SWEET SPRINGS, Mo. — Within the span of a little bit greater than a half lap, Gavin Miller rifled by means of practically the complete gamut of feelings throughout Tuesday evening’s USAC Mid-America Midget Week opener at Candy Springs Motorsports Complicated.
Operating the low line across the 1/6-mile filth oval, Miller first noticed teammate Cannon McIntosh go round him on the surface of flip two on the ultimate lap. McIntosh then tried to shut the door on Miller by driving right down to the underside of flip three to steal Miller’s line away and seal the deal.
Miller subsequently arrived on the similar actual spot as McIntosh, leading to Miller’s proper entrance wheel and McIntosh’s left facet nerf bar colliding. The contact uprooted McIntosh, and as he slid up the racetrack, Miller broke on by means of to the opposite facet to go him again and go the end line first.
“You’ve received to do what you’ve received to do,” Miller bluntly said after driving his Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/SoundGear – Toyota – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota to its first victory of the USAC NOS Power Drink Midget Nationwide Championship season. “I knew we had been going to be very shut there with him having the same automobile to me.”
All the podium had fairly the same backstory with all of them being Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports entries, thus finishing a sweep of the highest three positions with Miller being adopted to the stripe by McIntosh with Jacob Denney coming dwelling third.
Miller’s triumph was the fifth of his USAC Nationwide Midget profession.
Beginning sixth on the grid for the 40-lap function, Miller initially fell backwards to seventh on the drop of the inexperienced flag earlier than steadily marching his manner ahead.
Ethan Mitchell, in the meantime, began from the pole and paced the primary three laps earlier than McIntosh rocketed to the lead on the exit of flip 4 on the fourth circuit.
Being the winningest USAC Nationwide Midget driver of all-time at Candy Springs with three victories could have led one to consider that this one is perhaps over with early as McIntosh held a command publish up entrance.
One other KKM teammate, Colton Robinson, sliced by means of the center of the racetrack to glide into the lead previous McIntosh in flip two on the fifteenth lap. Nonetheless, McIntosh received again up on the horse and tracked down Robinson three laps later, then slid him for the highest spot on lap 18, all whereas taking evasive motion to keep away from the slowing automobile of Twenty second-running Adyn Schmidt.
Simply after midway, Miller joined the fray as KKM vehicles ran three-wide for the lead. First, Miller took second from Robinson on the underside of flip 4 on the twenty fourth lap. Moments later, Miller crawled the underside line to the lead previous McIntosh in turns three and 4 on the twenty fifth circuit.
With lower than 5 to go, lapped visitors was right here, there, and in all places for the leaders. Miller patrolled the low line whereas McIntosh was hustling the highest. Popping out of flip 4 with 4 laps remaining, McIntosh received underneath Miller and the 2 touched wheels, however Miller was unrattled and stored himself on the entrance.
The traditional excessive/low battle was halted by the primary and solely warning of the function because the leaders had been nearly to take the white flag. Justin Grant, operating seventh, was embroiled with the lapped automobile of Alex Midkiff in the intervening time of the yellow flag, which discovered Grant stopped sideways in flip one. Thus, a green-white-checkered end was afoot.
“I knew we had been good on the long term, and I used to be simply making an attempt to not make the identical mistake that I made there on the beginning,” Miller iterated.
For the ultimate restart, Miller held serve alongside the underside whereas McIntosh ripped the highest. Miller maintained management to the tune of a pair automobile lengths’ benefit over McIntosh till flip two of the ultimate lap. There, McIntosh surged forward, and as soon as away from Miller, determined to maneuver to the underside of flip three in an try and steal Miller’s line away.
Undaunted, Miller stored on protecting on coming into flip three when the 2 vehicles touched. McIntosh drifted up a automobile width on account of the contact, whereas Miller caught to the plan, glued to the underside the entire whereas, and raced on to a dramatic victory by 0.487 seconds over McIntosh, Denney, Kale Drake and Mitchell.
“Going by means of one and two, there was a little bit little bit of a gap, and I received tight and I type of received caught down there for a second,” Miller recalled. “So, I didn’t even understand he was on the surface of me for a minute till he got here down. Then, as I used to be going for the lead, I knew I needed to do one thing.”
USAC NOS Power Drink Midget Nationwide Champinoship, Candy Springs Motorsports Complicated, Candy Springs, Missouri, July 7, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: 1. Drake Edwards, 40D, McDermand-11.499, 2. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.640, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-11.702, 4. Colton Robinson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.711, 5. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.724, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold-Underwood-11.732, 7. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Constructed-11.746, 8. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-11.793, 9. Garrett Benson, 27B, Bourke-11.801, 10. Brandon Carr, 98K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.830, 11. Kale Drake, 4, RMS-11.850, 12. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.852, 13. Mack Leopard, 40L, McDermand-11.856, 14. Adyn Schmidt, 19x, Cox-11.878, 15. Riley Kreisel, 19K, Cox-11.908, 16. Brecken Reese, 20Q, Reese-11.911, 17. Bradley Cox, 45, Mason-11.942, 18. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-11.944, 19. Andrew Felker, 11A, Felker-11.957, 20. Jakeb Boxell, 54, 4 Kings-11.962, 21. Matt Sherrell, 21AJ, Huddleston-11.991, 22. Drew Sherman, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.021, 23. Zack Merritt, 43m, RKO-12.076, 24. Caiden Warren, 12w, Warren-12.168, 25. Branigan Roark, 44, Roark-12.279, 26. Todd McVay, 89, McVay-12.285, 27. Alex Midkiff, 05, Midkiff-12.291, 28. Blake Spicer, 4s, Spicer-12.489, 29. Lance Bennett, 44x, RKO-12.624, 30. Levi Hinck, 21H, TKH-NT, 31. Shyla Ernst, 42, RKO-NT (time of 12.800 disallowed on account of automobile not assembly most width necessities)
K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, prime 5 switch to the function, beginning positions in parentheses) 1. Cannon McIntosh (5), 2. Bradley Cox (2), 3. Garrett Benson (4), 4. Matt Sherrell (1), 5. Branigan Roark (7), 6. Drake Edwards (6), 7. Lance Bennett (8), 8. Mack Leopard (3). NT
TJ FORGED SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, prime 5 switch to the function, beginning positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Jones (2), 2. Gavin Miller (6), 3. Adyn Schmidt (3), 4. Hayden Reinbold (5), 5. Todd McVay (7), 6. Brandon Carr (4), 7. Levi Hinck (7). NT
Ok & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, prime 5 switch to the function, beginning positions in parentheses) 1. Riley Kreisel (3), 2. Andrew Felker (2), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (6), 4. Ethan Mitchell (5), 5. Kale Drake (4), 6. Alex Midkiff (7), 7. Shyla Ernst (8), 8. Zack Merritt (1). NT
INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, prime 5 switch to the function, beginning positions in parentheses) 1. Brecken Reese (3), 2. Jakeb Boxell (2), 3. Jacob Denney (4), 4. Justin Grant (5), 5. Colton Robinson (6), 6. Caiden Warren (1), 7. Blake Spicer (7). 2:02.940
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, prime 4 switch to the function, beginning positions in parentheses) 1. Drake Edwards (1), 2. Alex Midkiff (3), 3. Mack Leopard (10), 4. Brandon Carr (9), 5. Caiden Warren (2), 6. Zack Merritt (8), 7. Shyla Ernst (7), 8. Lance Bennett (5), 9. Blake Spicer (4), 10. Levi Hinck. 2:27.976 (New Observe Report)
FEATURE: (40 laps, beginning positions in parentheses) 1. Gavin Miller (6), 2. Cannon McIntosh (3), 3. Jacob Denney (15), 4. Kale Drake (14), 5. Ethan Mitchell (1), 6. Colton Robinson (4), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5), 8. Drake Edwards (10), 9. Riley Kreisel (7), 10. Brecken Reese (8), 11. Jakeb Boxell (20), 12. Kyle Jones (9), 13. Mack Leopard (16), 14. Matt Sherrell (21), 15. Justin Grant (11), 16. Andrew Felker (19), 17. Garrett Benson (12), 18. Brandon Carr (13), 19. Alex Midkiff (24), 20. Adyn Schmidt (17), 21. Branigan Roark (22), 22. Todd McVay (23), 23. Hayden Reinbold (2), 24. Bradley Cox (18).
