PARAGON, Ind. – For the first time in nearly a year, Cannon McIntosh had victory in his sights on the final lap of a USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series race Thursday night at Paragon Speedway.
While it didn’t end in McIntosh taking the trophy – as Thomas Meseraull slid by the Bixby, Okla., native in the final corner to steal the win – McIntosh still left smiling at the speed he and his team showed.
For much of the spring, the driver of the No. 08 Dave Mac Motorsports entry found himself on the back foot and was struggling to finish inside the top 10, save for a runner-up effort on the opening night of a two-day weekend at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway in late April.
But Thursday’s Indiana Midget Week opener saw McIntosh return to the form that won him two races in the latter stages of the 2020 season with Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – before he returned home to his family team.
McIntosh roared from the outside pole to the lead in three laps, making a move to the low side stick in turn two when Justin Grant biked his RMS Racing-prepared No. 2j in the center of the corner.
From there, he led until the white flag, mastering a rutted up and bumpy turns one and two better than anyone else and building a lead of as much as two and a half seconds at times during the 30-lapper.
However, McIntosh admitted that one slick spot at the bottom of turn three was his undoing on the final circuit, as he hit it just enough to open the door for Meseraull to pounce.
“There was slime there at the very bottom [of three], and if you barely caught it, you would get a little tight,” explained McIntosh. “I knew he was there, so I went to block and if I’d been able to make that work, I think we would’ve won the race, but I just caught the slime just a little bit. It was enough to push me up the track and just killed enough speed for T-Mez to get under me.
“It’s not a big deal. We’ll just move on to Bloomington and keep the speed, and if we do that we’ll probably have a shot at another one.”
Though McIntosh was disappointed at the final outcome, he still held his head high because he knew his team was finally “back in the conversation” for the first time in a while.
“This is definitely nothing to hang our heads about, as frustrating as it is and as bad as it sucks, because of how close we were,” McIntosh tipped. “We haven’t been that close since [last year]. We were right there tonight. One more corner and we’d have been good. It’s really a good way to start Midget Week. We could have started off like I did last year with that DNF, and now we started off with [a] second. We’ll be right there in Midget Week points going into tomorrow. And that’s all I can really ask for.
“We had a really good car tonight. Lots of speed,” McIntosh added. “They know we’re not just here to play anymore. We’re here to win. That has been our goal, is to just come out and show that speed that we’ve been searching for, the momentum we’ve been missing. And I think that’s a great momentum builder with seven more nights to go.
“We’ll just regroup and come back ready to fight again.”
One factor that was a difference-maker for McIntosh was his reunion with crew chief Cody Cordell, who had been working with Tyler Thomas following the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals in January but returned to Dave Mac Motorsports to aid McIntosh during Indiana Midget Week this summer.
“It was just cool to complete the team,” tipped McIntosh. “It’s always good to have a solid number of guys helping out during Midget Week, because it can be a really grueling stretch. I’m sure by race five or six we’ll be grateful to have this many people, but we’ve still got the same people calling the shots. It was great to have Cody’s input. He was giving me pep talks all night and keeping my head right. And I think [Robert] Dalby did really well with the race car. … Everyone played their role and we were right there tonight.
“As long as we keep doing our jobs, we’ll be there the rest of the week.”
As for remarks during Meseraull’s victory lane interview – where he said that “the pressure must have gotten to him (McIntosh)” – the latter just brushed it off as harmless wordplay.
“I know T-Mez made some comments in his interview that some people are talking about, but I’m a good sport,” McIntosh said. “I’m just going to keep my head up.
“I’m sure that’ll be one [interview] he’ll regret down the road when we get one back from him.”