By Richie Murray
Fairbury, Nebraska (July 10, 2026)………Jacob Denney has officially hit his stride in the month of July.
After a somewhat up and down month of June, the Galloway, Ohio driver collected his second consecutive USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship victory on Friday at Fairbury, Nebraska’s Jefferson County Speedway during the opening night of the Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship Presented by Westin Packaged Meats & Schmidt’s Sanitation.
So far through July, Denney hasn’t finished off the podium with a pair of third place results at IMS and Sweet Springs before winning at Mitchell County Fairgrounds on Wednesday, then pacing the final 29 circuits of the 30-lap main event at Jefferson County aboard his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/JBL Audio – TRD – Mobil 1 – Curb/LynK/Speedway Toyota No. 67.
Denney’s third USAC National Midget triumph of 2026 has already equaled his previous winningest season with the series after also grabbing three wins in 2025, all of which have pushed him to a 56-point lead in the championship standings.
Furthermore, Denney’s ninth career USAC National Midget score pushed him up to 82nd place on the series’ all-time win list alongside Billy Boat, Chad Boat, Tony Elliott, and Chuck Gurney. Interestingly, of Denney’s nine wins, six of them have come in back-to-back fashion, and Friday night added another to the list.
For Denney and team, it feels like it’s all coming together during this Mid-America Midget Week.
“We struggled there a little bit during Indiana Midget Week and the BC39. You couldn’t hide it,” Denney admitted. “So, we’re kind of back to our normal stuff now, and it rolls around really good. I got to thank Kaleb (Wyrick) for that. He’s the brains behind it, and he gets this thing rolling around just the way I like it.”
Slated to start the feature third, the team encountered an issue just before the start, and thus, had to thrash to get the thing rectified for the 30-lap fight.
“We had a great car again tonight,” Denney praised. “(The crew) busted their tails before the feature. Our header was broken and we didn’t see it until right before we rolled out. They busted their tails and got it done.”
Teammate Gavin Miller led the opening lap from the pole, edging a surging Denney by a half car length at the stripe. Denney was hustling along the bottom of the 1/5-mile, and at the start of the second lap, slid Miller in turn one to assume the point. Miller fought back under to retake the top spot briefly in turn three, but Denney was able to cut back under off turn four and lead lap two by a wheel over Miller.
Trading slide for slide, Miller repeated the same maneuver down the back straightaway and got back out in front of Denney in turn three. However, Miller hooked a rut and drifted up the racetrack, allowing Denney to get a run to the inside of Miller where he capitalized to lead at the line, once again, by the length of a wheel.
Moments later, the first stoppage of the night came when 24th running Zack Merritt flipped upside down in turn two on lap three of the feature. His ride was placed back on its wheels and pushed back to the pits, out of the race.
As for Denney, it was all elementary from that point forward. But the race behind him was up for grabs throughout the entire duration. Cannon McIntosh advanced fifth to third on an early race restart with a move on the bottom of turn four past Jakeb Boxell and Cale Coons. Boxell recovered to drive around McIntosh for third a lap later on the sixth go around.
Seemingly, several drivers inside the top five took their turn of making a run at one point or another. All the while, Boxell had shot up to second on lap 15 amid a three-driver fight for position between himself, Miller and McIntosh.
Zach Daum climbed up into fifth on lap seven as he utilized the bottom, then vaulted to fourth on lap 17 by McIntosh, but it proved to be brief as McIntosh took fourth back on lap 20 to take the upper hand in the high-low battle for position with now Justin Grant in the mix as well as Kale Drake who started all the way back on the inside of row 10 but was now in the tussle for the fifth position in the running order.
A trio of restarts hampered things a bit for Denney at the front, but outside of weighing the decision to slide himself or rip the top on said restarts, it was practically a comfort cruise from green to checkered.
“I could start a pace, kind of set it, and just maintain the whole time. I didn’t have to push it,” Denney explained. “I got through all the holes really nice and that’s what you need on a track like this. It was really technical and you couldn’t really push that hard. If you pushed too hard, you would make a mistake. So, it was nice just being able to run a solid pace all race long while trying to avoid as many mistakes as possible.”
The race was all Denney’s as he crossed under the checkered flag 1.744 seconds ahead of runner-up Boxell with Miller third, McIntosh fourth and Drake making a stellar run up to fifth.
Denney trailed only one lap en route to victory, taking over on lap two and leading the remaining 29 laps. By leading the race most often, he earned the K & N Filters Clean Air award.
Meanwhile, Kale Drake began his fifth career feature appearance at Jefferson County with his worst ever starting position at the track. In the end, he finished with his best result (5th). Starting 19th, he raced his way up +14 to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.
Justin Grant was the first car on track for LearnLab Qualifying and was quick time the entire way with a lap of 11.122 seconds. The 14th fast qualifying time of his USAC National Midget career placed him 42nd on all-time list alongside past series champions Jerry Coons Jr., Dave Darland, Jeff Gordon, Kenny Irwin Jr., plus Bob McLean.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 10, 2026 – 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
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-11.122; 2. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.166; 3. Jakeb Boxell, 54, 4 Kings-11.184; 4. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.192; 5. Cale Coons, 85, Central-11.215; 6. Gaige Weldon, 35L, Ledger-11.237; 7. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.258; 8. Garrett Benson, 27B, Bourke-11.308; 9. Adam Trimble, 5D, Matejka/Heffner-11.338; 10. Drake Edwards, 40D, McDermand-11.343; 11. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-11.351; 12. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.356; 13. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-11.422; 14. Haidyn Hansen, 27, Joyner-11.450; 15. Zach Daum, 14x, Rosenboom-11.455; 16. Hank Soares, 22, Soares-11.465; 17. Kale Drake, 4, RMS-11.473; 18. Drew Sherman, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-11.506; 19. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-11.529; 20. Mack Leopard, 40L, McDermand-11.562; 21. Brecken Reese, 20Q, Reese-11.581; 22. Trey Zorn, 00, Chandler-11.588; 23. Wout Hoffmans, 14J, Rosenboom-11.732; 24. Zack Merritt, 43m, RKO-11.780; 25. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-11.784; 26. Gunnar Pike, 81F, Rosenboom-11.789; 27. Cole Vanderheiden, 15v, Vanderheiden-11.790; 28. Levi Hinck, 21H, TKH-11.830; 29. Blaze Bennett, 10B, Bennett-11.841; 30. Mikey Blackard, 71, Henry-11.961; 31. Lance Bennett, 44x, RKO-11.976; 32. Bradley Cox, 45, Mason-11.982; 33. Matt Sherrell, 21AJ, Huddleston-11.989; 34. Brandon Carr, 98K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.002; 35. Colby Sokol, 71T, Henry-12.029; 36. John Klabunde, 77J, Klabunde-12.252; 37. Caiden Warren, 12w, Warren-12.276; 38. Shyla Ernst, 42, RKO-12.307; 39. Dylan Doyle, 37, Doyle-12.825; 40. Sean Cleaveland, 84, Cleaveland-13.188.
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brecken Reese (1), 2. Kale Drake (2), 3. Adam Trimble (4), 4. Justin Grant (6), 5. Cale Coons (5), 6. Hayden Reinbold (3), 7. Kyle Jones (7), 8. Caiden Warren (10), 9. Matt Sherrell (9), 10. Blaze Bennett (8). NT
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Trey Zorn (1), 2. Drake Edwards (4), 3. Drew Sherman (2), 4. Cannon McIntosh (6), 5. Haidyn Hansen (3), 6. Gaige Weldon (5), 7. Brandon Carr (9), 8. Gunnar Pike (7), 9. Mikey Blackard (8), 10. Shyla Ernst (10). 1:56.166
K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Zach Daum (3), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (2), 3. Ethan Mitchell (4), 4. Gavin Miller (5), 5. Jakeb Boxell (6), 6. Lance Bennett (8), 7. Cole Vanderheiden (7), 8. Colby Sokol (9), 9. Dylan Doyle (10). 1:58.659
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Mack Leopard (2), 2. Colton Robinson (4), 3. Hank Soares (3), 4. Jacob Denney (6), 5. Zack Merritt (1), 6. Bradley Cox (8), 7. Garrett Benson (5), 8. Levi Hinck (7), 9. John Klabunde (9), 10. Sean Cleaveland (10). 1:58.294
COOK OUT C-MAIN: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the semi, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Matt Sherrell (2), 2. Mikey Blackard (1), 3. John Klabunde (3), 4. Shyla Ernst (6), 5. Blaze Bennett (5), 6. Dylan Doyle (4), 7. Sean Cleaveland (7). NT
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gaige Weldon (1), 2. Hayden Reinbold (3), 3. Bradley Cox (5), 4. Kyle Jones (6), 5. Brandon Carr (8), 6. Matt Sherrell (13), 7. Colby Sokol (11), 8. Levi Hinck (10), 9. Cole Vanderheiden (7), 10. Lance Bennett (4), 11. Gunnar Pike (9), 12. John Klabunde (15), 13. Caiden Warren (12), 14. Garrett Benson (2), 15. Shyla Ernst (16), 16. Mikey Blackard (14). NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jacob Denney (3), 2. Jakeb Boxell (4), 3. Gavin Miller (1), 4. Cannon McIntosh (5), 5. Kale Drake (19), 6. Justin Grant (6), 7. Zach Daum (7), 8. Drake Edwards (13), 9. Cale Coons (2), 10. Brecken Reese (9), 11. Ethan Mitchell (14), 12. Hayden Reinbold (16), 13. Kevin Thomas Jr. (21), 14. Adam Trimble (12), 15. Mack Leopard (8), 16. Colton Robinson (15), 17. Bradley Cox (24), 18. Haidyn Hansen (17), 19. Drew Sherman (20), 20. Gaige Weldon (11), 21. Kyle Jones (23), 22. Hank Soares (18), 23. Trey Zorn (10), 24. Zack Merritt (22). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Gavin Miller, Laps 2-30 Jacob Denney.
**Caiden Warren flipped during the semi. Zack Merritt flipped on lap 3 of the feature.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Jacob Denney-775, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-719, 3-Justin Grant-698, 4-Kale Drake-697, 5-Gavin Miller-685, 6-Jakeb Boxell-677, 7-Cannon McIntosh-666, 8-Hayden Reinbold-546, 9-Brecken Reese-529, 10-Colton Robinson-487.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Hayden Reinbold-99, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-91, 3-Jacob Denney-80, 4-Robert Ballou-74, 5-Justin Grant-70, 6-Briggs Danner-65, 7-Cale Coons-64, 8-Chase Stockon-56, 9-Kyle Cummins-46, 10-Brady Bacon-44.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 11, 2026 – 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: Brecken Reese (11.166)
LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (11.122)
K1 RaceGear First Heat Winner: Brecken Reese
TJ Forged Second Heat Winner: Trey Zorn
K & N Filters Third Heat Winner: Zach Daum
Indy Powersports Fourth Heat Winner: Mack Leopard
Cook Out C-Main Winner: Matt Sherrell
Five Star Bodies Semi Winner: Gaige Weldon
K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Jacob Denney (29 laps led)
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Kale Drake (19th to 5th)