Kyle Larson wins 2024 Merced Midget Madness for first time

Kyle Larson broke through with a midget victory at Merced Speedway in Sunday ‘s Merced Midget Madness in the USAC National Midget Series for his first track victory in that class.

Larson has dominated California dirt tracks and he owns three sprint car victories at Merced, but could not find the same degree of success in the midgets. In his sixth attempt at the track, Larson passed Logan Seavey on Lap 14 and led the final 17 of 30 laps. This was his first USAC National Midget win in 2024 and the fourth in his last five attempts dating back to 2023.

Prior to winning the Merced Midget Madness, Larson finished ninth and fourth in two races in 2020, he failed to advance to the feature in Race 1 of 2021 and finished 24th the following night.

“We’ve been really good whenever we’ve ran the midget at all these California tracks except for Merced,” Larson said in a news release. “I feel like we’ve been average at best at Merced, and then we had a couple races where we were really bad.”

Larson has four Midget wins at Placerville, three at Ventura, and one each at Bakersfield and Perris.

Starting third, Larson did not make much progress at the beginning of the race. Once he got around Karter Sarff on Lap 11, he began to chip away at Seavey’s 1.471-second lead. A caution for Corey Day’s mechanical issue took away Seavey’s remaining advantage.

Another yellow flag for Sarff delayed the final restart, but when the race returned to green, Larson seized the advantage and did not relinquish it.

“I was a bit nervous going into that feature just because the sprint cars go through the holes way easier than the midgets,” Larson said. “In a midget, just because you’re sideways, you’re bouncing a lot. I was nervous with the track slickening up and I felt like we were going to have to run through the holes more, which we did. But my car could handle it there, which was nice.”

Michael “Buddy” Kofoid also passed Seavey in the second half of the race, and he pressured Larson when the two hit lapped traffic.

“I felt pretty good for a while, then caught traffic,” Larson said. “My momentum slowed down quite a bit in three and four and I couldn’t really see my line in one and two. I thought I saw somebody poke their nose into one, so I figured they were building a run off the top of three and four. I moved back up there and felt better, and I just needed to keep my momentum up better.”

Seavey held on to finish third.

Tanner Thorson in fourth and Carson Macedo rounded out the top five.

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses)
1. Kyle Larson (3),
2. Buddy Kofoid (4)
3. Logan Seavey (1)
4. Tanner Thorson (7)
5. Carson Macedo (5)
6. Jacob Denney (11)
7. Daison Pursley (14)
8. Zach Wigal (16)
9. Cannon McIntosh (12)
10. Ryan Timms (13)
11. Emerson Axsom (10)
12. Justin Grant (18)
13. Kale Drake (8)
14. Caden Sarale (9)
15. Tyler Courtney (19)
16. Zach Daum (15)
17. Corey Day (6)
18. Gavin Miller (17)
19. Hayden Reinbold (22)
20. Drake Edwards (20)
21. Ronnie Gardner (23)
22. Jake Andreotti (21)
23. Travis DeGaton (24)
24. Karter Sarff (2)

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-13 Logan Seavey, Laps 14-30 Kyle Larson.