In a world of Midget racing Goliaths, Chase McDermand is the proverbial David on the national scene. Armed with two cars, a few engines and his parents’ plumbing business as a sponsor on the side, he’s competing with — and beating — some of the best the sport has to offer.
The 22-year-old from Springfield, IL, is in his second full season with Mounce/Stout Motorsports and has won twice with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota already this year. Hot on the trail of his first national championship, McDermand is showing what’s possible with his mostly homegrown operation.
“I just try to do the most with what I have, and we’ve been able to do quite a bit with that,” he said. “We’ve been really blessed to have the success that we’ve had. I’m proud of the team as a whole.”
The Series returns to his home state of Illinois for a three-day race weekend this Thursday-Saturday at Tri-City Speedway and Wayne County Speedway. He’s currently 89 points out of the Series points lead with roughly three quarters of the season left to be contested.
Despite posting back-to-back third-place finishes last week at Millbridge Speedway, his gap to points leader Cannon McIntosh jumped 30 points after McIntosh swept both nights of competition. That gap doesn’t scare him, though, and neither does his competition.
“On the track, they’re all just racecars,” McDermand said. “When I can, I try to just see numbers. It doesn’t matter what engine is under the hood or who’s driving the car — to an extent — they’re all just racecars out there.”
He said it’s how he tries to approach the situation every time he straps into his car. Competing night-in and night-out against drivers with corporate sponsors, driver development programs and revered crew chiefs doesn’t faze him. It’s a challenge he’s willing to take on in pursuit of something he’s wanted for a long time.
“I remember just five or six years ago, being at the races at Jacksonville or Lincoln watching the Midget Week shows, wanting to be a part of where I am right now,” McDermand said. “Now that we’re here, we’re in contention for the championship. It just makes it real.”
Though he’s right where he needs to be in the standings, he did not begin the season in that position. A rough start to his night in the season opener in Du Quoin, IL, sent him back to the trailer early without a spot in the main event, dropping him way down in the standings. But the team rallied the next night, climbing from 12th on the starting grid to second by the checkered flag.
Since then, it’s been smooth sailing for McDermand and the team, posting podium finishes in all but two events thus far.
“After Du Quoin, I feel like it’s been uphill in terms of good progress,” McDermand said. “We’ve had good speed. Just putting whole nights together and taking advantage of good starting positions, which we were able to do in the last four or five nights … it’s important to hit the ground running every night.”
From a historical perspective, McDermand is relatively new to the national Midget scene, but has a nice resume already built. He’s a graduate of the Badger Midget Auto Racing Association, garnering three consecutive championships in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
He paired with car owners Jay Mounce and Gavin Stout at the end of the 2021 season before taking on the entire POWRi national circuit together in 2022, where he won three races and placed fifth in the points standings against the toughest talent at Keith Kunz Motorsports, Chad Boat Industries and Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports.
Now in the thick of a championship battle, McDermand has reflected a bit on the impact of he and the team’s progress on their chances to win it all in 2023.
“As a whole, this is really the first time we’ve had a chance to run for a championship,” McDermand said. “The results have shown that the more experience I have, the better I am as a driver. The more experience the team has running up front, having speed, also makes them better. Both of those things combined [has been] giving us good results.”
McDermand and the Mounce/Stout Motorsports team are back in action with the rest of the stars of the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series pres. by Toyota this Thursday-Saturday, June 1-3, at Tri-City Speedway and Wayne County Speedway (IL).
Tickets for all three nights will be available at the gate on race day. If you can’t make it to the track to watch in person, stream all the action live on DIRTVision.
