DAUMINATION: Zach Daum Passes Gavin Miller Late for Sweep of Wayne County
Miller gives up lead to Daum late after contact with wall, retains second in points standings

WAYNE CITY, IL (June 3, 2023) – He came into the weekend winless on the season with a wrecked racecar at the shop and the frustration building. Three days later, and Zach Daum is headed home with back-to-back Feature wins and a sweep of the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota action at Wayne County Speedway.

Daum, the defending Series champion from Pocahontas, IL, filled the open seat at Oklahoma-based Trifecta Motorsports for the weekend – after a hard crash in his own car last week at Millbridge Speedway – and brought the team their first national Midget series victory Friday night. But he wasn’t done there, coming back the very next night and capitalizing on Keith Kunz Motorsports prospect Gavin Miller’s slip while leading in the closing laps to take the win and his third career Series triumph.

“This one feels just as good as last night did,” Daum said. “Last night, we had to earn it. Tonight, we got a little bit lucky.”

Similar to Friday night, Daum started on the front row of the 30-lap Toyota Racing Feature, but drifted back to third in the opening laps while Series points leader Cannon McIntosh paced the field out front. After losing a slide-job fest with Karter Sarff, who wrestled the lead away on Lap 9, McIntosh slipped back into second and gave it up to Daum six laps later.

“I couldn’t really run [the top lane] consistently,” McIntosh said. “I just pushed the nose quite a bit, and Daum was running the bottom, being patient. He just waited on mistakes and was able to get to the lead.”

When Sarff bobbled on the cushion one lap later, Daum was there to take advantage. He crossed the stripe with the lead at the halfway point, but Miller was mounting his charge behind him.

Miller, 16, of Allentown, PA, had dropped back as low as seventh at one point after taking the green but had worked his way up into the top five before the halfway point. Lap 16 may have been his best, however, as he passed four cars in the matter of one 12-second lap, ripping right through the middle and the top to advance to second.

Now, only Daum was ahead of him. In four laps, Miller had caught Daum and zipped around him on the open top side to claim the lead on Lap 19. A quick caution displayed that same lap restacked the field with 11 laps left. That’s when Miller hit the jets and took off.

At its height, Miller has amassed a gap of two full seconds over Daum as he continued to hammer the top side, lap-after-lap. As the laps began to wind down, Miller could see his first national Midget Feature win drawing closer, and then – contact.

Miller carried a full head of steam in to Turns 3-4, slipped over the small berm and hit the outside retaining wall, nearly stalling the car from the impact. Daum raced into the lead down the frontstretch as Miller was trying to keep his wheels turning, and the cation flag waved.

“It was about to stall, and I got on the gas again and felt it go forward a bit,” Miller said. “Just went in too hard.”

Daum had squeaked by Miller and completed Lap 27 before the yellow was thrown, making him the leader for the final restart. Miller was blended back into the field and restarted second, now left with only one chance to save his best career race.

“I figured if he was going to make a charge, he was going to make a charge,” Daum said. “I knew there was only a handful of laps left, so he was going to have to make some perfect laps to get around me.”

Try as he may, however, Miller was unable to make up the ground he needed to retake the lead as Daum crossed underneath the checkers to bag the victory.

“[Miller] drove a good race – he just made a couple mistakes, and it cost him,” Daum said.

Though it was a sour ending to what could’ve been a big first win, Miller did not hang his head over second place – tying the runner-up finish he had one week prior at Millbridge.

“It’s just disappointing,” Miller said. “I know everyone wants to win, but you’ve just got to want to win more. You’ve just gotta go out there and drive your hardest every single time.

“It’s gonna come one of these days.”

McIntosh came home third, collecting his eighth podium finish in ten Series races. He had a good car early on but was unable to find the speed he’s been accustomed to having at the end of races.

“I didn’t really have anything on the restart for them, so I just fell back to third and couldn’t make up any ground,” McIntosh said.

UP NEXT

The Xtreme Outlaw Midgets head into a summer break period and return to competition Friday, July 21, at Doe Run Speedway in Doe Run, MO. Tickets will be available at the gate on race day. If you can’t be there in person, stream all the action live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 7U-Zach Daum[1]; 2. 97-Gavin Miller[5]; 3. 08-Cannon McIntosh[4]; 4. 5G-Gavan Boschele[7]; 5. 97K-Cooper Williams[20]; 6. 5-Chase Briscoe[13]; 7. 21K-Karter Sarff[2]; 8. 23-Kevin Thomas Jr[9]; 9. 40-Chase McDermand[3]; 10. 2X-Landon Brooks[17]; 11. 71-Jade Avedisian[8]; 12. 25K-Taylor Reimer[6]; 13. 31K-Kyle Beilman[19]; 14. 08X-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[11]; 15. 3N-Mitchell Davis[15]; 16. 17B-Austin Barnhill[18]; 17. 26-Chance Crum[16]; 18. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[10]; 19. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[12]; 20. 86-Shane Cottle[14]

Zach Daum Wins Wayne County, Brings Trifecta Motorsports First National Midget Win
McIntosh sixth after final restart, Miller P3 surges to runner-up in points

WAYNE CITY, IL (June 2, 2023) – The Trifecta Motorsports team had waited several years for their day to come. They day they’d finally be standing in Victory Lane after taking the checkered flag in a national Midget series event. Friday at Wayne County Speedway was that day, and their new hired gun Zach Daum was their guy to bring them the trophy.

Once a single-car team from Tulsa, OK, that competed solely in the Chili Bowl Nationals every January, the Trifecta squad began taking on more races over the last five years in pursuit of one of their biggest goals – winning on the national stage.

Daum, the defending Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota champion, moved into the seat of the 7U for the weekend after a hard crash last week at Millbridge Speedway and immediately fired-off with the team, posting a top-five finish Thursday night at Tri-City Speedway.

Friday night, Daum faced Wayne County – a place he’d won before, claiming the inaugural Jason Leffler Memorial in 2013. With a front-row starting spot for the 30-lap Feature, Daum survived a late-race charge from Series points leader Cannon McIntosh and a green-white-checkered finish to bag his second career Series victory and the biggest win of his team’s career.

“These guys got good stuff – Janky [Bobby Milliser, crew] and Steve [Carbone, car owner] work their asses off on this thing,” Daum, of Pocahontas, IL, said. “I’m just happy to get them a good result. I know they’ve been wanting to win a national race for a long time. I know this one means a lot to them.”

Daum earned an outside pole starting spot for the Toyota Racing Feature after the inversion draw and put a slide job on polesitter Hayden Reinbold to take the lead on Lap 12. He led through the halfway point, though fourth-starting Jade Avedisian was closing in on him quickly. She had just moved past Reinbold for second and was on a mission for the lead, hammering the top side of the 1/6-mile oval.

When Daum bobbled on the cushion getting into Turn 1 on Lap 17, Avedisian slid through the open door down low and took the lead. Daum crossed the Keith Kunz Motorsports #71 over down the backstretch and retook the position in Turns 3-4. Avedisian kept the high side momentum going, however, and got a big run to Daum’s outside one lap later.

She rounded Turn 4 and stuck the nose to Daum’s outside, and that’s when the two came together. Avedisian’s left-front tire met Daum’s right-rear and around she went, bringing out the caution and sending her to the rear while racing in a podium spot for the third time in the last four races.

“I was looking right to go back to the cushion, following the dirt back to [my] line, and I looked and looked and didn’t see her, and then we met,” Daum said. “I never saw her until she hopped over the tire and I thought I went airborne.”

Daum kept going after the contact and kept the lead for the restart. He took off and pulled out to a slim lead on the field, which was erased less than 10 laps later by McIntosh as he closed in on Daum, in pursuit of his fifth win of the season.

The two traded slide jobs until the action was paused with two laps remaining for a spinning Reinbold in Turn 4.

“We really didn’t dirty each other too bad,” Daum said. “Less than five-to-go for the win, it’s no-holds-barred at that point in time. Just get after it.”

The field was restacked for the restart; green-white-checkered finish upcoming. Under yellow, Daum could feel the pressure mounting with the points leader behind him, but he came prepared.

“I just tried to make sure I hit my line on the restart; I didn’t spin the tires, I got down the straightaway good, I entered Turn 1 good,” Daum said. “I figured if I entered 1 and didn’t get tight off of 2, [McIntosh] wasn’t going to make any more speed to slide me in 3.”

He got a great jump as the green was thrown and drove two clean circuits unchallenged to grab the victory – his first of the season with the Xtreme Outlaws.

Further back, McIntosh got shuffled back several spots on the restart after a bobble on the cushion. He was passed by Gavin Miller first, then several others after. One of which was Shane Cottle, who drove under three cars in front of him to take second from fifth in one lap.

“I knew if I stuck the corners pretty good, those guys were washing-up and I could get underneath them,” Cottle said. “We just needed another lap or so, and it would’ve been a good race between me and Zach.”

Cottle held on for second while Miller crossed in third – his third podium in the last five Series races. McIntosh slid back to sixth in a matter of two laps but was able to expand his points lead up to 122 over Miller with Avedisian and Chase McDermand further down in the running order.

Avedisian was unable to fully recover from her incident with Daum and drove back to 10th by the checkered. Meanwhile, McDermand had advanced from 19th up to 12th by the checkered, recovering from a broken rear-end in his Heat. In the end, he slipped back to fourth in the points standings, now 152 out of the lead.

UP NEXT

The Xtreme Outlaw Midgets are back in action once more at Wayne County Saturday night, June 3, for the conclusion to the weekend in Illinois. Tickets will be on sale at the gate. If you can’t be there, stream all the action live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)