BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Gavin Miller led the final 16 laps to earn his first career feature victory in the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series’ feature at Bloomington Speedway on Friday during round five of Indiana Midget Week.
The victory is the third for a Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) Toyota this week.
Miller started the event from the outside of row one with teammate Jade Avedisian on the pole. It was Avedisian who would dominate the early going as she went straight to the lead and pulled out to a 1.5-second lead in the first 10 laps with Miller running second and Ryan Timms running third.
A caution flag would wave on lap 15 to bunch the field and Miller would take advantage by sliding Avedisian through turn two on the restart to take the lead. As Miller went low, Avedisian would jump over the cushion and drop down to eighth.
Miller would maintain the lead running the top side and stretched his lead over second-place Justin Grant to 1.273 seconds before another caution would bunch the field on lap 22. On the restart, Grant would stick right with Miller.
As the top side started to go away late, 16-year-old Miller made the choice to move to the low side and it proved to be a winning decision as he was able to hold off Grant by 0.372-seconds at the checkered flag.
“I knew I needed to be smarter on the long runs because there are so many good drivers waiting if you make a mistake,” Miller said. “The car was good. and the track was really good tonight. I saw the top side going away, so I decided to roll the bottom and it felt pretty good down there. This is unbelievable. We’ve been wanting to win so bad, and we finally got it done.”
Miller’s win comes four days after he appeared to be headed to victory at Circle City, only to catch the cushion, causing him to flip after leading the first 13 laps. The Allentown, Pa., native had earned a pair of runner-up finishes in Xtreme Outlaw Midgets earlier in the year.
The Boxscore
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Bloomington Speedway, Bloomington, Ind., June 9, 2023
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-11.945; 2. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.031; 3. Jesse Love, 84, CBI-12.089; 4. Chase McDermand, 40, Mounce/Stout-12.106; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 23, Mounce/Stout-12.122; 6. Daniel Whitley, 58, Abacus-12.149; 7. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.188; 8. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.231; 9. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.238; 10. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-12.242; 11. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-12.251; 12. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-12.260; 13. Brenham Crouch, 1, Crouch-12.267; 14. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.268; 15. Emerson Axsom, 19A, Petry/Hayward-12.271; 16. Steve Buckwalter, 25B, Buckwalter-12.273; 17. Chase Johnson, 31, Beilman-12.295; 18. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.361; 19. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-12.380; 20. Chelby Hinton, 4, Klatt-12.400; 21. Kyle Beilman, 31B, Beilman-12.408; 22. Jake Andreotti, 25m, Malloy-12.412; 23. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-12.415; 24. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-12.415; 25. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.416; 26. Robert Carson, 99K, LOK/Carson/Segur-12.901; 27. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-13.280; 28. Ashton Thompson, 19T, Mounce/Stout-12.398.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Steve Buckwalter, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Ryan Timms, 5. Jake Andreotti, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Brenham Crouch, 8. Chase McDermand, 9. Jacob Denney, 10. Ashton Thompson. NT
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Johnson, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Bryant Wiedeman, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Gavin Miller, 6. Chelby Hinton, 7. Chance Crum, 8. Logan Seavey, 9. Robert Carson. 2:05.83
T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Emerson Axsom, 2. Daniel Whitley, 3. Jade Avedisian, 4. Taylor Reimer, 5. Ethan Mitchell, 6. Jesse Love, 7. Thomas Meseraull, 8. Kyle Beilman, 9. Justin Dickerson. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI-FEATURE: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Jesse Love, 3. Jacob Denney, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Chance Crum, 6. Kyle Beilman, 7. Chase McDermand, 8. Brenham Crouch, 9. Hayden Reinbold, 10. Chelby Hinton, 11. Ashton Thompson, 12. Robert Carson, 13. Justin Dickerson. 2:44.58
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gavin Miller (2), 2. Justin Grant (6), 3. Logan Seavey (9), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 5. Cannon McIntosh (12), 6. Ryan Timms (3), 7. Bryant Wiedeman (13), 8. Daison Pursley (15), 9. Daniel Whitley (4), 10. Jade Avedisian (1), 11. Jesse Love (10), 12. Taylor Reimer (17), 13. Jacob Denney (18), 14. Chance Crum (21), 15. Thomas Meseraull (14), 16. Emerson Axsom (7), 17. Jake Andreotti (20), 18. Ethan Mitchell (22), 19. Chase McDermand (11), 20. Steve Buckwalter (16), 21. Kyle Beilman (19), 22. Hayden Reinbold (23-P), 23. Chase Johnson (8).