BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Dejected and disappointed, Emerson Axsom still had a ton to race for when he arrived at Bloomington Speedway for Friday night’s penultimate round of USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week Presented By Honest Abe Roofing.
For all intents and purposes, the Franklin, Ind., racer saw his shot at an Indiana Sprint Week championship crumble a night earlier at Lincoln Park Speedway when he missed out on transferring to the feature, and thus, had to use a provisional, which did not allow him to earn feature points toward the eight-race series title race.
Driving with desire, and a fire in the belly, at Bloomington’s Sheldon Kinser Memorial, Axsom recorded his first career Indiana Sprint Week triumph.
Axsom grabbed the reins of his Clauson Marshall Newman Racing/Driven2SaveLives – ZMax Race Lubricants/Spike/Kistler Chevy, then chased down racelong leader Briggs Danner on lap 15 before patrolling the final 16 laps to earn his third feature victory of the USAC season.
“Honestly, I’m still upset about last night,” Axsom admitted. “Not that it was anybody’s fault, we just didn’t run very well. I told my guys last night that if I have anything to do with it, we’re going to win tonight. I just wanted to win really badly and I’ve been wanting to win a Sprint Week race all week. We’ve been fast; we just haven’t been able to qualify to put us up front. It’s hard to pass these guys because they’re so good.”
The arch of Axsom mimics Jake Swanson, who simultaneously captured both his first Indiana Sprint Week win and his sixth career USAC National Sprint Car victory on Thursday at Lincoln Park.
Starting from the third position, Axsom was already challenging for the lead by lap two. Axsom first scooted underneath Chase Stockon off turn four to slot into second at the conclusion of the opening lap, then came within a car length of Danner for the race lead on the second go-around.
However, just as Axsom was in position to, perhaps, race into the lead, he hit the muck at the very bottom of turn one and was unable to get the car to turn. Sliding up the track, Axsom left the bottom open for Stockon to reemerge in second.
On lap five, fourth running Mitchel Moles’ tumultuous Indiana Sprint Week continued when his car fell dramatically off the pace.
When racing resumed, it was go time for Axsom who made a successful bid for second under Stockon, taking the spot on the back straight on the lap five restart. However, at that moment, Danner had stepped away to a half-straightaway advantage as the leader.
Meanwhile, Justin Grant and Brady Bacon entered the fray with a four-point separation in their quests for the Indiana Sprint Week championship. Bacon gained a crucial spot on the 10th lap when Grant skated up the racetrack in turns one and two, allowing Bacon to jet away on the outside for the fifth position.
Back up front, traffic loomed for Danner, and as soon as he caught in, he was mired. His 1.5-second interval vanished in a heartbeat just before the midway point, and on lap 15, Axsom flashed by on the inside to take over the lead.
Moments later in turn four, Danner snagged the cushion, knocking him sideways, which cost him more than a second, and practically ended his window of opportunity to win his first USAC National Sprint Car feature.
For Axsom, though, he had a pretty good feeling that he was in good shape moving forward.
“It was a real fine line between the greasy, the slick and the monster curb off two and four,” Axsom explained. “I knew that if I could just stay even with the lapped cars, nobody would get by me. I didn’t really know if anybody was catching me, but I knew if I stayed even with the car below me, it was enough that nobody was going to be able to do anything. I knew that as long as I didn’t mess up big on the top, I’d be all right.”
On lap 22, Bacon gained further ground to move into fourth as 2022 Bloomington Indiana Sprint Week winner got caught up on the turn four cushion as Bacon raced by underneath to further pad his Indiana Sprint Week point lead to eight markers.
Axsom was untouchable at the front of the field, however, and finished off the evening by crossing the finish line 3.753 seconds ahead of the competition.
Danner collected a runner-up finish by a narrow half car length margin of Stockon while Bacon grabbed fourth and Cummins rounded out the top five.
Sitting fifth in the Indiana Sprint Week standing, 75 points out of the lead, Axsom knows his shot at title with the series is over. However, he’s second in the overall USAC National Sprint Car standings, just 19 behind Bacon.
“Our Sprint Week isn’t over,” Axsom related, “but obviously, last night really hurt us. The national title is still there and that’s our main goal anyway. Hopefully this gets us back to where we need to be.”
The Boxscore
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Bloomington Speedway, Bloomington, Indiana, July 28, 2023
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-11.244; 2. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-11.247; 3. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-11.304; 4. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-11.356; 5. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-11.372; 6. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-11.373; 7. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-11.378; 8. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-11.428; 9. Brent Beauchamp, 11, Beauchamp-11.432; 10. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-11.446; 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 42, Cheney-11.457; 12. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-11.459; 13. Dalton Stevens, 99x, Stevens-11.475; 14. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-11.484; 15. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-11.506; 16. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-11.511; 17. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-11.544; 18. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-11.546; 19. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-11.560; 20. Tayte Williamson, 20, Williamson-11.583; 21. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-11.587; 22. Geoff Ensign, 17, On The Gass-11.619; 23. Jordan Kinser, 04, Burton-11.661; 24. Travis Millar, 93AU, Millar-11.679; 25. Joey Amantea, 88J, Amantea-11.694; 26. Alec Sipes, 19, Hayward-11.698; 27. Shane Cottle, 2E, Epperson-11.746; 28. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-11.788; 29. Brady Short, 61m, Edwards-11.880; 30. Justin Zimmerman, 1, D-Up-11.948; 31. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-11.998.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brandon Mattox, 2. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 3. Mitchel Moles, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Brent Beauchamp, 6. Joey Amantea. 2:00.92
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Charles Davis Jr., 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Geoff Ensign, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Jake Swanson, 7. Alec Sipes, 8. Justin Zimmerman. 2:00.86
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Carson Garrett, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Matt Westfall, 5. Shane Cottle, 6. C.J. Leary, 7. Troy Carey, 8. Jordan Kinser. 1:57.08
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Travis Millar, 6. Tayte Williamson, 7. Hunter Maddox. 2:00.30
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Brent Beauchamp, 6. Justin Zimmerman, 7. Travis Millar, 8. Troy Carey, 9. Joey Amantea, 10. Alec Sipes, 11. Tayte Williamson, 12. Dalton Stevens. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Emerson Axsom (3), 2. Briggs Danner (1), 3. Chase Stockon (2), 4. Brady Bacon (6), 5. Kyle Cummins (5), 6. C.J. Leary (12), 7. Justin Grant (7), 8. Robert Ballou (13), 9. Jake Swanson (11), 10. Charles Davis Jr. (8), 11. Carson Garrett (9), 12. Daison Pursley (16), 13. Shane Cottle (21), 14. Mitchel Moles (4), 15. Kevin Thomas Jr. (15), 16. Matt Westfall (17), 17. Geoff Ensign (20), 18. Brandon Mattox (10), 19. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (19), 20. Brent Beauchamp (14), 21. Logan Seavey (18), 22. Justin Zimmerman (22).