ROSSBURG, Ohio — Daison Pursley’s first victory lane experience at Eldora Speedway on Friday night required him to squeeze every ounce of speed, bravery and desire out of himself and his CB Industries No. 86.
When the 25-lap war on the half-mile dirt oval was all said and done, Pursley was standing on top once more for the sixth time this season in USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship action.
After racing from third to first on lap-20 restart, Pursley led the remaining six laps and then excelled on another late-race restart to fend off Cannon McIntosh for his eighth career feature victory with the series.
Pursley also continued CB Industries’ dominance of late at Eldora, which has seen the team win five of its last six series starts at the track dating back to 2021 with Chris Windom (3), Mitchel Moles (1) and now Pursley (1) reigning triumphant.
“When this place gets slick against the fence, these CB Industries car roll around here pretty good,” Pursley stated. “I’m happy to win that thing from seventh, and I’m confident enough for tomorrow that we can get the job done from sixth.”
Taking off from the inside of the fourth row in his CB Industries/PristineAuction.com – NOS Energy Drink – TRD/Spike/Speedway Toyota, Pursley trailed the opening half of the feature as Justin Grant led the opening four revolutions.
Jacob Denney wheeled his way into the lead on lap five before Grant returned to the point on the sixth lap. However, Grant’s lead proved short lived, and he again surrendered the lead on lap nine to the bottom-feeding Zach Daum.
As the frontrunners worked three-wide through the third and fourth turns, Grant and Denney operated high while Daum tiptoed around the inside wall and into the lead on lap nine.
Pacing the hub through the 11th go-around, McIntosh entered the fray with a rim-riding pass of Daum for the lead on the 12th lap.
At that some moment, then eighth running Pursley began to make his surge forward as he found a moment to breathe once the initial scramble of the start subsided and the race settled into a groove.
“During the first handful of laps, everyone was equal,” Pursley explained. “Nobody could really find their rhythm to get clean air or space. Once Cannon finally cleared for the lead, he set sail and set a good pace, then I was finally able to start climbing up top to make good laps. Then I was able to get to third and started trying stuff into one and sliding myself differently than what they were doing. I felt like I was inching away at him, but I definitely wasn’t gaining a ton of ground.”
As McIntosh settled in around the topside, the first yellow flag of the night was displayed for Gavin Miller who spun to a stop in the second turn on the 19th lap after contact between he and Hayden Reinbold.
The third-place running Pursley wasted no time on the ensuing resumption, driving by Denney on the front straightaway before sliding McIntosh for the lead on entry into turn one.
Retaking the lead for a brief moment, McIntosh surged his way back past Pursley on the back straightway but was unable to stave off Pursley’s dive into turn three.
“I felt like I got a really good start,” Pursley admitted. “Cannon decided to take off all the way around the top, then Jacob started stair-stepping his way down. I was able to follow him and then they left it wide open for me to try to do something into (turn) one and I was able to pull it off.”
McIntosh closed right to Pursley’s back bumper during the final laps, but a hard clobbering of his right rear tire against the outside turn two wall on lap 23 allowed Pursley to sail away.
Moments later, however, a caution for the overheating and slowing car of 10th running Ryan Timms gave McIntosh one more try at a green-white-checker race to the finish.
Pursley slid himself into turn one on the opening lap of the restart, but McIntosh mustered the momentum on the topside through turns one and down to allow himself a shot at a slider in turn three.
With the white flag in the air, McIntosh slid across the nose of Pursley to complete the pass. However, Pursley calmly flicked his steering wheel to the left to drive back underneath McIntosh at the exit of turn four and retain the lead.
On the final lap, Pursley wasn’t going to be denied as he put his right rear tire right within inches of the concrete surrounding the perimeter of turns three and four to notch his initial Eldora score by 0.574-second margin.
McIntosh crossed the stripe in second with Denney third, Daum fourth and Logan Seavey completing the top five.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio, Sept. 20, 2024
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-16.708; 2. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.831; 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 14, 4 Kings-16.850; 4. Cannon McIntosh, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.855; 5. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-16.885; 6. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-16.886; 7. Zach Daum, 17, O’Dell-16.903; 8. Chris Windom, 89x, CBI-16.904; 9. Drake Edwards, 3p, Petty-16.925; 10. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-16.944; 11. Zach Wigal, 89, CBI-16.985; 12. Briggs Danner, 98, Schneider-17.099; 13. Kale Drake, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.112; 14. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.137; 15. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.150; 16. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, Engler-17.158; 17. Kyle Jones, 27x, Joyner-17.325; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-17.399; 19. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-17.662; 20. Matt Goodnight, 23, Simon-17.759; 21. Michael Smith, 76, Savage-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Zach Daum, 5. Kale Drake, 6. Thomas Meseraull, 7. Kayla Roell. 2:21.929
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Ryan Timms, 2. Zach Wigal, 3. Jacob Denney, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Jade Avedisian, 6. Kyle Jones, 7. Matt Goodnight. 2:25.029
T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Gavin Miller, 2. Hayden Reinbold, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Justin Grant, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Drake Edwards, 7. Michael Smith. 2:25.702
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Daison Pursley (7), 2. Cannon McIntosh (3), 3. Jacob Denney (2), 4. Zach Daum (9), 5. Logan Seavey (6), 6. Zach Wigal (12), 7. Justin Grant (1), 8. Chris Windom (10), 9. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 10. Kale Drake (14), 11. Gavin Miller (8), 12. Hayden Reinbold (18), 13. Briggs Danner (13), 14. Kyle Jones (17), 15. Jade Avedisian (15), 16. Thomas Meseraull (16), 17. Drake Edwards (11), 18. Matt Goodnight (20), 19. Michael Smith (21), 20. Kayla Roell (19), 21. Ryan Timms (5).