BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Fifteen months ago, Daison Pursley lay in a hospital bed facing an uncertain future after a violent crash during a midget race at Arizona Speedway.
Pursley’s comeback was complete on Tuesday night as the 18-year-old open-wheel racer topped Emerson Axsom earn the $10,000 top prize in the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Championship special event at Volusia Speedway Park.
The victory was worth $10,000.
Pursley remembers first-hand how far he’s come since that fateful night. He realizes this was a night to forever cherish – a night he’ll forever remember.
“It’s pretty unbelievable; this is definitely one I’ll remember forever,” Pursley exclaimed. “It’s crazy to look back at where I was a year ago, watching this stuff on TV. I don’t get very emotional, and I don’t show my emotions that much. I just kind of stay calm, cool and collected. Later tonight, when I’m getting ready for bed, I bet this one will hit pretty hard.”
Starting from the pole, Pursley led the first 18 laps while clinging with all his might to a narrow lead over Axsom. But only for a bit. Axsom burst his way to the front on the 19th trip, utilizing the bottom of turn two around the half-mile dirt oval.
Just like his fight to return the race track, there was no quit in Pursley on this night. As the two frontrunners worked lapped traffic, Pursley left the bottom for the first time, swinging wide and setting up top on the cushion. There, he found a power surge that pushed him past Axsom for good.
Entering the night, Pursley’s entire sprint car career consisted of two starts in both 2021 and 2022, plus one more the previous evening.
The first of those five previous opportunities came for KO Motorsports who gave him a chance to wheel a sprint car and also stuck by him through his injury and recovery by providing him a car when he was officially back and ready to wheel the Hutson John Deere – S & C Machine – Peterbilt/Flea RC/J & D Chevy.
“KO Motorsports gave me my first sprint car start and it’s so cool to be able to get my first win with them,” Pursley said. “It’s just crazy to look back at everything, from getting my first USAC Midget win to now getting my first USAC Sprint Car win all within two years. I’m just extremely thankful and blessed to be surrounded by great people like Kent (Schmidt), Flea (Ruzic) and Brian (Davis) and everyone who’s a part of this deal. It’s a pleasure to have the opportunity to drive such a great piece.”
Pursley admitted that he didn’t think he’d be winning in his and the team’s first weekend together. However, he was hooked up on the bottom from the word ‘go’ until encountering lapped traffic at the midway point of the contest.
On the 16th lap, Pursley drifted off the bottom in turn one, opening the door for Axsom to slide into the lead. Without hesitation, Pursley punched the throttle and tracked down Axsom on the way to turn three, slicing through the middle between Axsom and the newly lapped car of Cameron Smith.
Three laps later, however, Pursley shot high in turns one and two on the 19th circuit while Axsom stuck the bottom and motored into the race lead. With that said, Axsom was anything but in the clear. A few ticks later, Axsom encountered a triumvirate convoy of tail-end lead lap cars driven three-wide directly in his path by Tom Harris, Joey Amantea and Jadon Rogers.
Just as Axsom attempted to sneak under Harris in three and four, he found himself boxed in near the inner rail. Meanwhile, Pursley took his talents to the top in turn four and ripped around both to secure the race lead with just six laps remaining.
As Axsom reloaded for another run, Pursley possessed a full head of steam on his path to the finish line in a high speed game of “catch me if you can.”
Pursley had a straightforward mission and he wasn’t going to allow himself to be caught on this night as he closed out his victorious run with a .697-second margin of victory over Axsom.
C.J. Leary, new one-lap track record holder Thomas Meseraull and Monday night Volusia victor Jake Swanson rounded out the top five.
By virtue of his first and fifth place feature finishes and the accumulation of the most points during the two nights of racing at Volusia, Swanson collected the Big Gator as the overall DIRTcar Nationals champion.
The Boxscore
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Volusia Speedway Park, Barberville, Fla., Feb. 14, 2023
QUALIFYING: 1. Thomas Meseraull, 20, Dyson-16.362 (New Track Record); 2. Jason McDougal, 5m, KO-16.411; 3. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.423; 4. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall-16.485; 5. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-16.497; 6. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-16.506; 7. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-16.588; 8. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-16.668; 9. Brady Bacon, 98, Wedgewood-16.689; 10. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-16.698; 11. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-16.782; 12. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.824; 13. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-16.829; 14. Kevin Thomas Jr., 17GP, Dutcher-17.018; 15. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-17.140; 16. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-17.212; 17. Garrett Aitken, 32, Aitken-17.223; 18. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-17.261; 19. Jadon Rogers, 5, Baldwin/Fox-17.274; 20. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-17.542; 21. Cameron Smith, 96, Kauffman-17.596; 22. Steve Irwin, 0, Flying Zero-17.647; 23. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-17.704; 24. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-18.010; 25. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-18.134; 26. John Mollick, 4J, Clever-18.403.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Carson Garrett, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Matt Westfall, 5. Emerson Axsom, 6. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 7. Jadon Rogers, 8. Steve Irwin, 9. Hunter Maddox. 2:17.38 (New Track Record)
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Garrett Aitken, 4. Tom Harris, 5. Jason McDougal, 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 7. Brandon Mattox, 8. Brian Ruhlman, 9. John Mollick. NT
ROD END SUPPLY / T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Mitchel Moles, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Justin Grant, 7. Joey Amantea, 8. Cameron Smith. 2:21.46
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Jadon Rogers, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 5. Joey Amantea, 6. Cameron Smith, 7. Brian Ruhlman, 8. Brandon Mattox, 9. Steve Irwin, 10. John Mollick, 11. Hunter Maddox. 2:57.95 (New Track Record)
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Daison Pursley (1), 2. Emerson Axsom (3), 3. C.J. Leary (2), 4. Thomas Meseraull (6), 5. Jake Swanson (8), 6. Jason McDougal (5), 7. Brady Bacon (7), 8. Robert Ballou (4), 9. Chase Stockon (12), 10. Matt Westfall (11), 11. Kevin Thomas Jr. (14), 12. Justin Grant (13), 13. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (16), 14. Carson Garrett (9), 15. Logan Seavey (18), 16. Joey Amantea (22), 17. Tom Harris (10), 18. Garrett Aitken (17), 19. Jadon Rogers (19), 20. Cameron Smith (21), 21. Brian Ruhlman (20), 22. Mitchel Moles (15).