Mack Leopard is joining Chase McDermand Racing for a full 2026 national midget campaign. The team will contest both the USAC National Midget Series and the POWRi National Midget League, a combined slate that exceeds 50 races. Leopard will run the full USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget Championship schedule, which is scheduled to begin April 24–25 at Kokomo Speedway; this will be Leopard’s first full USAC midget season and Chase McDermand described the effort as development-focused to give Leopard consistent seat time and the best chance to contend for national victories.

Leopard joins the program after a standout run at the January Chili Bowl Nationals. Reports differ on some details: some accounts credited him with 73 passes and four feature wins, while others said he tied a record by racing into nine features or set three event records and moved through from the N‑Main to the F‑Main while winning four features. Those performances, together with earlier success — including sweeping two MARA events in September 2025 for Chase McDermand Racing — helped prompt the decision to run a full national campaign.

Sources list Leopard’s age as either 15 or 16 and identify him as a native of Beavercreek, Ohio. He began racing quarter midgets at age nine and captured two Midwest Thunder championships in that class, had success in micro sprints in 2023 and posted marquee wins in 2024, including the Tom Rieck Memorial. In 2025 he made 11 USAC starts, earning fast qualifying honors and recording an eighth-place finish at Jefferson County Speedway in Fairbury, Nebraska. Leopard expressed excitement about returning to the team and publicly thanked his family, friends and partners for their support; the announcement also noted his great-grandfather, Nelson Leopard, worked as a scorer in the sport in the 1950s–60s, underscoring family ties as he begins the full-season effort.

Sources