BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — When it comes to USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Midget competition at Bloomington Speedway, Buddy Kofoid has it on lockdown.
That became readily apparent during Friday night’s USAC Indiana Midget Week opener as he raced to his second consecutive victory in the event, successfully conquering the quarter-mile clay oval which had been the launching pad for his IMW title run of 2021.
Kofoid also became the first reigning Indiana Midget Week titlist to collect an opening night IMW victory the following year since 2005 champ Shane Cottle accomplished the feat in 2006.
Friday was Kofoid’s third consecutive USAC midget triumph dating back to April, matching fellow championship contender Justin Grant’s three-in-a-row streak to start the campaign this season.
While both of Kofoid’s Bloomington victories have involved scintillating duels, this one was quite different as Kofoid had to track down, then fend off a hungry, aspiring first-time series winner in Chance Crum who put up his dukes and fought the champion right down to the final wire.
Kofoid utilized a fortuitous late-race caution to separate himself from Crum and bring his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – Toyota – TRD/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota home to victory. It was Kofoid’s 12th career USAC National Midget win.
“This last stretch of races has been really good to us,” Kofoid understated. “Our speed is really phenomenal right now. But that was a little bit tougher than last year. Just physically, my arm was cramping up and that just wears you out.”
The victory was the 125th for team owner Keith Kunz as a USAC National Midget entrant, moving him one step closer to the all-time win record in that category, held by Steve Lewis at 133.
Six of the last 10 Indiana Midget Week feature wins at Bloomington now belong to the KKM team.
“Note taking is important at KKM,” Kofoid explained. “I don’t think there’s anyone who takes more notes than those guys. Even down to the tire guys, the car chief and (crew chief) Jarrett (Martin) and I, and all the crew chiefs, we all share notes, and we have our meetings; we’re all-in on notes and how to be better. Once you figure a place out, I think you get it down and I think that goes for anywhere besides our success here. We’ll go back and see how we can be better than tonight.”
Starting back in sixth for the second night in a row, Kofoid wasn’t quite able to get the jump he got less than 24 hours earlier when he charged to first by lap four and won going away at Tri-City Speedway. For more than two-thirds of the $4,000-to-win 30-lapper, Kofoid was mired outside the top-two behind Crum and Kyle Cummins.
Kofoid briefly slotted into third at the halfway point as he blitzed around the outside of Cummins between turns one and two. Leading lap 15 at the line by a car length over Cummins, Kofoid lost the number one spot when he sailed it into turn one and stumbled atop the red clay to hand the position back to Cummins.
Capitalizing in much the same manner with nine laps remaining in turn one was Kofoid who took over as Cummins darted to the top of turn one while Kofoid slid by him on the bottom. Cummins found the gumption to rip the position back from Kofoid although it didn’t last much longer as Kofoid blasted back around Cummins in turn two for second with Crum right within a few car lengths of his front bumper with lapped traffic out in front, top, bottom and everywhere in between.
Crum became boxed in off turn two on the bottom with first-time series starter Rylan Gray running the same groove just in front of him while Kofoid had an undisturbed free lane up top, which he used to race past Crum at the exit of turn two with seven to go.
With four laps remaining, Crum discovered his second wind and boldly tossed his car through the middle of turn one.
On the outside was Kofoid, who once again encountered trouble on top, which opened the door for Crum to go by him underneath for the lead. Crum split between the lapped cars of Gray and Hayden Reinbold on the back straightaway to give himself a little bit of extra breathing room when Reinbold, running just behind Crum, hit the topside edge of the track surface between turns three and four, teetering over it and spinning to a stop to bring out the first and only caution of the night.
Before the lap was complete, however, the yellow flag was displayed, meaning the race reverted to the last completed lap, which put Kofoid back in front of Crum with a scot-free vantage point of the track sans any inkling of traffic.
In that scenario, Kofoid wouldn’t be caught as he finished up his victorious performance by a 1.338-second margin over Crum who edged Cummins for second while Kaylee Bryson took fourth and Justin Grant fifth, which was his seventh consecutive top-five result with the series to begin the season.
It was a phenomenal effort by Snohomish, Washington’s Crum who led a race-high 24 laps and finished with a career-best USAC National Midget result of 2nd in his Rudeen Racing/Hager Realty Services – Rayce Rudeen Foundation/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
“I’m really happy to get 2nd, but dang it, I didn’t want that yellow,” Crum exclaimed. “I was trying to move around in traffic, and I couldn’t really decide if it was better to run the slider or the bottom. Then, he just got me. To finish second with Buddy and Kyle right there behind me is definitely a cool night. Overall, it was a good night and I’m pretty happy with it.”