Chris Windom charged from 14th into the lead on the way to his fourth victory of the season in Saturday’s USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Championship feature event at Kokomo Speedway. The win gave Toyota-powered cars a sweep of the USAC “Double Double” weekend after Cannon McIntosh won Friday night’s event in Gas City.
With the triumph, Windom continues to lead the series point standings with just eight races remaining. Toyota drivers now have earned 28 national midget car feature victories in 2020, including the last four USAC events.
Justin Grant, driving the Petry Motorsports Toyota, took the early lead over Andrew Layser, with Brady Bacon, Tyler Courtney and Thomas Meseraull rounding out the top-five.
Things would change quickly on lap five, as Layser hit a rut going into turn one and would collect Meseraull and seventh-place Daison Pursley.
Grant would continue to lead after the restart, with Courtney moving up to second, while further back in the field Windom had climbed up into the eighth spot.
Courtney would eventually overtake Grant for the lead on lap 10 by going underneath in turn three with Grant slipping back to third behind Bacon. Behind them, Windom would pass McIntosh for fifth on lap 14 and began to reel in the leaders. Just one lap later, he’d climb into the third position and the following lap he pushed past Bacon for second.
Mastering the bottom of the track, Windom closed quickly on Courtney. By lap 22, the two ran side-by-side as they crossed the start/finish line as Courtney narrowly held him off, but Windom wasn’t going to be denied. After getting a great run down the back straight, he was able to go low through turn three and take the lead on lap 23. At that point, Windom pulled out to a 1.6-second advantage, only to see one final yellow on lap 28, setting up a three-lap dash to the wire.
Windom held the lead on the restart, with Courtney and Tanner Thorson close behind. As Courtney and Thorson battled for second, Windom was able to pull away, eventually registering a 1.015-second victory, with Courtney finishing second and Thorson giving Toyota two of the three top finishers on the night. In addition, Keith Kunz Motorsports drivers McIntosh and Buddy Kofoid placed fourth and fifth.
“I just got lower than everyone else and made it work,” said Windom, who also earned the Hard Charger Award for coming through the field. “Chad Boat and all these Tucker-Boat Motorsports guys have brought me a great car all year. The points battle is tight and we needed to win that race to keep the lead.”
Other Toyota drivers earning top-10 finishes on the night were Logan Seavey in seventh, Chase Johnson in ninth and Grant coming home in tenth.
The USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Championship returns to the track at Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, Illinois, on October 9.
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