USAC Midgets kick off Winter Dirt Games with stacked field for 2021

USAC Midgets kick off Winter Dirt Games with stacked field for 2021
Chris Windom and Cannon McIntosh race during the 2020 USAC Midget season. Photo Courtesy USAC Media // Lonnie Wheatley

The 2021 USAC Season is getting kicked off in Ocala, Florida this weekend with the Non-Wing sprint cars firing off next week following the midgets this Friday and Saturday.

It promises to be a fun season all around, but the USAC Midget field might be the most loaded out of the three national tours under the sanctioning body.

We’ll break down the full-timers below for this season, whom will be joined by some part-time drivers like always alongside the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion.

The 2021 USAC Midget Roster

Keith Kunz Motorsports
01 | Bryant Wiedeman (R)
67 | Buddy Kofoid
71 | Kaylee Bryson
71K | Daison Pursley
97| Brenham Crouch (R)
98 | Tanner Carrick

Keith Kunz Motorsports is bringing a healthy helping of six cars through the USAC Midget tour this season with a plethora of intriguing drivers set for the arsenal. The four drivers returning to the team each finished in the top 11 of the series standings in 2020, headlined by the return of Rookie of the Year Buddy Kofoid. The sophomore has already gotten off to a good start this season with a pair of 410 sprint car wins at the Wild Wing Shootout during the preseason.

Kofoid is joined again by Daison Pursley and Tanner Carrick – who went P6 and P7 in last season’s points – as well as one of the best female racers out there in Kaylee Bryson. After the roster turnover the team went through going into last year, the continuity this season should be an advantage for the team.

KKM will have two drivers chase Rookie of the Year honors this season in Bryant Wiedeman and Brenham Crouch. Neither has turned 16 years old yet, so they did not participate in this year’s Chili Bowl Nationals, but both are in the equipment to compete for the award.

CB Industries
89 | Chris Windom

The defending champion Chris Windom is back in 2021 with Chad Boat’s new independent team and will look to continue the success he saw in 2020. Windom took home four wins in 2020 as well as 19 top-five finishes during his run to the championship.

He followed it up with his best Chili Bowl Nationals finish of his career in sixth with the CB Industries No. 89.

Windom will try to become the 12th back-to-back USAC Midget champion of all time and first since Bryan Clauson.

RMS Racing
2X | Justin Grant
7X | Thomas Meseraull

Justin Grant is stepping up and running each of the trip crown series in 2021 alongside the electric personality that is Thomas Meseraull.

Grant ran all but six events across the three tours last season and made a run for his first USAC Silver Crown championship a year ago. He followed that with a P5 finish in the standings in USAC’s sprint car division as well as a P8 spot in midgets despite missing those six races. He also was the runner-up to Kyle Larson in this year’s Chili Bowl Nationals.

Alongside Grant, Meseraull will try to improve on his marks in a midget. He captured his first – and then second – USAC Midget victories in 2020 while recording eight top 10’s with RMS Racing.

Dave Mac Motorsports
08 | Cannon McIntosh
88 | Tanner Thorson
25K | Taylor Reimer (R)

Dave Mac Motorsports will take on a pair of up-and-comers in the USAC ranks in 2021 taking on Cannon McIntosh from KKM as well as Tanner Thorson who was most recently in the Malloy No. 25M.

Both drivers put up massive numbers in the past year and will look to chase championships at their new team.

McIntosh came home fifth in the series standings and captured two wins with KKM, then locked into the Chili Bowl Nationals main event from winning the Monday prelim at this year’s week in Tulsa.

Thorson, on the other hand, took a third-place finish in the standings with seven wins over the course of the season as well as 24 top 10 finishes in 28 races, a near perfect mark.

They’ll be joined by rookie, Taylor Reimer, the winningest female driver out of Tulsa’s Port City Raceway.

Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports
19AZ | Hayden Reinbold (R)
19A | Chase Randall (R)

The Arizona boys have a strong, new contingent behind the No. 19 cars this year.

Both Reinbold and Randall will be competing for Rookie of the Year honors in 2021 after combining for 11 USAC Midget appearances last season. Each participated in the Chili Bowl Nationals this season and will look to kickstart their national careers this year.

Tom Malloy Racing
25 | Logan Seavey

The 2016 USAC Midget champion Logan Seavey will head to the No. 25 car this season for a California mashup. Both Malloy and Seavey hail from the west coast and will look to take on the full tour after running just 14 shows a season ago.

Sam Johnson Racing
72 | Sam Johnson
72 | Austin Barnhill (R)

Sam Johnson will return to the full-time tour along with Austin Barnhill who will compete for Rookie of the Year.

Johnson has earned three top 10’s in 24 career starts and will bring in Barnhill to run a second car. Barnhill competed regularly at Millbridge Speedway in 2020 and grew up with Johnson, so there should be no shortage of chemistry with this team.

There’s still some teams, of course, without their plans completely fulfilled for the season taking to the track this weekend.

Winter Dirt Games filled with Part-time intrigue

The biggest of overall names coming to Ocala includes NASCAR’s Chase Elliott.

He’ll be back in a midget this weekend in the No. 84 car for CB Industries as part of an effort to get more seat time and prepare for the 2022 Chili Bowl Nationals.

Fresh off of his alphabet soup run in Tulsa this year, Jason McDougal will be rolling in the Robert Dalby Motorsports car for the first four races of the season. The plan is to start things off with McDougal and if he has other commitments or things don’t work out, Dalby will hop in his own car.

Petry Motorsports will bring Kevin Thomas Jr. and Emerson Axsom to Florida this weekend – both of whom are proven names with the tour in their own respective rights. There’s no word what the plan is for the team going forward just yet.

Bundy Built Motorsports will bring two Mooresville, North Carolina natives in Ethan Mitchell and Max McLaughlin to the track while Jake Neuman and Robby Spino will make their debuts in in Jim Neuman cars to start off the year.

It all gets started at 5:00 p.m. CT on Friday night, as always streaming live on FloRacing.