Sweet Springs, Missouri (July 8, 2025)………Less than a week ago, Cannon McIntosh was busy becoming the first multi-time winner of the BC39 at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
On Tuesday night, McIntosh was in the process of becoming the first three-time USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget winner at Missouri’s Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex.
While his BC39 victory required him to charge from 19th to the win, his Sweet Springs score didn’t require as much flair for the dramatic.
During Tuesday’s Mid-America Midget Week opener at the 1/6-mile dirt oval, the Bixby, Oklahoma native went wire-to-wire, leading all 40 laps en route to his third career USAC National Midget victory at Sweet Springs, following previous triumphs in 2020 and 2022. It’s the type of track he knows. It’s the type of track he loves.
“I grew up going to small tracks like this,” McIntosh reflected. “There’s usually a pretty good bottom to roll and a cushion as well. I like places where you can do both. It’s not just dedicated to one line. I feel like it suits me pretty well. Actually, I feel like the last few times I’ve been here, I’ve really struggled to find my speed and rhythm. To get back in victory lane here is pretty special.”
McIntosh’s latest win was his second consecutive on the USAC National Midget trail and his third overall during the 2025 season. For his career, McIntosh has now tallied 12 USAC National Midget feature wins, moving himself to 61st place all-time alongside series champions Danny Caruthers, Russ Gamester and Jeff Gordon as well as Gene Force, Bobby Grim and Ron Shuman.
McIntosh started on the outside of the front row in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – Toyota – Curb Records/LynK/Speedway Toyota. But instead of using the outside line, McIntosh quickly cut to the bottom behind Grant entering turn one. As Grant drifted up the track in turn two, McIntosh poked under and wheelied his way to the lead midway down the back straight before beating Grant back to the line by a single car length.
That began McIntosh’ racelong search of where exactly to be on the racetrack. However, he soon came to realize he was exactly where he needed to be.
“I feel like I was fighting to find my line the whole race,” McIntosh explained. “I was tuning on the shocks as we went because I started to realize that the bottom was probably going to be there all the way to the end. I just kept cranking on the right rear shock to try and make the car better as the race went on. This thing was fantastic all night. We qualified right where we needed to put ourselves in position. We got a good start, got under Justin there and just tried to pace ourselves from then on.”
Behind McIntosh, the battle raged on for second as Rookie Gunnar Setser slipped under Grant to slot into second on lap seven. Zach Daum followed Setser’s lead and bolted underneath Grant entering turn three a lap later on the eighth circuit.
Grant soon found his footing and went back to work. He took Daum for third at the exit of turn two on the 11th lap. By the 19th go around, Grant had risen to second as he finagled up a lane and advanced around the outside of Setser in the second turn, then went to work on trying to cut down McIntosh’s five car length advantage as the leader.
“I could hear, at times, him coming behind me,” McIntosh revealed. “But it was probably one of the toughest races I’ve ever ran. I feel like I’m usually pretty good at running the bottom. It had slime, a little bit of grip and then slick. If you got in too low to try and miss the slick, you’d hit the grease and push out of the groove. If you tried to miss the grease, you’d get caught in the slick and completely miss the corner.”
By lap 28, McIntosh was fully engulfed in lapped traffic. As McIntosh stayed true to the low line, Grant began to fish McIntosh in while working the middle groove and was able to pull right to McIntosh’s rear bumper. Just as that was happening, trouble found Daum as he sat backwards, stopped in the middle of turn one. Daum was running sixth at the time but had run as high as second for a brief moment early in the race. Daum restarted at the tail and finished a distant 14th.
For the remaining 12 laps, McIntosh went relatively unchallenged, winning by a 1.296 second margin over Justin Grant with Daison Pursley third. Hayden Reinbold earned his best career USAC National Midget finish in fourth while Gunnar Setser performed likewise by recording his best series performance with a fifth.
It was a little bit of déjà vu on the part of Justin Grant. Back in May during the USAC National Midgets’ first trip of the season to Sweet Springs, Grant crossed the line in second. On Tuesday night, he landed squarely into the same spot, finishing second once again for the second time in a row at Sweet Springs.
Daison Pursley equaled his best finish of the 2025 USAC National Midget season with a third. Overall, it's the third time he's finished on the podium at Sweet Springs after runner-up results in both 2022 and 2023.
It was also quite a run for Kale Drake who won May’s USAC Midget round at Sweet Springs. Starting 17th, Drake picked his way +10 through the field to finish seventh, thus earning Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.
Missouri’s own Chad Winfrey raced his way into the final transfer spot with two laps remaining in the semi-feature. Subsequent contact to his rear bumper moments later from another car shook him but didn't rattle him as he rolled into the feature lineup.
Meanwhile, Logan Seavey captured his 20th career USAC National Midget Honest Abe Roof Fast Qualifying award with a time of 11.692 seconds. That puts him 23rd on the all-time list alongside Bryan Clauson, Dan Drinan, Bobby East, Bobby Grim and Kyle Larson.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 8, 2025 – Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex – Sweet Springs, Missouri – 1/6-Mile Dirt Oval – Mid-America Midget Week
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-11.692; 2. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-11.781; 3. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.811; 4. Zach Daum, 5D, O'Dell-11.813; 5. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-11.821; 6. Cannon Mcintosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.823; 7. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-11.830; 8. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.850; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-11.885; 10. Riley Kreisel, 19K, Cox-11.950; 11. Garet Williamson, 6G, DGRD-12.001; 12. Mack Leopard, 86x, CBI-12.002; 13. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.012; 14. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-12.015; 15. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-12.025; 16. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-12.036; 17. Brecken Reese, 00, Chandler-12.065; 18. Kameron Key, 21J, TKH-12.066; 19. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-12.181; 20. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-12.222; 21. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-12.250; 22. Trey Zorn, 00s, Chandler-12.288; 23. Mark Chisholm, 56x, Chisholm-12.302; 24. Todd McVay, 89, McVay-12.311; 25. Andrew Felker, 11A, Felker-12.331; 26. Branigan Roark, 33, Roark-12.464; 27. Zack Merritt, 43m, Oerter-12.467; 28. Chad Winfrey, 321, Winfrey-12.518; 29. Chelby Hinton, 4B, Klatt-NT.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Jones, 2. Brecken Reese, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Kale Drake, 5. Gunnar Setser, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Andrew Felker. 2:02.90
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Hayden Reinbold, 2. Kameron Key, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Riley Kreisel, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Branigan Roark, 7. Trey Zorn. 2:00.55
USACGEAR.COM THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Steven Snyder Jr., 2. Drake Edwards, 3. Jacob Denney, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Garet Williamson, 6. Mark Chisholm, 7. Zack Merritt. 2:03.80
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Cale Coons, 2. Zach Daum, 3. Mack Leopard, 4. Gavin Miller, 5. Ethan Mitchell, 6. Todd McVay, 7. Chad Winfrey. 2:05.76
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Trey Zorn, 3. Andrew Felker, 4. Chad Winfrey, 5. Zack Merritt, 6. Mark Chisholm, 7. Branigan Roark, 8. Todd McVay. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cannon McIntosh (2), 2. Justin Grant (1), 3. Daison Pursley (6), 4. Hayden Reinbold (7), 5. Gunnar Setser (3), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. (13), 7. Kale Drake (17), 8. Steven Snyder Jr. (8), 9. Jacob Denney (5), 10. Logan Seavey (11), 11. Drake Edwards (21), 12. Gavin Miller (12), 13. Ethan Mitchell (18), 14. Zach Daum (4), 15. Cale Coons (9), 16. Riley Kreisel (14), 17. Trey Zorn (22), 18. Brecken Reese (19), 19. Mack Leopard (16), 20. Andrew Felker (23), 21. Garet Williamson (15), 22. Chad Winfrey (24), 23. Kyle Jones (10), 24. Kameron Key (20). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-40 Cannon McIntosh.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-759, 2-Cannon McIntosh-689, 3-Kale Drake-676, 4-Jacob Denney-658, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-631, 6-Drake Edwards-598, 7-Gavin Miller-591, 8-Logan Seavey-588, 9-Steven Snyder Jr.-559, 10-Gunnar Setser-515.
USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kale Drake-150, 2-Briggs Danner-95, 3-Kyle Cummins-86, 4-Justin Grant-77, 5-Gunnar Setser-75, 6-C.J. Leary-74, 7-Robert Ballou-66, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-60, 9-Chase Stockon-57, 10-Logan Seavey-47.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 9, 2025 – Mitchell County Fairgrounds – Beloit, Kansas – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – 14th Chad McDaniel Memorial / Mid-America Midget Week
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Logan Seavey (11.834)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Logan Seavey (11.692)
Car IQ First Heat Winner: Kyle Jones
K1 RaceGear Second Heat Winner: Hayden Reinbold
USACgear.com Third Heat Winner: Steven Snyder Jr.
Cook Out Fourth Heat Winner: Cale Coons
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Logan Seavey
Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Kale Drake (17th to 7th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Chad Winfrey
