Richie Murray
Beloit, Kansas (July 9, 2025)………It had been nearly nine years since the last occasion of an Arizona native becoming a first-time USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature winner.
On Wednesday night, the last and the newest Arizonans to grab a victory with the series were standing side-by-side in victory lane as the winning driver and car owner following the 14th running of the Chad McDaniel Memorial at the Mitchell County Fairgrounds Raceway in Beloit, Kansas.
The driver, Drake Edwards (Peoria, Arizona), took the lead on the second lap and paced the remaining 29 circuits at the wheel of his car owned by Chad Boat (Phoenix, Arizona) to capture victory in Wednesday’s second round of Mid-America Midget Week.
As a driver himself, Boat became a first-time winner with the series in August of 2016. Interestingly, Boat also scored his first victory during Mid-America Midget Week in neighboring Nebraska at Fairbury’s Jefferson County Speedway.
For Boat, it was his 45th career series win as a USAC National Midget car owner, tying him with USAC Hall of Famers Bob & Gene Shannon, who tallied 45 victories between 1958-1976.
As for Edwards, it was his first after he had been knocking on the door for victory throughout his initial full-time season with the series, finishing third twice at Sweet Springs and Kokomo, a race in which he led a race-high 13 laps.
But on Wednesday night, the 2024 USAC Western States Midget series runner-up and Rookie of the Year made his mark on the national scene and stamped his name in the record books in just his 23rd career USAC National Midget feature start.
“I was really worried about taking all year long or not even getting (a win) at all,” Edwards stated. “This is a really, really hard deal and all these guys are really good. It’s been a learning curve, for sure. I think it’s huge. Just for me, it’s a confidence booster. I think we can carry this momentum onto the rest of the week and hopefully the rest of the year and maybe pick up a few more of these things.”
In the process, Edwards sported the No. 83 on his ride, which won its first USAC National Midget feature in nearly 47 seasons. Bobby Olivero was the most recent, taking Bill Raney’s No. 83 to the win on August 12, 1978 at Ohio’s Limaland Motor Speedway.
Lining up on the pole in his CB Industries/Avanti Windows & Doors – PristineAuction.com/Spike/Speedway Toyota, Edwards initially endured a rough go on the start, momentarily dropping to fifth as the field hit turn three for the first time behind Justin Grant, Cannon McIntosh, Logan Seavey and Daison Pursley.
However, just ahead of Edwards’ nose, McIntosh and Pursley collided, sending Pursley sliding up to the middle of the track with the wheels locked up and forcing him to a halt. Jeff Stasa, running 22nd, also got collected in the ordeal after contact with the stopped Pursley. Stasa did not return, dropping out with a 24th place finish while Pursley restarted and raced his way back to ninth at the finish.
On the second try at a restart, Grant got the upper hand once again from his outside front row starting position to lead the opening lap by a wheel over Edwards. That said, Edwards was in a much better spot this time to pounce on his CBI teammate, sliding into the lead in turn one. In turn three, Grant retaliated by sliding past Edwards, but Edwards succinctly answered by cutting back under Grant to lead lap two by a pair of car lengths.
Rising to the occasion early was sixth starting Logan Seavey who zipped around the outside of Grant for the second spot on the back straight on lap eight. McIntosh, winner of the last two series races, followed suit and surged underneath Grant in turn four to grab third a half lap later.
By lap eight, Edwards’ lead had expanded to well over a second. However, a turn three excursion and bike on the cushion nearly cost him as Seavey reeled himself to within a car length of Edwards’ back bumper. Moments later, 12th running Mack Leopard found trouble in the same spot and slipped all the way over the turn three and four cushion before coming to a rest to bring out the yellow flag.
The night’s only red flag was displayed on lap 14 as 17th running Kyle Jones toppled over in turn two. He was okay, but his car was towed back to the pits, out of the race with a 21st place result after the team suffered yet another bout of misfortune less than 24 hours after having their new engine expire on them.
Down the stretch, Edwards retained full control as he built his lead up to over a second while working through lapped traffic. On the flipside, Seavey’s encounter with traffic didn’t work out as kindly. As Seavey attempted to slide 16th running Ethan Mitchell in turn two, he couldn’t quite complete the slider attempt, instead falling in line behind Mitchell.
Meanwhile, McIntosh, with a full allotment of momentum, raced under Seavey on the back stretch for third. Jacob Denney followed McIntosh’s path and charged around Seavey in turns one and two on the 29th go around to take third.
Up front, the story was Edwards, albeit in a line of traffic. After a close call with the 15th place running car of Brecken Reese on the final corner, with the two making slight bumper-to-bumper contact, Edwards ultimately prevailed by a 0.655 second margin ahead of runner-up Cannon McIntosh while Jacob Denney took third, Logan Seavey fourth and Justin Grant fifth.
“It was kind of hard,” Edwards admitted. “I was pacing myself and I smelt the rubber about halfway through there. they were all up to speed so it was hard to get across the track and make sliders and stuff. I knew on that last corner, I was debating whether to slide the 00 there but it’s so fast around here, you just hold it out and hopefully don’t make a mistake.”
Cannon McIntosh finished second, and over his three most recent series starts over the past week, he has now finished 1st-1st-2nd to top his previous best Chad McDaniel Memorial finish of fourth in 2022.
Jacob Denney advanced +8 during the feature after starting 11th and racing his way up to a third place result for his best career Chad McDaniel Memorial finish after previously finishing fourth in both 2023 and 2024. That earned him Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.
Chelby Hinton recorded his first career top-10 result in USAC National Midget competition, overcoming recent mechanical obstacles to finish 10th in the final tally while also scoring a heat race win to boot. That made him a shoo-in for the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night
Furthermore, Logan Seavey topped Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying to make it two-for-two on quick times thus far through Mid-America Midget Week 2025. His 21st career USAC National Midget fast qualifying time tied him with 1994-1995 series champion Tony Stewart for 22nd place on the all-time list.
July 9, 2025
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 9, 2025 – Mitchell County Fairgrounds – Beloit, Kansas – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – 14th Chad McDaniel Memorial / Mid-America Midget Week
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.332; 2. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.377; 3. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.421; 4. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-12.446; 5. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-12.475; 6. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-12.502; 7. Mack Leopard, 86x, CBI-12.544; 8. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.557; 9. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-12.582; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-12.603; 11. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-12.604; 12. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-12.610; 13. Chelby Hinton, 4B, Klatt-12.623; 14. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.630; 15. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-12.649; 16. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-12.656; 17. Brecken Reese, 00, Chandler-12.755; 18. Zack Merritt, 43m, Oerter-12.765; 19. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.805; 20. Mark Chisholm, 56x, Chisholm-13.022; 21. Trey Zorn, 00s, Chandler-13.027; 22. Jeff Stasa, 91, Stasa-13.106; 23. Caiden Warren, 12w, Warren-13.300; 24. Blake Spicer, 4s, Spicer-13.534; 25. Dylan Doyle, 37, Doyle-13.975; 26. Shaun Shapel, 84s, Shapel-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Chelby Hinton, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Mack Leopard, 4. Kyle Jones, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Cale Coons, 8. Jeff Stasa, 9. Dylan Doyle. NT
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Gavin Miller, 3. Jacob Denney, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Brecken Reese, 6. Justin Grant, 7. Mark Chisholm, 8. Caiden Warren, 9. Shaun Shapel. NT
USACGEAR.COM THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Steven Snyder Jr., 2. Gunnar Setser, 3. Drake Edwards, 4. Cannon McIntosh, 5. Ethan Mitchell, 6. Trey Zorn, 7. Zack Merritt, 8. Blake Spicer. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Cale Coons, 2. Zack Merritt, 3. Jeff Stasa, 4. Mark Chisholm, 5. Blake Spicer, 6. Caiden Warren, 7. Dylan Doyle, 8. Shaun Shapel. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Drake Edwards (1), 2. Cannon McIntosh (4), 3. Jacob Denney (11), 4. Logan Seavey (6), 5. Justin Grant (2), 6. Kale Drake (9), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (13), 8. Gavin Miller (5), 9. Daison Pursley (3), 10. Chelby Hinton (8), 11. Hayden Reinbold (14), 12. Steven Snyder Jr. (7), 13. Cale Coons (19), 14. Gunnar Setser (15), 15. Brecken Reese (17), 16. Ethan Mitchell (12), 17. Zack Merritt (18), 18. Caiden Warren (23), 19. Trey Zorn (21), 20. Mark Chisholm (20), 21. Kyle Jones (16), 22. Mack Leopard (10), 23. Blake Spicer (24), 24. Jeff Stasa (22). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Justin Grant, Laps 2-30 Drake Edwards.
**Kyle Jones flipped on lap 14 of the feature.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-822, 2-Cannon McIntosh-765, 3-Kale Drake-739, 4-Jacob Denney-728, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-690, 6-Drake Edwards-675, 7-Logan Seavey-658, 8-Gavin Miller-652, 9-Steven Snyder Jr.-606, 10-Gunnar Setser-557.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-153, 2-Briggs Danner-95, 3-Kyle Cummins-86, 4-Justin Grant-77, 5-Gunnar Setser-76, 6-C.J. Leary-74, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-66, 8-Robert Ballou-66, 9-Chase Stockon-57, 10-Logan Seavey-49.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: July 11-12, 2025 – Jefferson County Speedway – Fairbury, Nebraska – 1/5-Mile Dirt Oval – Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship Presented by Westin Packaged Meats & Schmidt’s Sanitation / Mid-America Midget Week
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Steven Snyder Jr.
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Logan Seavey (12.332)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Chelby Hinton
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Kale Drake
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Steven Snyder Jr.
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Cale Coons
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Jacob Denney (11th to 3rd)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Chelby Hinton