FAIRBURY, Neb. — Seven hundred and 63 days after becoming a first-time USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget winner, Gavin Miller became a two-time series winner on Friday night at Jefferson County Speedway.
Miller’s June 9, 2023, triumph at Indiana’s Bloomington Speedway more than two years ago was the last time the Allentown, Pa., racer got to enjoy such a moment.
Starting from the outside of the front row, Miller led all 30 laps during Friday’s Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship Presented by Westin Packaged Meats & Schmidt’s Sanitation opener, round three of Mid-America Midget Week.
Despite Miller’s somewhat lengthy hiatus from the win column, which lasted a total of 56 races, his recent pattern of consistency laid the foundation for his path back to victory.
Just last week, he finished as the runner-up on back-to-back nights of the BC39 at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“We’ve been on a streak of a lot of podium runs and it’s about time we broke through,” Miller reiterated. “I wanted that one really bad. I’ve been feeling like I’ve let them down, but it’s boosted my confidence by having good people around me who have told me that I’m capable of being able to do this kind of stuff.”
Miller and his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/SoundGear – Toyota – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota led the way to the third such podium sweep for KKM during the 2025 USAC National Midget season as his fellow teammates Cannon McIntosh and Jacob Denney finished second and third, respectively.
The Kunz/Curb-Agajanian team finished in the top-four positions in May at Kansas’ Belleville Short Track, then commanded the top-three on the final night of the BC39 during the first week of July at IMS.
In four career starts, Miller’s previous best USAC National Midget result at Jefferson County’s fifth-mile dirt oval had been a sixth in the 2024 Midwest Midget Championship owner. The following night, he started on the pole but was involved in an accident while challenging for the lead, which knocked him back to 11th in the finishing order.
But Miller does have past winning experience at Jefferson County, tallying three micro sprint main events between 2021 and 2024. From his bird’s eye view at the front of the field for Friday’s midget feature, Miller was confident this could be a breakthrough night.
“I knew that starting on the outside would kind of help me out,” Miller explained. “I figured that with them watering the track, the top was going to be pretty dominant.”
While Miller got the jump on pole sitter Kyle Jones at the start, red hot McIntosh was hustling his way up into contention on the opening lap by going to the topside around first-time USAC starter Trent Way, then found his own way underneath Jones for the runner-up spot on the second lap, kickstarting what turned out to be a racelong pursuit.
Denney, meanwhile, was busy exchanging sliders with Ethan Mitchell on lap six and seven before finally clearing Mitchell to slot into fourth behind Mack Leopard.
Engine trouble on lap 12 ended a quality run for ninth running Bradley Cox who was making his first USAC start after winning his heat race earlier in the evening.
However, craziness broke loose on the ensuing restart, when sixth running Mitchell experienced the double whammy of contact between himself and Steven Snyder Jr. followed by a face-to-face meeting with a turn four infield tire. That sent Mitchell spiraling upside down along the front straightaway as the field scattered left and right to miss his flipping machine.
Miller led the field past the halfway point and maintained a few car length advantage over McIntosh before ultimately reaching the tail end of the field.
Miller made a gutsy and decisive move in turn three on lap 22 as he split between Way and Luke Icke to put both a lap down in the running order while also hanging McIntosh out to dry behind them, thus helping himself to some much-needed breathing room as the race leader.
A few blinks later, Denney had made his way into third with a turn one slide job past Jones on lap 24. Snyder followed suit to fourth past Jones on lap 25.
With five laps remaining, Miller was mostly by his lonesome but still giving 10/10ths.
As Miller crossed under the flag stand on lap 25, he bounced his right rear tire off the front straightaway wall, which subsequently sucked his right front tire into the concrete as well.
It was seemingly ‘no harm, no foul’ as he remained on the gas all the way up ‘til the time he reached the rear bumper of Grant, who at the time was the final car on the lead lap.
Rather than retreat from the comfortable line that had been his bread and butter all race to venture into the unknown, Miller followed Grant for the remaining tours while weighing the risk/reward of changing up the gameplan by making the wrong move at the wrong moment.
“It was kind of tough getting by Justin there,” Miller admitted.” Since it was top dominant, I couldn’t really slide through the slick there and I was a little nervous about breaking my momentum and possibly being slid by Cannon.”
While McIntosh was close enough to chop into the lead, Miller never allowed him to encroach closer than a couple car lengths. When all was said and done, Miller was 0.203 seconds better than runner-up Cannon McIntosh while Jacob Denney was third, Steven Snyder Jr. fourth and Kyle Jones fifth.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Jefferson County Speedway, Fairbury, Neb., July 11, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mack Leopard, 86x, CBI-10.945; 2. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.960; 3. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.962; 4. Trent Way, 86, CBI-10.978; 5. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.993; 6. Chelby Hinton, 4B, Klatt-11.010; 7. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-11.051; 8. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-11.059; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-11.065; 10. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-11.072; 11. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.075; 12. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-11.088; 13. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-11.116; 14. Corbin Rueschenberg, 26, Rueschenberg-11.130; 15. Cale Coons, 85, Central-11.138; 16. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-11.152; 17. Shannon McQueen, 7, McQueen-11.161; 18. Brecken Reese, 00, Chandler-11.193; 19. Lance Bennett, 91, Mason-11.227; 20. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-11.275; 21. Brian Schwabauer, 9B, Murphy-11.291; 22. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-11.345; 23. Bradley Cox, 45, Cox-11.356; 24. Luke Icke, 2, Icke-11.522; 25. Caiden Warren, 12w, Warren-11.547; 26. Blake Spicer, 4s, Spicer-11.586; 27. Blaze Bennett, 10, Mason-11.637; 28. John Klabunde, 77J, Klabunde-11.681; 29. Dylan Doyle, 37, Doyle-12.076; 30. Shaun Shapel, 84J, Shapel-12.213; 31. Zack Merritt, 43m, Oerter-12.657; 32. Mark Chisholm, 56x, Chisholm-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Gavin Miller, 3. Mack Leopard, 4. Shannon McQueen, 5. Brian Schwabauer, 6. Dylan Doyle, 7. Hayden Reinbold, 8. Caiden Warren. NT
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Steven Snyder Jr., 2. Drake Edwards, 3. Corbin Rueschenberg, 4. Jacob Denney, 5. Brecken Reese, 6. Chelby Hinton, 7. Blake Spicer, 8. Shaun Shapel. NT
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Bradley Cox, 2. Kale Drake, 3. Cale Coons, 4. Kyle Jones, 5. Cannon McIntosh, 6. Lance Bennett, 7. Blaze Bennett, 8. Zack Merritt. NT
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Ethan Mitchell, 2. Gunnar Setser, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Trent Way, 6. Luke Icke, 7. John Klabunde. 1:55.438
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Hayden Reinbold, 2. Chelby Hinton, 3. Lance Bennett, 4. Luke Icke, 5. Caiden Warren, 6. Blake Spicer, 7. Blaze Bennett, 8. Dylan Doyle, 9. Shaun Shapel. 2:18.259 (New Track Record)
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gavin Miller (2), 2. Cannon McIntosh (4), 3. Jacob Denney (5), 4. Steven Snyder Jr. (9), 5. Kyle Jones (1), 6. Logan Seavey (19), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 8. Mack Leopard (6), 9. Kale Drake (14), 10. Gunnar Setser (15), 11. Cale Coons (18), 12. Drake Edwards (13), 13. Hayden Reinbold (16), 14. Corbin Rueschenberg (17), 15. Brecken Reese (21), 16. Justin Grant (12), 17. Trent Way (3), 18. Brian Schwabauer (23), 19. Luke Icke (24), 20. Shannon McQueen (20), 21. Lance Bennett (22), 22. Ethan Mitchell (8), 23. Bradley Cox (10), 24. Chelby Hinton (11)
