KOKOMO, Ind. – Though Buddy Kofoid stole most of the headlines during Saturday night’s USAC Indiana Midget Week finale at Kokomo Speedway, Chris Windom finally made a little noise of his own.
Driving the NOS Energy Drink-sponsored, CB Industries-prepared No. 89, Windom drove from third to the lead in the 30-lap feature at the quarter-mile bullring, passing polesitter Justin Grant on lap 14 and holding him at bay for the duration of the event.
Not even a late red flag – for the flipped over car of Brenham Crouch in turn three – could stop Windom from banking a $4,000 payday for his first win during the eight-race Indiana Midget Week mini-series.
While it didn’t come with the Indiana Midget Week championship he hoped for, Windom tipped that Saturday’s triumph did soothe some of his frustrations from a rough second leg of Midget Week.
“The last three nights have been some of the three crappiest I’ve had in a row in my career,” Windom acknowledged. “These guys have had to work every single day in this hot weather. It’s been a pretty crappy last three days for us and I know everybody was pretty down. But no one quit, and we came back and got it done tonight. We had engine troubles after the heat, and they busted it to figure out what it was, and they got it fixed.
“I’m so happy to do this for these guys because they work so hard all week. Eight straight days is tough,” Windom added. “We might not have won Indiana Midget Week, but we won the final night, and that’s all you can ask for at this point.”
Grant jumped out to the early lead, but outside polesitter Logan Seavey came calling on lap three and took the lead in an attempt to overhaul Buddy Kofoid and Daison Pursley in the Midget Week standings.
Seavey held serve out front until the eighth round, but Grant raced back past him on lap nine, starting Seavey’s descent down the order as Windom came through to take over the runner-up spot.
From there, a high-low battle began as Grant worked the cushion, while Windom stayed against the inside berm as the pair fought for supremacy around the Kokomo quarter mile.
It took Windom until the 14th lap to clear Grant, but once he did so, the Canton, Ill., native inched away as Grant struggled to keep pace. When the red flag waved for Crouch’s flip, Windom had built a half-second advantage, with the rest of his pursuers more than a second and a half back at that point.
Grant attempted to get back past Windom on the final restart with nine laps left, but Windom had none of it and raced away to a 1.661-second victory over Grant, Jason McDougal, Emerson Axsom and Thomas Meseraull.
“Once the track cleaned off a little bit, this car was so good around the bottom here,” Windom noted. “I knew if I could figure out the right line to keep hitting my marks, I knew the bottom would probably be better. And I figured it out and felt like I was carrying enough speed that no one was going to be able to get around the outside of me. That’s where we’ve won the last two races here.
“I didn’t want to move up and change anything once I got the lead, and ultimately that paid off for us.”
With a seventh-place finish, Kofoid wrapped up the Indiana Midget Week championship by 20 points over Seavey, who came home 10th in Saturday’s feature.
Pursley finished third in the standings, two points back of Seavey in the final tally.
Saturday’s program was delayed more than two hours due to a rain storm that hit Kokomo following the conclusion of USAC national midget qualifying, but track work allowed the remainder of the show to be completed without major incident.
The USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series season continues July 11 at Missouri’s Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex.
To view complete race results, advance to the next page.