By: Paul Kelly – Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Speedway, Indiana (July 2, 2025)………Cannon McIntosh took a long, tough route Wednesday night to become the first two-time winner of the BC39 Presented by Avanti Windows & Doors at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
McIntosh, from Bixby, Oklahoma, repeated as the winner of the 39-lap USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship race after starting 19th in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – Toyota – Curb Records/LynK/Speedway Toyota machine in the 28-car field. He earned $20,039 for the win in the race honoring late USAC champion and three-time Indianapolis 500 starter Bryan Clauson.
“I’m speechless right now – this is amazing,” McIntosh said. “To do it in honor of Bryan Clauson here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway twice now, it’s just an honor. It’s all for him, and I’m sure he’s looking down, smiling and seeing another good race here.”
The Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian team swept the top three spots in the finishing order, as Gavin Miller placed second in the team’s No. 97 car and Jacob Denney third in the No. 67 entry.
McIntosh’s journey to victory lane for the second straight year at the 1/5th-mile dirt oval inside turn three at IMS was as improbable as it was dramatic. He ended up upside-down in a wild crash during a qualifying race earlier in the evening and had to drive his way into the field by winning the Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts semi feature.
That placed McIntosh 19th in the starting lineup. He wasn’t a factor in the first half of the race, which was dominated by pole sitter Justin Grant, who won the 30-lap feature Tuesday night.
But McIntosh began to charge through traffic and climbed to third by lap 30 behind Grant and Denney. Grant had led every lap to that point, expanding his gap to nearly a second midway through the race, but was being challenged by Denney as McIntosh drew closer.
Grant and Denney jousted in a spirited side-by-side duel for the lead from laps 30 to 35, with Grant holding off Denney’s repeated low slides for the top spot on both ends of the dirt oval.
On lap 36, Grant was running in the high groove exiting turn four and Denney low when the two drivers banged wheels heading for the flag stand. On the next lap, Grant dove low exiting turn two trying to pass Denney for the lead, but Grant’s right front wheel hit Denney’s left rear, momentarily launching Grant airborne and blunting his momentum.
That incident triggered a caution and flattened Grant’s front left tire and bent his left side nerf bar into his left rear tire, effectively ending his chances to sweep the event in the No. 87 CB Industries car. Meanwhile, McIntosh squeezed past Grant and took second place.
With two laps to go, Denney and McIntosh made hard contact while battling for the lead exiting turn two, with Denney taking the lead. Miller was closely pursuing, ready to pounce. Just two turns later, McIntosh slid under Denney in turn four for the lead with the white flag in the air while Miller and Denney made contact, all but ending their chances to win.
That bobble by his rivals let McIntosh pull away on the final lap for the victory.
“A lot of guys moved up to the top there, and it was hard to make moves,” McIntosh said. “When you throw a slide job, you lose so much momentum. So, to try and get your momentum back without getting slid was tough.
“Luckily, I was the guy coming from behind and putting those guys in bad positions and was able to get to the next guy before they could get back to me. Just kept making moves.”
McIntosh’s second USAC National Midget victory of the year was also the 11th of his career, which moves him to 67th place all-time alongside Kasey Kahne, Jimmy Knight, Bob McLean, Johnny Moorhouse, Bobby Santos and Brad Sweet.
In addition to winning the race, McIntosh also picked up Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. Prior to Wednesday, the deepest in the field a BC39 winner had started was seventh by Brady Bacon during the inaugural edition of the event in 2018.
Entering this week’s BC39, it had been six years since Justin Peck last made a USAC National Midget feature start. On Wednesday, he scored a career best USAC finish of fifth in his BC39 debut, earning $700 and a steering wheel trophy as the Max Papis Innovations BC39 Rookie of the Race.
Steven Snyder Jr. had to eat some alphabet soup in his first BC39 run. After winning the C-Main, he started 14th in the semi-feature. On the last lap, last turn of the semi, he slid from eighth to sixth to grab the final transfer spot into the feature, which earned him Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night honors.