Take a Bow! Axsom Wins First USAC Indiana Midget Week Race at Lincoln Park - Speedway Digest

It’s quite evident that second place had no place in Emerson Axsom’s vocabulary during Thursday night’s USAC Indiana Midget Week event at Putnamville’s Lincoln Park Speedway.

In fact, second place had become a way too common gut punch for the Franklin, Indiana racer since his most recent USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship triumph nearly three years earlier in the summer of 2021.

Since that point, he’d finished as the runner-up on an astonishing nine different occasions with nary a victory to show for his efforts in USAC National Midget competition. In 2023 alone, Axsom finished second five times with the series, all while coming up just short of glory.

Even in two previous Lincoln Park midget starts, Axsom ran third in 2021 and then took second in 2023 after leading a race-high 20 laps. On Wednesday at Lawrenceburg, he led 18 of 30 laps and saw a chance at victory slip away late.

So, in other words, one might say Axsom was due to grab one when the tour rolled into Lincoln Park’s 5/16-mile dirt oval on Thursday. Axsom made his winning move on lap 19 of the 30-lap affair after dueling past his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports teammate Ryan Timms for the lead, and ultimately, the victory in his TRD – IWX – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota.

For Axsom, the performance marked his first career USAC Indiana Midget Week win in what was his 16th start in the five-race series across the Hoosier landscape. Overall, it was his third career USAC National Midget feature score, an achievement he had longed to conquer for these past 1055 days since last making his victory bow to the crowd at Fairbury, Nebraska’s Jefferson County Speedway.

“I haven’t won a midget race in a long time, but I feel like I’ve run second a million times,” Axsom sighed with relief. “I’ve gotten beat on the last lap, and it seems like stuff just hasn’t gone our way since Fairbury in 2021. I’m glad to win with these guys. (Car owner) Keith (Kunz) deserves to win all the time. He puts a lot of work into it and it’s a dream to drive for him. I’m glad we finally got one.”

Starting fifth, Axsom actually fell back a spot to sixth at the start and maintained that position for the initial 11 laps. All the while, Wednesday night’s Lawrenceburg winner Timms had already established his prowess at the front of the field, holding down a half-straightaway lead over fellow KKM wheelman Cannon McIntosh.

By halfway, McIntosh had finally begun to reel his way back into contention by snipping Timms’ lead in half to seven tenths of a second. Meanwhile, Axsom began his forward progression past Chase McDermand for fifth on lap 13, then charged past Kale Drake on the back straight for fourth a lap later on the 14th circuit.

After 19th running Ethan Mitchell stopped in turn four to bring out the caution on lap 17, Axsom did a little tweaking, which immediately paid itself off.

“I tweaked on the shocks a little bit there under that yellow and the car came to life,” Axsom explained. “It’s tough to tell yourself to make some shock adjustments on these cars just because they’re so good, you don’t want to dial yourself out. I’ve been doing it long enough. I feel like I made the right choices.”

Axsom utilized the subsequent restart to his advantage, going topside around Daison Pursley for third in turns one and two. Then, on the other end, Axsom slid under McIntosh to pocket second off the exit of turn four. Then and there, Axsom had no more second thoughts as he zeroed in on chasing down Timms for the race lead.

First, Axsom slid across the nose of Timms in turn four on lap 18, but Timms had an answer for each inquiry as he dipped back underneath Axsom to retain the position. Possessing a slight half-car length lead, Timms pulled the wheels up on the back straight and suddenly found himself in a spot to slide Axsom entering turn three. Timms slid from bottom to top across turns three and four, opening up the door for Axsom to drive under and take over as the race leader by a car length at the line.

“I knew that the top in (turns) one and two was okay, but before that yellow came out, I was running it and I couldn’t make time,” Axsom detailed. “I figured that if I could just keep my speed up, I would be able to make moves on the other end when guys would move around because they would run bottom and top. I just decided to go where they weren’t because my stuff is so good. A lot of times, this thing can make speed where others can’t. Thank God I’m in the 67K!”

From there on, Axsom went unfettered to the checkered flag, prevailing by 1.318 seconds over Timms, Pursley and McIntosh with Taylor Reimer rounding out the top-five, giving the KKM stable four of the top-five spots in the final rundown.

Furthermore, for the second night in a row, the podium consisted of Axsom, Timms and Pursley. Twenty-four hours earlier, the top three stood in a slightly different orderly fashion featuring Timms, Pursley and Axsom.

By virtue of a victory and a runner-up result during the first two nights, Ryan Timms (Oklahoma City, Okla.) has climbed atop the USAC Indiana Midget Week standings by a single point over Pursley. Over his past four USAC National Midget starts in 2024, Timms has accrued an impressive stretch of 2nd, 2nd, 1st and 2nd aboard his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/JBL Audio – IWX – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota.

Likewise, Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) has been equally as proficient, notching four top-three finishes in five USAC National Midget starts this year. At Lincoln Park, he took third in his CB Industries/PristineAuction.com – NOS Energy Drink – TRD/Spike/Speedway Toyota and extended his lead in the season-long USAC National Midget point standings to 10.

Gavin Miller (Allentown, Pa.) was the biggest mover in the feature event. The 2023 series Rookie of the Year advanced 16th to 10th in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Sound Gear – TRD – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota, which earned him a $100 bonus courtesy of Irvin King.

This girl is on fire! Jade Avedisian (Clovis, Calif.) was the recipient of the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night. In the second heat race, she charged from her seventh starting spot to score a dramatic victory in her Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – TRD – Peelz – Curb Records/Lynk/Speedway Toyota.

USAC PR