{"id":5663,"date":"2024-10-18T17:15:58","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T21:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xtremeoutlawseries.com\/?p=5663"},"modified":"2024-10-18T17:53:09","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T21:53:09","slug":"how-cannon-mcintosh-matured-reunited-with-kkm-to-clinch-2024-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xtremeoutlawseries.com\/news\/how-cannon-mcintosh-matured-reunited-with-kkm-to-clinch-2024-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"How Cannon McIntosh Matured, Reunited with KKM to Clinch 2024 Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"
Cannon McIntosh \u2019s run to the 2024 Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota championship was one defined by reunion, maturity and redemption.<\/p>\n
After a bitter defeat in the final races of 2023<\/a>, he returned home empty-handed, unsure of his plans for a return to the national Midget circuit in 2024. But after some off-season discussion, the 21-year-old from Bixby, OK, struck a deal to return to his former team at Keith Kunz\/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports<\/a> (KKM) for the first time in three years, seeking to reclaim what slipped away the year before.<\/p>\n Paired with the knowledge and expertise of veteran crew chief and team co-owner Keith Kunz, McIntosh was a model of discipline and consistency in 2024 \u2014\u00a0winning six Features, recording zero DNFs and stringing together 18 consecutive top-five finishes in the first 18 races. He set new personal-best with the Xtreme Outlaw Series in wins (six), podiums (15) and top-five finishes (20) to clinch his first national championship, redeeming himself to sit atop the national Midget world once again.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like it\u2019s those times where you\u2019re down on yourself and down on your confidence that shape things like this up,\u201d McIntosh said. \u201cYou learn a lot in those seasons. It\u2019s really just about not giving up.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n REUNION<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n At the dawning of his Midget career, McIntosh drove the flagship car for Dave Mac Motorsports (DMD) \u2014 the team owned and operated by his father. For the 2020 season, he took an opportunity to join the driver roster at KKM, and made his mark, winning five races on the national circuit and two Chili Bowl Nationals<\/em> preliminary Features before returning to DMD for 2021.<\/p>\n After a record season in 2022 with DMD \u2014 scoring 16 wins across USAC, POWRi and Xtreme \u2014 McIntosh returned to chase the Xtreme championship in 2023. Four wins and eight podiums in the first 10 races gave him a 121-point lead in the chase for the championship but struggles over the final 19 races evaporated that lead and knocked him back to a fourth-place finish in the final standings.<\/p>\n With broken spirits and morale running low, McIntosh questioned his future in Midget racing.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure what else I was gonna do, whether I\u2019d go back to my own car, I would have had to find a new crew chief and learn to work together again,\u201d McIntosh said. \u201cI spent a whole year in 2021 learning with (crew chief Robert Dalby) and trying to figure our stuff out; we didn\u2019t really win much. Then, 2022 was kind of our breakout year \u2014 we were able to win races and compete up front. Then, in 2023, he informed me that he was leaving, and things just went south after that.\u201d<\/p>\n Soon after the regular season, McIntosh and KKM reconnected and struck a deal with Toyota Racing and GEARWRENCH to contest the 2024 Chili Bowl Nationals<\/em>. McIntosh made his third A-Main start in the marquee event as part of the KKM team (2020, 2021, 2024), which then led to a discussion about his return for the regular season.<\/p>\n However, when KKM experienced a departure of multiple star crew chiefs after the Chili Bowl<\/em>, team management knew others were going to have to step up and fill those roles as more new drivers made commitments to join the team.<\/p>\n And who better to step up than the man who coached so many drivers to numerous open-wheel championships over the last 30 years than Kunz himself.<\/p>\n \u201cFor three or four years, I kinda stepped back and let my guys do stuff, and I had to step back in this year,\u201d Kunz said. \u201cI knew if I was gonna step back in, I had to have me a guy that could go win races, and I knew Cannon could win and win championships.\u201d<\/p>\n