Speedway, Indiana (April 23, 2024)………It’s that special time of year when both spring and the front wheels of USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midgets are in the air.
The 2024 season opens this Friday-Saturday, April 26-27 at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway with a lineup featuring 16 full-time championship takers who plan on contesting the entire 30-race schedule this coming year.
The list consists of USAC national champions, many time feature winners, those on the cusp of a breakthrough, longtime veterans and a stellar Rookie crop looking to ply their trade on the dirt tracks across the United States of America throughout the year.
Here’s the full list of the 16 USAC National Midget full-timers to keep your eyes affixed to in 2024!
LOGAN SEAVEY | ABACUS RACING #57
He was number one a year ago, and this year, he’s aiming for a repeat. Logan Seavey strung together one of the most magical USAC National Midget seasons in recent memory with eight wins and 21 top-fives in 27 starts, resulting in a second career series title after achieving the same in 2018.
Seavey could also set a record in his first outing of the season. He enters the year with 22 consecutive top-10 finishes, one shy of surpassing Jason Leffler’s 1997 series record. Leffler followed up his 1997 championship season with another in 1998, just what Seavey intends to do.
Seavey and Abacus Racing burst onto the scene in 2023 in what was their first full USAC National Midget season. Together, they’ve already won three of the first seven USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car races to start 2024 and are coming off a USAC Silver Crown championship in ’23.
JUSTIN GRANT | RMS RACING #2
A second consecutive runner-up finish in the 2023 USAC National Midget points didn’t appease Justin Grant all that much. It just made him that much hungrier entering 2024.
His RMS Racing team has pared down its stable to one full-time entry with the focus squarely set on Grant grabbing the championship. He’s won a USAC National Midget feature in each of the past seven years, tops in the series.
JG is coming off a season in which he scored a mega victory at the Driven2SaveLives BC39. A repeat IMS victory coupled with a championship would be even sweeter in 2024.
RYAN TIMMS | KEITH KUNZ/CURB-AGAJANIAN MOTORSPORTS #67
Ryan Timms’s 2023 USAC National Midget season was his busiest and most successful to date as he won three times at Belleville, Lawrenceburg and Angell Park en route to a fourth-place finish in the standings.
Still just 17 years old but entering his fourth year of USAC National Midget competition, the Oklahoma City native has posted feature victories in each season to date between 2021 and 2023.
Now Timms’ focus is set toward a USAC National Midget championship in his second full-time season at the wheel of the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports number 67.
DAISON PURSLEY | CB INDUSTRIES #86
Daison Pursley has found a new address for his 2024 USAC National Midget efforts aboard Chad Boat’s CB Industries number 86.
Thus far this year, Pursley has already taken a CBI midget on a fascinating alphabet soup run at the Chili Bowl where he advanced from the D to the A, then charged from 20th to fourth in the A-Main, advancing a total of 45 positions on the night.
Pursley, twice a winner in USAC National Midget competition for Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports in 2021, eyes a return to victory lane and contend for a title this year, a championship CBI previously experienced with Chris Windom in 2020.
JACOB DENNEY | TOM MALLOY #25
At this time a year ago, Jacob Denney was preparing for high school graduation. Now, he’s preparing for his second full-time season with Tom Malloy in the USAC National Midget ranks.
The two-time USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget champ turned heads in his debut USAC National Midget season in 2022. He was even better the following year in 2023, recording victories at Sweet Springs and Tri-State along with nine other top-fives to finish seventh in series points.
The Galloway, Ohio racer led the points for a while in the early going of 2023, but now has the ambition to keep it up top all year long in the coming year.
GAVIN MILLER | KEITH KUNZ/CURB-AGAJANIAN MOTORSPORTS #97
Pennsylvania has long been a hotbed for some of the finest open wheel dirt track racers in the United States of America. Gavin Miller of Allentown, Pa. is among the new breed who struck a chord on the USAC National Midget trail in 2023.
His efforts earned him Rookie of the Year honors for the famed Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team. In doing so, he became just the third Keystone State native to receive the award following John Andretti in 1983 and Andrew Layser in 2019.
All told, Miller accumulated 56 laps led, five top-fives, an eighth place points finish and his first career victory during USAC Indiana Midget Week at Bloomington. Rest assured, he’ll have more highlights to come in the new year.
CANNON MCINTOSH | KEITH KUNZ/CURB-AGAJANIAN MOTORSPORTS #71K
It’s a homecoming for Cannon McIntosh coming into the 2024 USAC National Midget season. The Bixby, Oklahoma wheelman competed for Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports back in 2020 where he scored two wins and a career best fifth place finish in the standings.
At the helm of the Dave Mac-Dalby car ever since, along with a few starts for CB Industries, McIntosh has been a fixture in the series, accumulating more feature starts (124) than any other driver in the series in the decade of the 2020s.
He’s already won for KKM this year and aspires to become a USAC championship contender in 2024.
JAKE ANDREOTTI | 4 KINGS RACING #14
Jake Andreotti was a busy man throughout the 2023 USAC National Midget season, gathering 26 starts with a best finish of second in the season opener at Belleville during his Rookie campaign.
By season’s end, he and the Tom Malloy team had parted ways, leading the Castro Valley, California native to be tabbed as the new driver for the series’ newest full-time team – 4 Kings Racing.
The 2022 Don Basile Rookie of the Race at the Turkey Night Grand Prix picked off a pair of USAC Western States Midget main event wins a year ago and now is gunning to make his mark on the national scene.
MATT WESTFALL | 4 KINGS RACING #54
Andreotti’s teammate on the 4 Kings Racing team will be veteran racer Matt Westfall, who is also among the team’s co-founders.
Known primarily in recent years for his prowess in sprint cars, late models and modifieds, the Pleasant Hill, Ohio native has quite a track record in midgets as well. Back in 1998, Westfall earned the NAMARS Midget championship.
Back then, his car sported the number 54, and in 2024, it will be just the same as Westfall competes on the full USAC National Midget tour for the first time in his grand career.
HAYDEN REINBOLD | REINBOLD-UNDERWOOD MOTORSPORTS #19AZ
Perhaps no driver made larger strides from beginning to finish during the 2023 USAC National Midget season than Hayden Reinbold.
Hailing from Gilbert, Arizona, Reinbold put together a run of three top-10 finishes in the final quarter of the season at Eldora, the Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and out west in Bakersfield.
Driving the family owned Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports machine once again in 2024, the 20-year-old Reinbold is keen on becoming a regular front-running contender, where he’s turning top-tens into top-fives and top-fives into victories along the way.
KEVIN THOMAS JR. | MOUNCE-STOUT MOTORSPORTS #9
Kevin Thomas Jr. is back on the USAC National Midget trail in 2024 for Mounce-Stout Motorsports with whom he made nine starts with in part-time duty throughout 2023.
In 153 career USAC National Midget starts, Thomas has accrued six feature victories and was named series Rookie of the Year in 2014. Back in 2015, he led the points for a time before ultimately finishing a career-best third in the final standings.
One item he’s looking to add to his illustrious resume is a USAC National Midget driving title, and he believes he’s in the right spot to accomplish that goal.
ZACH DAUM | RAMCO SPEED GROUP #7P
Zach Daum is back to having fun again and it’s shown in recent times. This year, he plans to have a whole lot of it as he will complete full-time on the USAC National Midget circuit for the first time in a decade.
The 2014 season has been the Pocahontas, Illinois driver’s highwater mark with USAC to this point, finishing fifth in that year’s standings. He’ll take on the full circuit with the RAMCO Speed Group team based out of Texas.
It was with RAMCO during May of 2023 in which Daum made a big return to victory lane as he picked up his first USAC triumph since 2014 at Belleville, the same place the veteran midget racing standout will launch his championship pursuit in 2024.
KYLE JONES | JOYNER MOTORSPORTS #27X
For Kyle Jones and Corey Joyner, it’s always been a dream to compete full-time with USAC’s National Midget division. Together, they’ll achieve that dream for the first time in 2024 with Jones driving the Joyner Motorsports’ number 27x on the complete 30-race slate.
The 30-year-old Jones from Kennedale, Texas is a veteran of 21 career series dating back to 2015 and has been a fixture in dirt open wheel circles throughout the past decade. In 2023, he even became the highest finishing Texan ever at the Chili Bowl.
Going all-in on their collaboration is Joyner, the youngest car owner in the series at 23, who has stepped out from behind the wheel to field a team of his own. This is where he wants to be for quite a while, and the first step begins this year.
ASHTON TORGERSON | KEITH KUNZ/CURB-AGAJANIAN MOTORSPORTS #67K
Rising star Ashton Torgerson has not yet stepped into the ring for a USAC National Midget event thus far. This year, the Arizonian takes on the quest as a series Rookie for the venerable Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team.
The multi-time micro sprint champion has been a standout in all kinds of open wheel machinery. He picked up a Tulsa Shootout score during the winter and has recently been successful with the winged 360 sprint cars, winning multiple races along the west coast.
He’s already made a visit to victory lane this season at Farmer City with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget series and will also now attempt to double up the deed by becoming a USAC winner. This is definitely one Rookie to watch.
ZACH WIGAL | CB INDUSTRIES #89
Fresh off a USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget championship a year ago, Zach Wigal will take the next step in his young racing career by competing full-time as a Rookie of the Year candidate on the 2024 USAC National Midget tour for CB Industries.
This won’t be Wigal’s first venture with CB Industries. Over the past two seasons, he’s competed in the team’s micro sprint quite frequently and already possesses a familiarity with the crew going into year three with the team.
The Belpre, Ohio competitor has been dreaming about this moment for as long as he can remember, and now, that dream has become a reality.
HANK DAVIS | CORNELL RACING STABLES #8
Cornell Racing Stables will return to the USAC National Midget trail in 2024 with Rookie of the Year contender Hank Davis as their wheelman in the team’s trademark gold leaf number 8.
The Sand Springs, Okla. product captured the racing world’s attention when he scored an A-Main victory on a preliminary night during the 2023 Chili Bowl.
The iconic Cornell team accrued nine career USAC victories in its heyday between 1967 and 1979 with drivers such as Bob Hare, Roger West, Gary Ponzini and Rich Vogler. Hank Davis has plans on being the next.
Dave Dellinger Photo
Comments