Pursley Drives Away To POWRi Win At At Charleston

By:
On:
In: Racing News

It wasn’t easy getting to the front, but once he made his way to the lead, Daison Pursley would drive away from the field in winning the second night of the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League’s Illiana Showdown by 2.2 seconds over Brent Crews at the Charleston Speedway, Saturday night

It’s the second win of the season for Pursley, who narrowly missed out on Friday night in placing second to Keith Kunz Motorsports teammate Buddy Kofoid after leading the opening 20 laps of the 30-lap feature.

On Saturday night, it was another young Toyota driver in Emerson Axsom who would dominate the early going, moving directly into the lead after starting from the outside of the front row. Brent Crews moved up to second on lap two, while Pursley began his move to the front, taking over the third spot on lap three. By lap six, Pursley would overtake Crews for second and start to close on Axsom.

As Pursley began to close, the two 16-year-old drivers began throwing slider after slider at one another in trading the lead back and forth. Pursley would officially lead lap 17, but Crews would retake the lead on lap 18. The two continued to battle on lap 19, but the duel would come to an end one lap later as Axsom suffered a flat left rear tire.  He was able to continue but would have to go to the back of the pack.

Pursley would lead the field back to green on lap 20 and was able to pull out to a comfortable advantage. After another yellow on lap 21, Kofoid would climb up to second place, but that was as far as his run would go as Pursley steadily pulled away from the field, stretching out a 2.5-second lead over Kofoid as the laps began to wind down. With a lap remaining, Crews would move past Kofoid for second.

As Pursley came around to take the checkered flag, Kofoid would come to a stop, eventually placing 20th, while teammate Bryant Wiedeman would win a photo finish for third as Toyota drivers swept the three podium finishes.  Joe B. Miller gave Toyota a fourth top-five as he brought it home in fifth place.  

They were joined in the top 10 by Cannon McIntosh (seventh), Ryan Timms (eighth), Kaylee Bryson (ninth) and Brennan Crouch (tenth) as Toyota drivers captured eight of the top-10 finishing positions.

The POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League returns to the track next weekend for a pair of races at Lake Ozark Speedway in Elden, Missouri, May 28-29.

 

Quotes:

Daison Pursley: “This thing was on rails. It’s crazy fast right now and I think it’s our time to get some wins. I really think this could be a special year. Hopefully, we can carry this over to Indiana Midget Week. To be with a great team like Keith Kunz Motorsports, I’m just extremely lucky.”

Brent Crews: “It was a great race. Second is pretty good. I would have liked to have a caution and maybe have a shot at Daison. It was a great night, but I would have liked to do a little better.”

TRD PR

Speedway Digest Staff
Follow Me
Latest posts by Speedway Digest Staff (see all)
Post Views: 51