PONTOON BEACH, Ill. — Buddy Kofoid turned in a dominant performance to score his seventh POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League victory of the season in Friday night’s opener for the Gold Crown Nationals at Tri-City Speedway.

Kofoid and Emilio Hoover brought the field of 23 drivers to the green flag. Polesitter Kofoid, driving the Keith Kunz Motorsports with Curb-Agajanian No. 67, went to the top side and gained the early lead, Thomas Meseraull would strike early but a pair of reds kept the field bunched up and gave Kofoid the advantage on the field.

With just under 10 laps remaining, Kofoid still chose the top line around the racetrack but teammate Daison Pursley had his mind set elsewhere. Pursley would use a high-to-low maneuver on the exit of turn two which would give him an advantage.

Pursley made the pass for the second-place position and set his sights on the top spot. With the laps winding down, Pursley gave Kofoid all he had but came up one spot short of his first POWRi Midget victory.

Cannon McIntosh finished third, ahead of Thomas Meseraull and Zach Daum.

Tonight’s finale of the Gold Crown Nationals can be seen on SPEED SPORT Network affiliate POWRi.TV.

The finish:

Feature (25 laps): 1. 67- Buddy Kofoid   2. 9-Daison Pursley   3. 71K Cannon McIntosh   4. 7X-Thomas Meseraull   5. 21KS- Zach Daum 6. 28- Ace McCarthy   7. 3N-Jake Neuman 8. 71-Kaylee Bryson 9. 67K-Bryant Wiedeman 10. 97K- Jesse Love   11. 91T-Tyler Thomas   12. 15-Emerson Axsom 13. 72-Sam Johnson 14. 5T- Ryan Timms 15. 20G-Noah Gass 16. 55K- Karter Sarff 17. 97- Brenham Crouch   18. 50-Daniel Adler   19. 98- Clinton Boyles   20. 00-Kory Weyant   21. 21-Trey Gropp   22. 19P- Don Droud JR  23. 21K-Emilio Hoover