WHEATLAND, Mo. — Emerson Axsom picked up his first POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League victory Saturday night, taking the 30-lap feature during the 10th annual Impact Signs, Awning and Wraps Open Wheel Showdown at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Axsom, a 16-year-old from Franklin, Ind., passed Brenham Crouch with six laps remaining and went on to prevail over Crouch by 2.5 seconds.
Axsom started the feature in the sixth position and worked his way into the top three by lap 16, when the race took a sudden turn.
Daison Pursley started on the inside of row two and took over the lead on the second lap. The 16-year-old Oklahoma native cruised from there, opening a 2.4-second lead over Crouch, when disaster struck on lap 16 as Pursley hit the wall in turn four.
Bringing out the race’s second caution, Crouch inherited the lead with Axsom second and Bryan Wiedeman third.
Axsom battled Crouch until lap 24 and made the decisive pass, on the inside coming off turn four of the 30-lapper.
“We’ve been close. We were real fast,” Axsom said. “Every time we’ve ran this year we’ve had a shot to win. I was just driving it as hard as I could. We weren’t that great in the heat. We just made the right changes and obviously it paid off.
“There’s tons of cars that can win every night. You just put yourself in the right spot, it helps a lot.”
Other feature winners included Wesley Smith (POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprints) and Ryan Timms (ASCS Warrior Region/Sooner Region Sprints).
The finish:
Feature  (30 Laps): 1. 15-Emerson Axsom[6]; 2. 97-Brenham Crouch[1]; 3. 01-Bryant Wiedeman[4]; 4. 08-Cannon McIntosh[8]; 5. 86-Brent Crews[5]; 6. 85T-Ryan Timms[10]; 7. 72-Sam Johnson[11]; 8. 21K-Karter Sarff[13]; 9. 49-Joe B Miller[17]; 10. 3N-Jake Neuman[15]; 11. 91T-Tyler Thomas[2]; 12. 00-Trey Gropp[12]; 13. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[7]; 14. 3X-Xavier Doney[18]; 15. 67K-Cade Lewis[19]; 16. 25-Taylor Reimer[21]; 17. 71K-Daison Pursley[3]; 18. 44X-Wesley Smith[9]; 19. 4F-Chad Frewaldt[22]; 20. 3B-Shelby Bosie[14]; 21. 44-Branigan Roark[20]; 22. 2C-Trevor Casey[16]
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