On Point! Pursley Plucks Knoxville’s Corn Belt Clash & First USAC Sprint Win

When Daison Pursley won at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park in February of 2023, he was reintroducing himself to the racing world after a severe spinal cord injury briefly derailed both his life and career.

With a victory on Saturday night at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway, the Locust Grove, Okla. racer introduced himself to the racing world as the legit deal, the genuine article, the real McCoy.

Whereas Pursley’s Volusia triumph nearly 16 months ago is technically listed as a non-points special event in the record books, there was no technicality in any form or fashion this time around. Pursley officially stamped his name as a certified points-paying USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature winner in what was his 54th career series start on Saturday night at Knoxville’s famed half-mile.

For his efforts at the Avanti Windows & Doors Corn Belt Clash, Pursley pocketed a $12,000 top prize and the distinction of becoming the first points-paying USAC National Sprint Car feature winning driver since Jadon Rogers in 2022 at Indiana’s Tri-State Speedway.

Yet, more than anything, Pursley completed a task that had been lingering in his mind for some time. After three consecutive third place results in his three most recent series starts, Pursley had grown tiresome of merely being in the hunt for a victory. He held a burning desire to finish the job up front, and finish with authority.

At the controls of his Team AZ Racing/Apache Transport – Oak Craft Elegant Cabinetry/DRC/1-Way Chevy, Pursley led the initial 12 laps before a wonky restart seemingly cost him dearly. Nonetheless, Pursley maintained his cool and capitalized late by tracking down race leader and fellow Okie Brady Bacon with nine laps remaining to earn the long-awaited and long-anticipated distinction.

“It’s huge,” Pursley reflected. “I feel like I’ve been super close so many times to finally winning a points-paying USAC race, and tonight, I was finally able to pull it off. I thought I gave it away once when I messed up on that restart and let Brady get underneath me. I thought it was over from there because Brady usually doesn’t make any mistakes. I’m just very, very fortunate to have a very fast racecar. I just didn’t give up there. I wanted to win really bad, and I think that showed here tonight.”

On the other hand, for Team AZ Racing, it was a repeat celebration at Knoxville. With Jake Swanson at the wheel of the No. 21AZ, the team scored the Saturday night Corn Belt Clash finale in 2023. On this particular evening in 2024, the team rolled from the number one spot and remained there for most of the first half of the 30-lap main event distance.

Action came to an abrupt halt on the opening lap as 24th running Eric Schulz barrel-rolled five times down the back straightaway to prompt a red flag. The South Dakota driver ultimately walked away from the incident.

Following the restart, Pursley maintained command up front by pulling out to a 2.2 second lead over Bacon who had threaded the needle en route from sixth to second, blasting by C.J. Leary for the second position in turn three on the fifth lap.

Moments later, impressive 18-year-old up-and-comer Xavier Doney (7th) biked atop the turns three and four cushion before banging off the guardrail and flipping over several times. Doney, who won a heat race earlier in the program, climbed out and walked away under his own power.

Forced to restart behind Leary due to scoring reverting back to the last completed lap, Bacon took back second for himself with a topside maneuver on the fifth lap reset, then began to reel Pursley in as the top-two broke away from the remainder of the contingent.

Among that contingent was eighth running Logan Seavey who suddenly slowed on the front straightaway 13 laps into the contest. After being pushed into the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area for service, Seavey’s Abacus Racing team swapped out the car’s mag box. However, the repairs didn’t take, and Seavey was out of the show with a season worst 21st place result.

On the ensuing lap 14 restart, Pursley’s car experienced a failure to launch. Bacon took advantage of the situation and powered past Pursley to take over the top spot entering turn one. Pursley subsequently drifted over the cushion in turns three and four, thus allowing Bacon to march forward to a hefty 2.192 second advantage.

The yellow flag was displayed once more on lap 16 as Carson Garrett tagged the guardrail around the perimeter of turns three and four. On the following restart, Pursley again wasn’t able to take off as planned, which allowed Leary to swipe the second spot away ever so briefly. However, a half lap later, Pursley recovered and dove back under Leary in turn three to retake the runner-up spot.

By the time lap 22nd had arrived, Pursley had gained his second wind. It was then that he had caught back up to Bacon and surged past with a charge on the inside of turn three.

“I had to keep him within distance to make a move,” Pursley explained. “I just tried to keep on pressuring him in three and four. Thankfully, he went down there, and then missed it in one and two. He messed up down there in three and four and hit the curb wrong. That allowed me to inch closer to him every time. It was very hard to hit the bottom of two consistently and I feel like I did a good job with that. I’m very fortunate that he missed it right there and I was just close enough to make a move into three.”

In the immediate laps, Pursley pumped up his lead over Bacon to over a second and found himself in total control down the stretch while Bacon posed on two wheels above the turn three cushion, putting an end to any inkling of a late-race comeback.

Pursley steadily increased his interval over Bacon throughout the final laps, crossing the stripe 2.211 seconds out in front of the field over Bacon, Kevin Thomas Jr., C.J. Leary and Kyle Cummins.

Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.) turned heads in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying by going out last in the order and laying down the fastest lap of the night, thus becoming the fifth driver in the history of the series to record 50+ fast times in his career along with Tom Bigelow (65), Dave Darland (62), Tracy Hines (60) and C.J. Leary (50) who reached the mark one night earlier. In the end, Bacon notched his fifth consecutive podium feature finish with the series in his Dynamics, Inc./Next Level Metal – Davis Brothers Trucking – Hutson John Deere/Triple X/Rider Chevy. Now, in 11 career USAC Sprint Car starts at Knoxville, he has finished on the podium in 11 of them.

Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Ala.) and his Rock Steady Racing team were racing with heavy hearts at Knoxville following the Friday passing of 2000 Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway sprint car track champion Tony Jarrett. Jarrett was the father-in-law of Rock Steady crewman Brian Karraker and was well-known in the Indiana sprint car community. Sporting a helmet honoring Jarrett, KTJ recovered from a 15th place finish the night before to score a solid third place result on Saturday in his Inferno Armor – Eddie Gilstrap Motors – Creative Finishing/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.

J.J. Yeley (Phoenix, Ariz.) was once again the man on the move at Knoxville. For the second night in a row, the USAC Triple Crown champion was the hard charger, advancing from 17th to 10th in his Yeley Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – CK Electric – Apache Transport/Spike/Stanton Chevy. Furthermore, he collected a $500 bonus from ProSource as the Corn Belt Clash Passing Master after advancing a total of 21 positions throughout the two nights of racing at Knoxville.

USAC PR