Chris Windom took the lead with 15 laps remaining and led Buddy Kofoid and Daison Pursley to the checkered flag to win the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series’ 100-lap USAC Nationals and collect the $20,000 first prize at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, South Dakota, Sunday night.
The win is the second in a row for Windom, to go along with a second-place finish on Friday night. The 2020 USAC champion now has five wins this season and has closed to within just 10 points of current point leader Kofoid.
While Toyota drivers captured the top three finishing positions on the night, the most dominant driver in the field may have been another Toyota in Cannon McIntosh. The Dave Mac Motorsports driver went from sixth on lap 11, up to second by lap 15 behind only Kevin Thomas Jr. McIntosh proceeded to throw a slider at him on lap 19, only to have Thomas go back underneath, but McIntosh made it stick one lap later. He took over the lead on lap 20 and quickly proceeded to pull away from the field.
By lap 26, he had stretched out a 1.4-second lead over Jason McDougal and proceeded to extend that to 2.41 seconds by lap 29. As the field began to hit heavy traffic, McIntosh maneuvered his way easily through the lapped cars, pulling out to lead the field by more than four seconds.
Unfortunately, McIntosh’s dominating performance would come to an end with a flat right rear tire on lap 42, handing the lead over to McDougal. Behind them, Windom had moved up to eighth.
On the lap 50 restart, Windom would jump up to fourth and begin a battle with Thomas for third that would stretch out for the next 18 circuits as the two would go back-and-forth for the position.
Finally, on lap 69, Windom would take the spot for good as he began to master the top side of the track. Further back, Kofoid would climb into the sixth position and continue to work his way through the field. Windom would power past McDougal for second on lap 72 and set his sights on first place Randall.
Windom would begin to make a serious challenge with approximately 20 laps left closing to within a tenth of a second and eventually sliding Randall for the lead, but was unable to maintain the spot. By lap 84, Windom would slide him once again to move in front through turn one, but Randall was able to recover. As they came back to the start/finish line, Windom was right on his tail and as Randall went high into turn one, he appeared to have a tire go down, flipping into the corner as Windom went beneath him to take the lead. Further back in the field, Kofoid had moved up to third and then took over second after Randall’s incident.
On the restart, Kofoid stayed within a second of the race leader, but he was quickly challenged in what became a three-way battle for second with Thomas and Pursley. As the three fought for second place, Windom would pull out a comfortable lead and drive on to the win, with Kofoid finishing second. Pursley had overtaken Thomas for third, followed by Tanner Thorson in fourth and Thomas placed fifth.
The USAC championship battle resumes at Gas City Speedway on September 23 before closing out the weekend with a double-header at Eldora Speedway for the Four Crown Nationals, September 24-25.
Toyota Driver Quotes:
Chris Windom, CB Industries: “That was a fun race. This thing was so good. The first 50 laps we were maintaining, but when the track moved to the top, it was just so good. Thanks to Chad and the CB Industries team. Thanks to NOS, Toyota, Pristine Auction and everyone who helps us out. I felt like we had the best car out there. It’s just so fun running the top here.”
TRD PR
