KOKOMO, Ind. — Seventeen drivers got here into Sunday night time’s 2025 USAC Indiana Midget Week finale at Kokomo Speedway mathematically in rivalry for the miniseries championship.
Considerably fittingly, the ultimate occasion of the truncated and abbreviated three-race sequence got here right down to the 2 drivers who captured victories within the first two rounds of the sequence – teammates Jacob Denney and Kale Drake.
Denney captured the battle with a surprising run to first after beginning seventeenth within the 24-car discipline on the quarter-mile filth oval, main the ultimate six laps en path to his second victory of the week in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/JBL Audio – TRD – Toyota – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota.
Drake, in the meantime, led 11 laps of his personal within the function earlier than crossing the road within the runner-up spot. But it surely was his consistency all through the three-race sequence during which he garnered a primary, a 3rd and a second to corral the Indiana Midget Week championship by a 22-point margin.
So far as Denney’s plus-16 mad sprint to the entrance, it’s the furthest again any driver has received a USAC NOS Vitality Drink Midget Nationwide Championship function courting again to the 2019 season.
Paradoxically, or perhaps not so mockingly, the earlier largest successful cost got here through Buddy Kofoid, who drove for a similar crew and the identical automobile quantity (No. 67) as Denney on his option to a 2021 rating at Oklahoma’s Port Metropolis Speedway.
“I’m tremendous stoked to get it achieved from seventeenth. That’s means again there,” an ecstatic Denney acknowledged.
Denney’s victory is already his third of the USAC Nationwide Midget season, and his second at Kokomo after additionally successful the 2025 season opener throughout April’s Kokomo Grand Prix.
Denney did the deed at Kokomo after a lower than fascinating qualifying run of 14th. When all of the preliminaries had been accomplished, he was shuffled again to the within of row 9 for the beginning of the 30-lap function. By then, the variety of eligible Indiana Midget Week championship contenders had dwindled to 6 with Drake main the bunch and Denney again in fifth, 27 factors behind.
If Drake may end the function fourth or higher, the title was his no matter how anyone else carried out. Because it turned out, Drake by no means strayed outdoors of the top-two for your entire length of the function.
Issues received off to a messy begin, nevertheless. Because the inexperienced flag was waved, sixth place beginning Karter Sarff’s automobile did not take off, the sufferer of a stripped cam spud that ended his race and dashed his IMW championship hopes. Sarff entered the function solely 11 factors out of the lead in third.
However Sarff’s difficulty was only the start of a series response that first noticed Colton Robinson broadside into the bottom of Sarff. Frankie Guerrini turned a sufferer of circumstance as he tagged Robinson and flipped a number of instances in flip one. Guerrini walked away, and his night time, together with Sarff’s, had been instantly over.
Unique polesitter Jakeb Boxell was penalized on the preliminary inexperienced flag for leaping the beginning and was henceforth moved again one row whereas Drake Edwards was slotted over into the pole place. Drake was now the brand new occupant of the surface of the entrance row.
Edwards took benefit of the state of affairs to guide lap one as Drake dropped into second. By lap six, Drake was angling for the lead as he peeked forward of Edwards on the surface of flip two. Nonetheless, Edwards managed to fend off Drake in the meanwhile.
On lap 10, Edwards’ trip took a hop, skip and a bounce atop the flip two cushion, permitting Drake to breeze on by to the within and into the lead. A lap later, Edwards fought again to wrestle management of the race away from Drake as he drove across the outdoors of Drake in turns three and 4.
After third working Daison Pursley fell to the wayside with a flat left rear tire on lap 13, one lap after the following restart, Edwards chanced on the flip two cushion and subsequently opened the door for Drake to roll on by into the lead. At that very second, Denney out of the blue turned a contender, finally roaring into second previous Edwards on lap 16, and it was then he knew it was go time if he desired to win this deal.
“On the finish, I simply needed to go,” Denney defined. “I needed to be affected person and take my time as a result of I saved making errors. I felt like I used to be working a totally completely different line than all people else in three and 4.”
Denney chased Drake for the subsequent 9 laps, and on the twenty fifth circuit, dove low into flip one and drifted up previous Drake. Then in turns three and 4, Denney entered excessive in flip three and swooped low on the exit of flip 4 across the outdoors of Drake to take excessive spot for good.
“I knew I needed to be proper there on him to make it work,” Denney defined. “I saved sliding Drake down there and he saved crossing me over. Once I lastly received round him, I knew that I needed to actually get throughout far and get again going once more to clear him.”
Denney led the ultimate six laps to attain the win by a 0.464 margin over Drake, who locked up the USAC Indiana Midget Week championship. Drake Edwards completed third with Kevin Thomas Jr. fourth and Cannon McIntosh fifth.
USAC NOS Vitality Drink Midget Nationwide Championship, Kokomo Speedway, Kokomo, Ind., June 8, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Karter Sarff, 21K, Sarff-13.252; 2. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-13.342; 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-13.352; 4. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-13.355; 5. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.412; 6. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-13.442; 7. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-13.445; 8. Jakeb Boxell, 14JB, 4 Kings-13.450; 9. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-13.465; 10. Trevor Cline, 55, Cline-13.466; 11. Brecken Reese, 00, Chandler-13.481; 12. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-13.498; 13. Rylan Grey, 81G, Grey-13.499; 14. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.512; 15. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-13.564; 16. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Constructed-13.566; 17. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.587; 18. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.601; 19. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, Engler-13.614; 20. Blake Brannon, 40, Brannon-13.624; 21. Zach Wigal, 8, Cornell-13.668; 22. Cannon Mcintosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.699; 23. Chelby Hinton, 4B, Klatt-13.716; 24. Corbin Rueschenberg, 26, Rueschenberg-13.791; 25. Preston Norbury, 77AZ, Norbury-13.837; 26. Kaiden Manders, 71, Golding-13.873; 27. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-13.897; 28. Tom Payet, 7AU, Bennett-13.916; 29. Frankie Guerrini, 63G, F & F-13.945; 30. Jeff Schindler, 8x, Schindler-14.035; 31. Daniel Harding, 71w, Golding-14.141; 32. Jake Robinson, 8AU, Robinson-14.158; 33. Mark Chisholm, 56x, Chisholm-14.489.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 switch to the function) 1. Rylan Grey, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Kale Drake, 4. Colton Robinson, 5. Karter Sarff, 6. Zach Wigal, 7. Frankie Guerrini, 8. Preston Norbury, 9. Mark Chisholm. 2:15.706
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 switch to the function) 1. Cannon McIntosh, 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Gavin Miller, 4. Trevor Cline, 5. Drake Edwards, 6. Steven Snyder Jr., 7. Kaiden Manders, 8. Jeff Schindler. 2:16.960
USACGEAR.COM THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 switch to the function) 1. Chelby Hinton, 2. Thomas Meseraull, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Cale Coons, 5. Brecken Reese, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Daniel Harding, 8. Gunnar Setser. NT
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 switch to the function) 1. Corbin Rueschenberg, 2. Hayden Reinbold, 3. Ethan Mitchell, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Jakeb Boxell, 6. Blake Brannon, 7. Jake Robinson, 8. Tom Payet. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 switch to the function) 1. Steven Snyder Jr., 2. Gunnar Setser, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Frankie Guerrini, 5. Kaiden Manders, 6. Tom Payet, 7. Jake Robinson, 8. Blake Brannon, 9. Preston Norbury, 10. Mark Chisholm, 11. Jeff Schindler, 12. Daniel Harding. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, beginning positions in parentheses) 1. Jacob Denney (17), 2. Kale Drake (3), 3. Drake Edwards (2), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 5. Cannon McIntosh (8), 6. Justin Grant (13), 7. Jakeb Boxell (1), 8. Rylan Grey (7), 9. Gunnar Setser (18), 10. Hayden Reinbold (16), 11. Steven Snyder Jr. (11), 12. Ethan Mitchell (19), 13. Daison Pursley (4), 14. Logan Seavey (12), 15. Corbin Rueschenberg (10), 16. Thomas Meseraull (22), 17. Gavin Miller (21), 18. Brecken Reese (15), 19. Cale Coons (23), 20. Trevor Cline (14), 21. Chelby Hinton (9), 22. Colton Robinson (20), 23. Karter Sarff (6), 24. Frankie Guerrini (24).
