By Richie Murray
Speedway, Indiana (April 16, 2026)………Kyle Jones has teamed up with car owner and engine builder Tim Engler to take on the full USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship schedule in 2026.
Jones (Kennedale, Texas) will be one of two full-time Engler entries on the USAC tour this coming season. Jones will drive the number 7TX while teammate Thomas Meseraull returns to the seat of the number 7x.
Since his series debut in 2015, the 32-year-old Jones has amassed 52 career USAC National Midget starts. The bulk of it has come within the past two seasons for Joyner Motorsports. One year ago, he grabbed a top-five finish with the series at Nebraska’s Jefferson County Speedway.
Now, the full-time racer is set to go to work on the 29-race slate in 2026 with a new address.
“I’m extremely excited about it just because of the knowledge that Tim brings to the table,” Jones said. “Building an engine is no small feat. You’ve got to be pretty smart to know what you’re doing there. With the knowledge he’s got and Donnie Gentry, the crew chief behind the program, this team is really stellar. Donnie and I click really well on what we like on the racecar and what we’d like the feel to be. I think the more we run together, the better we’re going to be.”
For Jones, it’s not his first foray with Engler’s team. Back in January of this year, he ran the Chili Bowl Nationals for the team, finishing ninth on his prelim night and 12th in the final night’s B-Main.
“We ran some races last year together, and we got to run Chili Bowl together, and had some success right off the bat running with other series,” Jones recalled. “But I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do with USAC. Something I’ve always wanted to do is win a USAC race, and I really feel like we’ve got the team, the partners and the motor to get it done.”
Engler debuted his midget team in 2023 with Meseraull and has been active with the series since. The Engler-built EA Stealth Ford engine utilized by the team is somewhat unique to midget racing, often being the only team to with the EA Stealth under the hood. However, in 2025, Jones got to run the engine with Joyner’s team in the latter half of the season. More recently, Jones drove Joyner’s car, which was equipped with an EA Stealth, to a runner-up finish with POWRi at I-44 Speedway in Oklahoma City last weekend.
Jones likes what he’s experienced thus far.
“(Tim) has been working on it and fine tuning it now for, I think, five or so years,” Jones estimated. “I run a different car with Corey Joyner some throughout the year as well with the EA Stealth engine and it runs great there too. We’ve really had a lot of success with that. They’re top notch.”
Jones has been the driver for a one-car team over the past couple of USAC campaigns. This year, he’ll have a sidekick in Meseraull who has won with the series, won with this engine and has over a quarter century of midget racing experience at the top level of the sport.
“There’s not many more guys that have been around midget racing as long as Thomas has,” Jones praised. “He’s been around it and knows the ins and outs of it. He might say, ‘hey, maybe you might try this or maybe this might be better for you,’ and vice versa. I’ve been around for a while as well, and I hope I can be an asset to Thomas in that aspect as well.”
Jones is a highly versatile driver who estimates he has about 65-70 races on his schedule this year. Over the past couple of weeks, he’s finished in the runner-up spot in both a sprint car and a midget. But midget racing just hits different for Jones, and that’s what keeps him wanting more.
“In midget racing, we go to tracks and places where most cars of this speed can’t go, just because of the size of the tracks that we’re on most of the time. Jets in a gymnasium is the quote for it. I think it’s spot on,” Jones offered. “It’s pretty incredible how fast everything happens in a midget. I feel like in a sprint car, when they get slowed down, you’ve got a lot more time to make decisions based on how big the track size is and how fast you’re going. It can depend on that. But in midget racing, everything happens in a split second.”
Jones knows from experience, as he explained.
“You’re just up on top of the wheel 24/7, especially with USAC,” Jones acknowledged. “There’s 15 to 18 guys that can win every night. So, you’re racing just as hard for 11th as you would be for second or third. That’s what makes it exciting for me. There’s not just five or six guys who are going out there and dominating. Anybody can win on any night.”
He’s already living his dream. Now, Jones plans to make his dream of becoming a USAC National Midget feature winner a reality in 2026.
Jones will start off his USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship season in 2026 beginning with back-to-back nights at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway for the Kokomo Grand Prix on April 24-25.