TULSA, Okla. – Daison Pursley wasn’t the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports driver who dominated the majority of Wednesday night’s iRacing Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals, but he was the one who was out front when it counted most.
Pursley took advantage when the race-long lead duo of Zeb Wise and Cannon McIntosh came together off turn two with four laps left in the 55-lap main event, sneaking through on the inside to assume command in the No. 9 Craftsman-sponsored entry.
From there, Pursley drove away from Robert Dalby and Chase Cabre on an overtime restart to notch the victory by .553 seconds.
“I was just riding around there in third, just following my teammates. I was honestly content to run there and have it be a KKM 1-2-3, and then they ended up getting in the wall and three and I was able to capitalize on it,” said Pursley, a USAC National Midget Series rookie of the year contender this season. “I thought they were going to get together; you could kind of see that something was brewing, but I just locked up the brakes and tried to get down (low) as quick as I could.”
The virtual Chili Bowl was the grand finale to FS1’s Wednesday Night iRacing, and the nationally-televised event was arguably the biggest win of Pursley’s young career – as well as his sixth major iRacing midget win in the past month.
“This is by far the biggest one I’ve gotten, at least on iRacing,” Pursley noted. “We’ve won something like $3,000 from the USAC races in the last few weeks, but this one … I don’t know how many people were watching but to win on television like this is so cool. I can’t believe it.”
At 15 years old, Pursley isn’t even of age yet to compete in the real-life Chili Bowl, a fact that wasn’t lost on him after the race as he soaked in the moment.
“We’ve won the virtual one, and now we have to go out and win the real one in January,” he joked. “But it’s wild. How many people can say they’ve won the Chili Bowl before they were actually old enough to race at the Chili Bowl, you know?”
Robert Dalby, another USAC midget rookie, finished second ahead of Chase Cabre. Jake Neuman and three-time Chili Bowl champion Christopher Bell filled out the top five.
McIntosh was scored ninth at the finish, while Wise – who led the first 51 laps – finished 13th.
Wednesday night’s event was run in true Chili Bowl fashion, with heats that funneled into alphabet soup (a D, C and B-main before the finale), setting the stage over the course of the one-hour program.
Among those competing who missed the cut for the feature included USAC midget champion Tyler Courtney, NHRA Funny Car champions Ron Capps and Cruz Pedregon, Knoxville Nationals winner David Gravel, NASCAR stars Landon Cassill and Justin Allgaier and Hall of Famer Bobby Labonte.
RESULTS: iRacing Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals; Tulsa Expo Raceway; May 6, 2020
Heat #1 (10 laps, top three transfer): 1. Logan Seavey [3], 2. Robert Dalby [2], 3. Kevin Swindell [4] / 4. Chase Cabre [1], 5. Buddy Kofoid [5], 6. Jake Neuman [7], 7. Landon Cassill [8], 8. Ron Capps [10], 9. Kenny Wallace [11], 10. Cruz Pedregon [9], 11. Brady Bacon [6]. (1:52.522)
Heat #2 (10 laps, top three transfer): 1. Daison Pursley [1], 2. Cannon McIntosh [2], 3. Tony Gualda [3] / 4. Chase Briscoe [4], 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. [6], 6. Parker Kligerman [8], 7. Tyler Courtney [7], 8. Blake Hahn [5], 9. Dillon Welch [10], 10. Clinton Boyles [9]. (1:52.407)
Heat #3 (10 laps, top three transfer): 1. Christopher Bell [1], 2. Zeb Wise [2], 3. Anton Hernandez [3] / 4. Scott Speed [5], 5. Justin Grant [4], 6. Santino Ferrucci [9], 7. David Gravel [6], 8. Bobby Labonte [10], 9. JJ Yeley [7], 10. Justin Allgaier [8]. (1:50.316)
D-Main (10 laps, top six to C-Main): 1. David Gravel [1], 2. Ron Capps [2], 3. Blake Hahn [3], 4. Clinton Boyles [9], 5. Bobby Labonte [4], 6. JJ Yeley [10] / 7. Brady Bacon [11], 8. Justin Allgaier [7], 9. Dillon Welch [6], 10. Kenny Wallace [5], 11. Cruz Pedregon [8]. (1:55.611)
C-Main (15 laps, top six to B-Main): 1. Tyler Courtney [5], 2. Jake Neuman [1], 3. David Gravel [6], 4. Landon Cassill [4], 5. Ron Capps [7], 6. Blake Hahn [8] / 7. Parker Kligerman [2], 8. JJ Yeley [11], 9. Santino Ferrucci [3], 10. Clinton Boyles [9], 11. Bobby Labonte [10]. (2:48.925)
B-Main (20 laps, top five to A-Main): 1. Chase Cabre, 2. Buddy Kofoid, 3. Chase Briscoe, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Jake Neuman, 6. Justin Grant / 7. Tyler Courtney, 8. Ron Capps, 9. Blake Hahn, 10. David Gravel, 11. Landon Cassill, 12. Scott Speed [3]. (4:27.698)
A-Main (55 laps): 1. Daison Pursley [5], 2. Robert Dalby [3], 3. Chase Cabre [10], 4. Jake Neuman [14], 5. Christopher Bell [4], 6. Tony Gualda [8], 7. Buddy Kofoid [11], 8. Kevin Thomas Jr. [13], 9. Cannon McIntosh [2], 10. Chase Briscoe [12], 11. Logan Seavey [6], 12. Anton Hernandez [9], 13. Zeb Wise [1], 14. Kevin Swindell [7].
Lead Changes: One between two drivers
Lap Leaders: Zeb Wise 1-51, Daison Pursley 52-57
Laps Led: Zeb Wise 51, Daison Pursley 6
Caution Flags: Five for 17 laps
Margin of Victory: .553 seconds
Time of Race: 13 minutes, 44.917 seconds
Average Speed: 49.750 mph