By T.J. Buffenbarger
LAWRENCEBURG, IN (June 20, 2020) — After having his winning streak snapped the previous night Kyle Larson started what he hopes is another streak by winning the main event Saturday night at Lawrenceburg Speedway during Indiana Midget Week. Larson battled the entire 30-lap distance for the lead with Buddy Kofoid and Thomas Meseraull taking the lead during a late race restart and holding off Meseraull at the end of the victory.
The victory was Larson’s fourth out of five races during Indiana Midget Week and 14th overall during the 2020 calendar year. The win also kept Tucker-Boat Motorsports undefeated during Midget Week with Larson’s teammate Chris Windom winning the only feature Larson was not victorious in Friday at Lincoln Park Speedway.
While Larson has worked hard at every round of Indiana Midget Week, the race at Lawrenceburg was intense dicing with Meseraull and Kofoid.
“I’ve had to work for all of them, but this one especially,” said Larson of his had fought race with Meseraull and Kofoid. “I couldn’t really run the top like I wanted to because I would bounce a lot and if I got into the cushion I would get bogging, so I knew had to make something else work. I slid (Meseraull) one time and felt there was a lot of grip at the entry of (turn) one. Once I got clear of (Kofoid) after he got by me on the one restart I was able to just run that line to protect any sliders that might get thrown at me. At the same time I could make up a little ground on (Meseraull). I knew that last caution I had to do everything I could because there was only a few laps to go. “
Kofoid took the lead at the start while Larson and Meseraull raced for second. After a red flag on lap six for Andrew Laser turning over between turns three and four Meseraull took the lead while Kofoid and Larson raced for second. Larson was able to get the position from Kofoid and started to pressure Meseraull for the lead on lap nine.
After a lap 10 caution Mersaull, Larson, and Kofoid briefly raced three wide for the lead with Meseraull holding the top spot. With 11 laps to go slower traffic started to come into play. This allowed Larson to try a slide job on Meseraull in turns one and two, but Meseraull was able to counter on the other end of the racetrack. As Larson and Meseraull battled for the lead Kofoid nearly slipped by both to take the lead when the caution appeared again when Justin Grant slowed on the track.
Meseraull continue to lead while Larson and Kofoid raced for second. Kofoid ended up getting to far into the cushion in turns three and four allowing Larson to take second position with six laps to go. One lap later Larson was able to slide by Meseraull for the lead.
Larson pulled away for the victory as Kofoid was able to wrestle second away from Meseraull at the end. Chris Windom and Tyler Courtney rounded out the top five.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 20, 2020 – Lawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – 3/8-Mile Dirt Oval – Indiana Midget Week
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-15.095; 2. Kaylee Bryson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.120; 3. Maria Cofer, 57, Cofer-15.182; 4. Kyle Larson, 86, Tucker/Boat-15.204; 5. Tanner Thorson, 19, Hayward-15.276; 6. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.288; 7. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall-15.296; 8. Robert Dalby, 4, Dalby-15.343; 9. Justin Grant, 4A, RAMS-15.376; 10. Chris Windom, 89, Tucker/Boat-15.391; 11. Ronnie Gardner, 7R, Iron Dome/Moonshine-15.408; 12. Shane Golobic, 17w, Wood-15.419; 13. Andrew Layser, 82, Tucker/Boat-15.451; 14. Cole Bodine, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-15.465; 15. Jason McDougal, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.559; 16. Tanner Carrick, 35, Petry-15.586; 17. Landon Simon, 2, Bush-15.598; 18. Clinton Boyles, 98, RMS-15.603; 19. Jake Neuman, 3N, Neuman-15.638; 20. Brady Bacon, 4B, Klatt-15.653; 21. Noah Gass, 5T, Dave Mac-15.666; 22. Daison Pursley, 9, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.689; 23. Terry Babb, 37, Felker-15.698; 24. Brody Roa, 7m, Iron Dome/Moonshine-15.705; 25. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 5, Petry-15.713; 26. Ace McCarthy, 28, Dave Mac-15.779; 27. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.784; 28. Hayden Reinbold, 19A, Reinbold/Underwood-15.817; 29. Jake Swanson, 73, Ford-15.823; 30. Carson Garrett, 15, Garrett-15.989; 31. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-16.075; 32. Matt Sherrell, 2D, Harris-16.082; 33. Greg Mitchell, 001, Mitchell-16.896; 34. Chase Johnson, 25, Malloy-NT; 35. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Andrew Layser, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Noah Gass, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Landon Simon, 7. Greg Mitchell, 8. Tanner Thorson.
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Clinton Boyles, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Kaylee Bryson, 4. Buddy Kofoid, 5. Chris Windom, 6. Cole Bodine, 7. Ace McCarthy, 8. Carson Garrett. 2:03.892
AUTOMETER THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jason McDougal, 2. Jake Neuman, 3. Maria Cofer, 4. Tyler Courtney, 5. Cannon McIntosh, 6. Zach Daum, 7. Terry Babb, 8. Ronnie Gardner. NT
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Kyle Larson, 3. Tanner Carrick, 4. Shane Golobic, 5. Brody Roa, 6. Matt Sherrell, 7. Hayden Reinbold, 8. Robert Dalby. 2:08.229
INDY METAL FINISHING SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Cannon McIntosh, 3. Cole Bodine, 4. Ronnie Gardner, 5. Brody Roa, 6. Landon Simon, 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 8. Zach Daum, 9. Ace McCarthy, 10. Matt Sherrell, 11. Terry Babb, 12. Carson Garrett, 13. Hayden Reinbold, 14. Greg Mitchell, 15. Robert Dalby. 3:16.373
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Larson (3), 2. Buddy Kofoid (2), 3. Thomas Meseraull (6), 4. Chris Windom (12), 5. Tyler Courtney (1), 6. Cannon McIntosh (22), 7. Kaylee Bryson (5), 8. Cole Bodine (15), 9. Jason McDougal (8), 10. Tanner Carrick (16), 11. Jake Neuman (18), 12. Noah Gass (19), 13. Zach Daum (23), 14. Clinton Boyles (9), 15. Daison Pursley (20), 16. Ronnie Gardner (13), 17. Brady Bacon (10), 18. Maria Cofer (4), 19. Justin Grant (11), 20. Brody Roa (21), 21. Landon Simon (17), 22. Shane Golobic (14), 23. Andrew Layser (7). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Buddy Kofoid, Laps 6-26 Thomas Meseraull, Laps 27-30 Kyle Larson.
**Andrew Layser flipped on lap 6 of the feature.
NEW USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-666, 2-Tyler Courtney-633, 3-Buddy Kofoid-626, 4-Tanner Thorson-586, 5-Cannon McIntosh-532, 6-Tanner Carrick-514, 7-Justin Grant-442, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-441, 9-Cole Bodine-429, 10-Daison Pursley-414.
NEW INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Kyle Larson-388, 2-Buddy Kofoid-331, 3-Chris Windom-323, 4-Tanner Thorson-292, 5-Tyler Courtney-284, 6-Tanner Carrick-274, 7-Justin Grant-255, 8-Cannon McIntosh-251, 9-Jake Neuman-223, 10-Thomas Meseraull-221.
NEW INDIANA MIDGET WEEK PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kyle Larson-38, 2-Thomas Meseraull-24, 3-Cannon McIntosh-23, 4-Chris Windom-22, 5-Justin Grant-20, 6-Tanner Carrick-14, 7-Logan Seavey-14, 8-Shane Golobic-13, 9-Jake Neuman-12, 10-Zach Daum-10.
NEW OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-45, 2-Logan Seavey-43, 3-Cannon McIntosh-32, 4-Andrew Layser-31, 5-Tanner Thorson-28, 6-Justin Grant-27, 7-Tanner Carrick-27, 8-Daison Pursley-27, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-25, 10-Thomas Meseraull-24.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: June 21, 2020 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – Indiana Midget Week
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Thomas Meseraull
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Andrew Layser
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Clinton Boyles
AutoMeter Third Heat Winner: Jason McDougal
Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner: Brady Bacon
Indy Metal Finishing Semi Winner: Chris Windom
Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Kevin Thomas Jr.
KSE Racing Products/B & W Auto Mart/Irvin King Hard Charger: Cannon McIntosh (22nd to 6th)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Zach Daum
ProSource Hard Work: Cannon McIntosh
7th Place Feature Finisher in Memory of Sandra Farris: Kaylee Bryson