SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. — Logan Seavey held off fellow Toyota driver Cannon McIntosh to win the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League’s 38th annual Pepsi Nationals at Angell Park Speedway on Sunday night.
It marked the tenth straight victory for a Toyota-powered driver at the Pepsi Nationals.
The win is the fourth for Seavey in the last five races and marks his seventh in 11 POWRi races this season. With 20 races remaining, Seavey is already just four wins shy of Christopher Bell’s POWRi single-season record of 11 set in 2014.
After earning the most passing points in the heat races, McIntosh started from the pole, but it was Klaasmeyer who took the lead early with McIntosh, Zach Daum, fifth-starting Seavey, Holley Hollan and Tanner Carrick falling in behind him.
Klaasmeyer, the defending POWRi champion, held down the top spot through the early going with McIntosh and Daum remaining second and third, but Seavey slipped back to fifth on lap three as Tracy Hines moved past him.
After a caution flag waved to bunch the field, Daum took over the second spot on the restart and by lap 10, Seavey had overtaken the 16-year-old McIntosh for third.
The yellow flew again on lap 12 and Seavey took advantage, moving past Daum for second on lap 13 and then setting his sights on his teammate Klaasmeyer, taking the lead on the following lap.
As they reached the midway point of the race, it was Seavey leading, followed by Klaasmeyer, Daum, McIntosh and Carrick.
Daum and McIntosh would both pass Klaasmeyer a lap later, but it would be short-lived for Daum, who was shuffled back to fifth on lap 17 as McIntosh took over second.
At that point, it became a two-car race between Seavey and McIntosh. The two battled for the remaining 13 laps, with McIntosh closing on the two-time midget national champion.
Catching Seavey was one thing, but passing him for the lead would prove to be an insurmountable task as Seavey led the final 17 laps to earn his ninth overall national midget feature win of the year.
McIntosh came home second and Klaasmeyer gave Toyota drivers a sweep of the podium.
Fellow KKM driver Carrick made it an all-Toyota top four, while Chase Jones completed the top five.
Daum crossed in sixth, ahead of Jesse Colwell, Tanner Thorson, Davey Ray and Daison Pursley.
With his ninth podium finish of the season, Seavey extended his POWRi point lead to 480 points over second-place Klaasmeyer. Daum is another 130 points back in third.
The finish:
Logan Seavey, Cannon McIntosh, Tucker Klaasmeyer, Tanner Carrick, Chase Jones, Zach Daum, Jesse Colwell, Tanner Thorson, Davey Ray, Daison Pursley, Ace McCarthy, Jesse Love, Jake Neuman, Holley Hollan, David Budres, Tracy Hines, Brandon Waelti, Tyler Baran, Mike Hess, Thomas Meseraull, Shelby Bosie, Cody Weisensel.