All year long, Kale Drake has displayed an astounding passing prowess that has put him atop USAC’s passing master standings.

During Tuesday night’s 21st annual USAC Indiana Midget Week opener at Circle City Raceway’s, that very same passing prowess took the ninth place starting Drake to victory lane.

In a race which saw the lead exchange hands six different times among three drivers, Drake (Collinsville, Oklahoma) broke through with the winning move around Kevin Thomas Jr. with six laps remaining to earn his first career Indiana Midget Week win, his second straight USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship victory and his third career series victory overall.

Drake, whose 120 passes in USAC national feature events in 2025 is a staggering 66 more than anyone else, leads the season long Parallax Group Passing Master standings.  Starting inside row five, Drake needed to dig deep to get to the front once more in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Eibach – TRD – Toyota – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota.

In the meantime, pole sitter Logan Seavey sprinted out to the lead where he’d remain for the initial 18 circuits of the 30-lap feature. On the ninth lap, 10th running Gunnar Setser flipped upside down in turn two to bring out the only red flag of the night. Setser was able to walk away while Cannon McIntosh, second in series points, also dropped out following the incident, finishing 25th in the 25-car field.

When action resumed, Daison Pursley slid past Seavey in turns one and two on the 10th lap. Seavey astutely cut back under to reassume the lead, then fended off another Pursley attack in turns three and four to lead at the stripe by a wheel. Shortly thereafter, Karter Sarff circled the waters, then pounced on lap 16 to take second from Pursley.

Suddenly, it was a swarm of six different cars all under a blanket as fifth starting Kevin Thomas Jr. rolled the bottom to fourth on lap 16, to third on lap 17, to second on lap 18 and to the lead on lap 19 in three-wide fashion with himself on the low line, Drake in the middle and Seavey on the outside.

Drake had surged from sixth to second in a five-lap span between laps 16-20, and after a somewhat stagnant start, he had surprised the field with his presence at the front and even surprised himself!

“I didn’t think we were going to have anything for them,” Drake stated. “Early on in that race, we were struggling and at a standstill really. I could pounce on them when they made a mistake, but other than that, I really didn’t have speed. When I stumbled upon that line, it worked out really well for us.”

“That” line involved bouncing his right rear tire off the outside wall in turns one and two, then diamonding his path from the top of turn three to the bottom of turn four. Drake took that maneuver to the lead past Thomas on lap 21 and the duel was on. Thomas retook the top spot on lap 22 before Drake took it back on the 23rd lap. Thomas regained the lead on lap 24, but Drake fought back to reach the top once more on lap 25 around the outside of turn four.

Artist Bob Ross once encouraged people to embrace “happy accidents.” Instead of viewing errors as mistakes, he encouraged individuals to use the opportunity to create something unexpected and positive. Drake’s artistry on the racetrack transformed from what could've been construed as an accident initially to a pivotal and winning moment.

“I accidentally did that move in one and two and kind of gained on the guys ahead of me, and I was like, ‘whew! If we can replicate that, we’re going to be hard to beat,’” Drake revealed. “Once I made it happen, we were able to pick our way right through them. They were hanging really bad off the exit, so I could make the diamond line work. I was able to drive it into the corner so hard, thanks to having such a good racecar. I really just had to get it turned and come down the hill. There’s not much to lean on up there and it’s really slick. You’ve got to come up with unique lines like that.”

Despite reaching lapped traffic during the final two laps, Drake was able to extend his lead over Thomas in the final stages, leading the final six laps to win by a 1.265 second margin over Thomas, Sarff and Pursley with Seavey rounding out the top-five.

USAC National Midgets Indiana Midget Week Circle City Results

1. Kale Drake (9)

2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (5)

 3. Karter Sarff (3)

4. Daison Pursley (2)

5. Logan Seavey (1)

 6. Zach Wigal (11)

7. Justin Grant (6)

8. Hayden Reinbold (4)

 9. Zach Daum (10)

 10. Gavin Miller (15)

11. Jacob Denney (16)

 12. Thomas Meseraull (8)

13. Drake Edwards (13)

14. Kyle Jones (21)

15. Cale Coons (25-P)

16. Jakeb Boxell (22)

17. Mason Hannagan (23)

 18. Kyle Cummins (24)

19. Trey Marcham (19)

20. Steven Snyder Jr. (18)

 21. Corbin Rueschenberg (12)

 22. Brecken Reese (17)

23. K.J. Snow (20)

24. Gunnar Setser (7)

25. Cannon McIntosh (14). NT