SWEET SPRINGS, Mo. — Cannon McIntosh’s first USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget victory two years ago at Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex required a daredevil performance on the high wire that saw him snag the victory on the final corner of the last lap.
No such moves were necessary on Friday night as he got the bulk of his work completed early in lightning quick, non-stop, green-to-checkered fashion on night one of the John Hinck Championship Presented By Dahmer Powertrain.
McIntosh tracked down and overtook racelong leader Brenham Crouch on the 12th lap, then proceeded to lead the final 19 circuits en route to victory in his Dave Mac Dalby Motorsports/Crescent Tools – GearWrench – DriveWFX/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
In fact, McIntosh’s time of six minutes and 45.81 seconds for the distance around the sixth-mile dirt oval made it the third fastest 30-lap feature in the 67-year history of USAC national midget racing.
Starting third, McIntosh slightly fell back into the distance as the top-two of Crouch and Daum established their presence at the head of the class all while McIntosh was treading water, trying to stay afloat.
“It was just a fight getting going early on,” McIntosh recalled. “The top two kind of checked out a little bit and I was struggling out of (turn) four. I kept getting above it with the right rear and just spinning the tires on exit.”
“But once I got in a rhythm,” Mcintosh continued. “I was able to run them down and get by Daum. Once I got by Daum, I was in a pretty good rhythm by then. We got by Crouch pretty well and I don’t know how close they were behind me, but I just felt like I had a really good car. I felt like I was able to manage the top really well and just kind of train track along the cushion.”
Crouch started from the pole and crawled the bottom with success to grab the opening lap lead while Daum followed suit by slipping underneath outside front-row-starter Taylor Reimer to take the second spot on lap three off the bottom of turn four.
Soon thereafter, it became a three-car breakaway at the front with one-third of the race complete as Crouch led his rivals on the low line. That, in turn, left the high line wide open for McIntosh to hustle around the outside of Daum in turn four on lap 10 and began rapidly ripping his way toward Crouch.
Cracking the whip, McIntosh charged around the outside of Crouch and into the lead at the exit of turn four on lap 12.
However, that immediately resulted in McIntosh’s lead dwindling from 1.7 seconds to seven tenths over Crouch with five laps to go as McIntosh threaded the needle between the lead lap tail-end cars of Chase McDermand and Jace Park.
“I just knew I needed to get by them and try to put as many lapped cars as I could between myself and Brenham,” McIntosh explained. “What I was doing down in three and four for most of the race kind of started to go away in the end, so it was getting kind of tricky, but I was able to maintain.”
McIntosh grabbed his third USAC victory of the season by 1.224 seconds over Crouch.
Daum finished third, with Bryant Wideman and Gustin Grant, who raced a backup car to fifth after a wild flip in his heat race.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex, Sweet Springs, Mo., Sept. 9, 2022
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-11.361 (New Track Record); 2. Chase McDermand, 86, CBI-11.448; 3. Zach Daum, 9m, Bundy Built-11.482; 4. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-11.549; 5. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.576; 6. Brenham Crouch, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.588; 7. Justin Grant, 2J, RMS-11.598; 8. Bryant Wiedeman, 01, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.615; 9. Mitchel Moles, 89, CBI-11.617; 10. Mariah Ede, 71E, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.634; 11. Daison Pursley, 71p, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.652; 12. Trey Gropp, 08x, Dave Mac Dalby-11.669; 13. Jacob Denney, 61, Mounce/Stout-11.677; 14. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.679; 15. Kaylee Bryson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.703; 16. Jerry Coons Jr., 85, Central-11.735; 17. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-11.765; 18. Shannon McQueen, 7x, RMS/McQueen-11.793; 19. Cade Lewis, 71m, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.828; 20. Kameron Key, 21H, TKH-11.833; 21. Austin Barnhill, 17B, Dace Mac Dalby-11.845; 22. Joe B. Miller, 51B, Lewis-11.847; 23. Dominic Gorden, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.871; 24. Jace Park, 87, CBI-11.906; 25. Todd McVay, 89x, McVay-11.922; 26. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-11.985; 27. Joe Walker, 51x, Walker-12.167; 28. Corey Joyner, 52J, Joyner-12.813; 29. Mark Billings, 60e, Billings-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-five transfer to the feature) 1. Jerry Coons Jr., 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Ethan Mitchell, 5. Joe B. Miller, 6. Cade Lewis, 7. Todd McVay, 8. Corey Joyner, 9. Justin Grant, 10. Mariah Ede. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-five transfer to the feature) 1. Buddy Kofoid, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Bryant Wiedeman, 4. Taylor Reimer, 5. Chase McDermand, 6. Chance Crum, 7. Kameron Key, 8. Hayden Reinbold, 9. Dominic Gorden. 2:02.13 (New Track Record)
PIT STOP USA/ROD END SUPPLY THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-five transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Zach Daum, 3. Trey Gropp, 4. Shannon McQueen, 5. Brenham Crouch, 6. Jace Park, 7. Austin Barnhill, 8. Joe Walker, 9. Kaylee Bryson. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI-FEATURE (12 laps, top-seven transfer to the feature) 1. Jace Park, 2. Chance Crum, 3. Kaylee Bryson, 4. Cade Lewis, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Kameron Key, 7. Dominic Gorden, 8. Todd McVay, 9. Hayden Reinbold, 10. Joe Walker, 11. Mariah Ede, 12. Austin Barnhill, 13. Corey Joyner. 2:35.70 (New Track Record)
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Cannon McIntosh (3), 2. Brenham Crouch (1), 3. Zach Daum (4), 4. Bryant Wiedeman (11), 5. Justin Grant (10), 6. Ethan Mitchell (6), 7. Daison Pursley (12), 8. Buddy Kofoid (8), 9. Trey Gropp (13), 10. Kaylee Bryson (15), 11. Taylor Reimer (2), 12. Mitchel Moles (7), 13. Kameron Key (19), 14. Jacob Denney (14), 15. Jerry Coons Jr. (9), 16. Dominic Gorden (21), 17. Chance Crum (16), 18. Chase McDermand (5), 19. Jace Park (22), 20. Cade Lewis (18), 21. Shannon McQueen (17), 22. Hayden Reinbold (23-P), 23. Joe B. Miller (20). 6:45.81 (New Track Record)