Buddy Kofoid passed teammate Brenham Crouch on lap 19 of 30 and then held him off late to win Saturday’s POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League Turnpike Challenge feature at I-44 Riverside Speedway, his record-setting fourth consecutive win to open the POWRi season.
Overall, Kofoid has five national midget feature wins already this season after registering a national high of 10 in his rookie season in 2020. The triumph is the 12th of the year for a Toyota-powered driver.
The victory did not come easy on Saturday, though, as the 15-year-old Crouch drove his Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) Toyota straight to the lead from the pole with Ryan Timms moving into second, Jake Neuman was third and Kofoid in fourth.
The top four stayed intact for the first nine laps before Kofoid slid Neuman for the third spot, while Crouch and Timms continued to pace the field. The battle between the three Toyota drivers began to heat up following a yellow flag on lap 12, with Kofoid throwing a slider through turn four to pass Timms and momentarily pull up next to Crouch on lap 14.At the midway point, it was Crouch, Kofoid, CB Industries’ Timms and Petry Motorsports driver Emerson Axsom, who had climbed up to fourth.
Another yellow flag waved on lap 17 and after the restart, Kofoid stayed right on Crouch, eventually sliding him for the lead on lap 19. From there on out, Kofoid would never relinquish the lead, going on to record his 15th career national midget feature win, .670 seconds ahead of Crouch. Axsom would pass Timms for the third spot on lap 28 as Toyota drivers from three different teams captured the top four spots.
“I just tried to be smart and pick my way through traffic,” said the victorious Kofoid. “POWRi and everyone from I-44 did a very good job with the track. It was really good tonight. As usual, the Keith Kunz Motorsports guys gave me a really good Mobil 1 Toyota and without all them, I wouldn’t be here. Four in a row is pretty cool, now we’ll go to Port City and work for five.”
Crouch led a race-high 18 laps on the way to his best career midget finish.
“I needed to get a little higher into one and negotiate lapped traffic a little better,” said the Lubbock, Texas-native. “The KKM guys gave me a really good Toyota midget. I really have to thank them and, of course, my parents for this opportunity. Hopefully, we can move up one spot tomorrow night.”
Four more Toyota-powered drivers captured top-10 finishing positions with Daison Pursley placing sixth after three consecutive podium finishes to kick off the POWRi campaign. Cannon McIntosh finished in eighth, Bryant Wiedeman was ninth and Trey Marcham came home in tenth.
The POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League closes out the Turnpike Challenge at Port City Raceway in Tulsa on Sunday.
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