FAIRBURY, Neb. — Everything Cannon McIntosh had accomplished over the past 11 days could be encapsulated in a mere 40 laps during Saturday night’s USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature at Jefferson County Speedway.
With six laps remaining, the Bixby, Okla., racer picked off the front two in one fell swoop to advance from third to first en route to pulling off a $10,000 triumph at the Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship.
Over the course of the first two laps of the 40-lap feature, the fifth starting McIntosh fell to as deep as eighth in the running order and remained there for the entire first half of the race in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – Toyota – Curb Records/LynK/Speedway Toyota.
Throughout his past five series starts in an 11-day span, McIntosh has been absolutely stellar. He reigned victorious in the BC39 at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, then followed that up by winning the Mid-America Midget Week opener at Missouri’s Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex this past Tuesday.
He then took a pair of runner-up results on Wednesday at Kansas’ Mitchell County Fairgrounds and on Friday at Jefferson County, all before returning to victory lane on Saturday at Jefferson County.
Prior to his BC39 victory on July 2, McIntosh stood third in the series standings, a distant 106 points out of the lead. Suddenly, he now finds himself in the driver’s seat in his quest for a first career USAC National Midget title.
But as for today, the moment at hand on Jefferson County’s fifth-mile dirt oval was all that occupied his mind.
“In this race, I wasn’t really thinking about (points),” McIntosh stated. “I knew I was going backward and I had to change something if I wanted to win the race. You just have to focus on winning races and finishing up front and let the rest of it play itself out. We’ll just keep plugging away. This car has been lights out lately. I just have to do my part when I’m in the seat.”
He certainly did his part late in the going. Yet, early on, McIntosh’s struggle was real as he fell back to the bottom portion of the top-10. But by the halfway point, he was on the move.
“I was going backward early, but I started to make some ground up top behind those guys and pick a few of them off,” McIntosh recalled. “It was such a fast pace up there, it was really hard to see the cushion and I don’t feel like I was getting all the way up to it to build up speed.”
All the while, Seavey established his dominance from the pole position while Jacob Denney quickly advanced from fourth to second on the opening lap to snag the runner-up spot for the time being while Friday night Jefferson County winner Gavin Miller had already moved from sixth to third.
On the lap-five restart following a turn one spin and stop by 24th place running Caiden Warren, Miller carved his way under Denney to take over second in turn two.
At the same time, Seavey continuously increased his lead to more than 1.6 seconds as he blazed through traffic.
On the 23rd lap, 21st running Don Droud Jr. got pinched into the outside wall along the front straight away and flipped upside down before landing in turn one.
It was at this point in which the sixth running McIntosh took a decidedly different approach.
“There was a restart with, I think, 17 to go and I just knew I had to try something different,” McIntosh explained. “I think we were in sixth there and I just went to the bottom on the restart and it was actually really good. I hadn’t really run it before, but then I stayed committed to it when I started picking guys off.”
Denney found his way back to the second position on lap 28 following an exchange of sliders between himself and his KKM teammate, Miller. Seavey took advantage of the battles breaking out behind him to open up his lead to 1.7 seconds until Kale Drake spun and stopped, which necessitated a yellow.
Just prior to the yellow, McIntosh had snuck along the bottom amidst the lapped cars of Droud and Blake Spicer to overtake Miller for third. Once the field tightened up even further due to the caution, McIntosh had an inkling he was in good shape.
“Once I was in third, I knew we probably had a chance to get there,” McIntosh surmised. “I just had to stay committed to it and try to make as few mistakes as possible. I knew with five to go I wasn’t going anywhere and I just had to hit my marks.”
On the lap-35 restart, Seavey skidded across the top of the cushion in turns three and four while, reportedly, also believing he had heard a call for a yellow flag. Meanwhile, Denney slid through the middle to draw even with Seavey, which opened the door wide open for McIntosh to skate on by both drivers at the bottom while exiting turn four.
On the 36th circuit, Drake once again brought out the yellow after stopping in the second turn, which presented a four-lap shootout for the win.
McIntosh feathered the bottom while Denney pounded the cushion in hot pursuit. Off the final corner, McIntosh had the field covered as he beat Denney to the line by a 0.363 seconds while Logan Seavey took third after leading a race-high 34 laps.
Steven Snyder Jr. finished fourth and Gavin Miller rounded out the top five.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Jefferson County Speedway, Fairbury, Neb., July 12, 2025
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Hayden Reinbold (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood), 2. Kale Drake (#97K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 3. Trent Way (#86 CBI), 4. Gavin Miller (#97 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 5. Kyle Jones (#27x Joyner), 6. Zack Merritt (#43m Oerter), 7. Blake Spicer (#4s Spicer). 1:51.003
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Ethan Mitchell (#4m RMS), 2. Gunnar Setser (#43 Arnold), 3. Cannon McIntosh (#71K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 4. Corbin Rueschenberg (#26 Rueschenberg), 5. Logan Seavey (#57 Abacus), 6. Don Droud Jr. (#22T Burch), 7. Blaze Bennett (#10 Mason), 8. Brian Schwabauer (#9B Murphy). 1:51.311
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Brecken Reese (#00 Chandler), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (#14 4 Kings), 3. Jacob Denney (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 4. Bradley Cox (#45 Cox), 5. Cale Coons (#85 Central), 6. Dylan Doyle (#37 Doyle), 7. Luke Icke (#2 Icke). 1:53.242
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant (#87 CBI), 2. Drake Edwards (#83 CBI), 3. Steven Snyder Jr. (#4 RMS), 4. Mack Leopard (#86x CBI), 5. Shannon McQueen (#7 McQueen), 6. Caiden Warren (#12w Warren). NT
ALSO AT THE TRACK: Lance Bennett (#91 Mason) & Shaun Shapel (#84J Shapel)
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Don Droud Jr., 2. Zack Merritt, 3. Caiden Warren, 4. Blake Spicer, 5. Blaze Bennett, 6. Dylan Doyle, 7. Brian Schwabauer. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cannon McIntosh (5), 2. Jacob Denney (4), 3. Logan Seavey (1), 4. Steven Snyder Jr. (3), 5. Gavin Miller (6), 6. Kyle Jones (2), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11), 8. Justin Grant (9), 9. Hayden Reinbold (7), 10. Drake Edwards (16), 11. Corbin Rueschenberg (17), 12. Mack Leopard (12), 13. Gunnar Setser (14), 14. Ethan Mitchell (10), 15. Kale Drake (13), 16. Trent Way (18), 17. Zack Merritt (23), 18. Bradley Cox (20), 19. Don Droud Jr. (24), 20. Shannon McQueen (19), 21. Blake Spicer (22), 22. Caiden Warren (21), 23. Cale Coons (15), 24. Brecken Reese (8).
