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Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com

Tanner Thorson (Minden, Nev.) raced to the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget victory during Tuesday Night Thunder at Red Dirt Raceway.
(Rich Forman Photo)

By: Richie Murray - USAC Media

Meeker, Oklahoma (July 21, 2020).........Tanner Thorson faced a strikingly familiar scenario during Tuesday Night Thunder at Oklahoma's Red Dirt Raceway.

On Sunday at Caney Valley Speedway in Kansas, a caution with four laps remaining saw Tyler Courtney positioned directly behind Thorson for a late-race restart. The end result had Courtney sliding past Thorson for the lead and the eventual win, while a disgruntled Thorson fell to a 15th place finish after spinning to a stop as he tried to challenge Courtney for the lead.

On Tuesday night's Mid-America Midget Week finale, though the scene began in the same manner, Thorson made sure his ultimate fate was going to play out differently, this time in his favor.

This time, a late caution stifled Thorson's near five-second advantage with just three laps remaining. By rule, lapped cars were moved to the tail, and that put, yet again, Courtney, right on his rear bumper for the final restart.

As it turned out, Thorson had to endure three shots at a final restart due to a succession of yellows that halted his quest. On the third and final try, which went clean and green, Thorson wasn't to be denied on this night, ridding himself of the recent plague of unfavorable fortune to win by 0.598 of a second for the 17th victory of his USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget career, tying him with Jay Drake and J.J. Yeley for 38th all-time.

The reversal of fortunes was a welcome change for the 2016 series champion from Minden, Nev. who had finished outside the top-12 in two of his past three starts. Yet, despite a mid-stream change in approach during the night, it was back to normal for Thorson, who earned his fourth feature victory of the year, equaling him with Kyle Larson for most in the series.

"Racing is a headgame in itself. It's about whoever can stay out of their own heads the most in the car and in the pits. We all know in this sport, you can't win every night," Thorson reiterated. "We've definitely had one of the fastest, if not the fastest car every night (this week). The last few nights, I've just been second guessing myself as far as setup. I second guessed myself to start tonight. I changed a little bit of the spring package I was running; it wasn't working. Then, I got off the coils and went to bars in the rear and I realized why I switched to coils and why I'm going to stay on coils."

Thorson began his 30-lap race from the pole and led the opening two circuits just before 16th running Kaylee Bryson flipped hard over the banking in between turns one and two. She was shaken up a bit but ultimately exited the car under her own power.

On the ensuing restart, Windom took a run at Thorson for the race lead with a slider in turn three. Thorson ducked back underneath off turn four to snag the lead. However, the driver who was most "on the charge" in the early stages was Cannon McIntosh who used the bottom groove to race past both Windom and Thorson to lead at the stripe on the fourth lap.

Thorson regained the lead from McIntosh a lap later and continuously stretched his lead out over the competition throughout the remainder of the contest. Meanwhile, a tussle behind him waged as Windom and McIntosh exchanged sliders, allowing fourth-place Courtney to gain ground on both, rolling the bottom to make it three-wide at the line on lap 10.

Through the middle stages, leading series Rookie Buddy Kofoid made a surge toward the front all while the numerals on the left side of his car's tail tank were flapping in the breeze, passing Courtney for third on the 18th lap, then by Windom with an inside move on the following lap for second.

With 11 laps left to go, Windom, Courtney and Kofoid ran bottom to top, three-wide for the runner-up position. Windom slid past Kofoid entering turn three; Kofoid biked the left rear on the cushion simultaneously and the two locked together briefly above the turn four cushion with Kofoid's front bumper interlocked with Windom's left nerf bar.

Courtney promptly sped underneath both to grab second while fifth-running McIntosh plowed into the left front of Windom's car, knocking Windom's car straight and sending McIntosh's ride airborne before landing on all fours and continuing onward with a slightly askew right front wheel while dropping to seventh at the checkered.

Now the race was a simple cat and mouse chase between Thorson and Courtney. However, Thorson was serving as the ultimate hide-and-seek champion for the time being with him being out of sight and more than a straightaway ahead of Courtney as he navigated traffic in the closing stages.

Only a caution could disrupt Thorson's yellow brick road path to a stress-free, dominant triumph. And that radiant yellow piece of cloth became visible just three laps from the end when sixth running Tanner Carrick stopped on the back straightaway, forcing his car to be towed back to the pits.

"When that yellow came out, I was like 'oh great, here we go again,'" Thorson admitted. "Sunday night, I had a good little lead. We had a bunch of yellows there at the end of that race that cost me. I got in too hard and looped it. I just talked to myself a little bit trying to amp myself up and try not to lose what I had going because I knew I had such a fast racecar."

The first attempt at a restart saw Courtney briefly slide ahead of Thorson between turns one and two before Thorson shot down off the high side of the turn two banking to re-snag the lead. Moments later, Trey Gropp, running 15th at the time, slowed on the front straight to necessitate a yellow. The following restart too was thwarted after a single lap when 11th running Sam Johnson jumped the curb and landed outside turns one and two on the adjacent go-kart track.

Thorson wasn't to be denied on this night, ridding himself of the recent plague of unfavorable fortune to win by 0.598 of a second for the 17th victory of his USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget career, tying him with Jay Drake and J.J. Yeley for 38th all-time.
(Rich Forman Photos)

Thorson anticipated Courtney was going to throw the kitchen sink, the kit and kaboodle, and everything else at him on each restart, so he altered his starts to throw a figurative banana peel into the equation.

"I knew Courtney was going to the bottom or slide me or do something," Thorson predicted. "I tried to screw my starts up a little bit and kind of get the guys off their feet a little bit to get the advantage that I had before, and it worked. Then I saw Tyler (Courtney) there at the bottom on the first restart. The second restart, he went back again, and I knew from running up there early in the race that momentum was going to be the key there at the exit of turn two. I just kept it up there and thought about sliding myself a bunch, but I knew I'd lose ground. I just kept doing what I was doing, and it paid off."

Paid off it did as Thorson distanced himself from Courtney in the final two-lap shootout, launching himself around on the top shelf of two to race on to the victory in his Hayward Motorsports/Oilfire - Factory Kahne - Walker Filtration/Spike/Stanton SR-11x over Courtney and a hard-charging Jerry Coons Jr. who rolled the bottom to third. Kofoid took fourth while series point leader Chris Windom rounded out the top-five utilizing a backup car following mechanical troubles with his primary during hot laps.

In Fatheadz Qualifying, Jenks, Oklahoma's Kyle Wilson, making his USAC debut, biked in turn three and flipped over the turn four wall. He continued flipping end-over-end after exiting the racetrack before landing in a pile of brush. He was uninjured.

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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 21, 2020 - Red Dirt Raceway - Meeker, Oklahoma - 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval - Tuesday Night Thunder - Mid-America Midget Week

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall-13.108 (New Track Record); 2. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.168; 3. Andrew Layser, 82, Tucker/Boat-13.189; 4. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.197; 5. Emerson Axsom, 15, Petry-13.239; 6. Steven Shebester, 22x, Williams-13.288; 7. Chris Windom, 89, Tucker/Boat-13.292; 8. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-13.293; 9. Tanner Thorson, 19, Hayward-13.320; 10. Daison Pursley, 9, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.351; 11. Trey Gropp, 00, Mounce-13.403; 12. Tanner Carrick, 35, Petry-13.431; 13. Kaylee Bryson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.439; 14. Cole Bodine, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-13.450; 15. Jonathan Beason, 8J, Hard Eight-13.548; 16. Ace McCarthy, 28, Dave Mac-13.556; 17. Emilio Hoover, 21K, Reynolds-13.610; 18. Robert Dalby, 4, Dalby-13.645; 19. Sam Johnson, 72, Johnson-13.656; 20. Chance Morton, 7MF, Morton-13.656; 21. Jerry Coons Jr., 85, Central-13.684; 22. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-13.732; 23. Shannon McQueen, 7, McQueen-13.781; 24. Noah Gass, 08, Dave Mac-13.820; 25. Mike Goodman, 11G, Jenkins/Gariss-13.883; 26. Austin Wood, 27, Wood-13.989; 27. Curtis Spicer, 4s, Spicer-14.248; 28. Dustin Dixon, 7x, Gariss-14.357; 29. Cade Cowles, 70, Gariss-14.438; 30. Cole Scott, 2s, Scott-14.532; 31. Zac Millikin, 3, Hunt-14.730; 32. Kyle Wilson, 07, Gariss-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jerry Coons Jr., 2. Tanner Thorson, 3. Tyler Courtney, 4. Kaylee Bryson, 5. Emerson Axsom, 6. Emilio Hoover, 7. Mike Goodman, 8. Cade Cowles. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Tyler Thomas, 2. Cole Bodine, 3. Buddy Kofoid, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Steven Shebester, 6. Robert Dalby, 7. Austin Wood, 8. Cole Scott. 1:49.816

AUTOMETER THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Sam Johnson, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Jonathan Beason, 4. Trey Gropp, 5. Shannon McQueen, 6. Andrew Layser, 7. Zac Millikin, 8. Curtis Spicer. 1:49.580 (New Track Record)

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Cannon McIntosh, 2. Tanner Carrick, 3. Ace McCarthy, 4. Ethan Mitchell, 5. Noah Gass, 6. Chance Morton, 7. Dustin Dixon. 1:51.380

INDY METAL FINISHING SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Andrew Layser, 2. Emerson Axsom, 3. Robert Dalby, 4. Steven Shebester, 5. Shannon McQueen, 6. Chance Morton, 7. Emilio Hoover, 8. Cade Cowles, 9. Curtis Spicer, 10. Dustin Dixon, 11. Zac Millikin, 12. Austin Wood, 13. Noah Gass, 14. Cole Scott. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tanner Thorson (1), 2. Tyler Courtney (6), 3. Jerry Coons Jr. (8), 4. Buddy Kofoid (5), 5. Chris Windom (3), 6. Emerson Axsom (11), 7. Cannon McIntosh (4), 8. Jonathan Beason (18), 9. Tyler Thomas (9), 10. Andrew Layser (10), 11. Robert Dalby (20), 12. Daison Pursley (13), 13. Ethan Mitchell (2), 14. Sam Johnson (7), 15. Cole Bodine (17), 16. Tanner Carrick (15), 17. Trey Gropp (14), 18. Steven Shebester (12), 19. Shannon McQueen (22), 20. Chance Morton (21), 21. Kaylee Bryson (16), 22. Ace McCarthy (19). NT

**Kyle Wilson flipped over the turn 4 wall during qualifying. Kaylee Bryson flipped on lap 3 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Tanner Thorson, Lap 4 Cannon McIntosh, Laps 5-30 Tanner Thorson.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-1,035, 2-Tyler Courtney-928, 3-Buddy Kofoid-919, 4-Tanner Thorson-906, 5-Cannon McIntosh-809, 6-Tanner Carrick-713, 7-Daison Pursley-677, 8-Cole Bodine-629, 9-Andrew Layser-598, 10-Justin Grant-489.

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-67, 2-Tanner Thorson-58, 3-Logan Seavey-54, 4-Andrew Layser-44, 5-Daison Pursley-41, 6-Justin Grant-41, 7-Jerry Coons Jr.-33, 8-Cannon McIntosh-32, 9-Robert Dalby-32, 10-Tanner Carrick-31.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 4, 2020 - Grandview Speedway - Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania - 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval - Eastern Midget Week

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Tyler Courtney

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Jerry Coons Jr.

Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Tyler Thomas

AutoMeter Third Heat Winner: Sam Johnson

Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner: Cannon McIntosh

Indy Metal Finishing Semi Winner: Andrew Layser

Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Emilio Hoover

KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: Jonathan Beason (18th to 8th)

Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Ethan Mitchell

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Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com

Tyler Courtney won his second consecutive USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget feature Sunday in the series debut at Caney Valley Speedway in Kansas.
(Rich Forman Photo)

By: Richie Murray - USAC Media

Caney, Kansas (July 19, 2020).........When it rains, it pours. Sometimes that old idiom may involve negative characteristics, but there's also the positive side of the phrase that Tyler Courtney has experienced of late, a far cry from the former which consumed him prior to his back-to-back USAC NOS Energy National Midget victories.

The latest came Sunday night in the series debut at Caney Valley Speedway in Kansas where the Indianapolis, Ind. racer nearly parked it on two separate occasions early before regathering, dusting himself off and trying again to roar back through the pack with a winning pass of Tanner Thorson four laps from the finish to score his third series victory of the year aboard his Clauson-Marshall Racing/NOS Turbo - ZMax/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.

Courtney admitted they had him in the first half, he wasn't going to lie. But the second half of the 30-lapper was all his as he snared his second victory in as many nights, and the 16th of his career to move to 40th all-time past Don Branson and 1973 USAC National Midget champ Larry Rice.

Courtney's consecutive victories are a welcome reprieve from two-straight finishes of 21st or worse that lingered itself into the beginning of Mid-American Midget Week. Now he finds himself and his team back in championship form that won them a series title one season ago.

"This sport is probably the most humbling of any sport you could possibly do," Courtney said. "You have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows and you have to ride those highs as long as you can and hopefully not let the lows get you down too badly."

Courtney started third while series Rookie Kaylee Bryson led the opening lap after dicing it up with Thorson off turn four to head the field on lap one. Thorson ducked under Bryson on the bottom of the first turn to secure the lead where he'd remain for much of the duration.

On multiple occasions, Courtney found himself completely sideways between turns one and two, nearly coming to a stop during both instances before continuing onward, but not before dropping like a stone to the latter half of the top-ten running order, giving him little hope that a victory was still in the cards.

"I thought we were done about lap 10 of that race," Courtney professed. "I just couldn't quite get through (turn) one there. Every time I thought I'd do something right, it ended up being the wrong move. Unfortunate for those guys (who contacted his half-spinning car) but it helped me with a couple of guys there to straighten me out. I finally just started slowing down and hitting the bottom of one and two instead of trying to carry my momentum through. That ended up paying huge dividends at the end of the race. I was about the only guy who started doing it and I was able to get a good run off two and down into three and four to slide those guys and put ourselves in a good spot to win that race."

As Courtney found just a little bit of variation on his line than everybody else, Thorson incrementally elongated his lead over Buddy Kofoid in second place throughout the early stages of the second half. Kofoid, the leading series Rookie in the 22-car field, took a run at Thorson for supremacy on a restart with 11 laps remaining. However, Thorson was able to thwart the challenge of Kofoid, who slipped back, while Courtney scooted to second past Kofoid on the 22nd lap.

On a lap 24 restart following a Daison Pursley turn four spin, the top-three of Thorson high, Courtney middle and Kofoid low became entrenched in a three-wide tussle for position in turn four from which Thorson emerged retaining the lead with Courtney and Kofoid slotted just behind.

One lap later, Courtney took his uppercut to Thorson with a turn three slider, ripping past for the lead momentarily as Thorson darted back underneath at the exit of four, with the two banging wheels, which sent Courtney briefly squirrely as both continued onward without too much detriment. Moments later, at the exit of two, Thorson slid up off the bottom all on his own, allowing Courtney to sprint by underneath. However, it was all for naught as Tyler Thomas spun in turn two to bring out the yellow.

Courtney brought his hard hat and went straight back to work on the resumption of lap 27, recreating the same turn three slider he made just before the yellow. This time, the move stuck, with Courtney snagging the lead from Thorson who followed the procession into turn one behind Courtney but got sideways on entry and was plowed into by the next three cars in line driven by Tanner Carrick, Kofoid and Fatheadz Fast Qualifier Cannon McIntosh, running 3rd, 4th and 5th at the time, all of whom stopped.

Sunday's top-three at Caney Valley Speedway: winner Tyler Courtney (middle), 2nd place finisher Chris Windom (right) and 3rd place finisher Kaylee Bryson (left).
(Lonnie Wheatley Photo)

With a little bit of a sigh of relief in the afterglow of the aftermath, Courtney closed out a performance in which he became a USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget winner at a first-time series venue for the second time this season following his late-May victory at Port City Raceway in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Point leader Chris Windom (Canton, Ill.) finished 2nd to record his 13th top-five finish in 14 series starts in 2020. Kaylee Bryson (Muskogee, Okla.) earned a career-best 3rd place finish, the best result by a female driver with the series since Holly Shelton's 3rd place finish at Lawrenceburg during 2017 Indiana Midget Week, and the second best ever behind Sarah McCune's runner-up finish at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway in 1999.

USAC Triple Crown champion Jerry Coons Jr. (Tuscon, Ariz.) scored his season best of 4th while Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) backed up his runner-up finish from Saturday at Nebraska's Jefferson County Speedway with a 5th in just his fourth series start.

Trey Gropp (Lincoln, Neb.) rolled from the 22nd and final starting spot on the feature grid to finish a career-best 6th en route to earning the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award.

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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 19, 2020 - Caney Valley Speedway - Caney, Kansas - 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval - Mid-America Midget Week

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.285 (New Track Record); 2. Chris Windom, 89, Tucker/Boat-13.366; 3. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-13.392; 4. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.424; 5. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall-13.434; 6. Tanner Thorson, 19, Hayward-13.445; 7. Kaylee Bryson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.451; 8. Cole Bodine, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-13.526; 9. Daison Pursley, 9, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.551; 10. Tanner Carrick, 35, Petry-13.589; 11. Emerson Axsom, 15, Petry-13.594; 12. Andrew Layser, 82, Tucker/Boat-13.599; 13. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-13.633; 14. Jerry Coons Jr., 85, Central-13.663; 15. Jonathan Beason, 8J, Hard Eight-13.754; 16. Noah Gass, 08, Dave Mac-13.778; 17. Ace McCarthy, 28, Dave Mac-13.782; 18. Sam Johnson, 72, Johnson-13.800; 19. Shannon McQueen, 7, McQueen-13.801; 20. Steven Shebester, 22x, Williams-13.805; 21. Chance Morton, 7MF, Morton-13.861; 22. Robert Dalby, 4, Dalby-13.875; 23. Trey Gropp, 00, Mounce-13.892; 24. Emilio Hoover, 21K, Reynolds-13.913; 25. Wesley Smith, 44, Horn-13.980; 26. Kade Morton, 84m, Morton-14.266; 27. Curtis Spicer, 4s, Spicer-14.759; 28. Shaun Shapel, 84s, Shapel-15.977; 29. Jesse Shapel, 84, Shapel-16.776.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Cannon McIntosh, 2. Buddy Kofoid, 3. Tanner Carrick, 4. Shannon McQueen, 5. Kaylee Bryson, 6. Robert Dalby, 7. Tyler Thomas, 8. Wesley Smith, 9. Shaun Shapel, 10. Noah Gass. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Jerry Coons Jr., 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Ace McCarthy, 5. Tyler Courtney, 6. Steven Shebester, 7. Trey Gropp, 8. Cole Bodine, 9. Kade Morton, 10. Jesse Shapel. NT

AUTOMETER THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Tanner Thorson, 3. Jonathan Beason, 4. Andrew Layser, 5. Sam Johnson, 6. Ethan Mitchell, 7. Chance Morton, 8. Curtis Spicer, 9. Emilio Hoover. NT

INDY RACE PARTS/INDY METAL FINISHING SEMI: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Tyler Thomas, 2. Ethan Mitchell, 3. Cole Bodine, 4. Trey Gropp, 5. Chance Morton, 6. Robert Dalby, 7. Noah Gass, 8. Emilio Hoover, 9. Jesse Shapel, 10. Steven Shebester, 11. Curtis Spicer, 12. Shaun Shapel, 13. Jesse Shapel. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tyler Courtney (3), 2. Chris Windom (5), 3. Kaylee Bryson (1), 4. Jerry Coons Jr. (14), 5. Emerson Axsom (11), 6. Trey Gropp (22), 7. Ace McCarthy (17), 8. Robert Dalby (21), 9. Andrew Layser (12), 10. Cole Bodine (9), 11. Daison Pursley (7), 12. Shannon McQueen (19), 13. Ethan Mitchell (8), 14. Sam Johnson (18), 15. Tanner Thorson (2), 16. Tyler Thomas (13), 17. Tanner Carrick (10), 18. Noah Gass (16), 19. Buddy Kofoid (4), 20. Cannon McIntosh (6), 21. Chance Morton (20), 22. Jonathan Beason (15). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Kaylee Bryson, Laps 2-26 Tanner Thorson, Laps 27-30 Tyler Courtney.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-970, 2-Tyler Courtney-849, 3-Buddy Kofoid-847, 4-Tanner Thorson-829, 5-Cannon McIntosh-746, 6-Tanner Carrick-675, 7-Daison Pursley-633, 8-Cole Bodine-589, 9-Andrew Layser-547, 10-Justin Grant-489.

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-67, 2-Tanner Thorson-58, 3-Logan Seavey-54, 4-Andrew Layser-44, 5-Justin Grant-41, 6-Daison Pursley-41, 7-Cannon McIntosh-32, 8-Tanner Carrick-31, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-30, 10-Brady Bacon-29.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 21, 2020 - Red Dirt Raceway - Meeker, Oklahoma - Tuesday Night Thunder - 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Cannon McIntosh

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Cannon McIntosh

Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Chris Windom

AutoMeter Third Heat Winner: Daison Pursley

Indy Race Parts / Indy Metal Finishing Semi Winner: Tyler Thomas

Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Emilio Hoover

KSE Racing Products/B & W Auto Mart Hard Charger: Trey Gropp (22nd to 6th)

Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Ethan Mitchell

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Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com

Tyler Courtney became the first multi-time winner of the Midwest Midget Championship Saturday night at Jefferson Co. Speedway in Fairbury, Nebraska.
(Rich Forman Photo)

By: Richie Murray - USAC Media

Fairbury, Nebraska (July 18, 2020).........After 21st and 22nd place finishes in his two most recent USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget outings, Tyler Courtney simply wasn't going to be stopped Saturday night at Jefferson County Speedway.

Literally, he was unable to stop as he drove through victory lane without the aid of brakes.

A late caution following a 35-lap green flag run around the 1/5-mile dirt oval, however, nearly thwarted the team's resilient effort as he withstood a hailstorm of challenges from Buddy Kofoid, then a hard-charging Emerson Axsom, during the final laps to become the first multi-time victor of the Riverside Chevrolet-Buick-Cadillac Midwest Midget Championship presented by Westin Meats & Schmidt's Sanitation.

In becoming a winner of the event in back-to-back years at Jefferson County after notching victory on the final night of the 2019 event, Courtney scored his 15th career series win, tying himself with Don Branson and Larry Rice for 47th all-time.

For Courtney, whose run of luck in the midget of late included flipping while leading in the Indiana Midget Week finale in June at Kokomo as well as an early race wheel hop 24 hours prior at Jefferson County that derailed his evening early on in Friday night's feature, he felt as if this was time to prove a point that are still a force to behold.

Simply put, Courtney felt he and his Clauson-Marshall Racing/NOS Turbo - ZMax/Spike/Stanton SR-11x needed this one.

"Not only for myself but as a team, I feel like we needed this to get our mojo back, so to speak," Courtney said. "We've just been struggling. All Indiana Midget Week, we just didn't have any speed. Then, we were leading at Kokomo and had an unfortunate end to our night there. Last night, we made it two laps in the feature before something else happened. Tonight, starting on the pole, we were in a good spot. I feel like we capitalized on that. It's been trying for sure, but that's what this sport is all about. It's not always roses, but you try to make the most out of every night you can."

Courtney, of Indianapolis, Ind., made the most of the night early on as he initially rode the low line to lead lap one before outside front row starter Kofoid crossed over at the stripe and tried to slide by Courtney, now on the top side, into turn one, to no avail, before falling back into line behind Courtney on the high line.

The top-two of Courtney and Kofoid separated themselves from the rest of the field before immersing themselves into traffic by the 10th lap. Courtney expertly executed through traffic as he kept Kofoid at bay through the mid-stages of the 40-lapper.

Kofoid began to dip low to the bottom of turns three and four as he scoured the surface for an avenue past Courtney. Courtney, meanwhile, was in the midst of trying to slide lapped traffic. That briefly bogged down his momentum exiting turns two and four, thus allowing Kofoid a chance to pulley himself back into contention by taking a run at the reigning series champion in turn one on the 25th lap, which came up short of the mark.

Despite the miss, Kofoid simply wouldn't let Courtney escape, and with 11 laps to go, Kofoid was once again able to pull even with Courtney at the exit of turn four, putting him in a position to capitalize on any potential misstep Courtney was to encounter in the forthcoming laps.

Less than a half lap later, at the exit of turn two, Courtney snagged a piece of the turn two cushion as he slid past Ethan Mitchell to put him a lap down. Kofoid closed the gap to Courtney on the back straightaway and appeared to be setting up Courtney for the slide job in turn three, but the bottom lane was occupied by Mitchell, thus forcing Kofoid to drift back behind Courtney on the high line and negating a possible golden nugget of an opportunity.

Courtney then ably gapped Kofoid as he separated himself once again by more than a second with the aid of traffic. However, with five laps remaining, seventh-running Tyler Thomas coasted to a stop over the top of the turn two banking with smoke and a little bit of flame coming from the Oklahoma driver's ride, necessitating a yellow following a lengthy 35-lap caution free run.

"I like racing in lapped traffic," Courtney admitted. "I feel like I have a little bit of an edge on some guys there. I messed up a couple times, but overall I knew if we could stay in lapped traffic, it would bode better for me rather than if we went yellow because you never know what's going to happen on the restart. Restarts get chaotic, especially when you lose your brakes, it gets a little nerve wracking."

All race long, the expected showdown for the win was presumed to be undertaken by Courtney and Kofoid. However, Axsom, making just his third career series start, quietly minded his own Ps and Qs on the bottom as he restarted fourth on the lap 36 restart. Axsom quickly disposed of Windom for third off turn two, then as Kofoid slid by Courtney for the number one spot in turns three and four, Axsom rolled the bottom on his own path to the lead by a nose with Courtney in the middle and Kofoid up top, three-wide at the line.

Courtney slid past Kofoid into turn one, then moments later, Kofoid skipped along the curb of turn two and dropped to fifth and out of contention, leaving the race for the lead now as a mono y mono duel between Axsom on the bottom and Courtney up top.

"I knew Buddy was going to be coming there on the restart," Courtney recalled. "He slid me, I got back by him, then all of a sudden, there's a guy on the bottom and I couldn't really see who it was. I thought it was (Tanner) Thorson, but it ended up being Emerson there at the end. When I looked up (at the turn one scoreboard) and saw the 15, I thought, 'well, that's not what I was expecting.'"

Tyler Courtney's second USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget win of 2020 was the 15th of his career, tying him with Don Branson and Larry Rice for 47th all-time.
(Rich Forman Photo)

Axsom's magnificent drive around the infield tires continued with four to go as tripped the scoring loop two car lengths ahead of Courtney at the line with Thorson now joining the fray just a couple steps behind Axsom on the bottom. Courtney knew his precision on the rail had to be as close to absolutely perfect during the last three lap stretch in order for him to win the deal, as it has to be when taking the long road home.

"I felt like I was getting through one and two pretty good," Courtney said. "Three and four, I was kind of struggling a little bit. I knew I could get through one and two, but just had to maintain over there in three and four and I did. Luckily, we got to the finish line first. It's still nerve wracking; you don't know how good that guy is going to hit the bottom on that last corner, especially if you mess up a little bit. So you just try to be perfect, but it's really hard to be perfect."

It took 39-1/4-laps for Courtney to find that final semblance of separation that was required as he launched off turns one and two on the 40th and final lap to reign victorious by a margin 0.434 seconds over Axsom, Thorson, Windom and Kofoid.

Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) nearly pulled off the miraculous late-race charge to the front of the field in his Petry Motorsports/Keizer Aluminum Wheels - Mobil 1 - FK Rod Ends/Bullet/Speedway Toyota. Yet, the 2nd place finish was his result, the best of the 15-year-old driver's career, as he chose his own distinct path along the way after earlier driving from 7th to 1st in the first heat race.

"I saw everyone else on the top, and I wanted to go up there," Axsom relayed. "We weren't terrible up there in lapped traffic but we weren't falling back on the bottom, so I tightened up the car with the shocks, which definitely helped on that last restart."

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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 18, 2020 - Jefferson County Speedway - Fairbury, Nebraska - 1/5-Mile Dirt Oval - Riverside Chevrolet-Buick-Cadillac Midwest Midget Championship presented by Westin Meats & Schmidt's Sanitation

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.037; 2. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-11.074; 3. Tanner Thorson, 19, Hayward-11.167; 4. Emilio Hoover, 21K, Reynolds-11.196; 5. Chris Windom, 89, Tucker/Boat-11.198; 6. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.212; 7. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall-11.219; 8. Daison Pursley, 9, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.266; 9. Kaylee Bryson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.270; 10. Jerry Coons Jr., 85, Central-11.386; 11. Tanner Carrick, 35, Petry-11.387; 12. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-11.395; 13. Andrew Layser, 82, Tucker/Boat-11.410; 14. Trey Gropp, 00, Mounce-11.418; 15. Sam Johnson, 72, Johnson-11.487; 16. Robert Dalby, 4, Dalby-11.496; 17. Cole Bodine, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-11.512; 18. Carson Garrett, 15x, Garrett-11.528; 19. Emerson Axsom, 15, Petry-11.538; 20. Keith Rauch, 27B, Bourke-11.630; 21. Chris Sheil, 91, Mason-11.865; 22. Zac Taylor, 71T, Henry-11.947; 23. Curtis Spicer, 4s, Spicer-12.045; 24. Tony Rossi, 14, Rossi-12.049; 25. Collin Rinehart, 6, Rinehart-12.126; 26. Kyle Jones, 7u, Tri-Fecta-12.251; 27. A.J. Valim, 4T, Valim-12.272; 28. Lance Bennett, 10, Bennett-12.304; 29. J.R. Ewing, 2c, Ewing-12.963.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Emerson Axsom, 2. Jerry Coons Jr., 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Tyler Courtney, 5. Robert Dalby, 6. Andrew Layser, 7. Emilio Hoover, 8. Zac Taylor, 9. Collin Rinehart, 10. Lance Bennett. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Cole Bodine, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Trey Gropp, 4. Ethan Mitchell, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Tanner Carrick, 7. Keith Rauch, 8. Curtis Spicer, 9. J.R. Ewing, 10. Kyle Jones. 2:03.331

AUTOMETER THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Sam Johnson, 2. Tyler Thomas, 3. Tanner Thorson, 4. Kaylee Bryson, 5. Buddy Kofoid, 6. Carson Garrett, 7. Chris Sheil, 8. Tony Rossi, 9. A.J. Valim. NT

INDY RACE PARTS/INDY METAL FINISHING SEMI: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Tanner Carrick, 2. Emilio Hoover, 3. Carson Garrett, 4. Keith Rauch, 5. Andrew Layser, 6. Curtis Spicer, 7. Tony Rossi, 8. Collin Rinehart, 9. A.J. Valim, 10. Lance Bennett, 11. Zac Taylor, 12. J.R. Ewing, 13. Kyle Jones. NT

FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tyler Courtney (1), 2. Emerson Axsom (9), 3. Tanner Thorson (4), 4. Chris Windom (3), 5. Buddy Kofoid (2), 6. Daison Pursley (11), 7. Jerry Coons Jr. (13), 8. Cannon McIntosh (6), 9. Sam Johnson (7), 10. Tanner Carrick (14), 11. Robert Dalby (18), 12. Ethan Mitchell (5), 13. Kaylee Bryson (12), 14. Andrew Layser (16), 15. Cole Bodine (8), 16. Carson Garrett (19), 17. Curtis Spicer (21), 18. Keith Rauch (20), 19. Tyler Thomas (15), 20. Trey Gropp (17), 21. Emilio Hoover (10), 22. Tony Rossi (22). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-35 Tyler Courtney, Laps 36-37 Emerson Axsom, Laps 38-40 Tyler Courtney.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-890, 2-Buddy Kofoid-812, 3-Tanner Thorson-788, 4-Tyler Courtney-773, 5-Cannon McIntosh-709, 6-Tanner Carrick-640, 7-Daison Pursley-584, 8-Cole Bodine-544, 9-Andrew Layser-496, 10-Justin Grant-489.

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-64, 2-Tanner Thorson-58, 3-Logan Seavey-54, 4-Justin Grant-41, 5-Andrew Layser-41, 6-Daison Pursley-41, 7-Cannon McIntosh-32, 8-Tanner Carrick-31, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-30, 10-Brady Bacon-29.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 19, 2020 - Caney Valley Speedway - Caney, Kansas - 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Cannon McIntosh

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Emerson Axsom

Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Cole Bodine

AutoMeter Third Heat Winner: Sam Johnson

Indy Race Parts / Indy Metal Finishing Semi Winner: Tanner Carrick

Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Collin Rinehart

KSE Racing Products/B & W Auto Mart Hard Charger: Emerson Axsom (9th to 2nd)

Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Kaylee Bryson

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Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com

Chris Windom (Canton, Ill.) collected his third USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget victory in Friday night's Midwest Midget Championship opener at Jefferson County Speedway in Fairbury, Nebraska. (Danny Clum Photo)

By: Richie Murray - USAC Media

Fairbury, Nebraska (July 17, 2020).........Chris Windom withstood Buddy Kofoid's repeated, relentless challenges down the stretch, including during a hellacious final four lap trophy dash to the finish, to capture his third USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget feature victory of the season in Friday night's Riverside Chevrolet-Buick-Cadillac Midwest Midget Championship presented by Westin Meats & Schmidt's Sanitation at Fairbury, Nebraska's Jefferson County Speedway.

In a 30-lap feature that was stop-and-start throughout, with a number of cautions and a pair of red flags impeding the proceedings, Windom worked his way to the lead just prior to midway after pole sitter Ethan Mitchell led the first four laps of his USAC career while Cannon McIntosh controlled the front of the pack from lap five until Windom worked his way by on the 12th circuit just following a restart.

Windom found it much easier to catch rather than pass at the 1/5-mile dirt oval on this particular night. However, Windom felt that door was being left open on restarts, which allowed him to get a run to take the top spot from McIntosh after multiple attempts in turn three on back-to-back laps. Windom officially claimed the number one position just prior to a caution for the stopped car of Cole Bodine in turn four on lap 13.

A rhythm was difficult to find as the laps clicked away on the southeastern Nebraska metronome, but Windom was right on beat as he opened up his lead to 1.5 seconds and encroached on the tail of the field in the waning stages.

Yet, as Windom began to track down traffic that was running three and four-wide at times, Kofoid was right on his trail, closing to within a couple car lengths of Windom with four laps remaining.

In the thick of the battle, third running Tanner Thorson, who had earlier set Fatheadz Fast Qualifying time, spun to a stop in turn two to bring out the final yellow. While another stoppage wasn't ideal for the rhythm section of the equation, Windom wasn't all that bummed to see the yellow light.

"I was really happy to see that caution because, actually, under the last caution, I had leaned the car down and I forgot to turn the fuel back on. I felt like we were running on six cylinders and thought we were blowing up. It was really just my own fault there, so luckily, we got that figured out."

Now without traffic as a hindrance, Windom had another battle to wage, the one under his helmet, where he had to decide where on the track to go in order to keep a hungry, first-win-seeking Kofoid behind him.

"The restart, and a couple of laps after the restarts, were the toughest part, really," Windom explained. "You could get such a big run if you threw a slider into one. It was hard to decide, as the leader, whether to go to the top or slide yourself and lose momentum. At the end of the day, it all worked out, but it was definitely a hellacious last couple of laps."

It worked out A-Okay for Windom during the first couple of laps following the restart, but Kofoid was setting up his next move that he ultimately made with two laps remaining, sliding by Windom entering the first turn with little room to spare. Windom made contact with the rear bumper of Kofoid, elevating all four wheels of Windom's Tucker-Boat Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink - Pristine Auction/Spike/Speedway Toyota off the racing surface.

"He ran us hard there, and when he slid me in one and two, I just ran him hard back," Windom recalled. "That's how you have to pass guys here, though. No fault of him, really, sliding me hard. I felt like I had taken control of the race, though, and I was really not going to let that slip away at the end, so I did what I had to do to keep the win."

'He ran us hard there, and when he slid me in one and two, I just ran him hard back,' Windom recalled. 'That's how you have to pass guys here, though. No fault of him, really, sliding me hard. I felt like I had taken control of the race, though, and I was really not going to let that slip away at the end, so I did what I had to do to keep the win.'
(Rich Forman Photo)

Once Windom landed on all fours, he took off straight for the bottom of turn three as Daison Pursley stuck a nose in to the battle to briefly make it three-wide on the back straightaway. Windom got to the bottom first, exited off turn four and, as he sped underneath the white flag, attempted to jet back to the bottom of turn one, resulting in contact between Kofoid's front chrome and Windom's rear bumper.

That move slowed up Windom's momentum off turn two, but Kofoid was only able to get half a car length under Windom as Windom made a beeline back to the bottom of turn three, forcing Kofoid and Pursley to try high as a last ditch effort, to no avail, as Windom sprinted to the checkered flag for the fifth time in his USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget career by two car lengths over Kofoid, Pursley, Tyler Thomas and Cannon McIntosh.

While Windom came into Jefferson County as the point leader, he has been a force all year with top-five finishes in all but one of his 12 series starts. Despite that fact, the Canton, Ill. driver readily admitted that it was during Indiana Midget Week, where they won five of six races, that the individuals on the crew and behind the wheel realized how much potential they had.

"Having (Kyle) Larson come in and run with us, it definitely made everyone step their game up a little bit," Windom revealed of the four-time IMW 2020 winner and champion. "He gets 100 percent out of the racetrack every single night and makes you be better. We had already won a race and run up front, but he definitely showed how much speed there really is in these cars. It's nice to be able to keep showing it and keep picking off the wins."

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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 17, 2020 - Jefferson County Speedway - Fairbury, Nebraska - 1/5-Mile Dirt Oval - Riverside Chevrolet-Buick-Cadillac Midwest Midget Championship presented by Westin Meats & Schmidt's Sanitation / Chad McDaniel Night

FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Tanner Thorson, 19, Hayward-10.772; 2. Chris Windom, 89, Tucker/Boat-10.773; 3. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.812; 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 85, Central-10.849; 5. Robert Dalby, 4, Dalby-10.867; 6. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-10.898; 7. Tyler Courtney, 7BC, Clauson/Marshall-10.909; 8. Kaylee Bryson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.911; 9. Tanner Carrick, 35, Petry-10.918; 10. Daison Pursley, 9, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-10.924; 11. Emerson Axsom, 15, Petry-10.931; 12. Cole Bodine, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-10.956; 13. Sam Johnson, 72, Johnson-11.000; 14. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.001; 15. Tyler Thomas, 91T, Thomas-11.002; 16. Andrew Layser, 82, Tucker/Boat-11.004; 17. Keith Rauch, 27B, Bourke-11.198; 18. Emilio Hoover, 21K, Reynolds-11.234; 19. Tony Rossi, 14, Rossi-11.282; 20. Kyle Jones, 7u, Tri-Fecta-11.419; 21. Carson Garrett, 15x, Garrett-11.462; 22. Zac Taylor, 71T, Henry-11.525; 23. Chris Sheil, 91, Mason-11.577; 24. Lance Bennett, 10, Bennett-11.865; 25. Curtis Spicer, 4s, Spicer-11.964; 26. Collin Rinehart, 6, Rinehart-12.006; 27. A.J. Valim, 4T, Valim-12.180; 28. J.R. Ewing, 2c, Ewing-12.878; 29. Trey Gropp, 00, Mounce-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Tyler Courtney, 2. Andrew Layser, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Tanner Thorson, 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 6. Sam Johnson, 7. Tony Rossi, 8. Zac Taylor, 9. Curtis Spicer, 10. J.R. Ewing. 1:58.120

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Buddy Kofoid, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Keith Rauch, 5. Robert Dalby, 6. Chris Sheil, 7. Collin Rinehart, 8. Kyle Jones, 9. Kaylee Bryson. NT

AUTOMETER THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Tyler Thomas, 2. Tanner Carrick, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Ethan Mitchell, 5. Cole Bodine, 6. Emilio Hoover, 7. Carson Garrett, 8. Lance Bennett, 9. A.J. Valim. 1:59.652

INDY RACE PARTS/INDY METAL FINISHING SEMI: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Sam Johnson, 2. Emilio Hoover, 3. Carson Garrett, 4. Kaylee Bryson, 5. Chris Sheil, 6. Zac Taylor, 7. Tony Rossi, 8. Lance Bennett, 9. Collin Rinehart, 10. A.J. Valim, 11. Curtis Spicer, 12. J.R. Ewing, 13. Kyle Jones. 2:24.855 (New Track Record)

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chris Windom (5), 2. Buddy Kofoid (8), 3. Daison Pursley (12), 4. Tyler Thomas (9), 5. Cannon McIntosh (4), 6. Ethan Mitchell (1), 7. Andrew Layser (15), 8. Emerson Axsom (13), 9. Sam Johnson (19), 10. Jerry Coons Jr. (3), 11. Tanner Carrick (11), 12. Tanner Thorson (6), 13. Cole Bodine (14), 14. Keith Rauch (16), 15. Chris Sheil (22), 16. Zac Taylor (21), 17. Emilio Hoover (17), 18. Tony Rossi (18), 19. Kaylee Bryson (10), 20. Carson Garrett (20), 21. Robert Dalby (2), 22. Tyler Courtney (7). NT

**Robert Dalby flipped on lap 8 of the feature. Tony Rossi flipped on lap 14 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Ethan Mitchell, Laps 5-11 Cannon McIntosh, Laps 12-30 Chris Windom.

NEW USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-820, 2-Buddy Kofoid-749, 3-Tanner Thorson-714, 4-Tyler Courtney-698, 5-Cannon McIntosh-648, 6-Tanner Carrick-593, 7-Daison Pursley-525, 8-Cole Bodine-503, 9-Justin Grant-489, 10-Andrew Layser-460.

NEW OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-64, 2-Tanner Thorson-57, 3-Logan Seavey-54, 4-Justin Grant-41, 5-Andrew Layser-39, 6-Daison Pursley-36, 7-Cannon McIntosh-32, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-30, 9-Brady Bacon-29, 10-Chase Stockon-28.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 18, 2020 - Jefferson County Speedway - Fairbury, Nebraska - 1/5-Mile Dirt Oval - Midwest Midget Championship

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Tanner Thorson

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Tyler Courtney

Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Buddy Kofoid

AutoMeter Third Heat Winner: Tyler Thomas

Indy Race Parts / Indy Metal Finishing Semi Winner: Sam Johnson

Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Lance Bennett

KSE Racing Products/B & W Auto Mart Hard Charger: Sam Johnson (19th to 9th)

Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Cole Bodine