“I think the racing industry has turned a little bit,” Joe Axsom said. “When I started, the path was to go pavement racing and go to NASCAR. In the era Emerson grew up in, it didn‘t take him very long to figure out that the best drivers didn‘t necessarily make it to NASCAR. But he did think the best went to the World of Outlaws. I think he also sees the numbers and that there is a way to make a legitimate living running 90 races a year on dirt.”
Clauson assessed Axsom‘s progress.
“It has gone about as I expected. Obviously jumping out in Florida as we did probably raised expectations a bit,” Clauson said. “It has been a learning year for him in terms of what it takes to race at a bit more professional level rather than just going racing with the family.”
Given Axsom‘s goal, what are the early returns on his progress with a wing?
“He‘s qualifying and racing real well,” Clauson said. “The plan for this year was to run 15 or so winged races and get our feet wet with his Driven to Save Lives team. We have good notes on what Bryan (Clauson) and ‘Sunshine‘ (Tyler Courtney) accomplished, and Sunshine has been phenomenal in helping him when he does run the wing. We will make a more focused effort with the wing this fall.”
The tentative plan for next season calls for a mixed slate tilted more toward winged racing.
“We are going to use the rest of this year to kind of evaluate where he is at,” Clauson said. “The beautiful thing about it is that we have time. He‘s young. We are fully committed to him short and long-term.”
For an overall game plan all Clauson has to do is look back on how things evolved with Courtney.
“With Sunshine‘s deal in 2020 the idea was to be a little under the radar,” Clauson said. “We were going to run Attica and Fremont and maybe some IRA (Interstate Racing Ass‘n) races. Then with COVID all you could do was run high-level events including Outlaws and All Star invitational races. Pretty quickly we figured out that we were competitive. That really jumpstarted that program maybe a year or two years ahead of our timeline.
“I kind of envision the same thing for Emerson. He has been really good. In seven races he has been quick time twice and we are fastest in our group nearly every night,” Clauson added. “We went to Knoxville and he was within a tenth or tenth and a half of Sunshine. With the All Stars and the Outlaws qualifying is critical. So he is doing all of the things needed to elevate us even quicker than we envisioned. Right now, we‘re planning to throw in a couple of All Star shows. If we get to the end of the year and he is competitive and running in the top five that may jump us to a full All-Star season next year. But right now, it would be more of a flexible schedule.”
Axsom will graduate from high school this January and be in a position to focus on his racing career.
Joe Axsom endorses his son‘s plan but adds one caveat. For one they still have Anderson Speedway‘s Little 500 circled on the calendar, and USAC races are not off the table.
“We aren‘t bailing on USAC,” Joe Axsom said. “And we don‘t want anyone to think that we think USAC is second tier. We don‘t. I think if he ran another full non-winged season, he would be a title contender. It is just that his goal is to run with the World of Outlaws.”
When Emerson Axsom talks about his future he breaks into that characteristic smile and says, “I‘m excited.”
It‘s understandable. His record indicates he races, he learns and then he finds his way to the front consistently. When you drill down deep enough you find that this is the basic blueprint for longevity at any level in this sport.
