Saint smoke! Drake's heroic deeds achieve Sweet Springs Usac Midget Win – Speedway Digest

Kale Drake may not be too superstitious, but at least he is certainly a bit strange.

Before the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship event on Sunday evening at the Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex in Missouri, the native Oklahoma in Collinsville was involved in a number of happy events, whereby number two wherever he turned was prominently seen.

“Today I spoke to (Usac official Kirk Spridgeon) and Justin (Grant) in the trailer, and I told them when I stopped at the gas station, it was $ 22.22. Then I drew the pill 22, then I pulled 22 tears in front of the Main-Main, but I think it worked,” said Drake with a laugh.

In the end, the same number played an important role in the background of Drake's assets in Sweet Springs. In fact, in 2024 he headed the USAC -MIDGET race with two remaining rounds when he found difficulties and hopped and ended his offer for victory.

Drake finished third on Sunday at the last restart. A year ago, Drake dropped from the position where he turned out to take the lead – you suspected – two rounds in front of him. So that we do not mention that he led the feature three different times in the pieces of two rounds at the same time 1-2, round 16-17 and rounds 29-30.

When everything was said, Drake collected – waiting for it – Usac National Midget Career Victory number two. But to do it so dramatically, this will be one that he remembers for a lifetime, possibly two life.

“Saint smoke was a long breed and a technical and great fun,” Drake called. “It's not quite in my alley, but we got it up.”

Drake was in the pole position in the Pole position in his Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Eibach-Trd-Toyota-Mobil 1/Lynk/Speedway Toyota. After led to the opening round, he suddenly found himself on his team -mate Jacob Denney's chase.

But in round 16 Denney stumbled two pillows over the round and opened the door for Drake to continue driving while he used the bottom of round three and four to take the lead. After completing the lap, Garrett Benson turned into the outer wall at the end of round four. He was okay, but his night was over.

Now let's look back before starting the function. Riley Kreisel was originally carried out for the start on the rack, but in a wild turn he was punished for delaying the staging too late while trying to fix a problem with tire bleeding. The result was a punishment in two rows that took the roundabout on the grid to fifth place. As it turned out, however, it was not a big deterrent for the determined roundabout.

Kreisel's Ron Cox trip had not been released four months earlier since the Chili Bowl Nationals. In addition, he only found that he would compete at Sweet Springs the night before at 11 p.m. In addition to everything else, it was only his third career career national midget start and his first for seven years in 2018 with the same 1/6 mile dirt oval.

The beneficiary of Kreisel's position Shuffle was Drake, who moved from the outside of the first row to Pole, a place with which he was actually not particularly in the future.

“I didn't know how I really felt to take over the bar,” admitted Drake. “I didn't really want to complete the race and take the pace, but Jacob rose in front of me and showed me what I had to do and what I shouldn't do, what really showed me where the border was.”

Back to roundabout. Shortly after the restart, he found his groove on the floor and rolled past Denney on the 17th circuit. Then he picked up Drake moments later in round 18 for the tour. At the same time, the 13th start of Drake Edwards Kreisel's way to second place ahead of Drake. However, Edwards carried out half a spin in round 24 in curve and lost second place to Drake in the meantime. Nevertheless, Edwards stayed with it and sneaked back to Drake when the couple worked for Thomas Meseraull's remote car.

In the meantime, Kreisel's leadership had expanded to a full second and he wanted to be on the way to a steady first career national victory of the USAC -National Usac. But in round 37, the Brandon Carr (20th) series rookie connected the Turn One pillow and almost turned over before taking a break on all fours. Kreisel's 1.35 second advantage opposite the field was deleted due to caution, and now he let the field hung on the horizon with a three-round shootout.

Drake, who had low -line residents roundabouts and Edwards, thirdly with three as the first, both who sat in front of Green in front of him. There was only one place where you “send it”.

“I had to remember this restart that I know what I'm doing and I have the best people behind me and I just had to hit my grades,” remembered Drake. “It really arrived at this last restart. I really had to send it. If I could meet my grades, I knew that I had the best car on the race track, so it was only a matter of obligation. It took a lot of commitment to put it up there and be quick.”

Drake remained loyal and cracked under the helmet under the helmet and banged Edwards for second place on the strip with two to go in round 38. On the way to the white flag, Drake met the pillow in round one and then started in round two to dispose of Kreisisel and place himself at the top of the loader board.

Drake recently changed the course and attacked the bottom of the curves three and four to thwart the roundabout and Edwards and block the lane. Drake crossed the border with a second winning game of 0.363, his first in the USAAC since a BC39 Prelim win last September.

Behind him, Justin Grant appeared out of nowhere and picked up both the roundabout and Edwards with a fall of turn 4 to get second place to get a car length. The runner-up also gave Grant at the top of the Usac National Midget classification. Grant's fourth to the second last corner thrust turned out to be the Inferno armor movement of the night.

In Arizonian Drake Edwards' first visit to Sweet Springs, he received his best career -national midget -finish. He almost won the thing after starting the 13th start, but landed a strong third to round off the podium.

Kreisel fell to fourth place after he had managed a racing high in 21 rounds in 2018, and 2024 Sweet Springs Usac Midget -Feature Logan Seavey fifth place.

Andrew Felker does not often lead the national midgets in the USAac, but when he does it, he does some powerful good work. On his way from 19th to 7th, he collected 12 positions to collect the Rod End Supply Hard Charger Award.

In the evening in the evening, Cannon Mcintosh recorded his 12th career in the Usac National Midget Fast Time during the honest ABE Roofing qualification. That brought him to the 49th on the list of all time next to Don Meacham, Larry Rice and Josh Wise.

Usac NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship Race Results: May 18, 2025-sweet Springs Springs Motorsport complex Sweet Sources, Missouri-1/6-Mile Drag Oval

Ehrlich ABE Roofing Qualifying: 1. Cannon Mcintosh, 71k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.746; 2. Justin Grant, 87, CBI-11.823; 3. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-11.875; 4. Jacob Denney, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.882; 5. Kale Drake, 97k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.888; 6. Riley Kreisel, 19k, Cox-11.920; 7. Camerone Key, 21J, TKH-11.930; 8. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.977; 9. Gunnar Setser, 43, Arnold-11.989; 10. Drake Edwards, 83, CBI-11.995; 11. Brecken Reese, 00, Chandler-11.999; 12. Hayden Reinbold, 19az, Reinbold/Underwood 213; 13. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-122.018; 14. Garrett Benson, 7b, Engler-1722; 15. Steven Snyder Jr., 4, RMS-1222; 16. Mack Leopard, 86, CBI-122.023; 17. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-122.033; 18. Cale Coons, 63, Dooling/Curb-Agajanian-122.096; 19. Andrew Felker, 11a, Felker-122.141; 20. Brandon Carr, 98k, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-1238; 21. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, Engler-17.307; 22. Branigan Roark, 44, Roark-122.343; 23. Chad Winfrey, 321, Winfrey-122.351; 24. Mark Chisholm, 56x, Chisholm-122.378; 25. Daniel Robinson, 92, O'Sullivan-122.408; 26. Blake Spicer, 4S, Spicer-17,837; 27. Jacob Mcfarlin, 33, Roark-122.943.

Car IQ First Heat: (10 rounds, top 6 transmission to feature) 1. Mack Leopard, 2. Kyle Jones, 3. Cannon Mcintosh, 4. Andrew Felker, 5th Cameron Key, 6. Jacob Denney, 7. Branigan Roark, 8. Daniel Robinson, 9. Drake Edwards. NT

K1 RaceGear Second Heat: (10 rounds, top 6 transmission to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2nd Garrett Benson, 3. Gavin Miller, 4. Kale Drake, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Brecken Reese, 7. Chad Winfrey, 8. Brandon Carr, 9. Blake Spicer. 2: 03.99

Usacgear.com Third heat: (10 rounds, top 6 transmission to the feature) 1. Hayden Reinbold, 2. Steven Snyder Jr., 3. Riley Kreisel, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Gunnar Setser, 7. Coons, 8. Mark Chishholm, 9. Jacob McFarlin. 2: 05.05

Elliotts custom trailer & carts semi: (10 rounds, top 6 transfer to feature) 1. Drake Edwards, 2. Cale Coons, 3. Chad Winfrey, 4. Daniel Robinson, 5. Brandon Carr, 7. Blake Spicer, 8. Jacob McFarlin. NT

Feature: (40 rounds, starting positions in brackets) 1. Kale Drake (1), 2. Justin Grant (4), 3. Drake Edwards (13), 4. Riley Kreisel (5), 5. Logan Seavey (3), 6. Gavin Miller (11), 7. Andrew Felker (19), 8. Denney (2), 11. Kevin Thomas Jr. (9), 12. Mack Leopard (8), 21. Brandon Carr (20), 22nd Camerone Key (10), 23. Garrett Benson (16), 24. Chad Winfrey (23). NT

Feature Lap Leader: Round 1-2 Kale Drake, rounds 3-15 Jacob Denney, round 16-17 Kale Drake, rounds 18-38 Riley Kreisel, round 39-40 Kale Drake.

** Garrett Benson turned into round 16 of the feature.

Usac NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship Points: 1-Justin Grant-365, 2-Cannon Mcintosh-349, 3-Kal-Drake-322, 4-Logan Seavey-308, 5-Jacob Denney-304, 6-Steven Snyder Jr.-289, 8-drake Edwards-281, 9-gavin, 8-289, 8-drake Edwards-281, 9-gavin, 9-289, 8-drake Edwards-281, 9-gavin, 9-289, 8-drake Edwards-281, 9-gavin, 8-281, 9-coma, 9-gavin Thomas, 8-drake-281, 9-ka. 10-Gunnar-Setser-224.

Usac Parallaxe Group National Passing Master Points: 1-Kale Drake-103, 2-CJ Leary-49, 3-Briggs Danner-41, 4-Chase Stockon-37, 5-Robert Ballou-35, 6-Jadon Rogers-30, 8-Gunnar-Setser-23, 9-Kyle-23, 10-Kyle-28.

Next Usac Nos Energy Drink Midget National Championship Race: June 3, 2025-circle City Raceway Indianapolis, Indiana-1/4-Mile Dirt Oval-21. Annual USAC Indiana Midget Week

Winner of the emergency price:

Dirt Draft Hot Races Fastest driver: Kevin Thomas Jr. (12.113)

Honest ABE Roofing quick qualification: Cannon Mcintosh (11.746)

Auto IQ First Heat winner: Mack Leopard

K1 RaceGear Second Heat winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.

Usacgear.com third heat winner: Hayden Reinbold

Rod End Supply Hard Ladgerät: Andrew Felker (19th to 7th)

Inferno armor fire movement of the night: Justin Grant

Usac PR