By Matt Skipper
PEVELY, MO – August 2, 2025 – Kameron Key’s time in Victory Lane with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota has arrived.
In the finale to the Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 on Saturday night, the Series rookie out of Warrensburg, MO, scored his first career Feature win in the richest race of the 2025 Series season at an event he grew up visiting.
Jacob Denney and Corbin Rueschenberg set the front row for the opening green flag, with Rueschenberg’s No. 26 taking the lead while Zach Wigal took second place as Denney struggled through the first two turns, forcing him to settle in third.
Key, who started the 30-lap Feature in eighth place, got to work immediately by running the outside line of the 1/3-mile track to enter the top five on Lap 2, then rode behind the leaders in front of him while Rueschenberg continued to command the pace.
On Lap 11, Wigal clipped the Turn 2 wall and spun out, creating an opportunity for Denney, Cannon McIntosh, Gavin Miller, and Key to fight against Rueschenberg for the Feature’s lead.
As the five cars split into multiple lanes, Denney and Rueschenberg crossed over each other for the first three laps of the restart until Rueschenberg was fully clear with the lead at the halfway signal on Lap 15.
Key, who followed Rueschenberg’s line of flying around the cushion of Turns 1-2 and dropping to the bottom of Turns 3-4, helped him pass McIntosh for the podium and contend against Denney, who was grappling to keep his No. 67 JBL Audio Toyota to the bottom of the final turns.
Key used Denney’s deficit to get to his inside through the final corner, then threw a slide job through the following turns to secure second place.
The Trifecta Motorsports No. 9U kept the momentum rolling as Rueschenberg got loose in the cushion of Turns 1-2, gifting Key a chance at stealing the top spot away from the 15-year-old driver as the laps towards the checkered flag continued to tick down.
When Key got within 0.5 seconds of Rueschenberg, he began to use the slider line through Turns 1-2 once more, then slid by the Mesa, AZ driver with eight laps remaining as the Feature’s newest leader.
Though Rueschenberg never kept Key out of his sights, he was unable to make a final attempt for the lead as the “Show Me State” native pocketed $7,500 and his first Ironman dumbbell.
“Yeah, what an incredible race from start to finish,” Key said. “I mean, we got a couple spots early, and we just became stagnant. Last night, Karter Sarff found those crumbs and used them, and (Turns) 3-4 was getting that way. They got jumbled up, and I tried it to see if it worked, and it stuck and I went around them.
“I feel like we’ve been close with the Heat wins, Quick Times, and podiums. I grew up camping here with me and my parents. My family comes here every year, so now to be able to race it and win it is really cool, and the dumbbell trophy is awesome.”
Rueschenberg picked up his second runner-up finish of the 2025 season after an engine failure on Friday night forced him to miss the opening night’s Feature.
“I knew there was going to be those guys to run the bottom or not fully commit to the top,” Rueschenberg said. “I told myself ‘If we wanna win this, we gotta run the wall and hold the bottom through (Turns) 3-4.’ We’re getting really close to that win, we’re knocking on the door. It’s frustrating we couldn’t capitalize, but still really happy with our second-place run. Just not fully satisfied.”
Denney finished the night in third place to cap off his weekend at the Ironman. The Galloway, OH driver’s twin podiums at Pevely give him an extension of the overall Series lead by 150 points over second-place McIntosh, and 64 markers over Karter Sarff in the Xtreme-POWRi Challenge Series standings.
“I was trying to play offense,” Denney said. “But, I was running the top and I saw Wigal down there and I just figured if I hammered it down through (Turns) 3-4, I could make more speed, but I almost crashed doing it and I got too far behind. I let Zach and Corbin get in front of me, and I couldn’t really figure out (Turns) 1-2, and that’s where I feel like I was losing my time.”
Recap Notes:
Smith Titanium Quick Time Award: Jacob Denney
Toyota Heat 1 Winner: Jacob Denney
CASM Safety Products Heat 2 Winner: Colton Robinson
TJ Forged Heat 3 Winner: Zach Wigal
High-Point Driver: Jacob Denney
Summit Racing Equipment Hard Charger Award: Chase McDermand (+10)
Honest Abe Roofing 16th Place Finisher: Shannon McQueen
Up Next: The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota will make the haul towards Pennsylvania for the first of four nights in the Appalachian Midget Week at Action Track USA on Wednesday, Aug. 6.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 9U-Kameron Key[8]; 2. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[6]; 3. 67-Jacob Denney[1]; 4. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[5]; 5. 7X-Joe B Miller[7]; 6. 97-Gavin Miller[4]; 7. 67K-Colton Robinson[2]; 8. 21K-Karter Sarff[9]; 9. 5U-Michael Faccinto[17]; 10. 40-Chase McDermand[20]; 11. 94-Hayden Wise[10]; 12. 72-Alex Karpowicz[13]; 13. 77W-Joe Wirth[16]; 14. 63-Cale Coons[11]; 15. 14JB-Jakeb Boxell[14]; 16. 7-Shannon McQueen[24]; 17. 5D-Zach Wigal[3]; 18. 56E-Tyler Edwards[19]; 19. 98K-Brandon Carr[18]; 20. 50-Daniel Adler[12]; 21. 05-Alex Midkiff[15]; 22. 51-Zach Boden[21]; 23. 44-Branigan Roark[25]; 24. 7D-Michelle Decker[22]; 25. 22G-AJ Johnson[26]; 26. 56X-Mark Chisholm[23]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 67-Jacob Denney[4]; 2. 97-Gavin Miller[3]; 3. 21K-Karter Sarff[2]; 4. 94-Hayden Wise[1]; 5. 14JB-Jakeb Boxell[5]; 6. 5U-Michael Faccinto[7]; 7. 56E-Tyler Edwards[6]; 8. 7-Shannon McQueen[9]; 9. 22G-AJ Johnson[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 67K-Colton Robinson[3]; 2. 7X-Joe B Miller[1]; 3. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[4]; 4. 63-Cale Coons[5]; 5. 05-Alex Midkiff[6]; 6. 98K-Brandon Carr[8]; 7. 51-Zach Boden[7]; 8. 44-Branigan Roark[9]; 9. 40-Chase McDermand[2]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 5D-Zach Wigal[3]; 2. 9U-Kameron Key[1]; 3. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[4]; 4. 50-Daniel Adler[6]; 5. 72-Alex Karpowicz[2]; 6. 77W-Joe Wirth[5]; 7. 7D-Michelle Decker[7]; 8. 56X-Mark Chisholm[8]
Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. 67-Jacob Denney, 00:13.486[8]; 2. 97-Gavin Miller, 00:13.677[1]; 3. 21K-Karter Sarff, 00:13.723[9]; 4. 94-Hayden Wise, 00:13.820[6]; 5. 14JB-Jakeb Boxell, 00:13.852[7]; 6. 56E-Tyler Edwards, 00:13.961[3]; 7. 5U-Michael Faccinto, 00:13.973[2]; 8. 22G-AJ Johnson, 00:14.131[5]; 9. 7-Shannon McQueen, 00:14.416[4]