By Jordan DeLucia
JACKSONVILLE, IL (Oct. 5, 2024) — Cannon McIntosh has waited since the dawning of his Midget career in 2017 for the day he’d hoist a national championship trophy. At last, his day has arrived.
McIntosh, 21, of Bixby, OK, was officially crowned 2024 champion of the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota Saturday night at Jacksonville Speedway after a runner-up finish in the main event.
With a total of six Feature wins, 20 top-fives and 21 top-10 finishes through 22 events, McIntosh clinched his first career national Midget series championship, as well as the 18th in team history for Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM). The Columbus, IN-based team, led by co-owners Keith Kunz and Pete Willoughby, also garnered its second consecutive Xtreme Outlaw Series championship after capturing the gold in 2023.
Only minutes removed from his crowning moment, McIntosh was already beginning to feel the weight of his accomplishment.
“It’s a special feeling, obviously I won’t ever forget it,” he said. “Hopefully, I continue to grow in my career, and hopefully this is just the beginning.”
Parked next to McIntosh in Victory Lane was KKM teammate and Feature winner Gavin Miller, who topped the field in the 30-lap main event, leading all but two laps to score his first Midget win of 2024 and third career Series victory.
Before Saturday, Miller, 17, of Allentown, PA, had not won a Midget race since Xtreme Outlaw Series championship weekend in 2023. He battled injury in the beginning of the season and was forced to take time off, but soon recovered and for championship weekend was paired with veteran KKM crew chief Beau Binder.
Together, the duo put together one of the car’s strongest showings of the season.
“I felt amazing, thanks to Beau with this new pairing coming into this weekend and knowing that he communicates very well to me, and all his drivers in general,” Miller said. “He got the car where I liked it, and it felt great.”
From the drop of the green, Miller was strong, passing polesitter Ethan Mitchell on the outside lane on Lap 3 — right-rear tire leaning hard on the 1/4-mile bullring’s cushion. Miller soon sped off, opening up a gap of over two seconds as he entered lapped traffic near the halfway point.
When second-place Corbin Rueschenberg brought out the caution with 14 laps complete, Miller was tasked with surviving the one and only restart of the race with Chase McDermand and Mitchell on his tail.
“I felt confident that I could put that car wherever I needed to be on that racetrack,” Miller said. “I didn’t really know where anybody was when I got to lapped traffic, but luckily the lapped cars were on the bottom, so I felt confident enough where I could just circle the top and they wouldn’t be able to slide me if they were behind me.”
Miller handled the restart with great skill, keeping the field behind him as McDermand and McIntosh — who made the pass on Mitchell to take third on the restart — began to mount a charge for the lead.
When McDermand and McIntosh engaged in a slidejob-filled battle for the runner-up spot in the closing laps, Miller pulled away and crossed underneath the checkered flags to secure the $5,000 check.
Shut out of Xtreme Victory Lane for almost a full year, Miller said he had begun to question his abilities in the driver’s seat, but kept his trust in the process and has finally made it back.
“There was a lot of doubting myself just because of that, and a lot of [asking], ‘Is this for me?’ because of that,” he said. “Just being confident every night and having people who believe in you is probably the best thing for me.”
After winning the slider war with McDermand in the final laps, McIntosh crossed the finish line in second, officially sealing his championship points title.
“We almost closed it out the best way you can, with a win, but I just came up short,” McIntosh said. “I think starting too far back on a track with that fast of a pace is hard to make up ground with only one caution. It was tough to really do anything. But we did our job going into tonight, so it took the weight off of our shoulders early and we were able to just go have fun.”
McIntosh’s first national championship will be one he’ll remember forever, especially considering what he lost the year prior. The Midget world watched as his 121-point gap slowly withered away in the second half of the 2023 schedule, later losing the lead entirely to eventual champion Jade Avedisian before championship weekend in Oklahoma.
But over the offseason, McIntosh reconnected with Kunz and the KKM team — where he’d spent the entirety of the 2020 season — and later set out on the road to chase the Xtreme Outlaw Series championship. Their decision paid off, winning six races and now a championship, restoring McIntosh’s confidence and continuing KKM’s strong grip on the national Midget world.
“Last year was tough,” McIntosh said. “Midway through the season feeling great about it, winning races, and then everything went dead on us. Having to change teams midway through the year and feeling really down on my confidence… just not knowing if I’m able to win races again.
“Being able to get back in Keith’s car this year and win races and close it out with a championship is a good feeling.”
For their 2024 campaign, Kunz took up crew chief duties with McIntosh, working with him on several driving skills that improved his consistency from years previous. That shows in the stats column, as McIntosh recorded only two finishes outside the top five all season.
Now, McIntosh adds his name to a long list of open-wheel heroes to have won a championship with KKM, dating back to the team’s formation in the late 1990s.
“It’s cool, even as long as Keith’s been doing this — he’s won so many races — seeing how happy he still is every single race we win; he’s pumped as much as I am,” McIntosh said. “It’s cool for us to be able to do this together and enjoy moments like these.”
McDermand crossed the stripe in third, and in doing so, sealed himself a third-place finish in the championship points standings after coming into the weekend 35 points behind Ashton Torgerson. Karter Sarff drove from 10th on the starting grid to finish fourth, and Kameron Key completed the top five.
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 97-Gavin Miller[2]; 2. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[9]; 3. 40-Chase McDermand[3]; 4. 21K-Karter Sarff[10]; 5. 5U-Kameron Key[5]; 6. 67-Ryan Timms[12]; 7. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[14]; 8. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[1]; 9. 7U-Zach Daum[19]; 10. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[7]; 11. 68-Jacob Denney[17]; 12. 67K-Ashton Torgerson[20]; 13. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[4]; 14. 83-Will Armitage[8]; 15. 51B-Joe B Miller[15]; 16. 55-Trevor Cline[6]; 17. 50-Daniel Adler[11]; 18. 98-Gunnar Setser[21]; 19. 16TH-Kevin Newton[13]; 20. 16C-David Camfield Jr[16]; 21. 14S-Tyler Edwards[18]; 22. 17-Parker Jones[22]
ARTICLE: https://xtremeoutlawseries.com/recap/cannon-mcintosh-crowned-2024-champion-gavin-miller-wins-finale-at-jacksonville/
EVENT INFO: https://xtremeoutlawseries.com/schedule/event-info/?event=6140
TRACK INFO: https://jacksonvillespeedway.com/
FAN 101: https://about.dirtcar.com/
Photo credit — Brendon Bauman
The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series is brought to fans by important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Toyota (Title sponsor of the Midgets Series), Racing Electronics (Official Radio Supplier) and SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider). Other partners include: TJ Forged and Whitz Racing Products.