New isn’t always easy in racing. But for Chase McDermand, it’s where he’s comfortable.
New series. New tracks. New lifestyle.
The Springfield, IL driver joined the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota during its inaugural year in 2022, winning the Series’ inaugural visit to Davenport Speedway. He returned full-time for the Series’ expanded venture this year, so far, winning at four tracks he’d never been to and claimed the inaugural Appalachian Midget Week title.
“I really like going to new tracks,” McDermand said. “I feel like I’ve always done fairly well at tracks I haven’t been to. It evens the playing field out for everybody a little bit. I feel like we can click pretty good on those new tracks. I’m just trying to minimize our DNFs. Not have… no DNFs would be nice. But just trying to take advantage of everything our team has to offer and Xtreme has to offer too as a Series. I really like running with them. We’ve had a lot of fun this year so far.”
In his second full year of traveling from race to race in his motorhome with his parents, McDermand said the number of new tracks and experiences are only helping him grow as a driver.
“As many different tracks and types of cars you can race at as a driver will help broaden your horizon as a driver,” he said. “Racing at different tracks, you might pick up on different techniques or lines. Just different knowledge on tracks themselves. Maybe the dirt or how it progresses throughout the night and how you can apply it at a different track. All of that. It makes the drivers better; it makes the teams better. When you can go to 50 different tracks throughout the year, you can do more things and see more things you wouldn’t have done if you were only racing half of that.
“It definitely keeps everybody on their feet too. If everybody has to learn a track, then everybody is trying to maybe watch some videos or do their research. That helps guys stay on top of things too. They don’t have an advantage. They don’t have a notebook from a race in the past. It definitely brings out the best drivers and the best crews also.”
There will be nothing new for the 23-year-old when he returns to Davenport Speedway for the My Place Hotels Quad Cities 150 presented by Hoker Trucking, Aug. 24-26. However, this year, he’s bringing a suite case of momentum with him.
He enters the marquee event for the Series on a run of eight top 10 finishes in a row – the last four, top five finishes; the last three, podium finishes and two of those are wins.
“It’s always good to have some momentum on your side,” McDermand said. “We struggled a little bit the last few weeks. To kind of pick back up where we kind of left off at the beginning of the season means a lot. But also, as a team, too. Hopefully we can keep it rolling and build off of what we have going right now and finish out the rest of the season strong.”
With 10 races left this season and 74 points separating McDermand (third in points) from points leader Jade Avedisian – even with having missed the first Feature of the season – a chase for the championship isn’t out of the question. And while the title is a goal for the Mounce/Stout Motorsports team and he, McDermand has another goal tied to it.
“I would really like to win at an Oklahoma track,” McDermand said. “We’ve had really good speed down at Port City (Raceway) and I-44 (Riverside Speedway), but we haven’t been able to win down there. That’s where (team owners) Jay (Mounce) and Gavin (Stout) are from, and the team is based. They’re around Tulsa. That would mean a lot to them, to get a win at a track they’ve been racing at for a long time. Then, besides the championship, that’s at the top of our list to accomplish. But winning at an Oklahoma track would mean a lot to us.”
But first, Davenport Speedway and the My Place Hotels Quad Cities 150 presented by Hoker Trucking. If he can repeat there, he’ll conquer another “new,” as it’ll be his first time scoring multiple wins at the same track on a national Midget tour.
To see if McDermand can accomplish that feat, get your tickets for the event, HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision.
To hear more from Chase McDermand, listen to the latest episode of Open Red on Apple Podcasts or Spotify as he dives deeper into his win at Davenport last year and 2023 season.
