SWEET SPRINGS, Mo. — Gavin Miller passed teammate Cannon McIntosh in the final turn on the last lap to win the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series’ Mid-America Midget Week opener at Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex Tuesday night.
Miller’s win is his first of the season and the 11th national midget feature win of his career with Keith Kunz Motorsports.
Ten different Toyota-powered drivers have combined to win 18 national midget feature events this season.
Starting from the third spot, McIntosh quickly moved up to second on the opening lap and then chased down leader Ethan Mitchell, eventually passing him for the lead coming out of turn four on lap four.
As McIntosh continued to run upfront, KKM teammate Colton Robinson climbed up to second on lap eight and then ran down McIntosh to take over the top spot on lap 15 with Miller running in third.
McIntosh would fight his way back up into the lead on lap 18, with Miller eventually moving up to second on lap 24 as the three KKM cars dueled upfront.
Just one lap later, Miller would run the bottom by McIntosh in turns three and four to take over first with 15 laps to go. As the race began to wind down, the leaders would run into heavy lapped traffic, with the two banging wheels with four laps remaining.
After running under green flag conditions for the first 38 laps, the first yellow flag would fly with two laps remaining, setting up a green-white-checkered finish.
On the restart, the two would continue to battle for the lead with McIntosh eventually running the high side to take the lead coming out of turn two on the final lap, but Miller would fight back, pushing underneath McIntosh in turn three as the two banged wheels with Miller taking the lead out of turn four for the win.
“I’m thankful to be in this position,” Miller said. “The Soundgear Toyota was great. I just have to thank my whole crew and everyone at KKM. It was an awesome race and I’m looking forward to the rest of the week. (On last lap contact with McIntosh) You have got to do what you got to do. I knew we’d be very close with similar cars.”
Jacob Denney would finish third to give KKM a podium sweep on the night, with fellow Toyota driver Kale Drake placing fourth. Polesitter Ethan Mitchell finished fifth.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Champinoship, Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex, Sweet Springs, Missouri, July 7, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Drake Edwards, 40D, McDermand-11.499, 2. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.640, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-11.702, 4. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.711, 5. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.724, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-11.732, 7. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-11.746, 8. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-11.793, 9. Garrett Benson, 27B, Bourke-11.801, 10. Brandon Carr, 98K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.830, 11. Kale Drake, 4, RMS-11.850, 12. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.852, 13. Mack Leopard, 40L, McDermand-11.856, 14. Adyn Schmidt, 19x, Cox-11.878, 15. Riley Kreisel, 19K, Cox-11.908, 16. Brecken Reese, 20Q, Reese-11.911, 17. Bradley Cox, 45, Mason-11.942, 18. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-11.944, 19. Andrew Felker, 11A, Felker-11.957, 20. Jakeb Boxell, 54, 4 Kings-11.962, 21. Matt Sherrell, 21AJ, Huddleston-11.991, 22. Drew Sherman, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.021, 23. Zack Merritt, 43m, RKO-12.076, 24. Caiden Warren, 12w, Warren-12.168, 25. Branigan Roark, 44, Roark-12.279, 26. Todd McVay, 89, McVay-12.285, 27. Alex Midkiff, 05, Midkiff-12.291, 28. Blake Spicer, 4s, Spicer-12.489, 29. Lance Bennett, 44x, RKO-12.624, 30. Levi Hinck, 21H, TKH-NT, 31. Shyla Ernst, 42, RKO-NT (time of 12.800 disallowed due to car not meeting maximum width requirements)
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cannon McIntosh (5), 2. Bradley Cox (2), 3. Garrett Benson (4), 4. Matt Sherrell (1), 5. Branigan Roark (7), 6. Drake Edwards (6), 7. Lance Bennett (8), 8. Mack Leopard (3). NT
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Jones (2), 2. Gavin Miller (6), 3. Adyn Schmidt (3), 4. Hayden Reinbold (5), 5. Todd McVay (7), 6. Brandon Carr (4), 7. Levi Hinck (7). NT
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Riley Kreisel (3), 2. Andrew Felker (2), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 4. Ethan Mitchell (5), 5. Kale Drake (4), 6. Alex Midkiff (7), 7. Shyla Ernst (8), 8. Zack Merritt (1). NT
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brecken Reese (3), 2. Jakeb Boxell (2), 3. Jacob Denney (4), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Colton Robinson (6), 6. Caiden Warren (1), 7. Blake Spicer (7). 2:02.940
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Drake Edwards (1), 2. Alex Midkiff (3), 3. Mack Leopard (10), 4. Brandon Carr (9), 5. Caiden Warren (2), 6. Zack Merritt (8), 7. Shyla Ernst (7), 8. Lance Bennett (5), 9. Blake Spicer (4), 10. Levi Hinck. 2:27.976 (New Track Record)
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gavin Miller (6), 2. Cannon McIntosh (3), 3. Jacob Denney (15), 4. Kale Drake (14), 5. Ethan Mitchell (1), 6. Colton Robinson (4), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 8. Drake Edwards (10), 9. Riley Kreisel (7), 10. Brecken Reese (8), 11. Jakeb Boxell (20), 12. Kyle Jones (9), 13. Mack Leopard (16), 14. Matt Sherrell (21), 15. Justin Grant (11), 16. Andrew Felker (19), 17. Garrett Benson (12), 18. Brandon Carr (13), 19. Alex Midkiff (24), 20. Adyn Schmidt (17), 21. Branigan Roark (22), 22. Todd McVay (23), 23. Hayden Reinbold (2), 24. Bradley Cox (18).
