SOMERTON, Ariz. — Emerson Axsom won a USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature for the first time in more than eight months on the opening night of the 55th annual Chapman Chevrolet Western World Championship at Cocopah Speedway.
The Clauson Marshall Newman Racing driver hadn’t been to victory lane since winning two of the first three races of the season at Florida’s Bubba Raceway Park.
As the series made its inaugural visit to Cocopah, Axsom started on the front row and led all 30 laps.
“I feel like we’ve had so much speed this season and not a lot of luck, just rookie mistakes,” Axsom explained. “We’ve had a shot to win a lot of these races, but I feel like I needed a little bit of luck. I felt like if anyone deserves it, maybe it’s me.”
Western World has treated Clauson Marshall Newman Racing beautifully in recent years. With Tyler Courtney in the driver’s seat, the team captured final night victories in three consecutive seasons between 2018-’20. With Axsom stepping into the role this year, he’s picked up the baton successfully to carry on the team’s Western World prosperity, doing so in the driver and team’s first year working together.
“We haven’t had the wins, but it’s not like the speed hasn’t been there,” Axsom noted. “We’ve been up front basically all year and been really consistent especially for a first-year group. This is our first year working together so I feel like it’s been a pretty solid year for my first full sprint car season and for all of us working together.”
Axsom bolted out of the gate and into the lead as he blazed a trail around the outside of pole sitter Matt Westfall on the opening lap, firmly finding a line up top in turns one and two and on the bottom of three and four.
Brady Bacon initially closed up the gap on Axsom and found himself within a car length of the race lead on lap five when he drifted into the outside wall on exit, which promptly allowed Jake Swanson to charge underneath to rip the second spot away a single circuit later.
The feature’s initial yellow flag came with seven laps completed as Logan Seavey came to a halt on the back straightaway while running 12th. After a touch up in the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area, the reigning Western World champion restarted 24th and came all the way through to finish an impressive ninth, all things considered.
Under caution, Bacon’s right rear tire looked visibly wonky, to use a technical term. When racing resumed, it was only a matter of time before his rubber gave way, which it finally did on lap 12 while running third. With the tire completely flat and his ride slowing dramatically, Bacon detoured to the Work Area where he was fitted with fresh rubber.
Bacon’s subsequent 10th place result severely hampered his chances at a fifth career USAC National Sprint Car title, losing 15 points in the process to eventual fifth-place finisher Justin Grant who extended his lead to 93 markers with four events remaining.
Swanson was now the nearest challenger to Axsom’s hold of the lead and made a run on the topside of turn two on the lap 12 restart to show his might. However, he got tight on the cushion and nearly tagged the wall, causing him to lose several car lengths in his pursuit of Axsom.
Simultaneously, Westfall slotted back into third as he slipped under Grant for the third spot entering turn three. But, up front, Axsom built his lead to a full two seconds over Swanson as he moved up a lane off the low line to put the cars of Verne Sweeney, Logan Williams and Matt Mitchell a lap down.
From there, Axsom went untouched for the remaining handful of dwindling laps to post a 1.936-second victory over Jake Swanson. Matt Westfall was third, with Robert Ballou and Justin Grant rounding out the top five.
It was Swanson’s third runner-up result of the USAC National Sprint Car season and the second in his last three feature starts.
“I felt like I was making it work up there and I might have a shot, but it got to a point where it was so thin up there, I started smashing the wall,” Swanson recalled. “I didn’t want to end up like Brady with a flat right rear, but I tried as hard as I could. I don’t know, maybe if I would’ve backed the corner up and made up a little more ground the first couple laps, I might’ve been able to get around him. At that point, it was track position. (Emerson) was really good in the black, but I think we know exactly what to do to be just a little bit better tomorrow.”
For Westfall, it was his best performance in 10 years as he earned his best USAC National sprint car finish since April of 2012 at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.
“On the start, the tires didn’t fire all that well and I got behind and fell to fifth,” Westfall replayed. “When Brady had that flat tire, it helped us out as we got back to third, and we ended up having a good run.”
The Boxscore
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship & AMSOIL USAC-CRA Sprint Car Series, Cocopah Speedway, Somerton, Ariz., Oct. 28, 2022
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR / WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-16.509 (New Track Record); 2. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-16.540; 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-16.774; 4. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-16.847; 5. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.873; 6. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.910; 7. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-16.990; 8. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-17.022; 9. Kyle Cummins, 2J, Yeley/Petty-17.037; 10. Jadon Rogers, 14, Engler-17.173; 11. R.J. Johnson, 51, Johnson-17.212; 12. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-17.213; 13. Tommy Malcolm, 5x, Napier-17.285; 14. Damion Gardner, 1, Alexander-17.339; 15. Chase Johnson, 2i, Yeley/Petty-17.351; 16. Cody Williams, 44, Williams-17.358; 17. Brody Roa, 91R, BR-17.365; 18. Logan Seavey, 42, Cheney-17.375; 19. Austin Williams, 2, Williams-17.416; 20. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-17.426; 21. Austin Grabowski, 72, Grabowski-17.458; 22. Chris Bonneau, 15, Bonneau-17.468; 23. Kevin Thomas Jr., 17GP, Dutcher-17.522; 24. Sterling Cling, 34, Cling-17.526; 25. Logan Williams, 5w, McCarthy-17.541; 26. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-17.549; 27. Matt McCarthy, 28m, McCarthy-17.570; 28. Ricky Lewis, 41, Stensland/Halley-17.579; 29. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-17.652; 30. Justin Zimmerman, 1J, Zimmerman-17.764; 31. Tye Mihocko, 8, Ream-18.003; 32. Nate Schank, 1$, Schank-18.030; 33. Mike Martin, 16, Martin-18.158; 34. Jeremy Jonas, 54, Pardo-18.205; 35. Jake Neal, 214, Kracht-18.386; 36. Wayne Siddle, 007, Siddle-19.344; 37. Jim Vanzant, 3v, Vanzant-NT; 38. Kyle Edwards, 39E, Edwards-NT; 39. Verne Sweeney, 98, Tracy-NT; 40. Shon Deskins, 20, SDR-NT (Time of 17.667 disallowed due to missing the scales)
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS / FLOWDYNAMICS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Brody Roa, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Tommy Malcolm, 6. Logan Williams, 7. Austin Grabowski, 8. Mike Martin, 9. Logan Calderwood. 2:17.26
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) / BILLSJERKY.NET SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Jadon Rogers, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Damion Gardner, 5. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 6. Chris Bonneau, 7. Justin Zimmerman, 8. Jeremy Jonas, 9. Verne Sweeney, 10. Logan Seavey. 2:14.24
PIT STOP USA / IN MEMORY OF JIM & CHET GARDNER THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Austin Williams, 3. R.J. Johnson, 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Chase Johnson, 7. Matt McCarthy, 8. Shon Deskins, 9. Tye Mihocko. 2:16.13
ROD END SUPPLY / LASERWORX MANUFACTURING FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Charles Davis Jr., 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Matt Westfall, 4. Sterling Cling, 5. Cody Williams, 6. Ricky Lewis, 7. Nate Schank, 8. Wayne Siddle, 9. Matt Mitchell. 2:14.08 (New Track Record)
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS / FACTORY WRAPS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Chase Johnson, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 5. Tommy Malcolm, 6. Logan Williams, 7. Justin Zimmerman, 8. Chris Bonneau, 9. Austin Grabowski, 10. Logan Calderwood, 11. Mike Martin, 12. Nate Schank, 13. Verne Sweeney, 14. Matt McCarthy, 15. Jeremy Jonas, 16. Jake Neal, 17. Wayne Siddle, 18. Cody Williams, 19. Ricky Lewis. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Emerson Axsom (2), 2. Jake Swanson (5), 3. Matt Westfall (1), 4. Robert Ballou (13), 5. Justin Grant (4), 6. C.J. Leary (6), 7. Kyle Cummins (7), 8. Mitchel Moles (10), 9. Logan Seavey (18), 10. Brady Bacon (3), 11. Kevin Thomas Jr. (9), 12. R.J. Johnson (12), 13. Chase Johnson (16), 14. Charles Davis Jr. (8), 15. Brody Roa (17), 16. Tommy Malcolm (14), 17. Damion Gardner (15), 18. Sterling Cling (20), 19. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (22), 20. Matt Mitchell (23-P), 21. Logan Williams (21), 22. Verne Sweeney (24-P), 23. Austin Williams (19), 24. Jadon Rogers (11).