TULSA, Okla. — The second first-time winner in as many nights at the 39th annual Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink, Emerson Axsom grabbed the lead on lap four and never gave it back en route to victory during Wednesday’s York Plumbing Qualifying Night.
The 55th driver to win a Chili Bowl preliminary A-Feature, Axsom, in his fifth preliminary A-Feature start, was asked how it felt to win, “I’ve been trying a long time and took myself out of a lot of races here, but I knew our stuff was good enough if I just did my job.”
Landing car owner Keith Kunz his 37th career victory inside the SageNet Center during Chili Bowl competition, two attempts at the start saw Axsom chasing from the right of the front row as polesitter Daison Pursley paced the field.
The CB Industries No. 86 around the bottom, the KKM/Curb-Agajanian No. 68k around the top, Axsom shot off the cushion, exiting the second turn to take the lead.
“Thankfully, it was a double-file restart because I fell back,” quipped Axsom of the initial start. “It worked out that we were able to run the top in for a couple of laps and then get the restart where I could get a shot because I knew Daison [Pursley] was going to be good on the bottom. Their stuff has a lot of grip anywhere he goes so I worked on momentum to where when he did jump up, I could counter his move and throw a slider.”
Keeping pace through restarts with varying lines, Axsom held off Pursley by .343 seconds.
Pursley in second was followed by eighth-starting Corey Day. Fourth was Tim Buckwalter with Kale Drake moving ninth to fifth.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 68K-Emerson Axsom[2]; 2. 86-Daison Pursley[1]; 3. 41-Corey Day[8]; 4. 29-Tim Buckwalter[3]; 5. 97K-Kale Drake[9]; 6. 52-Blake Hahn[19]; 7. 19T-Mitchel Moles[4]; 8. 4Y-Jett Yantis[7]; 9. 3G-Kyle Cummins[13]; 10. 55A-Jake Swanson[11]; 11. 40X-Steven Snyder Jr[6]; 12. 3J-JJ Yeley[16]; 13. 27W-Colby Copeland[10]; 14. 3U-Rylan Gray[17]; 15. 7AU-Harry Stewart[21]; 16. 32C-Alex Bright[15]; 17. 1-Sammy Swindell[14]; 18. 91X-Danny Wood[20]; 19. 16C-David Camfield Jr[22]; 20. (DNF) 22X-Steven Shebester[23]; 21. (DNF) 25K-Taylor Reimer[12]; 22. (DNF) 4B-Chelby Hinton[18]; 23. (DNF) 8K-KJ Snow[5]; 24. (DNS) 4P-Kody Swanson
