The problem was Axsom had his sights on different goals.
It is here where some may sigh and brace for the tale of another talented open wheel driver who pines to take his program to NASCAR. That‘s not the case.
“I don‘t even watch NASCAR on Sunday, so it‘s hard to care about doing that,” said Axsom, who had his mind set on racing with the World of Outlaws.
To get there he needed help and a roadmap. He moved to the Clauson Marshall Newman sprint car operation.
“Scott (Petry) and I are still on good terms. We left for a better opportunity to reach my career goals,” Axsom explained. “We had tons of success and his midget program was as good as anyone‘s. But my plan is winged racing. That‘s what I want to do. I want to go World of Outlaw racing and Clauson Marshall Racing and Driven 2 Save Lives can take me there and get me to where I want to go and do it the right way.”
So why did he move to USAC sprint cars in 2022?
“Tim (Clauson) wanted me to build my brand in non-winged cars and prove that I wasn‘t just a midget kid,” Axsom said. “So that was our plan. I don‘t think Tim wanted to throw me to the wolves where all the people out there were doing this to feed their family. I know some of the USAC guys do that too, but in the World of Outlaws everyone there is doing that, and they are racing with a high-dollar team. This was a year for me to really get used to racing on the professional level.”
Tim Clauson made it clear he was not interested in allowing his young driver to languish in comfortable situations.
“One of the things he needed was to learn how to race at that next level,” he said. “Up to this point he has been able to outrace others on talent alone. Even if you look at the midget deal all the veterans have moved on, so you aren‘t racing the cagey guys who know every trick. In the non-winged sprint car he is racing with guys with a lot of experience doing it. In the USAC sprint car series those top five guys are racing at the top of their game. He had to get comfortable in that environment and learning from racers like that.”
After Axsom won two of the three USAC races in Florida, one could have excused him for thinking this was going to be easy. However, while he has certainly posted an incredibly strong rookie year by any standard, by September he‘d yet to add to that win total.
Despite a bushel basket full of top-five runs, the lack of recent victories gnawed at him.
“It has been very frustrating,” he shared. “I feel like we were so good in Florida that we didn‘t realize that we needed to keep chasing. For a minute we just got comfortable and I needed to work harder as a driver.”
For the first time since his son was 15, Joe Axsom hasn‘t been obligated to go to the race track every weekend. Instead, Emerson Axsom has been developing a relationship with crew chief Adam Wallis.
“Dad has worked on my car from the time I was in a quarter midget all the way to USAC midgets,” he said. “But I feel like Adam is similar to my dad, so the attitude of my dad is still in the pits.”
When pressed to elaborate, Axsom added, “Well, I think with my dad it is pretty cutthroat. It is all about winning or there is no reason to be there.”
The team was optimistic heading into the late-August Kokomo Smackdown and Axsom didn‘t disappoint running toward the front on three consecutive nights. However, one imagines it must be difficult to stay focused on this task at hand when you see your future elsewhere.
Axsom got a taste of winged racing at Ohio‘s Attica Raceway Park, and other dates followed. Looking back on his first winged start he said, “It was exciting and it made me hungrier to go winged racing, and just do that and figure it out. I feel if I could go out and race like eight nights in a row we could really be there. I think we could do OK with the All Stars. I feel that I‘m pretty smooth. If you‘re willing to put everything into being the best winged car driver you can be, you are going to figure it out.”
Emerson Axsom has moved steadily up the ladder and showed the ability to adapt. It‘s a funny proposition. Joe Axsom turned his attention to pavement racing early in his career during a time when so many looked longingly toward stock car land.