SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Cannon McIntosh hopes a change will do him good as he joins CB Industries for the remainder of the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship schedule starting this week, September 27-30, during the Driven2SaveLives BC39 at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
McIntosh (Bixby, Okla.) vacates the Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports No. 08, which he had driven full-time on the USAC circuit since 2021. Now, he’ll drive Chad Boat’s CB Industries No. 86 for the team alongside fellow full-time series driver Bryant Wiedeman.
Over his career, McIntosh has accumulated six series victories and twice finished fifth in USAC points in both 2020 and 2022. However, the 2023 season, by his own admission, has been a struggle as he remains winless and stands ninth in points.
McIntosh was absent for the past two races last weekend at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway, ending his run of 119 consecutive USAC National Midget feature starts since 2019, second most in series history behind only Tracy Hines’ run of 131 straight between 2009-15.
Present at the facility, but without a ride at Eldora, McIntosh officially hit the reset button, serving as a spectator not only of the racing action, but also of the CBI team, who he officially becomes a member of this week.
“It’s a good reset for me,” McIntosh explained. “I feel like the middle of this season became a big struggle for me. I’ve just been looking for a turnaround point. Now, with this opportunity lining up, I feel like it’s a good chance for me to just go out and try to do my best and turn everything around. Chad has great cars and likes to win, and I feel like we’re going to do really well. Just getting to watch Eldora and be around and see how everything was done at CB Industries, it definitely made me confident in what they could do. I feel like we’re going to have some success for sure.”
A midseason change isn’t the most ideal situation for any team, driver or crew member, but McIntosh felt that, at this juncture, it was prudent to do what was best for him, as he put it.
“Racing was becoming very tough,” McIntosh acknowledged. “Our finishes weren’t there at all and I wasn’t having fun doing it for myself. I felt like I had to do something that was going to be a good change for me. It’s a reset to jump into a really good car, which is kind of a bonus. I felt like we always had good cars as well (at Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports). It just wasn’t clicking as well as it used to. Chad’s stuff has been really good lately, so I’m definitely confident in making this switch.”
Now residing in North Carolina, McIntosh acknowledges the differences from being involved in a family-owned team to driving for another outfit. McIntosh knows this firsthand as he previously competed for Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports during the 2020 season. With CBI, he expects to be able to focus a bit more on the driving side of things. Furthermore, the CB Industries team is located just about five minutes down the road from his current residence, allowing him to pop-in to the shop anytime.
This week’s BC39 marks the first set of events on McIntosh’s schedule with CB Industries. At the 2022 BC39, McIntosh led a race-high 20 of the 39 laps before finishing second following a riveting duel with winner Buddy Kofoid. The hunger for winning the BC39 has only grown stronger since for the 20-year-old McIntosh, as does the desire of getting back into victory lane with USAC for the first time this year.
“This one had a big highlight on it when I first saw the schedule after last year,” McIntosh explained. “We led a lot of laps and had speed the whole week, then it came down to the wire with Buddy. We were really close, so it’s really one I’d love to snag this year. Winning that race or not, it was cool just to being able to put on a show like that in front of all the fans inside of IMS, but to finish it out on top would be even cooler, I’d imagine. It definitely gives me a little more hunger going into it, especially with the struggles I’ve had. I just needed something to turn it around, so this would be the perfect place to turn it around, I’d say.”
Brent Crews, previously scheduled to compete in the CB Industries No. 86 at the BC39, will not compete in the event. Instead, he will race in this weekend’s Atlas 200 ARCA Menards Series event at Salem (Ind.) Speedway.