By Richie Murray
Merced, California (November 21, 2025)………Cannon McIntosh took a giant leap toward his first career USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship with his decisive victory during the Golden State Invasion’s Midget Madness on Friday night at California’s Merced Speedway.
Simultaneously, the Bixby, Oklahoma racer delivered a milestone victory for his car owner, Keith Kunz. Kunz’s triumph was the 200th of his career across USAC’s three national divisions: Midget (163), Sprint (35) and Silver Crown (2).
Kunz is the second entrant to reach the 200 USAC national win mark, joining his longtime team partner, Mike Curb (221).
There couldn’t have possibly been a better way for the team to meet the magnitude of the moment as Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports machines crossed the finish line in the first four positions with McIntosh followed by Buddy Kofoid, Tanner Carrick and Jacob Denney.
In a non-stop 30-lap feature that was completed in just 6:26.03, third place starting McIntosh tracked down racelong leader Kofoid in traffic on the 14th lap and raced away to victory for the fifth time this season with the series in his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – Toyota – Curb Records/LynK/Speedway Toyota.
McIntosh, whose best previous Merced result was a third in 2020, became a first time victor at the high banked 1/4-mile dirt oval. McIntosh’s 14th career USAC National Midget victory moved him to 54th on the all-time series win list alongside Chuck Arnold, Jack Turner and Leroy Warriner, all of whom were stalwarts in the early years of USAC during the 1950s-60s.
Of utmost importance is the USAC National Midget title race as McIntosh entered the Merced event with a three-point edge over Justin Grant. By night’s end, McIntosh had ballooned his lead to 39 points with three events remaining.
“Obviously, it’s always in the back of your head,” McIntosh remarked regarding the points situation. “The only thing I can do is to go out and be my best. We knew we had to put all the pieces together tonight by qualifying well, heat race good and just make it happen in the feature.”
Initially, it was another KKM driver, Kofoid, who broke away up front in the early going from his outside front row starting position. However, McIntosh was already hustling. When pole sitter Drake Edwards stepped out sideways in turn four on lap three, McIntosh took advantage and drove under Edwards to slot into second. Denney followed suit and raced underneath Edwards in turn two to grab third less than a lap later.
By lap 12, the top-three runners were all caught in a logjam of lapped traffic. Denney briefly slipped by McIntosh for second on the back straight, and by the time the trio reached the exit of turn four, Kofoid, McIntosh and Denney were three-wide. McIntosh slid back under Denney to retake second moments later while the pressure was beginning to mount on Kofoid up front.
“I got into second there and I was following Buddy while trying to stay above it,” McIntosh explained. “He kind of moved down, then I was still trying to go above it in three and four when he moved down. I saw Denney there poking in a nose on me and I knew I had to get down and protect.”
On the 14th circuit, McIntosh was able to get a wheel in edgewise under Kofoid on the back straight, then successfully cleared him in turn three. Kofoid drifted to the high side in turns one and two a half lap later and attempted to get a run going up top. However, the lapped car of Gunnar Setser already occupied the groove at the entry to turn three, stifling Kofoid’s momentum, thus allowing McIntosh to skate away cleanly. Kofoid also briefly lost second to Denney but quickly fought back under on the front straight to regain the runner-up spot.
“Lapped traffic kind of slowed Buddy’s pace up and I was able to squeak under him,” McIntosh articulated. “It was a dogfight between him, Denney and me for a moment, but we were able to get through traffic cleanly. It was definitely a ‘cowboy up’ racetrack. I’m just glad to be able to get it done and survive.”
Kofoid, the only multi-time USAC National Midget winner at Merced, wasn’t going to go away that easily, though. On the 18th lap, McIntosh got a tad hung up as he tried to put 2025 USAC Western States Midget Rookie of the Year Connor Speir a lap down. As McIntosh tried to navigate around Speir, Kofoid was building his momentum on the high line. Off turn four, Kofoid was rapidly closing in on McIntosh just as McIntosh moved up the racetrack ever so slightly to maneuver around Speir, forcing Kofoid to check up momentarily.
From there, McIntosh was never headed and his beeline to victory lane wasn’t about to be impeded any time soon. McIntosh crossed the finish line 0.502 seconds ahead of Kofoid at the line with Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier Carrick third, Denney fourth and Kevin Thomas Jr. rounding out the top-five.
“Beau (Binder) gave me an amazing car tonight,” McIntosh praised of his crew chief. “This thing was on kill all night. I just knew I had to do my job and run it hard. We knew what we were going to get out of this racetrack after all this rain. So, it was really special to get another win here.”
Justin Grant was behind the 8 ball all night long following an undesirable qualifying run of 26th out of the 32 cars on hand. He dug deep, working his way from seventh to third in his heat, then advanced +10 from his 23rd starting spot to finish 13th in the feature to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.
Fillmore, California’s Connor Speir transferred into his first USAC career USAC National Midget feature in spectacular fashion. In doing so, he duked it out with none other than 2022 Merced USAC winner Carson Macedo to grab the fourth and final transfer spot out of the semi-feature. That earned him the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
Throughout hot laps, qualifying, four heat races, a semi-feature and a 30-lap feature, nary a single yellow flag was displayed, making it a perfectly clean and safe racing night from start to finish.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: November 21, 2025 – Merced Speedway – Merced, California – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – Midget Madness – Golden State Invasion
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Tanner Carrick, 98, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.845; 2. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.891; 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-11.998; 4. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.037; 5. Caden Sarale, 32, Sarale-12.048; 6. Landon Brooks, 57w, Wood-12.052; 7. Buddy Kofoid, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.063; 8. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-12.066; 9. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-12.102; 10. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-12.108; 11. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.125; 12. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.137; 13. Austin Wood, 87w, Wood-12.143; 14. Jake Andreotti, 00, Davis-12.152; 15. Carson Macedo, 99AU, Dyson-12.167; 16. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-12.173; 17. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.176; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-12.189; 19. Jett Yantis, 4y, Carlile-12.247; 20. Connor Speir, 14JR, Streeter/Graunstadt-12.264; 21. Brandon Carr, 98K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.276; 22. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.312; 23. Michael Pickens, 31, Beilman-12.342; 24. Jakeb Boxell, 14JB, 4 Kings-12.350; 25. Ty Gibbs, 84, CBI-12.362; 26. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-12.398; 27. Brecken Reese, 20Q, Reese-12.429; 28. Jake Swanson, 31B, Beilman-12.447; 29. Mathew Radisich, 17NZ, Out & About-12.487; 30. T.J. Smith, 68, Six8-12.513; 31. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.555; 32. Dane Culver, 50, Knuckles Up-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Steven Snyder Jr., 3. Brandon Carr, 4. Austin Wood, 5. Tanner Carrick, 6. Ty Gibbs, 7. Caden Sarale, 8. Mathew Radisich. 2:01.170
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Colton Robinson, 2. Jake Andreotti, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Jacob Denney, 6. Landon Brooks, 7. Gunnar Setser, 8. T.J. Smith. 2:04.220
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Michael Pickens, 2. Kale Drake, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Buddy Kofoid, 5. Jett Yantis, 6. Brecken Reese, 7. Carson Macedo, 8. Cale Coons. 2:05.589
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Jakeb Boxell, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Gavin Miller, 5. Drake Edwards, 6. Connor Speir, 7. Jake Swanson. 2:03.769
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Landon Brooks, 2. Caden Sarale, 3. Brecken Reese, 4. Connor Speir, 5. Carson Macedo, 6. Gunnar Setser, 7. T.J. Smith, 8. Ty Gibbs, 9. Mathew Radisich. 2:24.295
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cannon McIntosh (3), 2. Buddy Kofoid (2), 3. Tanner Carrick (6), 4. Jacob Denney (5), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 6. Logan Seavey (7), 7. Drake Edwards (1), 8. Gavin Miller (15), 9. Colton Robinson (8), 10. Landon Brooks (12), 11. Kale Drake (14), 12. Daison Pursley (18), 13. Justin Grant (23), 14. Steven Snyder Jr. (13), 15. Austin Wood (16), 16. Caden Sarale (11), 17. Michael Pickens (9), 18. Hayden Reinbold (19), 19. Jakeb Boxell (10), 20. Jake Andreotti (17), 21. Gunnar Setser (25-P), 22. Connor Speir (21), 23. Brandon Carr (22), 24. Brecken Reese (24), 25. Jett Yantis (20). 6:26.703
(P) represents a provisional starter.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-13 Buddy Kofoid, Laps 14-30 Cannon McIntosh.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Cannon McIntosh-1294, 2-Justin Grant-1255, 3-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1213, 4-Jacob Denney-1188, 5-Gavin Miller-1125, 6-Kale Drake-1088, 7-Steven Snyder Jr.-1057, 8-Drake Edwards-1024, 9-Logan Seavey-1017, 10-Hayden Reinbold-908.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-225, 2-Gunnar Setser-172, 3-Briggs Danner-151, 4-C.J. Leary-141, 5-Justin Grant-140, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-135, 7-Logan Seavey-127, 8-Hayden Reinbold-124, 9-Kyle Cummins-120, 10-Chase Stockon-119.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: November 22, 2025 – Merced Speedway – Merced, California – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – Chase Johnson Classic – Golden State Invasion
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Tanner Carrick (11.903)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Tanner Carrick (11.845)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Logan Seavey
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Colton Robinson
USAC Gear Third Heat Winner: Michael Pickens
Cook Out Fourth Heat Winner: Jakeb Boxell
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Landon Brooks
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Justin Grant (23rd to 13th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Connor Speir