Since winning the 2021 Championship Off-Road Pro 2 championship, Keegan Kincaid has endured a difficult two years. He only scored a podium in his title defence before his 2023 has been nothing short of abysmal. However, he finally caught a break Sunday at the biggest short course race of the year when he dominated the Red Bull World Cup at Crandon International Raceway.
After starting on the front row alongside his fellow Pro 2 trucks, Kincaid took the lead going into the opening corner before the race was paused as the #12 of Extreme E driver Amanda Sorensen flipped just two corners into the race. The race eventually resumed and Kincaid never looked back, putting on his finest showing since his championship year to win the World Cup for the second time in three years.
“I haven’t got a holeshot all weekend long and really struggled,” Kincaid commented. “We came out and they threw the yellow on me, and I’m like, ‘Oh, that was my only one.’ We bunkered down, got our head down, these Cooper tyres are hooked up, we ran away and hid. I was scared for a while there.
“We were sending it. That was the hardest we were sending. We weren’t lifting off the skybox, we weren’t lifting off that. Hope it was a good show for everyone.”
Pro 4 drivers RJ Anderson, who won the Championship Off-Road race in his class on Saturday for the second time in 2023, and Doug Mittag joined Kincaid on the podium. Kincaid added he “wouldn’t want to share (the podium) with anybody but these two up here. These are two fun guys. We had some real fun on the track and off the track.”
Being a non-championship round and the largest short course race in the world, the World Cup typically attracts special names. Indeed, Extreme E had triple representation with Anderson, Sorensen, and Tanner Foust ahead of the next round in Sardinia in two weeks; Anderson and Sorensen are team-mates at Chip Ganassi Racing. Foust finished eighth in his third World Cup, beating Sorensen’s team-mate and NASCAR veteran Casey Mears by a spot. Mears finished eleventh and seventh in his Pro 2 début weekend, while Sorensen was twelfth and eleventh.
Jerett Brooks, the 2022 Pro 2 champion who retired at the end of the year, made his return only to be marred by mechanical problems after battling for the lead in both Saturday and Sunday races with Cory Winner. Winner went on to sweep the weekend before placing sixth in the World Cup.
Reigning World Cup winner C.J. Greaves notched his sixth Pro 4 win of the COR season on Sunday before his World Cup ended with a flat tyre. Greaves also had his six-race win streak in Pro Stock SxS end when Dave Mason Jr. claimed the Saturday race for his and Honda’s maiden COR triumph.
The Pro Lite and Super Buggy classes also had a combination race on Saturday that was won by Jordan Bernloehr. However, it was perhaps overshadowed by a massive wreck that forced a stoppage.
While the Pro classes end their season at MidAmerica Outdoors in late September, the Sportsman categories wrapped up at Crandon on Friday and Saturday.
Red Bull World Cup results
Finish | Number | Driver | Class | Laps |
1 | 4 | Keegan Kincaid | Pro 2 | 10 |
2 | 37 | RJ Anderson | Pro 4 | 10 |
3 | 81 | Doug Mittag | Pro 4 | 10 |
4 | 91 | Kyle Chaney | Pro 4 | 10 |
5 | 35 | Cole Mamer | Pro 4 | 10 |
6 | 67 | Cory Winner | Pro 2 | 10 |
7 | 96 | Troy Cox | Pro 2 | 10 |
8 | 34 | Tanner Foust | Pro 2 | 10 |
9 | 25 | Casey Mears | Pro 2 | 10 |
10 | 73 | Kyle Cooper | Pro 2 | 10 |
11 | 98 | Patrick Denis | Pro 4 | 9 |
12 | 43 | Bob Brand | Pro 4 | 8 |
13 | 52 | Ronnie Anderson | Pro 2 | 7 |
14 | 13 | Jay Schaefer | Pro 2 | 7 |
15 | 44 | Jimmy Henderson | Pro 4 | 6 |
16 | 93 | John Holtger | Pro 2 | 4 |
17 | 15 | Andrew Carlson | Pro 4 | 4 |
18 | 11 | Adrian Cenni | Pro 4 | 4 |
19 | 33 | C.J. Greaves | Pro 4 | 3 |
20 | 12 | Amanda Sorensen | Pro 2 | 0 |
21 | 77 | Jerett Brooks | Pro 2 | 0 |
22 | 10 | Travis Milhausen Jr. | Pro 2 | 0 |
Class winners
Pro
Class | Saturday Winner | Sunday Winner |
Pro 4 | RJ Anderson | C.J. Greaves |
Pro 2 | Cory Winner | Cory Winner |
Pro Turbo SxS | C.J. Greaves | Robert Loire |
Pro Lite | Kyle Greaves | Kyle Greaves |
Pro SPEC | Nick Visser | Chad Rayford |
Pro Stock SxS | Dave Mason Jr. | Owen VanEperen |
Pro Buggy | Billy Buth | Michael Meister |
Sportsman
Class | Friday Winner | Saturday Winner |
Pro Am SxS | Kolton Krajicek | Kolton Krajicek |
570 SxS | Bryce Powers | |
Super Stock Truck | Ben Holtger | Joe Maciosek |
Sportsman SxS | Benjamin Heiting | Bryce Carlson |
1600 Single Buggy | Michael Seefeldt | Connor Schulz |
170/200 SxS | Raymond Deininger | |
Mod Kart | Carter Vanden Heuvel | |
Short Course Kart | Wesley Vande Voort | |
Youth SxS | Libby Nielsen* | Libby Nielsen |
1600 Light Buggy | Connor Schulz | Connor Schulz |
Stock Truck | Kyle Ambroziak | Kyle Ambroziak |