SPEEDWAY, Ind. — While Cannon McIntosh came on strong during the second half of the season to claim the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, there were plenty of other worthy performances during the season.
Justin Grant led the points longer than any other driver on the circuit, topping the standings for 12 races throughout the first half of the season. He won three times, including April’s Kokomo Grand Prix at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway where he set a ecord by winning across all three USAC national divisions quicker than any driver in series history. He won again in his next outing at Belleville, then scored the opening night of the BC39 at IMS en route to a runner-up points finish for the third time in his career, also doing so in 2022 and 2023. He also led all series drivers with three fast qualifying times.
• Kevin Thomas Jr. equaled a career best finish in the USAC National Midget points by taking third in the standings a full decade after also finishing third in 2015. Despite no wins, he tied McIntosh for the series lead with 19 top-ten results, while garnering four second place finishes at Circle City, Bloomington and Eldora twice. He did accrue the most heat race victories of the season as well, amassing eight.
• Jacob Denney continued his rise up the rankings with three wins and a career best fourth place finish in the standings. His first USAC start for the KKM team resulted in victory in the season opener at Kokomo after starting 17th! That erased a drought of 48 series starts without a win. Furthermore, he won twice during USAC Indiana Midget Week in June at Paragon and then continued his prowess at Kokomo with his second of the win there to close out IMW.
• Kale Drake finished fifth in the standings, starting off the year by winning back-to-back in extremely superstitious fashion. On the way to Sweet Springs, he paid $22.22 for gas, then drew pill #22, then put on 22 tear-offs before the feature. For good measure, he led the final two laps of the feature to earn his second career series win. In fact, he won – you guessed it – two times overall this season, including at Circle City in June. His second place finish at Kokomo clinched him the $15,000 USAC Indiana Midget Week championship by – wait for it – a 22-point margin. You can’t make this stuff up.
• Gavin Miller experienced a breakout year, winning three times in a four-race span during the late summer months. After 763 days and 56 races without a USAC victory, he returned to victory lane at Jefferson County, then did it again twice on Labor Day weekend by scoring at Bloomington, then grabbing the prestigious 40th Firemen’s Nationals at Wisconsin’s Angell Park Speedway worth $10,000.
• Logan Seavey also posted a victory in November at Merced’s Chase Johnson Classic and led all drivers with 115 laps led. Drake Edwards became a first-time USAC National Midget winner during the Chad McDaniel Memorial at Kansas’ Mitchell County Fairgrounds. Fellow Arizonan Hayden Reinbold also became a first-time series victor in September at Eldora in what was his 101st career series start, which occurred on the very same night he also earned his first career fast qualifying time with the series.
• Non-championship contenders, but midget racing masters, also dropped in on occasion to flex their muscles. Daison Pursley’s historic September night at Eldora saw him perform a USAC sweep of the 4-Crown Nationals by winning the Silver Crown, Sprint Car and Midget portions of the program in a single $45,000 night. He backed that up in the next series round at Placerville’s Hangtown 100 where late-race contact between him and Kyle Larson for the lead led to a deafening chorus of boo birds. Yet, it was another $20,000 payday for Pursley.
• Buddy Kofoid won the $12,500-to-win Jason Leffler Memorial at the event’s new home of Bakersfield Speedway at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway in November, utilizing essentially the same team and car number that Leffler used to win his first USAC National Midget title in 1997. At Ventura, Corey Day closed out the year by becoming the youngest back-to-back winner in the 84-year history of the ARP Turkey Night Grand Prix Presented by the West Coast Stock Car/Motorsports Hall of Fame, which was worth $15,000.
• Steven Snyder Jr. was named USAC National Midget MPI Rookie of the Year after finishing eighth in the standings with a pair of second place results at Kokomo and Placerville. Gunnar Setser, another impressive Rookie, finished 10th in the standings with a best result of fifth at Sweet Springs.
• Jerry Coons Jr. and his son, Cale Coons, each started both features at Belleville in May, making it one of the rare occasions a father has competed against his son in a USAC National Midget feature, joining Ted & Gene Hartley, Danny & George Kladis, Don & Rich Vogler, Bob & Bobby Wente, Bob & Terry Wente, Buddie & Trevor Boys, Jim & Ted Hines, Norm & Travis Young, Leon & Brady Bacon, Ryan & Randy Oerter, Ryan & Ashley Oerter and Joe & Clinton Boyles.
• For the first time in series history, one team occupied the top four finishing positions of a feature event. In 2025, it happened twice for the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team, in April at Belleville and again in November at Merced.
• In a statistical oddity in August at Bloomington, every race conducted during the program was won by a car sporting the number 97. Zach Wigal scored the first heat race win in Pat O’Dell’s No. 97x. The second race victory was captured by Kale Drake in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 97K. Gavin Miller, aboard his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 97, finished off the preliminaries with a win in heat race three, then completed the night as the feature victor.
• Nine drivers started all 23 feature events: Jacob Denney, Drake Edwards, Justin Grant, Cannon McIntosh, Gavin Miller, Hayden Reinbold, Gunnar Setser, Steven Snyder Jr. and Kevin Thomas Jr. Overall, 107 drivers started a USAC National Midget feature in 2025.
