Daison Pursley took the lead from fellow Toyota driver Cannon McIntosh on a late restart and then held his championship rival off over the final six laps to win Friday night’s NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series feature at Eldora Speedway.
Pursley’s victory is his sixth USAC national midget feature win of the season and his third consecutive top-two finish. Tonight’s triumph also marks his 15th national midget feature win with Toyota. It gives CB Industries their sixth win in the last 10 USAC events this season.
Justin Grant took the early lead in his RMS Racing Toyota and would hold down the top spot for the first four laps with Jacob Denney running second and McIntosh in third place.
Denney would take the lead on lap five as the top-three cars would run three-wide coming back to the flag stand, but Grant would go back underneath Denney in turn three to reclaim the lead. On lap six.
Two laps later, Denney would go back to the lead, only to see Zach Daum move into the top spot running the bottom of the racetrack with McIntosh would ride the wall into second place on lap 10. The following circuit would see McIntosh pull up beside Daum, with Daum holding the lead by just .001 of a second.
McIntosh would finally push past Daum in turn two on lap 11, with Daum in second followed by Denney, Zach Wigal, Grant and Pursley in sixth place.
McIntosh would lead nine laps and appeared to be headed to his second victory in a row, only to see a caution flag come out on lap 20 with Denney in second and Pursley moving up to third.
The lap 20 restart would prove to be epic as Pursley would slide McIntosh, only to see McIntosh cross back past him, and then Pursley slid him for the second time on the lap and held the position. He was able to extend his lead out to 1.653 seconds before a final caution on lap 23. On the ensuing restart McIntosh would slide Pursley to temporarily take the lead into turn four on lap 24, but Pursley would cross back underneath him to maintain the lead. He was able to hold off McIntosh to eventually win by approximately half a second. Denney would finish third and Daum was fourth as Toyota-powered cars captured the top-four finishing positions.
Pursley and McIntosh continue to hold down the top two spots in the championship standings.
The USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series closes out the weekend at Eldora Speedway with the prestigious Four-Crown Nationals on Saturday night.
Toyota Notes:
– Daison Pursley has now registered 11 top-three podium finishes in 15 USAC Midget races this season. He also has won in both the USAC Sprint Car and Silver Crown ranks.
– Cannon McIntosh earned his fifth consecutive top-three podium finishes. The Keith Kunz Motorsports driver currently sits in the top two in all three national midget series as he leads both the Xtreme Outlaw and POWRI National Midget League series and sits second in the USAC points race.
– Five different Toyota drivers led laps in Friday’s feature event in leading all 25 circuits.
– Toyota-powered drivers have now registered 13 victories in USAC competition this season.
Toyota-Powered Drivers USAC Eldora Speedway Friday Feature Results
Cannon McIntosh – 2nd
Jacob Denney – 3rd
Zach Daum – 4th
Zach Wigal – 6th
Justin Grant – 7th
Chris Windom – 8th
Kale Drake – 10th
Gavin Miller – 11th
Kyle Jones – 14th
Jade Avedisian – 15th
Matt Goodnight – 18th
Ryan Timms – 21st
Toyota USAC PR
