By Matt Skipper
After dealing with a 2025 season that brought multiple highs and lows, the 18-year-old almost avoided running with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota at Jacksonville Speedway in the Honest Abe Roofing Open Wheel Showdown.
The decision to join the Series for the weekend was the confidence booster he did not expect, as the Mooresville, NC native captured his first career Feature win after 30 unpredictable laps around the Illinois bullring.
“It’s everything,” Cline said. “Especially to have as much momentum as you possibly can going home. We almost didn’t come about two weeks ago, and we were like, ‘Eh, let’s go try something and figure it out. We’ve been horrible all year long, and we kind of went back to basics on what we started on from last year that we liked, and we fired off really well.”
Chaos immediately ensued on the opening start as polesitter Ethan Mitchell spun in front of the field off of Turn 2, collecting multiple cars in the mix that included Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) teammates Gavin Miller and Alex Karpowicz.
When the field was reset, Kyle Jones took the lead over Karter Sarff and Kale Drake as the three followed each other around the cushion of the 0.25-mile track through the first 10 laps.
On Lap 12, Jones and Drake smacked the wall in Turn 4 and left the door open for Sarff to take the lead. On Lap 13, Sarff’s car overheated through the same set of corners, and he immediately dropped off the track. That handed the lead to Cline, who started in sixth after earning High Point Honors.
Joining Cline in the podium spots were Chase McDermand and Jacob Denney. When Denney took over second place on Lap 19 after racing side-by-side with McDermand’s No. 40X for three laps, he slowly tracked down the No. 55 Toyota by running the middle lane while Cline stayed glued to the top.
Denney added pressure on Cline through the final quarter of the race as he cut the gap down by three-tenths of a second each lap to place his No. 67 JBL Audio Toyota in prime position to steal the win.
When the white flag of the feature flew, Denney was within 0.2 seconds of Cline and began to prepare for a final turn slide job. However, Cline caught the lapped car of Daniel Adler at the perfect moment – preventing Denney from using the momentum he built up. That moment sealed Cline’s fate as he got to celebrate as a first-time national Midget winner.
“I saw (Denney), which ended up being two to go,” Cline said. “I was looking for a (scoreboard) the whole time, and I was just hoping it was over, cause I was worn out, and I need to work out. It’s tough because he was behind me the whole race, and I knew he got through the traffic pretty well. The nice thing is there’s a big curve up there where we just go hammer off from, just like home (Millbridge Speedway) and go to the win.”
Denney finished right behind the back bumper of Cline in second place. With his finish, the Galloway, OH driver widened his distance to Miller in the championship by 358 points over Miller heading into the season finale at Millbridge.
“I kind of put myself behind,” Denney said. “I made a couple of mistakes at the start, and then I just had a lot of ground to make up there. Luckily, the seas parted, and I got a couple of good spots back. By the time I got to second, Trevor was like a straightaway ahead. He was ripping, and I gave everything I had to try and reel him in there.
“I was hoping he’d clear the lapped car before we got to the white flag, just so I could throw a bomb across. But he was right there, and I half slid it and tried to get across, but I wasn’t going to do anything dumb. He ran a great race, I’m not going to take that away from him.”
McDermand rounded out the night with his second consecutive podium finish with the Series to close out the year of Xtreme Outlaw Midget racing in his home state.
“Well first, congrats to Trevor, Troy, (Denise), and their whole family,” McDermand said. “They’re the nicest people in the pit, they help anybody. They lent me a power steering pump before the Feature ‘cause we lost one in the Heat race. So, just first class people, so I’m happy to see him get his first one.
“Our car was really good in the beginning, and then I found a little bit of a different line on the restart and took advantage of everybody hitting the holes and stuff. So, I was able to get up there in a little bit cleaner air, which I feel like helped me for a little while. But, once Jacob built up momentum back around the top and was able to get away from me, that’s when I think our car showed a little bit. We weren’t quite there in the long run.”
Recap Notes:
Smith Titanium Quick Time Award: Alex Karpowicz
Toyota Heat 1 Winner: Trevor Cline
CASM Safety Products Heat 2 Winner: Jacob Denney
TJ Forged Heat 3 Winner: Karter Sarff
High-Point Driver: Trevor Cline
Summit Racing Equipment Hard Charger Award: Cale Coons (+8)
Honest Abe Roofing 16th Place Finisher: Kyle Jones
Up Next: The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota heads home into the finale of the 2025 season as the Xtreme Outlaw World Championship presented by Glenn Styres Racing awaits at Millbridge Speedway on Monday-Tuesday, Nov. 3-4.
MILLBRIDGE INFO
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. 55-Trevor Cline[6]; 2. 67-Jacob Denney[5]; 3. 40-Chase McDermand[8]; 4. 71K-Kale Drake[4]; 5. 16-Zach Daum[7]; 6. 63-Cale Coons[14]; 7. 67K-Colton Robinson[12]; 8. 97-Gavin Miller[13]; 9. 9U-Kameron Key[10]; 10. 85-Jerry Coons Jr[11]; 11. 94-Hayden Wise[19]; 12. 98K-Brandon Carr[16]; 13. 5U-Michael Faccinto[17]; 14. 50-Daniel Adler[22]; 15. (DNF) 17-Corbin Rueschenberg[15]; 16. (DNF) 7X-Kyle Jones[1]; 17. (DNF) 20Q-Brecken Reese[18]; 18. (DNF) 7U-Karter Sarff[3]; 19. (DNF) 9-Jake Neuman[20]; 20. (DNF) 44-Branigan Roark[21]; 21. (DNF) 19M-Ethan Mitchell[2]; 22. (DNF) 72-Alex Karpowicz[9]
ARTICLE:https://xtremeoutlawseries.com/recap/trevor-cline-snags-first-xtreme-outlaw-victory-in-honest-abe-roofing-open-wheel-showdown-at-jacksonville/
EVENT INFO:https://xtremeoutlawseries.com/schedule/event-info/?event=4547748
TRACK INFO:https://jacksonvillespeedway.com/
FAN 101: https://about.dirtcar.com/
The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota is brought to fans by many important sponsors and partners. Official partners include, Toyota (Title sponsor of the Midgets Series), DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), iRacing (Official Online Racing Game), Racing Electronics (Official Radio Supplier), Real American Beer (Official Beer) and SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider). Also supported by: AMKUS, CASM Safety Products, Intercomp, Honest Abe Roofing, Smith Ti, Summit Racing Equipment, and TJ Forged.