In the span of a little more than a half lap, Gavin Miller rifled through nearly the entire gamut of emotions during Tuesday night’s USAC Mid-America Midget Week opener at Missouri’s Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex.

Clearly, the Allentown, Pennsylvania didn’t go through the acceptance stage.

Running the low line around the 1/6-mile dirt oval, Miller first saw teammate Cannon McIntosh go around him on the outside of turn two on the final lap. McIntosh then attempted to close the door on Miller by driving down to the bottom of turn three to steal Miller’s line away and seal the deal.

Miller subsequently arrived at the same exact spot as McIntosh, resulting in Miller’s right front wheel and McIntosh’s left side nerf bar colliding. The contact uprooted McIntosh, and as he slid up the racetrack, Miller broke on through to the other side to pass him back and pass the finish line first.

“You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” Miller bluntly stated after driving his Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/SoundGear – Toyota – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota to its first victory of the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship season. “I knew we were going to be very close there with him having a similar car to me.”

In fact, the entire podium had quite a similar backstory with all of them being Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports entries, thus completing a sweep of the top three positions with Miller being followed to the stripe by McIntosh with Jacob Denney coming home third.

Miller’s triumph was the fifth of his USAC National Midget career, tying him for 123rd place on the list alongside Mike Bliss, Lonnie Caruthers, Larry Dickson, Mike Fedorcak, Burt Foland, Mack McClellan, Danny McKnight, Cliff Spalding, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Jerry Weeks.

Starting sixth on the grid for the 40-lap feature, Miller initially fell backwards to seventh at the drop of the green flag before steadily marching his way forward. Ethan Mitchell, meanwhile, started form the pole and paced the first three laps before McIntosh rocketed to the lead at the exit of turn four on the fourth circuit.

Being the winningest USAC National Midget driver of all-time at Sweet Springs with three victories may have led one to believe that this one might be over with early as McIntosh held a command post up front. Not so fast, my friend.

Another KKM teammate, Colton Robinson, sliced through the middle of the racetrack to glide into the lead past McIntosh in turn two on the 15th lap. However, McIntosh got back up on the horse and tracked down Robinson three laps later, then slid him for the top spot on lap 18, all while taking evasive action to avoid the slowing car of 22nd running Adyn Schmidt.

Just after halfway, Miller joined the fray as KKM cars ran three-wide for the lead. First, Miller took second from Robinson on the bottom of turn four on the 24th lap. Moments later, Miller crawled the bottom line to the lead past McIntosh in turns three and four on the 25th circuit.

With less than five to go, lapped traffic was here, there, and everywhere for the leaders. Miller patrolled the low line while McIntosh was hustling the top. Coming out of turn four with four laps remaining, McIntosh got under Miller and the two touched wheels, but Miller was unrattled and kept himself at the front.

The classic high/low battle was halted by the first and only caution of the feature as the leaders were just about to take the white flag. Justin Grant, running seventh, was embroiled with the lapped car of Alex Midkiff at the moment of the yellow flag, which found Grant stopped sideways in turn one. Thus, a green-white-checkered finish was afoot for Miller, McIntosh et al.

“I knew we were good on the long run, and I was just trying not to make the same mistake that I made there on the start,” Miller iterated.

For the final restart, Miller held serve along the bottom while McIntosh ripped the top. Miller maintained control to the tune of a couple car lengths’ advantage over McIntosh until turn two of the final lap. There, McIntosh surged ahead, and once clear of Miller, decided to maneuver to the bottom of turn three in an attempt to steal Miller’s line away.

Undaunted, Miller kept on keeping on entering turn three when the two cars touched. McIntosh drifted up a car width as a result of the contact, while Miller stuck to the plan, glued to the bottom the whole while, and raced on to a dramatic victory by a 0.487 second margin over McIntosh, Denney, Kale Drake, and Mitchell.

“Going through one and two, there was a little bit of a hole, and I got tight and I kind of got stuck down there for a second,” Miller recalled of the 40th and final lap of the race. “So, I didn’t even realize he was on the outside of me for a minute until he came down. Then, as I was going for the lead, I knew I had to do something.”

McIntosh led 18 of the 40 laps in the feature and led a portion of the final lap before finishing second. His 18 laps led topped all drivers in the field, thus earning him the K & N Filters Clean Air Award.

Denney moved up +12 in the feature to earn Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. In 10 series starts this year, he’s been the hard charger in four of them.

Drake Edwards recorded his second career USAC National Midget LearnLab Fast Qualifier award. His top lap of 11.499 seconds gave the Arizonan his first quick time with the series since the Kokomo Grand Prix round of 2025. Adding on to that, Edwards also set a new 12-lap USAC National Midget track record at Sweet Springs, winning the Five Star Bodies Semi-Feature in a time of 2:27.976, surpassing the former record of 2:35.70 held by Jace Park since 2022.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: RACE: July 7, 2026 – Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex – Sweet Springs, Missouri – 1/6-Mile Dirt Oval – Mid-America Midget Week

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 Built-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 due to car not meeting maximum width requirements)

K1 RACEGEAR FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting 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, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting 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

K & N FILTERS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting 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, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting 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, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting 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 Track Record)

FEATURE: (40 laps, starting 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). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Ethan Mitchell, Laps 4-14 Cannon McIntosh, Laps 15-17 Colton Robinson, Laps 18-24 Cannon McIntosh, Laps 25-40 Gavin Miller.

**Mack Leopard flipped during the first heat. Kale Drake flipped during the third heat.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Jacob Denney-617, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-614, 3-Justin Grant-563, 4-Gavin Miller-562, 5-Kale Drake-558, 6-Jakeb Boxell-538, 7-Cannon McIntosh-521, 8-Zach Wigal-486, 9-Gunnar Setser-454, 10-Logan Seavey-453.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Hayden Reinbold-93, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-83, 3-Jacob Denney-76, 4-Robert Ballou-74, 5-Justin Grant-66, 6-Briggs Danner-65, 7-Cale Coons-64, 8-Chase Stockon-56, 9-Kyle Cummins-46, 10-Brady Bacon-44.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 8, 2026 – Mitchell County Fairgrounds Raceway – Beloit, Kansas – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – 15th Chad McDaniel Memorial / Mid-America Midget Week

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Hayden Reinbold (11.619)

LearnLab Fast Qualifier: Drake Edwards (11.499)

K1 RaceGear First Heat Winner: Cannon McIntosh

TJ Forged Second Heat Winner: Kyle Jones

K & N Filters Third Heat Winner: Riley Kreisel

Five Star Bodies Semi Winner: Brecken Reese

K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Cannon McIntosh (18 laps led)

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Jacob Denney (15th to 3rd)

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