Rich Forman Photo
Richie Murray
JULY 11, 2025
Fairbury, Nebraska (July 11, 2025)………Seven hundred and sixty-three days after becoming a first-time USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget winner, Gavin Miller became a two-time series winner on Friday night at Fairbury, Nebraska’s Jefferson County Speedway.
Miller’s June 9, 2023, triumph at Indiana’s Bloomington Speedway more than two years ago was the last time the Allentown, Pennsylvania racer got to enjoy such a moment. Now, the date of July 11, 2025, feels even better.
Starting from the outside of the front row, Miller led all 30 laps during Friday’s Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship Presented by Westin Packaged Meats & Schmidt’s Sanitation opener, round three of Mid-America Midget Week.
Despite Miller’s somewhat lengthy hiatus from the win column, which lasted a total of 56 races, his recent pattern of consistency laid the foundation for his path back to victory. Just last week, he finished as the runner-up on back-to-back nights of the BC39 at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“We’ve been on a streak of a lot of podium runs and it’s about time we broke through,” Miller reiterated. “I wanted that one really bad. I’ve been feeling like I’ve let them down, but it’s boosted my confidence by having good people around me who have told me that I’m capable of being able to do this kind of stuff.”
In the end, Miller and his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/SoundGear – Toyota – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota led the way to the third such podium sweep for KKM during the 2025 USAC National Midget season as his fellow teammates Cannon McIntosh and Jacob Denney finished second and third, respectively.
The Kunz/Curb-Agajanian team finished in the top-four positions in May at Kansas’ Belleville Short Track, then commanded the top-three on the final night of the BC39 during the first week of July at IMS.
In four career starts, Miller’s previous best USAC National Midget result at Jefferson County’s 1/5-mile dirt oval had been a sixth in the 2024 Midwest Midget Championship owner. The following night, he started on the pole but was involved in an accident while challenging for the lead, which knocked him back to 11th in the finishing order.
But Miller does have past winning experience at Jefferson County, tallying three micro sprint main events between 2021 and 2024. From his bird’s eye view at the front of the field for Friday’s midget feature, Miller was confident this could be a breakthrough night.
“I knew that starting on the outside would kind of help me out,” Miller explained. “I figured that with them watering the track, the top was going to be pretty dominant.”
While Miller got the jump on pole sitter Kyle Jones at the start, red hot McIntosh was hustling his way up into contention on the opening lap by going to the topside around first-time USAC starter Trent Way, then found his own way underneath Jones for the runner-up spot on the second lap, kickstarting what turned out to be a racelong pursuit.
Denney, meanwhile, was busy exchanging sliders with Ethan Mitchell on lap six and seven before finally clearing Mitchell to slot into fourth behind Mack Leopard.
Engine trouble on lap 12 ended a quality run for ninth running Bradley Cox who was making his first career USAC feature start after winning his heat race earlier in the evening.
However, hellaciousness broke loose on the ensuing restart, when sixth running Mitchell experienced the double whammy of contact between himself and Steven Snyder Jr. followed by a face-to-face meeting with a turn four infield tire. That sent Mitchell spiraling upside down along the front straightaway as the field scattered left and right to miss his flipping machine.
Mitchell climbed out and walked away but was out of the race. During the red, ninth running Justin Grant exited toward the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area following contact from Gunnar Setser as the two attempted to avoid the incident involving Mitchell. Grant returned to the lineup, restarting at the tail, but only managed to get back to 16th at the checkered for his most unsavory result of the season, which cinched up the series championship points race to its closest margin since May 18.
Miller led the field past the halfway point and maintained a few car length advantage over McIntosh before ultimately reaching the tail end of the field. Miller made a gutsy and decisive move in turn three on lap 22 as he split between Way and Luke Icke to put both a lap down in the running order while also hanging McIntosh out to dry behind them, thus helping himself to some much needed breathing room as the race leader.
A few blinks later, Denney had made his way into third with a turn one slide job past Jones on lap 24. Snyder followed suit to fourth past Jones on lap 25.
With five laps remaining, Miller was mostly by his lonesome but still giving 10/10ths. As Miller crossed under the flag stand on lap 25, he bounced his right rear tire off the front straightaway wall, which subsequently sucked his right front tire into the concrete as well. It was seemingly ‘no harm, no foul’ as he remained on the gas all the way up ‘til the time he reached the rear bumper of Grant, who at the time was the final car on the lead lap.
Rather than retreat from the comfortable line that had been his bread and butter all race to venture into the unknown, Miller followed Grant for the remaining tours while weighing the risk/reward of changing up the gameplan by making the wrong move at the wrong moment.
“It was kind of tough getting by Justin there,” Miller admitted.” Since it was top dominant, I couldn’t really slide through the slick there and I was a little nervous about breaking my momentum and possibly being slid by Cannon.”
While McIntosh was close enough to chop into the lead, Miller never allowed him to encroach closer than a couple car lengths. When all was said and done, Miller was 0.203 seconds better than runner-up Cannon McIntosh while Jacob Denney was third, Steven Snyder Jr. fourth and Kyle Jones fifth.
Bixby, Oklahoma’s Cannon McIntosh finished second to extend his top-two finishing streak to four races following results of 1st-1st-2nd-2nd over his past four USAC National Midget starts, which has vaulted him back into the series championship race. On Friday alone, McIntosh cut his deficit to Grant from 57 to 18. McIntosh’s performance equaled his best yet at Jefferson County after also earning second on the opening night of 2024.
It was third again for Galloway, Ohio’s Jacob Denney who has now recorded three third place finishes in his last four USAC National Midget starts. To boot, it was also his best career finish at Jefferson County, topping his fourth from 2024.
Buried in the depths of the field, Sutter, California’s Logan Seavey transformed his night into a decent one by picking off 13 of his competitors as he advanced from his 19th starting position to finish sixth and capture Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors.
Needless to say, it’s been a trying year for Texan Kyle Jones and Joyner Motorsports. This week alone, on Tuesday at Sweet Springs, they lost an engine. On Wednesday, they flipped upside down during the feature. After all the frustration, on Friday night, Jones tied his best career USAC National Midget finish of fifth, which he also achieved at Belleville in May 2024. For their perseverance, Jones and company were the recipients of the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
Newcomer Mack Leopard picked his spots correctly during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying. Hailing from Beavercreek, Ohio, Leopard set quick time with a lap 10.945 seconds, then went on to finish a career-best eighth in the feature in what was just his sixth career USAC National Midget start.