LEXINGTON, Ohio (June 7, 2025) - The halfway point of the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup presented by Michelin season produced a championship points shakeup. Jeremy Fletcher (No. 22 McCumbee McAleer Racing) fought his way through the top five to take his first win of the season. Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course wasn’t as kind to the points leader entering the weekend; Jared Thomas (No. 96 JTR Motorsports Engineering) made a mistake on the final lap that dropped him from a possible podium to 24th at the checkered flag.
Rounds Seven and Eight were bound to produce some surprises when it was revealed that two-time Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup Champion Gresham Wagner (No. 81 Rafa Racing Team by MMR) was entered for the first time since Round 2 at Daytona.
Wagner nearly qualified on pole in his series return but was pipped by 0.05-second by Nate Cicero (No. 83 McCumbee McAleer Racing). It was the fourth pole of the year for Cicero, unfortunately for him, that spot seems to be cursed, because a driver has yet to win from pole this season. Cicero succumbed to the polesitter curse and lost power while running in podium position and eventually retired.
Taking the lead on lap five, Wagner faced off against Thomas, the only other two-time series champion. The back-and-forth between the pair allowed Helio Meza (No. 27 BSI Racing), Fletcher and Nathan Nicholson (No. 56 Advanced Autosports) to catch up and turn the duel into a five-way fight for the lead.
The pack played nice until 10 minutes to go, when things got spicy.
First Meza and Nicholson came together in Turn Seven, resulting in Nicholson taking a ride through the grass and losing several positions.
Then, on the final lap, Mesa gave Fletcher a helpful push down the back straight, nudging him past Wagner and into the lead. Two turns later, Thomas lost control of his car, slid into the gravel and exited the podium fight.
Fletcher didn’t look back, cruising to the win by 0.882-second.
“The MMR crew have given me a car to win all year long,” Fletcher said. “This is almost like a do or die season for me financially. So I've been putting myself under a lot of stress, and I think that's been taking away from us and causing us to not finish very good, so, I went out there today, just tried to keep it clean and brought it home. I'm so thankful for the McCumbee McAleer guys, Simpson Racing Products, Paene Investments, and Whelen, Mazda, Flis Performance, everyone that gets us out here.”
Meza held off Wagner through the final turn complex to finish second, his first podium finish of the season. The rookie also secured 10 bonus points for the fastest lap of the race.
“I feel like we put in so much hard work, and we just kind of had bad luck throughout the opening rounds,” Meza said. “Daytona started off really well, but after that our luck went downhill, but I never gave up and the team never gave up. We kept working hard even if the results didn't show it. I think everything came together today. We're going to keep working hard for tomorrow, because I really feel like we could have won that race, but all you can do is learn and do better.
“I’m super grateful for BSI Racing, Andrew Carbonell and all of my teammates for the feedback they've given me. Westin [Workman] wong Rookie of the Year last year and he’s been giving me a lot of great advice, and obviously Tyler [Gonzalez] with his experience has been phenomenal to share data with.”
Stepping into the No. 81 for the first time on Friday, Wagner was happy with a P3 finish, even if he led the most laps.
“I wasn’t very happy with the car after practice. I mean, 14th and 12th in the two practices is definitely out of character for me. I just didn’t know how to get the speed out of it, so we made some changes for qualifying and went P2. I still was really skeptical going into the race. I didn’t think I'd be able to race in the lead pack or at least have the raw pace in the car, but as soon as we got going and got a few laps in there, I kind of knew what I had. It was like riding a bike. I did what I normally do and tried to lead if I could lead and just came up a little bit short, but happy that a teammate got the win instead of me.”
Justin Adakonis (No. 23 McCumbee McAleer Racing) continued his hot streak and completed the top five.
Returning for a guest appearance in Mazda MX-5 Cup was Xfinity Series driver Jesse Love Jr. (No. 2 BSI Racing). Love raced with MX-5 Cup at Sebring last year, but earned his best finish with the series Saturday at Mid-Ohio, finishing 10th.
Finishing eighth after starting 21st, Bryce Cornet (No. 65 Spark Performance) earned the Penske Shocking Performance Award for picking up the most positions in the race.
His teammate Alex Bachoura (No. 33 Spark Performance) finished 12th and took home the Takumi Award for drivers 40 and older.
Sally Mott (No. 15 JTR Motorsports Engineering) continued her run of top female finisher awards by crossing the line in 20th.
Sunday’s Round 8 race will take the green flag at 10:05am ET with live streaming on the IMSA and RACER YouTube channels.