 4 – Ronnie Gardner 9. 25 – Chase Johnson 10. 72 – Sam Johnson 11. 39BC – Cole Bodine 12. 00 – Trey Gropp 13. 19M – Ethan Mitchell 14. 71 – Kaylee Bryson 15. 15 – Emerson Axsom 16. 21K – Emilio Hoover 17. 56D – Mitchell Davis 18. 3B – Shelby Boise 19. 11 – Andy Bishop 20. 97 – Austin Odell 21. 5D – Zach Daum 22. 2 – Landon Simon