PUTNAMVILLE, Ind. — In what was a night of firsts in USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship racing, Jacob Denney delivered his first series victory during round four of USAC Indiana Midget Week Thursday at Lincoln Park Speedway.
The 17-year-old Denney, making his sixth career USAC National Midget start, had to do it by tracking down one of the all-time greats in USAC Triple Crown champion Jerry Coons Jr. He did just that and took the lead with 11 laps remaining.
Denney’s first career USAC National Midget feature win from the driver’s seat also provided his Mounce-Stout Motorsports team its first victorious performance with the series as a car entrant, taking the Rockwell Security – MPV Express – Smith Titanium/Spike/Stanton SR-11 to the top of the podium.
With Denney’s victory, the two-time USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget champion became the first Ohioan to earn a USAC National Midget feature triumph since Teddy Beach in 2005.
All throughout Indiana Midget Week, Denney has continuously turned heads with consistently impressive runs, including a sixth, eighth and fourth within the past seven nights. At Lincoln Park, Denney’s sudden emergence hit a crescendo as he became the first first-time victor of the USAC National Midget season.
“I knew we had the car to do it,” Denney explained. “I just had to put a whole night together; I either do good in qualifying, am good in the heat, then struggle in the feature, or it’s completely the opposite. I can’t thank Jay Mounce and Gavin Stout enough for giving me the opportunity to run this car. This is what I want to do my whole life and, hopefully, I get to.”
This wasn’t even Denney’s first foray into Lincoln Park’s victory lane during his rapid ascent earlier in his racing career. He captured a USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget win at the five-sixteenths-mile dirt oval in July of 2020. He thought just maybe, this could become the locale that would serve as the setting for his first USAC National Midget win.
“I had a feeling, and I was praying and hoping it would,” Denney admitted. “(The track) was actually kind of the same it was that night. It worked to my favor, and we got it done. This is better than any of my first wins in anything before.”
Denney rolled off for the 30-lap main event from the pole position, but the storyline that was buzzing all over the racing landscape came earlier in the night when the top-four fastest times during Fatheadz Eyewear Qualifying were turned in by four women: Jade Avedisian, Kaylee Bryson, Taylor and Mariah Ede.
Coons took the early lead in the feature, starting outside the front row.
However, trouble ensued a mere half lap later when Ede nearly flipped in turn three. As Ede’s car was rotating like a whirling dervish, Thomas Meseraull collided with her, which straightened Ede’s car out and allowed her to drive away, while Meseraull slid to a stop.
Coons controlled the complete restart and held the lead until Avedisian spun on the third lap.
Chase McDermand was left with nowhere to go and became ensnarled in the aftermath, plowing into the left side of Avedisian’s car and stopping as well.
Over the course of the next several laps, Coons distanced himself from Denney and the rest of the field. Slowly but surely, Denney closed the gap.
On the 20th lap, Denney pulled both of his front wheels even with Coons at the entry to turn three, preventing Coons from securing the bottom line. As the pair rolled through turn four side-by-side, Denney had the low line locked down with Coons a groove higher. Denney used the drive off the bottom to propel himself past Coons and into the lead.
Negotiating gobs of traffic down the stretch, Denney was forced to move up a lane to overtake the backmarkers just as Coons was drawing back nearer to Denney ever so slightly.
As Coons became stymied behind Ede and Jace Park late, Zach Daum slipped by Coons for the second position on lap 27 and remained there for the final four-lap distance.
Denney beat Daum to the finish by .301 seconds.
Coons was third, with Brenham Crouch and Mitchel Moles rounding out the top five.
It was Daum’s best USAC national midget finish since October 2016 at Tri-City Speedway and it was the best finish for a Honda engine in the series.
“We just tightened up too much and we ran second,” Daum said. “We got better and better as the race went on, but second is all we could do.”
Coons led 19 laps and finished third.
“I just kind of started falling off there,” Coons explained. “I think we were too good early, and I was trying to make some shock adjustments, but I just couldn’t keep the car down where I needed to. I changed lanes and I kept hooking a rut. This is a new car this year and we’ve made some changes. All night, it felt better than the car did last year.”
Bryson, who finished 10th, became the new all-time leader in feature starts by a woman with the USAC National Midgets. Her 54th career series start surpassed Holly Shelton for the top spot.