Toyota GAZOO Racing McIntosh Wins USAC Championship – Speedway Digest

After winning Tuesday’s feature at Bakersfield Speedway, Buddy Kofoid earned his second consecutive podium with a third place showing to lead Toyota at the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series’ 84th running of the ARP Turkey Night Grand Prix at Ventura Raceway Saturday night. 

Toyota driver Cannon McIntosh clinched the USAC championship simply by starting Saturday’s feature event on the way to a 15^thplace finish. He became the first driver in history to record championships in all three national midget series after winning both the Xtreme and POWRi titles in 2024. It’s the 11th USAC title for a Toyota-powered driver since 2013 and the fifth in the last six years.

Saturday night’s 98-lap feature saw CB Industries Toyota driver Daison Pursley kick off the evening from the pole and took over the second position behind Logan Seavey on lap one. Pursley would hold down the second spot for the first 11 laps before being passed by eventual race-winner Corey Day. Behind him Kofoid would run in the top five for much of the race.

By lap 57, Kofoid would move up to third and battle Seavey for the second spot but came up just short. At the checkered flag it was Day, Seavey and Kofoid, with Kyle Larson placing fourth.

Toyota-powered drivers claimed five additional top 10 finishes with Karter Sarff placing sixth, followed by Carson Macedo, Kale Drake, Jacob Denney and Gavin Miller.

Overall, Toyota drivers would claim 20 USAC victories in 2025 and finished one-two in the championship with Justi Grant earning runner-up honors behind McIntosh.

Quotes:

Cannon McIntosh, Keith Kunz Motorsports Mobil 1 Toyota: “This was definitely our goal to win the championship. We just took it one race at a time and tried to learn something at every race. Eventually, we just started clicking off wins. The whole team worked really hard all year. They stayed confident in me and I stayed confident in them. I have to thank Mobil 1 and Toyota for giving me this chance. I’m really grateful.”

Buddy Kofoid, Keith Kunz Motorsports Mobil 1 Toyota: “It was a good weekend overall. I qualified really well today. I was caught off-guard with as wet as it was early. For a while it felt really good on the top but just struggled a little on the cushion. I felt we were good enough to win. I have to thank Keith and Pete and everyone with KKM, as well as Mobil 1 and Toyota for letting me do this on a part-time basis at the end of the year. It was a good close out to our west coast swing after winning at Bakersfield.”

Toyota-Powered Drivers Turkey Night GP Results

Buddy Kofoid – 3rd

Kyle Larson – 4th

Karter Sarff – 6th

Carson Macedo – 7th

Kale Drake – 8th

Jacob Denney – 9th

Gavin Miller – 10th

Justin Grant – 11th

Steven Snyder – 13th

Cannon McIntosh – 15th

Ty Gibbs – 17th

Ronnie Gardner – 22nd

Drake Edwards – 24th

Daison Pursley – 25th

Dalten Gabbard – 28th

Toyota Drivers 2025 USAC Results (Full-time drivers)

Toyota PR