Toyotas Run 1-2 BC39 At The Dirt Track At IMS

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Kyle Larson held off Justin Grant and Brady Bacon in a wild three-car slider-fest at the NOS Energy Drink National Midget Series’ Driven2SaveLives BC39 at the Dirt Track at IMS Thursday night. 

Grant began the night on the pole position and led the opening lap before Daison Pursley would take the lead – the first of numerous passes for the top spot that the packed crowd would see on the night. Thomas Meseraull ran third with Ryan Timms and Larson rounding out the top five.

Meseraull would overtake Grant for second on lap four, while Pursley held a 0.8-second lead up through the first third of the event.  Things tightened up quickly, though, with Meseraull closing to within 0.167 seconds on lap 15 and was right on Pursley’s tail. Meseraull would eventually take the lead on lap 18 when Pursley would bobble up top coming out of turn four.

Larson moved up to second one lap later and begin a fierce battle with Meseraull that would run much of the remainder of the 39-lap event as the two began to trade sliders upfront. Larson would dive underneath to take the lead coming out of turn four on lap 22, but Meseraull came right back, officially leading lap 24.

Right behind the top two was Grant, who began to challenge Larson for second as Meseraull began to open up a comfortable lead with seven laps remaining, stretching it out to 1.8 seconds on lap 32. Unfortunately for Meseraull, a yellow flag would fly on lap 34, bunching the field and setting up a wild dash to the finish.

On the restart, it became a three-way battle for the top spot and by lap 35 of 39, the three ran side by side through turns three and four, with Grant going low to take the lead, while Meseraull and Larson would get together up top in turn four. The incident would end Meseraull’s night, with the standings reverting back to the last completed lap, putting Larson into the top spot for the restart.

While Meseraull was out, Bacon quickly made it three-car race to the checkers. He would overtake Grant on lap 36, but the top three were constantly trading positions with sliders, with Larson continuing to lead when they would come to the flag stand. 

On the final lap, Grant would inch into the lead coming through turns three and four, but Larson would use the top side and push past coming out of four to take the checkered flag by 0.220-seconds. Grant placed second, earning his third straight top-two finish in USAC competition. Bacon was third, with Pursley and fellow Toyota driver Emerson Axsom rounding out the top five in fourth and fifth.

Timms finished sixth and Buddy Kofoid was tenth as Toyota-powered drivers captured six of the top-10 finishing positions.

USAC returns to the track at Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, September 5.

Toyota Driver Quotes: 

Justin Grant, RMS Racing: “It was really a perfect place to put on a good midget race. You had to pick your marks off right and if you didn’t you’d get slid and if you did you could slide the guy in front of you. RMS keeps giving me a great race car. Playing the slider game, Kyle does it as good as anyone. We had a couple of chances, but didn’t quite get it right. We had the speed. I just needed to pick my spots a little better. We had a pretty equal pairing of cars, but just came up a little short. It was a ton of fun. It was a great event.”

Toyota-Powered Drivers Dirt Track at IMS A Main Results 

Kyle Larson – 1st

Justin Grant – 2nd

Daison Pursley – 4th

Emerson Axsom – 5th

Ryan Timms – 6th

Buddy Kofoid – 10th

Spencer Bayston – 12th

Kevin Thomas Jr. – 13th

Logan Seavey – 15th

Kaylee Bryson – 19th

Chris Windom – 21st

Cannon McIntosh – 22nd

Thomas Meseraull – 24th

TRD PR

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