ROSSBURG, Ohio — Just like déjà vu, Daison Pursley had all bases, and the field, covered during Saturday night’s 25-lap USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship portion of the 42nd edition of the 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO at Eldora Speedway.
Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) had kicked off his weekend triumphantly at the 1/2-mile dirt oval with a victory during Friday night’s BeFour the Crowns Program in the seat of his CB Industries/PristineAuction.com – NOS Energy Drink – TRD/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
Saturday night proved no different as Pursley once again thrashed the field after starting sixth on the grid. Pursley charged his way up to the front, then cleared defending 4-Crown midget winner Logan Seavey with a Turn One slide job on the 10th lap. From there, Pursley led the remaining 16 circuits as he trekked away to finish his weekend an undefeated two-for-two in the midget at The Big E.
“You just can’t give an inch to any of these guys,” Pursley remarked regarding his competition. “When you get out of that rhythm, I feel like you slow down, so I was hammering it there as hard as I absolutely could for 25 good ones, and I felt like I did an okay job, I guess. It’s a phenomenal car to drive, like I always say, and I’m super thankful for the opportunity. It’s just rewarding when we get to park it in victory lane.”
It was the ninth career USAC National Midget feature win for the humble Pursley. Ironically, victory number nine tied Pursley with both his car owner, Chad Boat, and Chad’s father, Billy Boat, for 80th place on the all-time series win list.
Pursley’s win also continued CB Industries’ remarkable reign in USAC National Midget competition at Eldora. The Mooresville, N.C.-based team has now won six of the last seven feature events at the track dating back to 2021 with Chris Windom (3), Pursley (2) and Mitchel Moles (1) each notching scores.
Furthermore, Pursley’s back-to-back weekend wins at Eldora pushed his lead in the season-long USAC National Midget standings from 51 to 96, just like that in a blink of an eye as he pursues his first career series driving title.
After securing his second $15,000 check of the night, Pursley improved his then unblemished Eldora weekend record to three-for-three while pocketing $35,000 to that point. He also achieved his latest win after narrowly avoiding catastrophe on the opening lap.
On the initial green flag, original pole sitter Zach Wigal was docked one row after it was ruled that he jumped the start. With Wigal now slotted in third, that moved Zach Daum to the outside of the front row. When the green flag dropped for the second time, Daum made it priority number one to get to the bottom of the racetrack in Turn One. At the same time, Wigal was going for the same piece of real estate, which created a calamity of epic proportions.
Following the Zach-on-Zach collision, Wigal began flipping upside down toward the outside Turn One wall. Wigal’s car ricocheted into that of Cannon McIntosh who careened nose-first into the outside wall. In all, eight drivers and cars were collected in the incident: Wigal, McIntosh, Kale Drake, Chris Windom, Kyle Jones, Thomas Meseraull, Hayden Reinbold and Michael Smith. All drivers walked away, but only Windom, Meseraull, Reinbold and Smith were able to restart.
All the while, Pursley narrowly missed McIntosh’s errant car as he escaped between McIntosh’s front bumper and the outside wall with little room to spare. With the field re-racked, Seavey jetted out to the lead while Pursley made quick work to slot into second by threading the needle around the topside of turns one and two to blitz from fourth to second past Jacob Denney and Kevin Thomas Jr.
By lap 6, Pursley was applying the pressure to Seavey, and in Turn One on the 10th lap, Pursley cleared him for good with a Turn One slider before gaining full control of the race lead by the time he hit Turn Three. Ultimately, Pursley built his lead to a full straightaway margin of 6.7 seconds before the yellow flag was displayed for the slowing car of seventh-running Jade Avedisian on lap 19, the victim of a flat right rear tire.
Despite the dissipation of his commanding lead, Pursley quickly reconstructed his advantage over the final few circuits, finishing off the masterpiece run 4.775 seconds ahead of the field as he crossed under the checkered flag.
Ryan Timms (Oklahoma City, Okla.) was masterful as well after achieving the biggest charge of the USAC National Midget season by advancing from 20th to second, making the final pass on Seavey for the runner-up spot just three laps from the finish line. For his efforts, Timms earned $1,000 in bonuses, first as the recipient of the Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race award as well as the champion of the 4-Crown Nationals weekend ProSource Passing Master title, gaining 26 spots on track throughout the two nights of action.
Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) finished third in both the USAC Sprint and Midget features, while Kevin Thomas Jr. scored fourth and Chris Windom rounded out the top five after being collected in the opening lap accident. After starting at the tail and driving his way back up through the field to fifth, Windom earned the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio, Sept. 21, 2024
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake (#97K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Daison Pursley (#86 CBI), 3. Zach Daum (#17 O’Dell), 4. Briggs Danner (#98 Schneider), 5. Justin Grant (#2 RMS), 6. Thomas Meseraull (#7x Engler), 7. Luke Hall (#74 Heitmeyer), 8. Michael Smith (#76 Savage). 2:30.196
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey (#57 Abacus), 2. Cannon McIntosh (#71K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 3. Drake Edwards (#3p Petty), 4. Chris Windom (#89x CBI), 5. Gavin Miller (#97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 6. Kyle Jones (#27x Joyner), 7. Kayla Roell (#4K Roell). NT
T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (#14 4 Kings), 2. Ryan Timms (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 3. Hayden Reinbold (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood), 4. Jade Avedisian (#71 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 5. Jacob Denney (#25 Malloy), 6. Zach Wigal (#89 CBI). 2:33.755
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Daison Pursley (6), 2. Ryan Timms (20), 3. Logan Seavey (2), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 5. Chris Windom (10), 6. Zach Daum (3), 7. Justin Grant (9), 8. Jacob Denney (4), 9. Drake Edwards (17), 10. Gavin Miller (11), 11. Jade Avedisian (15), 12. Briggs Danner (13), 13. Hayden Reinbold (12), 14. Michael Smith (18), 15. Luke Hall (21), 16. Thomas Meseraull (16), 17. Zach Wigal (1), 18. Cannon McIntosh (5), 19. Kale Drake (8), 20. Kyle Jones (14), 21. Kayla Roell (19).