SUPER SPECIAL! DRAKE DIGS IN FOR $10,000 USAC MIDGET SCORE AT JEFF. CO.

Kale Drake collected a $10,000 payday for his USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget feature victory on Saturday night at Fairbury, Nebraska’s Jefferson County Speedway. (Ray Hague Photo)

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Fairbury, Nebraska (July 11, 2026)………Throughout USAC Mid-America Midget Week, it suddenly became apparent that it was only a matter of time before Kale Drake and RMS Racing put it all together to become a winning combination on the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship trail.

That precise time arrived during Saturday night’s Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship Presented by Westin Packaged Meats & Schmidt’s Sanitation at Fairbury, Nebraska’s Jefferson County Speedway.

After he and the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team parted ways at the conclusion of the 2025 campaign, Drake joined the RMS team for the full 2026 USAC tour.

Over Drake’s first eight USAC races with RMS this season, he accrued just one top five result. But over his past five outings, he’s strung together results of 5th, 4th, 3rd, and 5th, then culminated with a $10,000 reward at Jefferson County’s 1/5-mile dirt oval and his first USAC victory as the pilot of the RMS Racing/Response Management Services – EnviroFab/Spike/Speedway Toyota No. 4.

“I just lost a lot of confidence there at the end of the year last year,” Drake admitted. “We went through some rough times, and I think that’s just part of racing – the hill you’ve got to climb and the willingness to get down in the nitty-gritty.”

Drake (Collinsville, Oklahoma) led early, and he led late in Saturday’s main. He paced the initial 13 laps from his outside front row starting position before yielding to Justin Grant who led the field for the next eight circuits. But on lap 22, Drake got by for good.

The victory was the fourth of Drake’s USAC National Midget career. Incredibly, it was RMS Racing’s first series win since just a day shy of exactly two years ago in 2024. That one also came at Jefferson County Speedway, but with Justin Grant at the wheel. As fate had it, it was Grant who Drake passed for the win on his super special night.

“It’s super special,” Drake said. “To be able to hear all those fans makes it even more special. We stayed out a little bit later last night, which is something that’s not like me. But we spent time with all the people that put all the hard work into making this event possible. Man, I wanted it bad. Phyl (Zubizareta) and I have been dreaming about this day, and my whole crew that’s been behind me. There’s just so many people who have put so much effort into me.”

One night earlier at Jefferson County, Drake was buried deep in the field with a starting position of 19th. Still, he managed to pass 14 cars to notch an impressive fifth place finish. The charge proved to be crucial as Friday’s finishing order essentially set the starting lineups for Saturday’s program. With an inversion of six, that meant that if everything went to plan for Drake, he would have a front row starting spot for the feature. All of it provided him a blueprint for what it would take to win on championship night

“This track had a lot of different seams,” Drake noted. “But I went back and watched a lot of film and saw that Cannon (McIntosh) got it done on the bottom here last year. With how good we were down here yesterday, I just knew that I needed to hit my marks and it really just came down to that.”

While Drake led the opening lap, the second go around was marred by 19th place running Bradley Cox’s flip in between turns three and four, which prematurely ended his evening. After the stoppage, Drake stepped away from the field to build an eight car length lead while Grant led a train behind him with Gavin Miller and Jakeb Boxell close in tow in third and fourth.

Shortly following a lap 13 restart, with the gap between first and second shrunken, Grant capitalized on his new surroundings by sweeping underneath Drake in turns one and two to get the spot on the 14th lap.

But an interesting thing happened for the next eight laps. Drake never left Grant’s side, quite literally. For the next several trips around Jeff. Co., the two were attached at the hip, with just a wheel separating the two at the stripe for several consecutive laps.

Finally, on lap 22, Drake surged to the inside of Grant on the back straightaway to assume the lead. That said, Grant fired a couple of punches right into Drake’s gut, sliding past Drake in turn one on both lap 23 and 24, but to no avail. Each time, Drake absorbed the blow and turned his wheel back under to deny Grant from taking away his golden opportunity.

“When he got by me, I was able to search around and I stayed right on his bumper,” Drake explained. “That’s when I knew we were in good shape. This car was really good and super easy to drive. I just had to put it in the right places.”

Next, Drake has to contend with Jacob Denney, winner of each of the two most recent USAC National Midget events this week. From the sixth spot, Denney first went to the bottom past Miller for third on lap 28. The second spot went to Denney on lap 31 as he drove under Grant.

That said, Drake’s lead was a commanding 1.564 seconds at that moment, but that was quickly erased on the 33rd lap when the red flag was displayed for an incident involving Zach Daum (6th) who spun in between turns one and two, then slid up the racetrack directly into the path of Kyle Jones (11th) and Colton Robinson (13th). The resulting skirmish sandwiched Jones’ ride on its side in between the two other cars. All drivers were just fine.

While Drake mostly ran a differing line through the middle of turns three and four and on the bottom of one and two, Denney was committed to the very bottom. Although Denney was able to get within two car lengths or so at certain times, Drake always seemed to have just enough oomph off the exits of turns two and four to thwart any attempt by Denney.

When all was said and done, Drake crossed under the checkered flag 0.922 seconds ahead of Denney, while Grant took third and Miller fourth with Drake Edwards rounding out the top five after starting 11th.

By leading a race-high 32 of 40 laps, Drake not only won the race but was also the recipient of the K & N Filters Clean Air award.

Garrett Benson advanced 23rd to 11th to pick up Rod End Supply Hard Charger honors. In what was just his sixth career feature start with the series, he also equaled his best career USAC National Midget result to date.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 11, 2026 – Jefferson County Speedway – Fairbury, Nebraska – 1/5-Mile Dirt Oval – Riverside Chevrolet Midwest Midget Championship Presented by Westin Packaged Meats & Schmidt’s Sanitation / Mid-America Midget Week

K1 RACEGEAR FIRST QUALIFIER: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kyle Jones (#7TX Engler) (1), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (#14 4 Kings) (3), 3. Kale Drake (#4 RMS) (5), 4. Jacob Denney (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian) (6), 5. Garrett Benson (#27B Bourke) (9), 6. Bradley Cox (#45 Mason) (2), 7. Cale Coons (#85 Central) (4), 8. Brandon Carr (#98K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian) (7), 9. Cole Vanderheiden (#15v Vanderheiden) (8), 10. Dylan Doyle (#37 Doyle) (10). 1:55.853

TJ FORGED SECOND QUALIFIER: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Jakeb Boxell (#54 4 Kings) (6), 2. Haidyn Hansen (#27 Joyner) (2), 3. Adam Trimble (#5D Matejka/Heffner) (3), 4. Brecken Reese (#20Q Reese) (4), 5. Justin Grant (#87 CBI) (5), 6. Hank Soares (#22 Soares) (1), 7. Matt Sherrell (#21AJ Huddleston) (7), 8. Lance Bennett (#44x RKO) (8), 9. Sean Cleaveland (#84 Cleaveland) (10), 10. Shyla Ernst (#42 RKO) (9). 1:56.529

K & N FILTERS THIRD QUALIFIER: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Drew Sherman (#19 Reinbold-Underwood) (2), 2. Gavin Miller (#97 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian) (6), 3. Zach Daum (#14x Rosenboom) (5), 4. Ethan Mitchell (#19m Bundy Built) (4), 5. Mack Leopard (#40L McDermand) (3), 6. Trey Zorn (#00 Chandler) (1), 7. Wout Hoffmans (#81F Rosenboom) (10), 8. Colby Sokol (#71T Henry) (7), 9. John Klabunde (#77J Klabunde) (8), 10. Mikey Blackard (#71 Henry) (9). 1:56.618

INDY POWERSPORTS FOURTH QUALIFIER: (10 laps, top 5 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Gaige Weldon (#35L Ledger) (2), 2. Hayden Reinbold (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood) (4), 3. Colton Robinson (#67K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian) (3), 4. Drake Edwards (#40D McDermand) (5), 5. Cannon McIntosh (#71K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian) (6), 6. Levi Hinck (#21H TKH) (7), 7. Zack Merritt (#43m, RKO) (1), 8. Blaze Bennett (#10B Bennett) (9), 9. Caiden Warren (#12w Warren) (8), 10. Shaun Shapel (#84s Shapel) (10). NT

COOK OUT C-MAIN: (10 laps, top 4 transfer to the semi, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Colby Sokol (2), 2. Brandon Carr (1), 3. Cole Vanderheiden (5), 4. Lance Bennett (3), 5. John Klabunde (6), 6. Shaun Shapel (12), 7. Dylan Doyle (11), 8. Mikey Blackard (10), 9. Shyla Ernst (9). 1:59.865

FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (12 laps, top 4 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Bradley Cox (2), 2. Trey Zorn (4), 3. Cale Coons (1), 4. Wout Hoffmans (8), 5. Hank Soares (3), 6. Colby Sokol (9), 7. Matt Sherrell (7), 8. Brandon Carr (10), 9. Levi Hinck (5), 10. Cole Vanderheiden (11), 11. Zack Merritt (6), 12. Lance Bennett (12). 2:25.301

FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kale Drake (2), 2. Jacob Denney (6), 3. Justin Grant (1), 4. Gavin Miller (4), 5. Drake Edwards (11), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. (16), 7. Ethan Mitchell (14), 8. Jakeb Boxell (5), 9. Cannon McIntosh (3), 10. Brecken Reese (13), 11. Garrett Benson (23), 12. Hayden Reinbold (15), 13. Cale Coons (12), 14. Colton Robinson (19), 15. Haidyn Hansen (21), 16. Brandon Carr (25-P), 17. Mack Leopard (18), 18. Drew Sherman (7), 19. Adam Trimble (17), 20. Wout Hoffmans (24), 21. Trey Zorn (22), 22. Zach Daum (10), 23. Kyle Jones (9), 24. Gaige Weldon (8), 25. Bradley Cox (20). NT

(P) represents a provisional starter

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-13 Kale Drake, Laps 14-21 Justin Grant, Laps 22-40 Kale Drake.

**Blaze Bennett flipped during the fourth qualifier. Bradley Cox flipped on lap 2 of the feature. Kyle Jones flipped on lap 33 of the feature.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Jacob Denney-842, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-774, 3-Kale Drake-767, 4-Justin Grant-762, 5-Gavin Miller-746, 6-Jakeb Boxell-726, 7-Cannon McIntosh-712, 8-Hayden Reinbold-585, 9-Brecken Reese-572, 10-Colton Robinson-522.

USAC PARALLAX GROUP NATIONAL PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Hayden Reinbold-102, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-101, 3-Jacob Denney-84, 4-Robert Ballou-74, 5-Justin Grant-70, 6-Briggs Danner-65, 7-Cale Coons-64, 8-Chase Stockon-56, 9-Kyle Cummins-46, 10-Brady Bacon-44.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 14-15, 2026 – Coles County Speedway – Mattoon, Illinois – 1/8-Mile Dirt Oval – Lake Land College King of Coles

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Hayden Reinbold (11.064)

K1 RaceGear First Qualifier Winner: Kyle Jones

TJ Forged Second Qualifier Winner: Jakeb Boxell

K & N Filters Third Qualifier Winner: Drew Sherman

Indy Powersports Fourth Qualifier Winner: Gaige Weldon

Cook Out Semi Winner: Colby Sokol

Five Star Bodies Semi Winner: Bradley Cox

K & N Filters Clean Air Award: Kale Drake (32 laps led)

Rod End Supply Hard Charger: Garrett Benson (23rd to 11th)