Decorated Midget owner Keith Kunz explains why he is shutting down Keith Kunz Motorsports and what the future holds for him.

Keith Kunz Motorsports is the all-time winningest program in USAC Midget history with 169 wins. On top of all the wins, the team has amassed 13 championships with an elite list of drivers that includes Cole Whitt (2008), Bryan Clauson (2010, 2011), Christopher Bell (2013), Rico Abreu (2014), Tanner Thorson (2016), Spencer Bayston (2017), Logan Seavey (2018), Buddy Kofoid (2021, 2022), and Cannon McIntosh (2025).

The team also has 8 Chili Bowl victories under its belt. The team won its first with Andy Hillenburg in 1994. Jay Drake won in 2001 and then Tony Stewart in 2002. In 2015 and 2016, Rico Abreu won. Then Christopher Bell clicked off three in a row in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

It was also instrumental in developing Kyle Larson signing him in 2011 and winning a number of major races including the Belleville Midget Nationals and the 4-Crown Nationals at Eldora.

Kunz spoke with DIRTVision’s Conner Wade about shutting down the storied program and explained why he was doing it.

Kunz stated, “This has been coming for a long time. Been doing this for a long time. Very lucky to be successful and be able to make a living racing Midgets all my life. The time has came. You look for an exit plan and when that’s going to be. The last couple years it’s been on our mind. Partway through this year we kind of finally made the decision that we needed to probably stop at the end of the year.”

“I’ve been slowing down the last couple years just because physically I can’t keep up with these young kids no more. I’m not 20, 30 years old, you know. I’m not that old, 63, but to be hands-on and do it like you need to do, I just, I can’t keep up. I can’t do that no more,” he continued. “And I don’t want to do that no more. I like spending my time with my family and kids now. I never got to do that when they were growing up. So we made the decision.”

“And then as it got later in the year, we had to decide exactly when, and we thought it was best to finish out the USAC season, try to win this championship that we’re leading right now and just kind of call it quits right there.”

“I don’t want to say it’s retirement. It’s semi-retirement. I’m still going to be around. I still want to be involved in Midget racing, Sprint Car racing, Micro Racing. But I want to do it on my terms now. At this age, I want to go when I want to go. If I don’t want to go this weekend, I don’t want to have to have that commitment to go. I think that’s the big thing. It was just time to kind of come to an end. Everything comes to an end at some point,” he added.

Kunz went on to share that given the team is shutting down and its last race will be the Turkey Night Grand Prix at Ventura Raceway to conclude the USAC National Midget Championship season it will not be at the upcoming Chili Bowl in 2027. 

“I got things going on. It’s not the end of racing. It’s the end of KKM so you’re not going to see the trailers and the cars there this year, but I have a lot of people that’s reached out to me already and want me to be involved in different things and I’m considering all that. We’ll see. We’ll see what the future brings.”

He went on to reiterate that the reason he is shutting down the program is because he is not able to be as hands-on anymore due to his age and wanting to prioritize his family.

“I still had a few more years on this contract here with Toyota. Again, they know. It’s just me and Pete is both growing older and we’re just not as hands-on anymore. In this day and age, I’ve had to put more people in place. And business-wise it’s just a smart decision. It’s a little bit of everything. I strictly made this decision the last couple years that finally people see me at the track races, at the Micro races, I get tired pretty easy out in the heat and I just can’t go like I used to.”

“I want to spend more time with my family and things like that,” he added. “Pete’s 69 going on 70. I’m 63 and I just don’t want that commitment of having to go every week and be there. I want to be able to say I want to go this week or I want to go spend time with my kids. I’ve been doing a lot of rodeo stuff with my daughter and the grandkids now. And I’m enjoying that stuff. So it’s a retirement, but I’m still going to be around.”

Kunz also spoke on the state of Midget racing in general and noted that it is no longer a required stepping stone to advance one’s racing career because of the experience drivers are already have.

“The times have changed, Micro kids now—. We focused on that because all of our kids came through Micros basically at some point there. And we really kind of focused on that. And now, the last few years, these kids have so much experience by the time they’re 16 years old that they’re just going straight into Sprint Cars and they can handle it where before they couldn’t handle it. So they had to have that stepping stone. Now, the kids are just lights out. Owen Larson, Brexton Busch, they don’t need to go Midget racing. When they get done with their Micros and they get to the age, they’re going Sprint Car racing. Colin Hutchinson is another kid that’s just really so good coming out of the Micros.”

“So we’ve seen that. That dwindled down in the business. And the economy, these last couple years, it affects everybody. It’s definitely a factor in it. We don’t want to—. Midget racing in a whole isn’t probably in the greatest spot with all the expense and everything when you can turn around and just go Spritn Car racing. But then we turn around and we have 400 cars at the Chili Bowl. So, it’s good. You can never predict why. But, yeah, that all plays a factor into—. That helps plan your retirement. That is your retirement of how business works. At some point you just got to say, ‘Get out before things go the wrong direction.'”

While Kunz is shutting down Keith Kunz Motorsports and his Midget program, as he said he is not leaving racing. He explained what his plans are and what he plans to do moving forward including being the Director of Competition of 4 Kings Racing

“I’m going to take my Micro stuff, keep a couple Micros at home. Just pick and choose what I want to go run. I’ve been running with Jeffrey Newell here lately and really had a lot of fun with him and success. He’s really at the top of his game. Me and him have talked about, we’ve run certain whenever I want to and he wants to. I’m probably going to keep a Midget there just in case something ever comes up.”

“But I’ve also been approached by a lot of other places. 4 Kings Racing, Rex Turner and Kevin Thomas,” Kunz shared. “I’ve been good friends with Kevin Thomas for a long time. Rex Turner, who’s the owner of 4 Kings, I’ve helped him since day one. He approached me. I think they were at the BC39 about 4 years ago and he was getting into Midget racing, kind of came and asked me advice, and I hooked him up with a chassis company, shock company. They mimicked their package after kind of after everything I was doing. And I’ve helped them along the way and they’ve always came to me for advice. Matt Westfall and they ended up getting KT on board. And they’ve asked me to come over and kind of be a part of their deal here in the future.”

“Rex reached out to me and asked me to maybe come hang out with them as little or as much as I want to. And kind of said, ‘We’ll make you a Director of Competition and you can kind of just be another set of eyes and ears, and another voice to help their team grow.’ They worked two cars very successful this year with KT and Jakeb Boxell. They want to expand to a couple more cars next year. Their team’s growing, they got sponsorship, and stuff like that lined up. They’ve asked me to be a part of it, so I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll come and be as much help as I can.'”

While he will be keeping some Micros and at least one Midget, Kunz shared that all of the engines will be returned to Toyota given they own them. He also plans on just parting everything out rather than selling the business as a whole although he did share he had at least two offers to buy it all. He already has a list of five or six buyers that want cars. 

As for his haulers, he shared that he would sell the big ones, but did plan on keeping some of it for himself so he can haul his Micros and the Midget. In fact, he shared that one might have already been sold.

Additionally, they have been inventorying all the team’s trophies and checks and contacting the drivers that won them in order to get them to them.

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