BELLEVILLE, Kan. — Redemption was on the forefront of Cannon McIntosh’s mind during Saturday night’s USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship portion of the Huncovsky Classic at Belleville Short Track.
An incident involving McIntosh and Justin Grant while the two were battling for the second spot on lap seven of Friday night’s feature sent McIntosh spinning to a stop, and out of contention for the victory. He recovered, however, and finished fifth.
That just showed a glimpse of what the Bixby, Oklahoma, native had up his sleeve on the quarter-mile dirt oval, and he proved as such on Saturday night as he picked his way through the field from the inside of row five, then emerged ahead on lap 31 of 40 following a duel with teammate Gavin Miller.
McIntosh led the remaining 10 laps from that point forward, crossing under the checkered flag in a 1-2-3-4 finish for the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team with Kale Drake swiping second, Miller coming home third and Jacob Denney filling the fourth spot. It is believed to be the first instance of a single team occupying the top-four finishing positions of a feature in USAC National Midget history.
“I feel like we had the best piece last night as well,” McIntosh declared. “The cards just didn’t fall our way. We had to go the back early and fight our way back. To pass as many good cars as we did meant that we had a pretty good piece. Tonight, we didn’t start as far forward as we wanted to, but when you have a car that good, you can’t not win the race for your guys.”
While becoming the first multi-time USAC winner on the Belleville Short Track, McIntosh also surged past Grant to become the new series point leader in his Mobil 1 – TRD – Toyota – Curb Records/LynK/Speedway Toyota.
The evening was, for all intents and purposes, a KKM rout. In addition to grabbing the first four positions in the main event, the team’s stable also won each of the three heat races with Kale Drake, Miller and McIntosh all succeeding along the way.
However, the one running away with the feature for the first half was outside front row starter Logan Seavey as he constructed a four second lead over the field by lap 19. On lap 20, it proved to be all for naught as the racelong leader’s car spun off the top of the turn three cushion and came to a rest, necessitating a caution.
That opened the door for Miller to become the new race leader after emerging ahead of Jerry Coons Jr. just a few laps before the midway point. At that moment, McIntosh was beginning to make hay in his venture up the leaderboard. He slashed his way to second with an outside pass of Grant on the front straight on lap 22 yet remained a half second behind Miller with 16 to go.
On a lap 29 restart, McIntosh picked the pocket of Miller along the bottom of turns one and two to assume the lead. Miller refused to relent and came back to the forefront with a slide job past McIntosh in turn three on lap 30.
McIntosh then reloaded and hustled along the bottom of turns one and two to slot back into the lead on the 31st circuit.
“I did everything I could there, and once we got to the lead, I felt like everything was flowing well,” McIntosh recalled. “I felt like I was flowing and things were just going smooth. Even with that late yellow, I wasn’t sweating it too much. I felt like I had such a good car that I just needed to execute the restart and we could get away, and that’s what happened.”
British Rookie Brandon Carr ground to a stop atop the turn three cushion on lap 39 to set up a two-lap dash to the finish line. With that said, McIntosh had his grip firmly on the wheel and would soon have the same grip on the trophy in victory lane.
McIntosh crossed the line roughly six car lengths ahead of runner-up Kale Drake who snuck by Miller along the bottom on the final restart.
Miller hung on for third while Jacob Denney grabbed fourth and Jerry Coons Jr. rounded out the top five.
“(Crew chief) Beau (Binder) tried to make the car good everywhere we went,” McIntosh praised. “I felt like I could run top and bottom. Once I figured out each corner and how I wanted to run it, I feel like we were lights out. Last time, we were scratching our heads and figuring out what to do. We were so far off. With Beau getting me comfortable, it’s gotten me back to where I need to be, and I think he has his confidence back too. I think we’re all where we need to be.”
Grant recorded his 11th career USAC National Midget fast qualifying time.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Belleville Short Track, Belleville, Kan. May 17, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-12.194; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-12.308; 3. Mack Leopard, 86, CBI-12.317; 4. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-12.329; 5. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.347; 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 85, Central-12.377; 7. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.386; 8. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.394; 9. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.445; 10. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-12.446; 11. Garrett Benson, 7B, Engler-12.483; 12. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.548; 13. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.564; 14. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-12.642; 15. Brandon Carr, 98K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.666; 16. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-12.674; 17. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.730; 18. Zack Merritt, 43m, Oerter-13.046; 19. Lance Bennett, 91, Mason-13.115; 20. Dusty Young, 60, Chappue-13.283; 21. Blake Spicer, 4s, Spicer-13.483.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Steven Snyder Jr., 3. Jacob Denney, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Gunnar Setser, 6. Drake Edwards, 7. Lance Bennett. 2:10.15
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Gavin Miller, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Cale Coons, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Garrett Benson, 6. Kyle Jones, 7. Dusty Young. 2:08.66
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Cannon McIntosh, 2. Hayden Reinbold, 3. Brandon Carr, 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 5. Mack Leopard, 6. Zack Merritt, 7. Blake Spicer. 2:11.08
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cannon McIntosh (9), 2. Kale Drake (7), 3. Gavin Miller (8), 4. Jacob Denney (13), 5. Jerry Coons Jr. (1), 6. Steven Snyder Jr. (16), 7. Logan Seavey (2), 8. Justin Grant (6), 9. Drake Edwards (3), 10. Cale Coons (17), 11. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 12. Mack Leopard (4), 13. Gunnar Setser (10), 14. Garrett Benson (11), 15. Hayden Reinbold (12), 16. Kyle Jones (14), 17. Brandon Carr (15), 18. Zack Merritt (18), 19. Dusty Young (20), 20. Lance Bennett (19), 21. Blake Spicer (21).
