Daison Pursley took the lead on lap 10 of 25 and drove away from the field to win the USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series feature at the 42nd running of the 4-Crown Nationals Saturday night at Eldora Speedway. The win gave the CB Industries Toyota driver a sweep of the weekend’s two midget races at Eldora, while also winning Saturday night’s USAC Sprint Car event.
The victory is Pursley’s seventh USAC national midget feature win of the season and his 16th career national midget feature win with Toyota. The win also marks CB Industries sixth triumph in their last seven series starts at the track.
The race was marred by a first-lap incident that saw eight cars involved, including Pursley’s leading rival in the series, fellow Toyota driver Cannon McIntosh, who got collected in the first turn incident after starting the race fifth. He would eventually be scored in 18th.
On the restart, Logan Seavey would take the early lead with Pursley moving into second on lap two and he immediately began to set his sights on the leader.
Finally, on lap 10 Pursley would slide Seavey in turn one and eventually clear him on the high line in turn three. Once he claimed the top spot, Pursley would immediately begin to pull away from the field.
By lap 18, he had stretched his lead out to 6.785 seconds on the half-mile oval, roughly a full straightaway, only to see a caution flag wave to bunch the field back together.
On the restart, Pursley would quickly pick up where he left off, stretching out a 1.285 second lead in the next three laps. Behind him, Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyota driver Ryan Timms would overtake Seavey for second on lap 23.
Pursley would go on to take the checkered flag 4.775 seconds ahead of Timms as Toyota drivers would finish one-two for the second night in a row.
The USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series heads to the Dirt Track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next weekend for the 2024 Driven2SaveLives BC39.
Toyota Notes:
– Daison Pursley has now registered seven wins and 12 top-three podium finishes in 16 USAC Midget races this season.
– With tonight’s win, Pursley has opened up a commanding 100-point lead in the championship standings with just eight full points-paying events remaining this season.
– Toyota-powered drivers have now registered 14 victories in USAC competition this season.
Toyota-Powered Drivers USAC Eldora Speedway Saturday Feature Results
Ryan Timms – 2nd
Chris Windom – 5th
Zach Daum – 6th
Justin Grant – 7th
Jacob Denney – 8th
Gavin Miller – 10th
Jade Avedisian – 11th
Zach Wigal – 17th
Cannon McIntosh – 18th
Kale Drake – 19th
Kyle Jones – 20th
Toyota USAC PR
