ROSSBURG, Ohio — Death, taxes and Chris Windom/CB Industries winning USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget races Eldora Speedway.
That is the itemized list of life’s seemingly inevitabilities that have been certain in recent years, and nobody has proven it more often of late at the half-mile dirt oval.
During Friday night’s BeFour The Crowns 25-lap feature event, Windom checked out on the field from his front row starting position and kept himself and his right rear tire firmly planted within inches of the outside wall en route to a wire-to-wire victory in his CB Industries/NOS Energy Drink – PristineAuction.com – K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
It was Windom’s third Eldora midget win in his last four starts at The Big E dating back to 2021.
Furthermore, CB Industries’ prowess on the high banks was once again on full display as the team became the first entrant to earn four consecutive Eldora feature wins – three with Windom in 2021-22-23 and another with Mitchel Moles on the opening night of the 2022 4-Crown Nationals weekend.
Windom’s sixth overall 4-Crown Nationals feature win (3 midget, 2 Silver Crown, 1 sprint car) ranks fourth all-time behind only Jack Hewitt (19), Tyler Courtney (7) and Dave Darland (7).
“It’s just such a fun race track when it’s like this, up on the fence,” Windom, the 2020 USAC National Midget champion, explained. “You’ve got a lot of room and midgets are so fun to run when it’s like that. I’ve had a decent amount of experience here doing it too. I always enjoy coming back and racing for (team owner) Chad (Boat) every chance I can; we have a lot of fun together. It’s so much fun and it’s one I look forward to doing every season.”
Windom’s initial starting spot was slated to be the outside of the front row. However, original pole starter Jade Avedisian was ruled to have jumped the initial start and was subsequently penalized, dropping her back to the second row for a complete restart.
That moved Windom to the pole, yet still, the outside line is where he preferred as he immediately slid right up to the high line in turn one right after the 21-car field took the green flag.
By halfway, Windom had stretched his lead to more than a full second over Bryant Wiedeman and Avedisian who utilized two distinctly differing approaches in their pursuit of Windom. Wiedeman stuck his CB Industries machine to the bottom wall while Jade stayed true against the outside wall lap after lap.
Avedisian raced her way back into the second spot on lap 16 as she dug in on the high line to beat Wiedeman to the stripe, then began to track down Windom little-by-little to within a half second. However, with Windom occupying the same top side path, Avedisian followed his tracks up top, a location Windom had no intention of straying from.
“Early on throughout the night, guys were able to run the middle and the bottom, and there’s enough juice on exit to where you can do that,” Windom detailed. “Once it cleans off and the sprint cars run, it’s hard to beat momentum here. If you can get up top and hit your marks and not make a mistake, it’s really tough to beat a guy up there. I knew that’s where I needed to be, and I wasn’t going to move until I saw anybody else.”
Under five laps to go, traffic began to loom for the front runners with Avedisian feeling she just might have a shot to pounce for the win. However, Windom navigated with extreme precision, refusing to cave to the pressurized situation that lay ahead, and instead, never wavered off his line.
With that said, Avedisian remained well withing striking distance to the tune of about a half second behind Windom. Nonetheless, with three laps remaining, Avedisian stumbled against the turn-three cushion/wall, which cost her another half second along with a shot at stealing one away from Windom late in the going.
In the end, Windom was 2.149 seconds ahead of the field when he crossed under the checkered flag in front of Avedisian, Rico Abreu, Bryant Wiedeman and Logan Seavey, the series point leader who recorded his 13th consecutive top-five result.
For Avedisian, it was a fine first-time run as she rode the high line in spectacular fashion to finish as the runner-up in her Eldora Speedway debut aboard her Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – TRD – JBL Audio/Lynk/Speedway Toyota.
“This is awesome,” I’ve always dreamed of coming to Eldora and it lived up to the moment,” Avedisian exclaimed. “I was going hard from the start, and I just really want to win one of these races. If we keep finishing up front, our time will come. From the start, I got put back, which kind of set us back, but during the last 10 laps, we were closing the gap on him, and I made a mistake in three and lost the gap again.”
For Rico Abreu, it was a solid reemergence in midget racing for the two-time 4-Crown Midget race winner. Abreu made his first series start since 2020 a good one, finishing third in his Tanner Thorson Racing/Maestro’s Classic – Eddie Gilstrap Motors – Smith Titanium/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.
The Boxscore
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio, Sept. 22, 2023
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-16.637; 2. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-16.743; 3. Rico Abreu, 24, Thorson-16.782; 4. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-16.845; 5. Chris Windom, 89, CBI-16.846; 6. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.905; 7. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-16.978; 8. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.987; 9. Daniel Whitley, 58, Abacus-17.005; 10. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.008; 11. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.071; 12. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-17.093; 13. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-17.207; 14. Jake Andreotti, 25m, Malloy-17.248; 15. Mitchel Moles, 19T, Reinbold/Underwood-17.274; 16. Clinton Boyles, 98x, RMS-17.299; 17. Briggs Danner, 98, Schneider-17.351; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-17.364; 19. Holly Jones, 4, Bundy Built-17.528; 20. Kyle Simon, 23, Simon-17.757; 21. Ian Creager, 36, Creager-17.944.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Ryan Timms, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Clinton Boyles, 7. Holly Jones. 2:18.90
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Bryant Wiedeman, 2. Jake Andreotti, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Gavin Miller, 5. Taylor Reimer, 6. Briggs Danner, 7. Kyle Simon. 2:20.94
T.J. FORGED/CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Hayden Reinbold, 3. Rico Abreu, 4. Jade Avedisian, 5. Jacob Denney, 6. Daniel Whitley, 7. Ian Creager. 2:20.78
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chris Windom (2), 2. Jade Avedisian (1), 3. Rico Abreu (4), 4. Bryant Wiedeman (5), 5. Logan Seavey (6), 6. Daison Pursley (3), 7. Justin Grant (9), 8. Gavin Miller (10), 9. Thomas Meseraull (14), 10. Ryan Timms (7), 11. Jacob Denney (13), 12. Mitchel Moles (8), 13. Daniel Whitley (11), 14. Jake Andreotti (15), 15. Hayden Reinbold (18), 16. Taylor Reimer (12), 17. Clinton Boyles (16), 18. Briggs Danner (17), 19. Holly Jones (19), 20. Kyle Simon (20), 21. Ian Creager (21).