HAUBSTADT, Ind. – Thomas Meseraull took the lead on lap eight and then held off Tanner Thorson at the checkered flag to win by a scant .119 seconds in Saturday night’s NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series Harvest Cup at Tri-State Speedway.
The victory was the second of the weekend for Meseraull and RMS Racing, after he won Friday night’s POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League event at Jacksonville Speedway.
Andrew Layser started from the pole position, but Cole Bodine was able to move past him for the lead on the opening lap, with Jason McDougal running third, followed by Thorson, Meseraull and Chris Windom.
The race was turned upside down on lap four, though, as Bodine spun coming out of turn two in the middle of the track, collecting series point leader Windom, who had climbed up to fourth.
Until that point, Windom’s Tucker-Boat Motorsports Toyota appeared to be the class of the field, after earning fast qualifier honors and then winning his heat race to start sixth in the inverted field.
Windom was able to return, but lost a lap and dropped down to 21st. He would eventually place 16th.
After Bodine’s spin, McDougal took over the top spot, with Justin Grant in second and Meseraull in third, but Meseraull would pass Grant on lap five for second before the field went yellow again on lap seven.
McDougal maintained the lead for one lap after the restart before Meseraull dove underneath him through turns one and two to take the lead.
McDougal dropped to second at that point, followed by Tyler Courtney, Kyle Cummins and Daison Pursley among the top five.
By lap 14, Meseraull had opened up a commanding lead of more than three seconds before a red flag came out when Pursley got upside down in turn four, bunching the field back up.
At that point, it was Meseraull, Cummins, McDougal, Thorson and Courtney in the top five.
Meseraull nailed the ensuing restart and built up a solid 1.2-second lead over Cummins by lap 20. He continued to slowly stretch the lead out over the next six laps as he held a 1.4-second margin over Cummins as they began lap 27.
What appeared to be a comfortable win would slip away as smoke started to come from Meseraull’s car – what appeared to be an overflowing radiator – with Thorson, who had overtaken Cummins for second on lap 28, closing quickly.
Heading into the final lap, Meseraull’s lead had dropped to .7 seconds and by the time the leaders came off the back straight, Thorson went low through three and four and inched ahead of Meseraull coming to the finish line.
Meseraull maintained his run off the high side, however, narrowly pushing past Thorson for the win at the checkered flag. Cummins finished third, Courtney was fourth and Emerson Axsom placed fifth – racing forward from 23rd after taking a provisional to start the main.
“How about that 7X?,” said Meseraull from the winner’s circle. “This thing was pegged. It was kind of dying at the end, but that TRD Toyota held up. I can’t thank those guys enough. And hats off to my RMS guys for believing in me.”
To view complete race results, advance to the next page.