FAIRBURY, Neb. — Buddy Kofoid appeared destined for a third-place finish in Saturday night’s USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship event at Jefferson County Speedway — and then it happened.
Kofoid was third on the final lap of the fifth-mile dirt oval when leaders Ryan Timms and Cannon McIntosh collided, sending both sliding over the turn two banking and out of contention.
Kofoid rushed underneath both Timms and McIntosh, then beat the bottom-rolling Jerry Coons Jr. to the line by a single car length for his seventh feature victory of the season in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – Toyota – TRD/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota.
The $10,000 reward for Kofoid came after he led one lap and one lap only, the 41st of the scheduled 40-lap distance, which was extended into overtime due to a caution on the final lap that initiated a green-white-checkered restart scenario.
Kofoid’s seventh win of 2022 has already surpassed his output from his 2021 title season when he achieved six feature victories
Kofoid notched another tally in the win column for car owner Keith Kunz, who earned his 130th victory as an entrant with the USAC National Midgets, elevating him to within three of the all-time record held by Steve Lewis at 133.
“I haven’t been racing that long, but I feel like I’ve raced long enough to where I can almost see how a situation is going to play out and I can snooker them a little bit,” Kofoid explained. “I feel like that’s kind of what happened. I got a little bit lucky, but our car was just good enough to put them away and stay out front for that last lap. I’m glad to finally get the 10-grand win at one of my favorite tracks.”
Kofoid started his journey from the fourth spot while pole sitter Justin Grant stepped out to lead the initial laps for the second night in a row.
Timms, however, was the one who caught the eye of the observers as the biggest mover early on as he charged from sixth to second in the opening five laps, first seeing him make a magnificent split between Jerry Coons Jr. and Zach Daum for third in turn one on lap three, then by McIntosh for second with a slide and dive in turn three.
That instigated a race-long feud between the two Oklahomans of Timms and McIntosh, with the pair trading barbs literally twice a lap for three-laps straight until Timms finally cleared him on lap nine, then took his run at Grant, who he dipped under in the third turn, then emerged on the other side of turn four as the new race leader on the 10th circuit with McIntosh following suit to second two laps later.
Meanwhile, Friday night’s feature winner Mitchel Moles hit the wall and flipped on lap 20. At the same exact moment as Moles’ incident, fourth-running Kofoid had slipped over the banking on the back straightaway and was in the process of being freight-rained by much of the field. However, Moles’ incident brought out the red and provided Kofoid a reprieve that put him back into fourth for the restart.
Between laps 21 and 23, McIntosh routinely checked out, but each time, Timms tracked down McIntosh just in the nick of time to nip his heels at the start/finish line. Finally, on lap 24, McIntosh cleared Timms. The moment turned out to be short-lived, though, as Timms yanked the lead back into his possession on lap 29.
From that point onward, Timms clasped onto a six-tenths of a second advantage over McIntosh and was well on his way to a lucrative victory until the proverbial red carpet that led to victory lane was ripped out right from beneath Timms’ wheels.
However, the 20th running car of Corey Joyner spun sideways to a stop in the middle of turn four right in front of the leaders as they were sliding through turn three. That incident reset the deck and set up a green-white-checkered finish.
McIntosh used the second wind to swipe the lead from Timms in turns one and two on the lap 40 restart. Timms ripped it back with an identical maneuver in turns three and four, but McIntosh crossed over and drove by Timms to lead by a car length at the line.
Entering turn one on lap 41, Kofoid entered the fight and was fully alongside Timms and McIntosh in turn two as the trio went three-wide for the lead. Timms drifted up the racetrack, however, and his rear bumper and McIntosh’s front bumper met chrome-to-chrome, sending the two over the cliff while Kofoid scooted off scot-free.
He took possession of the top in three and four while a rapidly-closing Coons gave chase on the bottom with .218 seconds the difference at the line with Kofoid the late-race hero, Coons second, Daum third, Jade Avedisian fourth and Jacob Denney rounding out the top five.
“I wouldn’t say I saw it coming, but I knew that Cannon was going to throw a slider on him,” Kofoid explained. “Obviously, with the rubber, there’s only one good lane to be, so with two laps left, you’ve got nothing to lose. I knew Ryan was going to throw something, so I tried to stick the bottom later and slide up all the way in front of them. I wasn’t sure what to do going into turn three coming to the checkered. I knew I had to run the top because it would give me lane choice and the momentum to turn down if I need to. Luckily, I didn’t have to fight with any of them coming to the checkered.”
Coons Jr.’s runner-up finish was his best USAC National Midget feature result in nine years, since 2013 at Illinois’ Belle-Clair Speedway. It was Coons’ second podium finish in as many nights after taking third 24 hours earlier in his Central Motorsports/Schmidt’s Inc. – Gateway Paintball – Paintball Dave/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.
“My plan was to roll the bottom and let them take themselves out on the top and that’s what happened,” Coons said. “It’s frustrating to be that close because we were pretty close, but at the same time, that deal gained us a lot of spots so I can’t be disappointed.”
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Jefferson County Speedway, Fairbury, Neb., July 16, 2022
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-five transfer to the feature) 1. Jade Avedisian (#84 CBI), 2. Thomas Meseraull (#7x RMS), 3. Justin Grant (#2J RMS), 4. Buddy Kofoid (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 5. Logan Seavey (#19 Reinbold-Underwood), 6. Ben Rhodes (#25K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 7. Ben Haney (#3 Haney), 8. Mitchel Moles (#89 CBI), 9. J.R. Ewing (#2c Ewing). NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-five transfer to the feature) 1. Cade Lewis (#71m Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Cannon McIntosh (#08 Dave Mac), 3. Ethan Mitchell (#19m Bundy Built), 4. Ryan Timms (#97 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 5. Kaylee Bryson (#71 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 6. Luke Icke (#91v Mason), 7. Hayden Reinbold (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood), 8. Dalten Collins (#18c Collins). NT
PIT STOP USA/ROD END SUPPLY THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-five transfer to the feature) 1. Zach Daum (#9m Bundy Built), 2. Jerry Coons Jr. (#85 Central), 3. Braden Chiaramonte (#25 Malloy), 4. Bryant Wiedeman (#01 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 5. Trey Gropp (#08x Dave Mac), 6. Corey Joyner (#52J Joyner), 7. Lance Bennett (#91 Mason), 8. Jacob Denney (#61 Mounce-Stout). NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI-FEATURE (12 laps, top-seven transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Ben Rhodes, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Luke Icke, 6. Lance Bennett, 7. Corey Joyner, 8. Dalten Collins, 9. J.R. Ewing, 10. Ben Haney. NT
FEATURE: (41 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Buddy Kofoid (4), 2. Jerry Coons Jr. (5), 3. Zach Daum (2), 4. Jade Avedisian (7), 5. Jacob Denney (11), 6. Justin Grant (1), 7. Kaylee Bryson (10), 8. Ethan Mitchell (13), 9. Thomas Meseraull (17), 10. Cannon McIntosh (3), 11. Ryan Timms (6), 12. Trey Gropp (16), 13. Bryant Wiedeman (14), 14. Cade Lewis (8), 15. Logan Seavey (12), 16. Braden Chiaramonte (18), 17. Hayden Reinbold (15), 18. Ben Rhodes (19), 19. Lance Bennett (22), 20. Corey Joyner (21), 21. Mitchel Moles (9), 22. Luke Icke (20).