Kofoid Leads Bell and McIntosh In Toyota 1-2-3 In POWRi At Port City

Buddy Kofoid went from third to first in one corner on lap 48 of 55 and then went on to lead Christopher Bell and Cannon McIntosh to the finish line in Thursday night’s POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League’s Sooner State 55 feature at Port City Raceway.

Kofoid started the event from 19th position and charged to his 12th national midget feature win in 2021, but his first since winning at Fayette County on June 20. 

While Kofoid took the checkers, it may have been McIntosh who had the drive of the race on his home track. 

The 18-year-old Bixby, Oklahoma native, took the lead at the green flag and led the first six laps before getting caught up in an incident when lapped cars got together in front of him, leaving McIntosh nowhere to go as he was collected up in the incident. He was able to return, but would restart from the back of the 25-car field.

On the restart, Tanner Berryhill would take over the lead on lap seven, with Jake Neuman running second, followed by Ryan Timms. Further back, Bell, who reunited with Keith Kunz Motorsports for Thursday’s run, had climbed from 16th to sixth in eight laps. By lap 13, he had moved up to fifth and into fourth one lap later.

On lap 19, Timms, who was driving the CB Industries Toyota, slid Neuman for second and then closed on Berryhill, moving past him for the lead on lap 21. After a caution flag, Timms was penalized for falling out of line on the restart and was moved back to second. It didn’t take long for the 15-year-old to move back to the front, though, as he passed Berryhill on lap 23, only to have Berryhill make contact with him, bringing Timms to a stop.

As Timms was forced to restart from the back, Bell moved up to second and began to challenge Berryhill for the lead on lap 24. Further back, Kofoid had climbed up to fifth, while McIntosh had climbed back up to ninth.

Bell had closed to less than a tenth of a second behind Berryhill, while Kofoid took over the fourth spot on lap 30, then up to third by lap 33. The top three would maintain their positions through lap 48, while McIntosh moved in behind Kofoid on lap 41.

After another caution, the top three were running together as the race entered the final 10 laps, then with just eight circuits remaining, Kofoid would make the pass of the day, overtaking both Bell and Berryhill in the same corner as he dived below them for the point position.

As Kofoid took the lead, Bell passed Berryhill for second and stayed right on Kofoid as the two KKM teammates ran right together. As Bell challenged for the win, McIntosh would pass Berryhill for third with two laps remaining and that’s how it would finish as Kofoid was able to hold off Bell as they came across the finish line, with Bryant Wiedeman moving up to fourth to give Toyota the top-four finishers on the night.  

With the fourth-place showing, Wiedeman stretched his championship lead over Brent Crews out to a formidable 280 points with four races remaining 

POWRI moves on to Oklahoma City for a pair of races at I-44 Riverside Speedway in the Meents Memorial Friday and Saturday night. 

TRD PR