ROSSBURG, Ohio — From start to finish, the debut of the CB Industries / Spire Motorsports USAC Silver Crown team with Daison Pursley at the wheel was absolute perfection at Eldora Speedway.
On Friday night, they were the fastest in practice, then followed it up by winning the pole position with the fastest lap in LearnLab Qualifying.
Then, during Saturday night’s 50-lap feature, they led all 50 laps en route to a comfortable victory at the 44th running of the 4-Crown Nationals Presented by NKTELCO on the half-mile dirt oval.
Meanwhile, with his fifth-place finish, C.J. Leary clinched his first USAC Silver Crown driving championship with still one race remaining next Saturday, October 3, at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway.
It’s Leary’s second overall USAC national title after also capturing the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car crown in 2019. Furthermore, Team AZ Racing / Petty-Rossi / Curb-Agajanian earned its first USAC Silver Crown entrant title.
In what was his first USAC Silver Crown start since his 2025 4-Crown victory, Pursley picked up right where he left off, this time with a brand new, but familiar team.
Pursley captured the 2024 USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship for CB Industries and had previously won 4-Crown events in a midget and a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car for the CBI team in recent years.
With the fresh out of the box Spire Motorsports with CB Industries/Spectrum – NOS Energy Drink – Pristine Auction/DRC/Stanton Chevy No. 77, Pursley now has the rare distinction of winning all three legs of the USAC portion of the 4-Crown for the same team during his career.
“I’m just super happy for CB Industries, Spire, and everyone that’s a part of this car,” Pursley exclaimed. “It’s their debut and anything (team owner) Chad (Boat) touches here at Eldora just goes around the race track pretty dang fast.”
For Pursley, it’s his fifth career 4-Crown victory as a driver. For CBI, it’s their sixth 4-Crown score as an entrant.
While Pursley had a relatively easy and breezy drive up front, there was a bit of chaos happening further on back through the field. On the first turn of the opening lap, 10th place starting Trey Osborne biked on the cushion, bounced into the wall, and endured a series of tumbles that ended the debut of new Mark Moreland Racing team just as soon as it began. Osborne walked away from the wreckage under his own power.
On the 16th lap, 20th-place running Cale Coons, making his USAC Silver Crown debut, spun sideways to a stop at the top of turns three and four.
Moments later, Mario Clouser, running a solid fourth, was already committed to the high side and had nowhere to go. In avoiding T-boning the sitting duck that was Coons and his car, Clouser clobbered the wall and barrel rolled down the track three times.
Pursley’s lead to that point had been more than two seconds before Brady Bacon began to inch forward late to pose a challenge, getting to as close as six car lengths.
Throughout the second half of the race, Pursley had to fight through traffic while navigating the delicate balance of preserving his equipment while also enduring the most sprint-like race of the champ car calendar with its brief 50-lap distance.
“I think it’s definitely hard just because the closing rate with the Silver Crown cars is pretty drastic,” Pursley explained. “When Brady’s right there on your tail for the majority of the race, you can’t really take any breaks. We were a little on the tight side through the holes and stuff. Anytime I lifted and gave a little bit of grasp or maybe caught my breath a little bit, that’s when I would make a mistake. So, I just tried to run 110% for 50 laps. That was the most grueling and fun Silver Crown race I’ve ever had to compete in. But it was a lot of fun.”
With just six laps remaining, third running Justin Grant snagged the turn four cushion with his right rear tire, climbed the wall, and flipped along the catch fence in a shower of sparks before landing capsized in a heap. With that, Grant’s chances at a repeat USAC Silver Crown title vanished in the blink of an eye.
Pursley navigated a quite tricky surface that already seen a lot of laps run on it throughout the night which featured a total of 131 cars between the four divisions. But for him, for the entirety of the race, there was no place like the top side, just as God intended it to be at Eldora.
“Anytime you think of Eldora, you better be comfortable running the wall,” Pursley acknowledged. “It had a little bit of character tonight with the cold weather and how much rain they’ve got the past two weeks. I think that was the most technical I’ve ever had to run it up there.”
Pursley had the field covered to the tune of a 1.331-second margin of victory over Brady Bacon, with Matt Westfall an impressive third, Logan Seavey fourth, and Leary rounding out the top-five in what was his record extending 15th consecutive top-five finish in USAC Silver Crown competition.
Westfall finished third in what he indicated may very well be the last race he ever competes in as a driver. It was a banner night for Westfall who won the USAC National Midget race earlier in the evening as the crew chief for Jakeb Boxell.
USAC Silver Crown Championship, Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio, Sept. 26, 2026
LEARNLAB QUALIFYING: (Top-20 locked into the feature) 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). NT
FEATURE: (50 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Daison Pursley (1), 2. Brady Bacon (3), 3. Matt Westfall (6), 4. Logan Seavey (7), 5. C.J. Leary (12), 6. Mitchel Moles (9), 7. Briggs Danner (5), 8. Carmen Perigo (21), 9. Chelby Hinton (14), 10. Chase Stockon (11), 11. Brian Ruhlman (20), 12. Mark Bitner (24), 13. Kyle Cummins (15), 14. Rob Caho Jr. (22), 15. Kale Drake (16), 16. Saban Bibent (17), 17. Jason York (26), 18. Hayden Reinbold (18), 19. Gregg Cory (25), 20. Steve Gennetten (28-P), 21. Justin Grant (8), 22. Chris Fetter (23), 23. Mario Clouser (2), 24. Jake Swanson (4), 25. Cale Coons (13), 26. Russ Gamester (19), 27. Dave Berkheimer (27-P), 28. Trey Osborne (10).
