Keep up with the latest in the chase for the 2023 Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota championship.
LATEST RACE(S): Port City Raceway (Oct. 12), I-44 Riverside Speedway (Oct. 13-14)
POINTS CHAMPION: With a third-place finish in the season finale at I-44 Saturday night, Jade Avedisian clinched the 2023 Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series championship by 59 points over Zach Daum to become the first female driver in motorsports history to win a national Midget series championship.
2023 marked the 17-year-old Californian’s third year of competition in dirt Midgets and her first driving for famed team owners Keith Kunz and Pete Willoughby of Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM).
Avedisian and fellow championship frontrunner Cannon McIntosh started the weekend Thursday at Port City with 10th and 11th-place finishes, respectively, keeping the points gap unchanged with Avedisian ahead by 11 points. Avedisian moved ahead by six more points with a fourth-place finish in Friday’s main event at I-44 while McIntosh ran sixth. Twenty-seven points was all that separated the two going into Saturday’s Feature, which Avedisian expanded to 59 following her 11th podium finish of the season and McIntosh’s fourth DNF.
FULL-TIMERS
2. Zach Daum (-59): A strong runner-up finish Thursday at Port City boosted Daum to third in the overall standings. Though he struggled to keep it out front Friday night at I-44, starting on the pole of the Feature and drifting back to seventh, he and Trifecta Motorsports were able to lock-up second place in the championship standings with Daum’s 21st top-five finish of the season Saturday night.
3. Gavin Miller (-60): Miller’s second career Xtreme Outlaw Series victory Friday at I-44 set him up for a sixth-place run in the season finale on Saturday, good enough to help him clinch third-place in the championship standings. That finish gave KKM two of the top three finishers in final Series points.
4. Cannon McIntosh (-83): McIntosh’s late-season struggles continued in the final race weekend with finishes of 11th Thursday and sixth Friday, culminating with his fourth DNF of the season Saturday at I-44. Trailing Avedisian by 27 points in the standings coming into Saturday’s main event, McIntosh avoided a major pileup on the first lap but later suffered internal mechanical failure only eight laps in, retiring to the infield and taking him out of championship contention.
5. Chase McDermand (-146): Finishes of seventh and fifth Thursday-Friday closed McDermand’s points gap to under 100 points. But a wreck on the first lap of Saturday’s Feature heavily involved the Mounce/Stout Motorsports #40, turning him sideways before rolling over multiple times, damaging the car enough to retire him from the event before the first lap was completed.
6. Taylor Reimer (-315): An up-and-down weekend for Reimer resulted in finishes of 12th, 10th and seventh in the final three races, solidifying her sixth in the final points standings.
7. Hayden Reinbold (-789): Reinbold’s first career Xtreme Outlaw Series Feature win in the season finale at I-44 Saturday night was the cherry atop season’s worth of improvements for the 19-year-old Arizonan. He powered the Reinbold/Underwood Motorsports No. 19AZ to victory, leading all 30 laps unchallenged around the 1/5-mile oval for his first Midget win at the national level.
XTREME OUTLAW-POWRi CHALLENGE SERIES (view full standings)
Zach Daum was crowned champion of the inaugural Xtreme Outlaw-POWRi Challenge Series by 13 points over Jade Avedisian and 109 points over Gavin Miller. Daum, Avedisian and Miller finished with two wins apiece and were the only drivers to win more than once in the 10-race miniseries. For their efforts, Daum and Trifecta Motorsports collected a $2,500 bonus check as champions.
TOP-10 IN FINAL POINTS (view full standings)
- Jade Avedisian: 5994 points | Keith Kunz Motorsports #71
- Zach Daum: 5935 points (-59) | Trifecta Motorsports #7U
- Gavin Miller: 5934 points (-60) | Keith Kunz Motorsports #97
- Cannon McIntosh: 5911 (-83) points | Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports #08
- Chase McDermand: 5848 points (-146) | Mounce/Stout Motorsports #40
- Taylor Reimer: 5679 points (-315) | Keith Kunz Motorsports #25K
- Hayden Reinbold: 5205 points (-789) | Reinbold/Underwood Motorsports #19AZ
- Austin Barnhill: 3251 points (-2743) | Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports #17B
- Karter Sarff: 3085 points (-2909) | Karter Sarff Racing #21K
- Ethan Mitchell: 2962 points (-3032) | Bundy Built Motorsports #19M
