Two-time USAC midget national champion Buddy Kofoid has had a busy week.
Kofoid returned to the Keith Kunz Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian team for Sunday night’s Indiana Midget Week opener and finished second. The following night, he returned to victory lane, earning his 22nd career USAC national midget triumph at Circle City Raceway.
On Tuesday, he was off to Nebraska’s Eagle Raceway where he came home fourth aboard Bernie Stuebgen’s Indy Race Parts No. 71 in High Limit winged sprint car competition.
From there, it was back to Indiana where he finished fourth in Indiana Midget Week action at Gas City I-69 Speedway and vaulted into the Midget Week point lead.
However, Kofoid will not contest the full race slate of midget week, as he signed with Vermeer Motorsports on Thursday morning to fill the seat of the recently vacated No. 55 sprint car, starting Friday night at Attica Raceway Park. His final Indiana Midget Week start will be Thursday night at Lincoln Park Speedway.Â
On The Rise
Jacob Denney has repeatedly proved to be a contender aboard Tom Malloy’s No. 25 Toyota midget.
After winning the opener on Sunday night at Tri-State Speedway, he finished runner-up to Kofoid on Monday at Circle City Raceway. His hot streak took a dive on Wednesday night, however, when he tangled with Cannon McIntosh at Gas City I-69 Speedway and finished 19th.
Denney is second in the IMW standings, 29 points behind Kofoid.Â
Logan Seavey found redemption on Wednesday night at Gas City after dealing with a mechanical failure in his No. 11x midget during Monday’s feature at Circle City Raceway. The California native brought Abacus Racing its first USAC National Midget Championship feature win, which is also Seavey’s first USAC victory in nearly two years.
So far this week, the 2019 Indiana Midget Week champion has finished fifth, 20th and first. He has moved to third in the IMW standings, 44 points behind Kofoid.
Chase McDermand, who has won a pair of Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series races this season, collected his best-career USAC finish on Wednesday night at Gas City, bringing the Mounce-Stout Motorsports No. 40 home in third place.
He finished fourth and 16th at the previous two IMW features. McDermand is ninth in the IMW standings.
Man, He’s Fast
Denney earned his first fast-qualifier award on the USAC national midget circuit on Sunday night at Tri-State Speedway, traveling the quarter-mile track in 13.612 seconds. This came only a few hours before he picked up his third career USAC midget feature win.
Kevin Thomas Jr. was the fast qualifier on Monday night at Circle City Raceway and it marked the sixth consecutive USAC national midget season in which he’s set fast time at least once.
ARCA Menards Stock Car Series point leader Jesse Love set a one-lap USAC National Midget track record at Gas City with a time of 11.788 seconds in his CB Industries entry. It was the first sub-12 second for the series at the quarter-mile track. Love broke the mark of 12.048 seconds set by Rico Abreu in 2016.
Who’s Who
Micro sprint graduate Chelby Hinton is driving for a legend during Indiana Midget Week. Hinton is steering Terry Klatt’s No. 4 prepared by Hall of Fame racer and car builder Bob East. Hinton recently won the Big Dance non-winged micro sprint event at Indiana’s U.S. 24 Speedway, earning a $10,000 payday.
So far, Hinton has finished 23rd, failed to make the feature during night two and was 20th at Gas City.
After devoting the last several years to sprint car racing, Emerson Axsom took a dive back into midget competition for all seven nights of IMW. He reunited with Petry Motorsports, the team he made his first USAC National Midget Championship start with in 2020, to drive the No. 19.
So far, Axsom has finished 15th, fifth and second.
Top-Five Finishers
Night 1 at Tri-State: Jacob Denney, Buddy Kofoid, Kyle Cummins, Chase McDermand and Logan Seavey.
Night 2 at Circle City: Buddy Kofoid, Jacob Denney, Bryant Wiedeman, Tanner Thorson and Emerson Axsom.
Night 3 at Gas City: Logan Seavey, Emerson Axsom, Chase McDermand, Buddy Kofoid and Bryant Wiedeman.
Point Standings
Buddy Kofoid (220 points), Jacob Denney (-29), Logan Seavey (-44), Emerson Axsom (-48), Bryant Wiedeman (-55).