ROSSBURG, Ohio — Daison Pursley captured the pole for Saturday night’s 4-Crown Nationals Presented by NKTELCO USAC Silver Crown feature at Rossburg, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.
On Friday night, Pursley turned a lap of 16.428 seconds in the LearnLab Qualifying session on the half-mile dirt oval at the wheel of his Spire Motorsports with CB Industries/Spectrum – NOS Energy Drink – Pristine Auction/DRC/Stanton Chevy No. 77, which he topped the 32-car field with.
Friday’s qualifying session was the debut of the new Spire/CBI champ car, which will now start at the front of the field for Saturday’s 50-lap, $15,000-to-win main event.
Pursley’s USAC Silver Crown resume at Eldora is brief but spectacular. In his two career starts, he started from the pole and finished second in 2024. He started second and won the race in 2025. He, of course, swept the USAC portion of the 4-Crown in 2025 with three victories in a single night with the AMSOIL National Sprint Car, NOS Energy Drink National Midget, and Silver Crown division.
Mario Clouser will start alongside Pursley on the front row. Brady Bacon, Jake Swanson, and Briggs Danner rounded out the top five. The top 20 fastest qualifiers were locked into Saturday’s feature.
Those who qualified 21st on back competed in an eight-lap Five Star Bodies Semi-Feature in which the top six finishers transferred to the feature. Carmen Perigo led all eight laps to score a dominant 5.2-second victory over Rob Caho Jr., Chris Fetter, Mark Bitner, Gregg Cory, and Jason York.
Making his USAC Silver Crown debut, York made major contact with the turn one outside wall on the second lap of his qualifying run. With the help of several teams loaning him pieces and parts to thrash and repair his car, York was able to return and transfer his way into his first series feature event.
York, a past USAC CRA Sprint Car feature winner from Chico, California, is the current front end mechanic and air jack operator for the Chip Ganassi No. 9 on the NTT IndyCar Series circuit.
Steve Gennetten went for a wild ride during practice as he drifted up to the outside turn wall, slapped the concrete with his right rear tire, then endured a series of flips before coming to a rest upside down.
Qualifying: 1. Daison Pursley, 77, Spire/CBI-16.428; 2. Mario Clouser, 20, Team AZ/Petty-Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-16.625; 3. Brady Bacon, 9, Dyson-16.754; 4. Jake Swanson, 6, Klatt-16.767; 5. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-16.788; 6. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-16.832; 7. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus/Droplight-16.869; 8. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-16.921; 9. Mitchel Moles, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-16.930; 10. Trey Osborne, 04, Moreland-16.942; 11. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-16.993; 12. C.J. Leary, 21, Team AZ/Petty-Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-17.024; 13. Cale Coons, 110, DMW-17.050; 14. Chelby Hinton, 62, Klatt-17.081; 15. Kyle Cummins, 33, Team AZ/Petty-Rossi/Curb-Agajanian-17.118; 16. Kale Drake, 92, Kazmark-17.163; 17. Saban Bibent, 88, Fetter-17.187; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 119, Reinbold/Underwood-17.344; 19. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-17.488; 20. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-17.523; 21. Darin Naida, 26, Pierce-17.623; 22. Billy Pauch Jr., 24, Haggenbottom-17.650; 23. Carmen Perigo, 52, Stehman-17.746; 24. Mitchell Davis, 38, Shoestring-17.780; 25. Rob Caho Jr., 78, Whitman/Caho-17.784; 26. Chris Fetter, 15, Fetter-17.886; 27. Jason York, 255, York-17.917; 28. Adam Taylor, 53, ATM-17.948; 29. Mark Bitner, 4, Yeska-18.354; 30. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-18.401; 31. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-19.175; 32. Steve Gennetten, 64, GGR-NT.
FIVE STAR BODIES SEMI: (8 laps, top 6 transfer to the feature, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Carmen Perigo (2), 2. Rob Caho Jr. (3), 3. Chris Fetter (4), 4. Mark Bitner (7), 5. Gregg Cory (8), 6. Jason York (5), 7. Dave Berkheimer (9), 8. Adam Taylor (6), 9. Billy Pauch Jr. (1).
