BELLEVILLE, Kan. — Following a major changeover during the offseason, Cannon McIntosh got back on track in more ways than one during Friday night’s USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship season opener at the Belleville Short Track.
A mere 616 days since his most recent USAC feature victory in September of 2022, McIntosh returned to glory on the quarter-mile dirt oval, grabbing the lead from his outside front row starting position, then dominating the 30-lap distance from start to finish.
The triumph was McIntosh’s first USAC win for Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports since driving for team full-time in 2020. That year, McIntosh won twice before switching over to the family-owned Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports team where he raced full-time between the 2021-23 seasons.
His remigration to KKM has already paid dividends, ending his 41-race winless streak in USAC competition.
McIntosh’s performance also provided car entrant Mike Curb his 199th USAC national victory, placing him just one shy of becoming the first entrant to reach the 200-win mark.
A solid start was imperative, and McIntosh made it priority number one in his Gear Wrench – TRD – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota, although he wasn’t initially able to throw down the gauntlet nor was he able to apply the dagger quite yet as he followed his teammate and pole sitter Gavin Miller for the first three-quarters of a lap.
That’s when Miller left the bottom in turn four, thus opening the door for McIntosh to scoot on by on the low line.
“I knew it was going to be important to get a good start, especially with how much work they did to the bottom,” McIntosh explained. “I didn’t know if it would go away much, at least in one and two. I thought that maybe it would go away in three and four, so I just stayed committed down there after Gavin made a mistake there on the first lap. We were able to get by and I tried to minimize mistakes the whole race.”
By the end of the 10th lap, McIntosh’s lead stood at a commanding rate of 1.633 seconds until a pair of subsequent stoppages stifled his groove. First, Hank Davis (15th) teetered over the edge of the turn four cushion and slid to a stop. One lap after the restart, Ryan Timms, the 2023 opening night Belleville Short Track USAC Midget winner, snagged the turns one and two cushion before grinding to a halt on the 12th circuit.
Over the course of the next 10-lap stanza, Daison Pursley slipped by Miller for the second spot while McIntosh was in the midst of reestablishing a full straightaway edge.
As he worked through a heavy throng of lapped traffic with five to go, McIntosh tapped the rear bumper of the down-a-lap car driven by Jake Andreotti in turn one. No harm, no foul was the end result as McIntosh carried onward with a 1.3-second lead to his advantage.
Still husting, McIntosh never relented, putting 10 cars in the field at least one lap down in the final running order. Yet, without rearview mirrors and little margin for error, it’s difficult to accurately differentiate between who is who and what is what, so McIntosh didn’t let up.
“I thought I heard someone coming there at the end on the outside in three and four,” McIntosh revealed. “I didn’t know if it was a lapper, but it sounded like somebody was coming, so I was trying to get as many lapped cars as I could there at the end before I was able to bring it home.”
McIntosh ultimately crossed the finish line as a winner 3.19 seconds ahead of Daison Pursley, Gavin Miller, Jerry Coons Jr. and Kyle Jones who finished with a career best USAC result of fifth place.
Meanwhile, defending series champion Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) set a all-time USAC record after charging his way from the 23rd starting position to finish eighth. The result marked his 23rd consecutive top-10 feature finish with the USAC National Midgets. That broke the record held by Jason Leffler since 1997.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Belleville Short Track, Belleville, Kansas, May 17, 2024
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-12.018; 2. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-12.098; 3. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-12.221; 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 85, Central-12.228; 5. Hank Davis, 60x, LeVecque-12.243; 6. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.251; 7. Kaylee Bryson, 27, Joyner-12.313; 8. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.336; 9. Jake Bubak, 27B, Bourke-12.337; 10. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.384; 11. Kevin Thomas Jr, 9, Mounce/Stout-12.396; 12. Steven Snyder Jr., 16, Minear-12.408; 13. Jake Andreotti, 14, 4 Kings-12.430; 14. Ashton Torgerson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.502; 15. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-12.509; 16. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.515; 17. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-12.539; 18. Zach Wigal, 89, CBI-12.566; 19. Zach Daum, 7p, RAMCO-12.597; 20. Austin Torgerson, 88A, Mounce/Stout-12.691; 21. Keith Rauch, 27K, Bourke-12.697; 22. Matt Westfall, 54, 4 Kings-12.896; 23. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.915; 24. Gary Taylor, 32, Dunlap-13.379; 25. Curtis Spicer, 4s, Spicer-13.487.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Ryan Timms, 2. Jake Andreotti, 3. Jerry Coons Jr., 4. Zach Daum, 5. Kale Drake, 6. Justin Grant, 7. Matt Westfall, 8. Kaylee Bryson, 9. Curtis Spicer. 2:07.977
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Jacob Denney, 2. Ashton Torgerson, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Gavin Miller, 5. Kyle Jones, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Hank Davis, 8. Austin Torgerson. NT
T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Cannon McIntosh, 3. Steven Snyder Jr., 4. Jake Bubak, 5. Gary Taylor, 6. Ethan Mitchell, 7. Keith Rauch, 8. Zach Wigal. 2:11.509
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cannon McIntosh (2), 2. Daison Pursley (4), 3. Gavin Miller (1), 4. Jerry Coons Jr. (3), 5. Kyle Jones (5), 6. Zach Daum (19), 7. Justin Grant (6), 8. Logan Seavey (23), 9. Kevin Thomas Jr. (13), 10. Kale Drake (12), 11. Jacob Denney (8), 12. Jake Bubak (11), 13. Gary Taylor (24), 14. Ashton Torgerson (16), 15. Ryan Timms (7), 16. Austin Torgerson (20), 17. Matt Westfall (22), 18. Zach Wigal (18), 19. Steven Snyder Jr. (14), 20. Jake Andreotti (15), 21. Kaylee Bryson (10), 22. Hank Davis (9), 23. Curtis Spicer (25), 24. Ethan Mitchell (17), 25. Keith Rauch (21).