Belleville, Kansas (May 17, 2025)………Redemption was on the forefront of Cannon McIntosh’s mind during Saturday night’s USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship portion of the Huncovsky Classic at Kansas’ Belleville Short Track.
An incident involving McIntosh and Justin Grant while the two were battling for the second spot on lap seven of Friday night’s feature, McIntosh spun to a stop, severely damaging his chance at a victory. He recovered, however, and managed to climb back from his 22nd place restarting position to finish fifth.
That just showed a glimpse of what the Bixby, Oklahoma native could do on the 1/4-mile dirt oval, and he proved as such on Saturday night as he picked his way through the field from the inside of row five, then emerged ahead on lap 31 of 40 following a duel with teammate Gavin Miller.
McIntosh led the remaining 10 laps from that point forward, crossing under the checkered flag in a 1-2-3-4 finish for the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team with Kale Drake swiping second, Miller coming home third and Jacob Denney filling the fourth spot. It is believed to be the first instance of a single team occupying the top-four finishing positions of a feature in USAC National Midget history.
“I feel like we had the best piece last night as well,” McIntosh declared. “The cards just didn’t fall our way. We had to go the back early and fight our way back. To pass as many good cars as we did meant that we had a pretty good piece. Tonight, we didn’t start as far forward as we wanted to, but when you have a car that good, you can’t not win the race for your guys.”
While becoming the first multi-time USAC winner on the Belleville Short Track, McIntosh also surged past Grant to become the new series point leader in his Mobil 1 – TRD – Toyota – Curb Records/LynK/Speedway Toyota. Furthermore, his 10th career USAC National Midget feature win moved him to 73rd place all-time alongside Allen Heath, Doug Kalitta, Brad Kuhn, Steve Lotshaw, Jerry McClung, Thomas Meseraull and Chuck Weyant.
The evening was, for all intents and purposes, a KKM rout. In addition to grabbing the first four positions in the main event, the team’s stable also won each of the three heat races with Kale Drake, Miller and McIntosh all succeeding along the way.
However, the one running away with the feature for the first half was outside front row starter Logan Seavey as he constructed a four second lead over the field by lap 19. On lap 20, it proved to be all for naught as his car spun off the top of the turn three cushion and came to a stop to necessitate a caution.
That opened the door for Miller to become the new race leader after emerging ahead of Jerry Coons Jr. just a few laps before the midway point. At that moment, McIntosh was beginning to make hay in his venture up the leaderboard. He slashed his way to second with an outside pass of Grant on the front straight on lap 22, yet remained a half second behind Miller with 16 to go.
On a lap 29 restart, McIntosh picked the pocket of Miller along the bottom of turns one and two to assume the lead. Miller refused to relent and came back to the forefront with a slide past McIntosh in turn three on lap 30. McIntosh then reloaded and hustled along the bottom of turns one and two to slot back into the number one spot on the 31st circuit.
“I did everything I could there, and once we got to the lead, I felt like everything was flowing well,” McIntosh recalled. “I felt like I was flowing and things were just going smooth. Even with that late yellow, I wasn’t sweating it too much. I felt like I had such a good car that I just needed to execute the restart and we could get away, and that’s what happened.”
British Rookie Brandon Carr (15th) ground to a stop atop the turn three cushion on lap 39 to set up a two-lap dash to the finish line. With that said, McIntosh had his grip firmly on the wheel, and would soon have the same grip on the trophy.
McIntosh crossed the line roughly six car lengths ahead of runner-up Kale Drake who snuck by Miller along the bottom on the final restart. Miller hung on for third while Jacob Denney grabbed fourth and Jerry Coons Jr. rounded out the top-five with a solid night.
“(Crew chief) Beau (Binder) tried to make the car good everywhere we went,” McIntosh praised. “I felt like I could run top and bottom. Once I figured out each corner and how I wanted to run it, I feel like we were lights out. Huge thanks to Beau. Last time, we were scratching our heads and figuring out what to do. We were so far off. Him getting me comfortable has gotten me back to where I need to be, and I think he has his confidence back too. I think we’re all where we need to be.”
Justin Grant recorded his 11th career USAC National Midget fast qualifying time, which tied him with fellow USAC national champions Brady Bacon, Danny Caruthers, Ryan Newman, Ken Schrader and Sleepy Tripp, just to name a few, for 52nd all-time.
Steven Snyder Jr. picked up multiple accolades with his sixth place finish at Belleville. The leading series Rookie netted Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors for his 16th to 6th run. He also picked up the Belleville USAC Midget ProSource Passing Master crown, making 17 passes in feature events across the two nights.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 17, 2025 – Belleville Short Track – Belleville, Kansas – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – Huncovsky Classic
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-12.194; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-12.308; 3. Mack Leopard, 86, CBI-12.317; 4. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-12.329; 5. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.347; 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 85, Central-12.377; 7. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.386; 8. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.394; 9. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.445; 10. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-12.446; 11. Garrett Benson, 7B, Engler-12.483; 12. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.548; 13. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.564; 14. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-12.642; 15. Brandon Carr, 98K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.666; 16. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-12.674; 17. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.730; 18. Zack Merritt, 43m, Oerter-13.046; 19. Lance Bennett, 91, Mason-13.115; 20. Dusty Young, 60, Chappue-13.283; 21. Blake Spicer, 4s, Spicer-13.483.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake, 2. Steven Snyder Jr., 3. Jacob Denney, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Gunnar Setser, 6. Drake Edwards, 7. Lance Bennett. 2:10.15
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Gavin Miller, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Cale Coons, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Garrett Benson, 6. Kyle Jones, 7. Dusty Young. 2:08.66
USACGEAR.COM THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Cannon McIntosh, 2. Hayden Reinbold, 3. Brandon Carr, 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 5. Mack Leopard, 6. Zack Merritt, 7. Blake Spicer. 2:11.08
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cannon McIntosh (9), 2. Kale Drake (7), 3. Gavin Miller (8), 4. Jacob Denney (13), 5. Jerry Coons Jr. (1), 6. Steven Snyder Jr. (16), 7. Logan Seavey (2), 8. Justin Grant (6), 9. Drake Edwards (3), 10. Cale Coons (17), 11. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 12. Mack Leopard (4), 13. Gunnar Setser (10), 14. Garrett Benson (11), 15. Hayden Reinbold (12), 16. Kyle Jones (14), 17. Brandon Carr (15), 18. Zack Merritt (18), 19. Dusty Young (20), 20. Lance Bennett (19), 21. Blake Spicer (21). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-19 Logan Seavey, Laps 20-28 Gavin Miller, Lap 29 Cannon McIntosh, Lap 30 Gavin Miller, Laps 31-40 Cannon McIntosh
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Cannon McIntosh-291, 2-Justin Grant-289, 3-Steven Snyder Jr.-257, 4-Jacob Denney-255, 5-Kale Drake-245, 6-Logan Seavey-242, 7-Gavin Miller-228, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-218, 9-Drake Edwards-214, 10-Gunnar Setser-182.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-103, 2-C.J. Leary-48, 3-Briggs Danner-41, 4-Robert Ballou-35, 5-Chase Stockon-31, 6-Jadon Rogers-30, 7-Gunnar Setser-28, 8-Justin Grant-27, 9-Kyle Cummins-23, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-21.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: May 18, 2025 – Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex – Sweet Springs, Missouri – 1/6-Mile Dirt Oval
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Jerry Coons Jr. (12.358)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (12.194)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Kale Drake
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Gavin Miller
USACgear.com Third Heat Winner: Cannon McIntosh
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Steven Snyder Jr. (16th to 6th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Logan Seavey
ProSource Belleville Midget Passing Master: Steven Snyder Jr. (17 Passes)
