The list of winners at Indianapolis Motor Speedway continues to grow as Michael “Buddy” Kofoid held off Cannon McIntosh through a series of wild slides in the final laps of the 2022 Drive2SaveLives BC39 on the quarter-speed dirt road. mile. With his eighth USAC Midget win of the season, Kofoid was able to kiss the bricks embedded in the track’s retaining wall for what he described as “the biggest win of my midget career”.
After taking the lead from Mitchel Moles on lap 13, McIntosh held the lead until lap 30. The lead would officially change hands three times before the end with Kofoid leading the final five laps, but it doesn’t even begin to tell a story . The final laps of the race featured slides in nearly every corner, 10 times in six laps, with midgets bouncing off the cushion and Kofoid clipping the wall on occasion.
“Some were intentional and some were accidental,” Kofoid said. “Most of the time it worked. Luckily, I didn’t get bitten. Hats off to Cannon. It was so much fun running with him. It was probably one of the most fun midget races I have ever done.
Kofoid has been hot in 2022, winning the USAC Sprint Series three times and seven times before in the Midgets. He earned his first World of Outlaws Sprint Car victory in June at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, SD in his 16th start with them.
But the wins don’t get much bigger than the 2022 BC39, as Kofoid beat a field of over 85 entries that included former winners Kyle Larson (2021) and Brady Bacon (2018), the top midget racers currently competing, as well as NASCAR and IndyCar. stars Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chase Briscoe and Zach Veach.
In the tribute race to fallen rider Bryan Clauson, Kofoid decided early on that he would do whatever it took to win.
“At first I didn’t think the track was going to get wide enough,” Kofoid said. “I was kind of stuck in fourth and fifth, so I just started tearing the fence up, and if I put it upside down, I put it upside down. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. It was a good points night, but even better that we won on probably the coolest track in the world.
With his victory in BC39 in 2022, Kofoid is now the fourth winner in as many editions of the race.
An inside tire marker was cut and pushed into the groove with three laps remaining, setting up a dramatic final restart. McIntosh threw one final slider and briefly took the lead in the closing laps, but Kofoid wouldn’t be denied and regained the lead at Turn 2 before McIntosh could officially lead that circuit.
Last year’s runner-up Justin Grant joined the fray to briefly engage in a three-way battle for the lead on the final two laps before Thomas Meseraull slipped to third behind Kofoid and McIntosh.
Grant finished fourth, making him the only driver to finish in the top 10 in all four editions of this race – and he had to fight his way through the main C and B circuits to be able to do so. Overnight he passed 35 cars en route to his top five.
And as for NASCAR star Larson, he had the best view in the house before finishing fifth.
2018 winner Bacon finished eighth while Stenhouse was 19th and Briscoe 21st.
After his @NASCAR_Trucks debuted earlier this year, @MichaelKofoid can now be called a @IMS winner! 🏆 https://t.co/YyJLwGzOEi
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 5, 2022