As friends and former roommates, Jason McDougal and Kevin Thomas, Jr. have a bond that extends further than the competition. On the racetrack, though, each are routinely tough customers regularly waging battle against one another.

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Yet even friends have their battles every now and again. Especially when you’re among that special breed of individual who climbs behind the wheel of a race car and is driven to succeed at the highest level.

Nowhere was that more evident than Saturday night’s Harvest Cup at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind. where the series made its return following a seven-year absence. The stage allowed the two to slug it out for a majority of the 30-lap main event. Exchanging the lead seemingly every single lap on both ends of the track, delivering slider after slider until the final bell tolled.

Hear from McDougal and the other top Harvest Cup finishers:

The baton for the lead was passed between Logan Seavey, Thomas, McDougal and Thomas Meseraull about six times. That's until McDougal emerged with the lead for good 10 laps from the finish to score his second career series win and the second of the 2019 season.

“Midget racing is a blast here. I don’t know why we don’t come here more,” McDougal exclaimed. “Racing with KTJ like that, you’ve got to be able to trust someone you know you can go back and forth with.”

The feast of sliders began right from the initial green when reigning series champ Logan Seavey bolted to the lead from the pole position into turn one.  Fourth-starting Thomas made his initial bid for the lead in turn three on the opening lap before Seavey cut back under off the fourth turn to lead the opening lap.

Meanwhile, back in the pack, Tucker Klaasmeyer flipped over and it brought out the night’s only red flag. However, Klaasmeyer restarted after changing a flat left rear tire and made an impressive charge from 22^nd to a 7^th place finish.

Following the restart, Seavey commanded the lead while Thomas and the emerging McDougal, who started 5^th, began swapping the runner-up spot by lap five when McDougal moved into the spot. Two laps later, McDougal steered it deep into turn three, sliding past Seavey on the bottom and riding up over the cushion and ultimately lost the spot.

But McDougal raced back to 2^nd on lap nine and turned up the wick on Thomas with a run off turn four under Thomas that moved him back to the lead by a half-car length on the 10^th lap. But only momentarily. Thomas powered back to the lead with a pair of crossovers on McDougal in turns one and three to sustain his grasp of the top spot.

Back and forth, the two attacked the quarter-mile dirt oval throughout the middle portion of the feature with McDougal repetitively diving to the bottom in turn three to nab the lead. But each time Thomas answered by driving underneath McDougal exiting turn four and leading into turn one.

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McDougal brought the hammer into the first turn each time, arching his car above the cushion before driving straight as an arrow down off the turn two banking with a run to the inside of Thomas in turn four. A lap 17 caution for 8th running Gio Scelzi, who slowed to a stop in turn one, put a brief hiatus to the chaos ensuing at the head of the pack.

On the restart with 13 laps to go, a new contender emerged at 12^th starting Meseraull. He was in position to capitalize when Thomas slid by McDougal in turn two. McDougal and Thomas made slight bumper to bumper contact and Meseraull drove underneath both down the back straightaway and into the lead.

Meseraull withstood McDougal’s relentless pursuit over the next few laps, countering each turn three slider on laps 18-20 to retain the lead at the stripe. On the 21^st lap, McDougal went into action with a slider under Meseraull in turn one. This time, Meseraull launched off turn two and entered turn three side-by-side under McDougal. The two aimed to occupy the same piece of ground at the same moment at the top of turn four with Meseraull’s right front tire and McDougal’s left rear meeting face-to-face, sending Meseraull backwards into the outside wall, thus ending his bid for victory, although he did return to finish 8^th after restarting from the tail.

“T-Mez was a little upset with me for how I drove around him in three and four, but I didn’t see anything wrong with it.  He hit my left rear,” McDougal said.

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On the lap 21 restart, McDougal was gone, opening up a full-straightaway lead over Thomas and, for all intents and purposes, putting this one on ice as he ran his preferred line in the middle.  With a clear track in his sight, McDougal set the fastest lap of the race on the 24^th circuit and all was right in his world.

“Entering one is a little tricky, had a little hole getting into it, but once I got to racing with KTJ, every time he slid me, he pulled away and never got to the cushion.  So, I pulled down the last few restarts and was actually better right through the middle.”

However, a caution on lap 25 involving Karsyn Elledge and Jerry Coons, Jr. erased McDougal’s advantage and put him in the position of having to deliver the same restart performance once again and avoid a potential race-changing slider from Thomas and now 3^rd running Kyle Cummins who, earlier in the night, wrapped up his undefeated Tri-State season with his 8^th sprint car win in as many appearances at the track in 2019.

The next try saw McDougal escape with an eight car length lead on the restart, but only briefly as Elledge spun to a stop on the bottom of turn four on the 26^th lap, forcing yet another restart and putting him in a slightly precarious position, but he knew his FMR Racing/Panther Graphics South – TRD – Mobil 1 – FK Rod Ends/Beast/Speedway Toyota was working solidly, giving him the utmost confidence to finish the job.

“(Crew chief) Bob (East) always gives me a good car,” McDougal complimented.  “It’s usually a little tight at the beginning, but we’re always pretty hot the last 10-15 laps.  I got a little nervous with the yellows we had going there.  You always get nervous when you get three yellows like that.  You don’t want to restart the same like that, but obviously it was working.  I switched up the entry on the restart a little bit, but other than that, I felt like I was pretty good.”

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The last restart was just as peachy for McDougal as he pulled away once, twice and third and for all, pulling out to a half-straight advantage on initial lap following the restart and securing the victory by a 2.752 second margin over Thomas, Cummins, point leader Tyler Courtney and Justin Grant.

Of note, Tanner Thorson’s time of 2:59.89 set during the night’s semi-feature, established a new 12-lap USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget track record at Tri-State, eclipsing the mark set by Jerry Weeks 40 years earlier, in 1979, by nearly 17 seconds.

Tri-State Speedway Contingency Award Winners:

• Gio Scelzi (Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier)
• Jerry Coons, Jr. (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner & Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher)
• Chris Windom (Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner)
• Thomas Meseraull (AutoMeter Third Heat Winner)
• Tanner Thorson (Indy Race Parts Semi Winner)
• Sam Johnson (Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer)
• Justin Grant (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger)