Pursley Powers to 4-Crown USAC Sprint Victory at Eldora - Speedway Digest

Twenty four hours after becoming a first-time Eldora Speedway USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget winner, Daison Pursley checked off another box by becoming a first-time USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car winner at the Rossburg, Ohio dirt oval.

The fifth-place starting Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) became the third different leader in the first one-third of Saturday night’s 30-lap feature after he tracked down and slid his way past Kevin Thomas Jr. on the 10th lap, then ran away from the field to earn a $15,000 payday at the 42nd running of the 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO in his Team AZ Racing/Apache Transport – Oak Craft Elegant Cabinetry/DRC/1-Way Chevy.

“This car was on rails on all night tonight,” Pursley praised. “Coming into this, I honestly thought this would be the hardest one to win. To click that one for the first feature of the night is cool. This is an unbelievable team to drive for, and once again, I’m just lucky enough to get to hold the steering wheel and take part in these victories.”

For Pursley, it was his second career points-paying USAC National Sprint Car victory, both of which have come this year at two of the most famed 1/2-mile dirt ovals in the world after also winning at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway on the first of June.

It was certainly no comfort cruise for Pursley, however, as he was on the chase for the first nine laps while pole sitter Stevie Sussex patrolled the field by pacing the first five circuits in what was the veteran’s first career start at the 4-Crown and his first time in the seat of a Baldwin-Fox Racing machine.

The lone caution of the feature occurred on the fifth lap when series Rookie and fourth-place running Kale Drake spun to a halt on the bottom of turn four. The entirety of the field scattered high and low to avoid head-on contact with the idle Drake but all managed to miss. Drake restarted at the tail and finished 18th.

On the horse following the restart was Kevin Thomas Jr. who shot to the bottom down around the inside concrete wall in turns three and four to surge past Sussex for the lead on lap six. Pursley followed suit past Sussex into second a lap later to place himself right within striking distance of the top spot.

After briefly pondering taking the high road around Thomas for a lap or two, Pursley recalculated and found a crack in the doorway on the bottom to slip past Thomas on the front straight away on lap 10 to snare the lead, and instantly pulled away.

Pursley continuously built his advantage to three, four and five seconds as he quickly reached lapped traffic. Undeterred, he was unrelenting as he maintained his pace and cemented his case as the class of the field on this night.

In the end, Pursley made mince meat of the field by crossing the stripe 5.434 seconds ahead of the competition as Kevin Thomas Jr., Logan Seavey, Kyle Cummins and Robert Ballou rounded out the top-five.

Pursley’s performance netted him his first career 4-Crown Nationals victory of any kind after capturing the USAC National Midget portion of the BeFour the Crowns on Friday evening.

Meanwhile, Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Ala.) led four laps to earn his best career 4-Crown Nationals result in what was his 12th start in the event dating back to 2009.

For Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.), the third-place finish was fruitful as it helped him extend his USAC National Sprint Car championship point lead from 74 to 86 with just four events remaining on the schedule. Furthermore, for his efforts, Seavey was the recipient of the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night after recovering from an early-race near incident in which he almost backed himself into the turn one outside wall.

Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, Calif.) also recovered from early hardship after his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports mount wasn’t able to fire for qualifying. Forced to swap the engine out, Moles ultimately made his way into the feature via the last transfer spot in the semi, then hustled from 24th to 15th in the feature to become the event’s hard charger. That earned him a $500 bonus for the Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race.

With his seventh place finish in the main event, Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.) was able to maintain a slim six-point edge over Kevin Thomas Jr. in the battle for the Bubby Jones Master of Going Faster Presented By Spire Sports + Entertainment title. One race remains in the 10-race series during the October 12 Fall Nationals at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway.

USAC PR