Thomas Meseraull led all 30 laps in winning Sunday’s USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series feature at Tri-State Speedway, but it didn’t come easy as he had to hold off a hard-charging Buddy Kofoid throughout the event, snapping Kofoid’s USAC win streak at four in the third round of Indiana Midget Week.
The victory is Meseraull’s first national win of the season and the fourth for RMS Racing. Meseraull also won the opening night of the Shamrock Classic in the USAC special event in March.
Starting from the outside of row one, Meseraull went straight to the lead early, with Kofoid moving up to second by lap two. The two leaders then proceeded to stage an epic battle for the top spot, with three-time 2022 winner Justin Grant moving up to third.
Grant would eventually move past Kofoid for second on lap 27, only to have the two championship leaders get together going into turn three, with Grant getting collected and going upside down. He was able to continue but would have to restart from the back of the field.
On the restart, Meseraull was finally able to gain some distance on Kofoid before the caution flag waved once more on lap 29, setting up a two-lap dash for the win. Kofoid stayed right on Meseraull’s tail through turns one and two and then was able to throw a slider through turn three to momentarily move out front, only to have Meseraull cross him back coming out of turn four to hold the lead. He was then able to pull away on the way to the victory with Kofoid placing second and Mitchel Moles finishing third to give a Toyota-powered drivers a podium sweep for the night.
Kaylee Bryson finished fourth with one of the most impressive drives of the evening, charging from 22nd up to fourth to win the USAC Hard Charger Award. Also finishing in the top 10 were Taylor Reimer, who placed seventh, with Grant charging all the way back up to ninth in the final three laps and Dominic Gordon who came home tenth.
Indiana Midget Week takes two days off before returning to the track at Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis on Wednesday.
Quotes:
Thomas Meseraull, RMS Racing: “That was awesome. Not only did we back up last year’s win, but we were able to beat Buddy. I kind of had to dirty him up, but that’s what I had to do to beat him. This is an amazing ride and I’m just trying to keep my guys happy. Thanks to the entire RMS Racing team.”
Buddy Kofoid, Keith Kunz Motorsports: “Hats off to RMS and T-Mez, we’ll take a second here. Glad we finally got a good feeling on this track and, hopefully, we can finish out the final four races of Indiana Midget Week strong.”
TRD PR
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