Daison Pursley wins Sprint Car and Midgets, Moles tops Silver Crown at USAC 4-Crown Nationals
Photo by Ryan Sellers
ROSSBURG, Ohio — 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 AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 21, 2024 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 42nd 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-15.536; 2. Daison Pursley, 21AZ, Team AZ-15.935; 3. Kale Drake, 2B, 2B Racing-16.130; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-16.174; 5. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-16.207; 6. Stevie Sussex, 5, Baldwin/Fox-16.207; 7. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-16.266; 8. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-16.272; 9. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-16.302; 10. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-16.327; 11. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-16.369; 12. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.450; 13. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-16.607; 14. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.612; 15. Trey Osborne, 11T, Osborne-16.622; 16. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.633; 17. Max Adams, 63, F & F-17.008; 18. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-17.009; 19. Paul Dues, 87, Dues-17.110; 20. Nick Bilbee, 17, Bilbee-17.152; 21. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-17.155; 22. Chance Crum, 26, Crum-17.181; 23. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-17.208; 24. Scotty Weir, 21H, Hery-17.257; 25. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran-17.325; 26. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-17.364; 27. Steve Irwin, 0, Flying Zero-17.366; 28. Braxton Cummings, 71B, Cummings-17.520; 29. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-17.528; 30. Collin Ambrose, 36, Ambrose-17.558; 31. Travis Thompson, 7, Thompson-17.658; 32. Korbyn Hayslett, 1H, Hayslett-17.791; 33. John Mollick, 4J, Clever-17.884; 34. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-17.936; 35. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-17.940; 36. Max Frank, 25, Middle Class-17.992; 37. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-18.029; 38. Keith Sheffer II, 86, Sheffer-18.101; 39. Bryce Dues, 23D, Dues-18.123; 40. Austin Cory, 00, Cory-18.208; 41. Jack James, 99, James-18.417; 42. Mike Haggenbottom, 51, Hoagie-18.481; 43. Nate Schank, 1, Schank-NT; 44. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Max Adams, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Saban Bibent, 6. Jake Swanson, 7. John Mollick, 8. Ryan Barr, 9. Brian Ruhlman, 10. Kody Swanson, 11. Jack James. 2:18.130
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Matt Westfall, 4. Chance Crum, 5. Stevie Sussex, 6. Brandon Mattox, 7. Matt Goodnight, 8. Keith Sheffer II, 9. Aric Gentry, 10. Collin Ambrose, 11. Mike Haggenbottom. 2:18.838
T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Kale Drake, 4. Hunter Maddox, 5. Trey Osborne, 6. Steve Irwin, 7. Mitchel Moles, 8. Paul Dues, 9. Travis Thompson, 10. Joey Amantea, 11. Bryce Dues. 2:23.576
CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Carson Garrett, 5. Nick Bilbee, 6. Scotty Weir, 7. Max Frank, 8. Braxton Cummings, 9. Nate Schank, 10. Austin Cory. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Scotty Weir, 2. John Mollick, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Brandon Mattox, 6. Kody Swanson, 7. Brian Ruhlman, 8. Steve Irwin, 9. Braxton Cummings, 10. Matt Goodnight, 11. Ryan Barr, 12. Keith Sheffer II, 13. Mike Haggenbottom, 14. Paul Dues, 15. Max Frank, 16. Joey Amantea, 17. Nate Schank, 18. Bryce Dues, 19. Jack James, 20. Aric Gentry, 21. Collin Ambrose, 22. Travis Thompson, 23. Austin Cory.
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Daison Pursley (5), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 3. Logan Seavey (7), 4. Kyle Cummins (2), 5. Robert Ballou (10), 6. C.J. Leary (6), 7. Brady Bacon (9), 8. Briggs Danner (11), 9. Matt Westfall (13), 10. Stevie Sussex (1), 11. Chase Stockon (8), 12. Justin Grant (16), 13. Jake Swanson (14), 14. Carson Garrett (12), 15. Mitchel Moles (24), 16. Trey Osborne (15), 17. Scotty Weir (22), 18. Kale Drake (4), 19. Max Adams (17), 20. Nick Bilbee (18), 21. John Mollick (23), 22. Hunter Maddox (21), 23. Chance Crum (20), 24. Saban Bibent (19). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Stevie Sussex, Laps 6-9 Kevin Thomas Jr., Laps 10-30 Daison Pursley.
**Nate Schank flipped during qualifying.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-2710, 2-Brady Bacon-2624, 3-Daison Pursley-2439, 4-C.J. Leary-2412, 5-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2402, 6-Mitchel Moles-2352, 7-Robert Ballou-2300, 8-Kyle Cummins-2222, 9-Justin Grant-2212, 10-Carson Garrett-1668.
BUBBY JONES MASTER OF GOIN’ FASTER PRESENTED BY SPIRE SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-604, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-598, 3-Daison Pursley-577, 4-C.J. Leary-575, 5-Logan Seavey-571, 6-Kyle Cummins-547, 7-Mitchel Moles-523, 8-Robert Ballou-518, 9-Justin Grant-486, 10-Chase Stockon-410.
USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-186, 2-Logan Seavey-174, 3-Robert Ballou-145, 4-C.J. Leary-117, 5-Justin Grant-116, 6-Kyle Cummins-115, 7-Chase Stockon-112, 8-Brady Bacon-111, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-100, 10-Joey Amantea-93.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: October 11-12, 2024 – Lawrenceburg Speedway – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – 3/8-Mile Dirt Oval – Fall Nationals
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: C.J. Leary (15.709)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: C.J. Leary (15.536)
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Logan Seavey
Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Chase Stockon
Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Brady Bacon
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Scotty Weir
Hard Charger: Mitchel Moles (24th to 15th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Logan Seavey
Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race: Mitchel Moles
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PURSLEY DELIVERS USAC MIDGETS WEEKEND SWEEP AT ELORA'S 4-CROWN NATIONALS
ROSSBURG, Ohio -- Just like déjà vu, Daison Pursley had all bases, and the field, covered during Saturday night’s 25-lap USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship portion of the 4-Crown Nationals at Rossburg, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.
Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) had kicked off his weekend triumphantly at the 1/2-miled dirt oval with a victory during Friday night’s BeFour the Crowns Program in the seat of his CB Industries/PristineAuction.com – NOS Energy Drink – TRD/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
Saturday night proved no different as Pursley once again thrashed the field after starting sixth on the grid. Pursley charged his way through the field, then cleared defending 4-Crown midget winner Logan Seavey with a turn one slide job on the 10th lap. From there, Pursley led the remaining 16 circuits as he trekked away to finish his weekend an undefeated two-for-two in the midget.
“You just can’t give an inch to any of these guys,” Pursley remarked regarding his competition. “When you get out of that rhythm, I feel like you slow down, so I was hammering it there as hard as I absolutely could for 25 good ones, and I felt like I did an okay job, I guess. It’s a phenomenal car to drive, like I always say, and I’m super thankful for the opportunity. It’s just rewarding when we get to park it in victory lane.”
It was the ninth career USAC National Midget feature win for the humble Pursley. Ironically, victory number nine tied Pursley with his car owner, Chad Boat, and Chad’s father, Billy Boat, for 80th place on the all-time series win list.
Pursley’s win also continued CB Industries’ remarkable reign in USAC National Midget competition at Eldora. The Mooresville, North Carolina based team has now won six of the last seven feature events at the track dating back to 2021 with Chris Windom (3), Pursley (2) and Mitchel Moles (1) each notching scores at The Big E.
Furthermore, Pursley’s back-to-back weekend wins at Eldora pushed his lead in the season-long USAC National Midget standings from 51 to 96, just like that in a blink of an eye as he pursues his first career series driving title.
After scoring his second $15,000 check of the night, Pursley improved his then unblemished Eldora weekend record to three-for-three while pocketing $35,000 thus far. He achieved his latest win after narrowly avoiding catastrophe on the opening lap.
On the initial green flag, original pole sitter Zach Wigal was docked one row after it was ruled that he jumped the start. With Wigal now slotted in third, that moved Zach Daum to the outside of the front row. When the green flag dropped for the second time, Daum made it priority number one to get to the bottom of the racetrack. At the same time, Wigal was going for the same piece of real estate, which created a calamity of epic proportions.
Following the Zach on Zach collision, Wigal began flipping upside down toward the outside turn one wall. Wigal’s car ricocheted into that of Cannon McIntosh who careened nose first into the outside wall. In all, eight driver and cars were collected in the incident: Wigal, McIntosh, Kale Drake, Chris Windom, Kyle Jones, Thomas Meseraull, Hayden Reinbold and Michael Smith. All drivers walked away, but five of the eight, but only Windom, Meseraull, Reinbold and Smith were able to restart.
With the field re-racked, Seavey jetted out to the lead while Pursley made quick work to slot into second by threading the needle around the topside of turns one and two to blitz from fourth to second past Jacob Denney and Kevin Thomas Jr.
By lap six, Pursley was applying the pressure to Seavey, and in turn one on the 10th lap, Pursley cleared him for good with a turn one slider before gaining full control of the race lead by the time he hit turn three. Ultimately, Pursley built his lead to a full straightaway margin of 6.7 seconds before the yellow flag was displayed for the slowing car of seventh running Jade Avedisian on lap 19, the victim of a flat right rear tire.
Despite the dissipation of his commanding lead, Pursley quickly reconstructed his advantage over the final few circuits, finishing off the masterpiece run 4.775 seconds ahead of the field as he crossed under the checkered flag.
Ryan Timms (Oklahoma City, Okla.) was masterful as he made the biggest charge of the USAC National Midget season by advancing from 20th to second, making the final pass on Seavey for the runner-up spot just three laps from the finish line. For his efforts, Timms earned $1,000 in bonuses, first as the recipient of the Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race as well as the champion of the 4-Crown Nationals weekend ProSource Passing Master title, gaining 26 spots on track over the course of the two nights of action.
Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) finished third in both the USAC Sprint and Midget features, while Kevin Thomas Jr. scored fourth and Chris Windom rounded out the top-five after being collected in the opening lap accident. After starting at the tail and driving his way back up through the field to fifth, Windom earned the Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 21, 2024 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 42nd 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Kale Drake (#97K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Daison Pursley (#86 CBI), 3. Zach Daum (#17 O'Dell), 4. Briggs Danner (#98 Schneider), 5. Justin Grant (#2 RMS), 6. Thomas Meseraull (#7x Engler), 7. Luke Hall (#74 Heitmeyer), 8. Michael Smith (#76 Savage). 2:30.196
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey (#57 Abacus), 2. Cannon McIntosh (#71K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 3. Drake Edwards (#3p Petty), 4. Chris Windom (#89x CBI), 5. Gavin Miller (#97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 6. Kyle Jones (#27x Joyner), 7. Kayla Roell (#4K Roell). NT
T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (#14 4 Kings), 2. Ryan Timms (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 3. Hayden Reinbold (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood), 4. Jade Avedisian (#71 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 5. Jacob Denney (#25 Malloy), 6. Zach Wigal (#89 CBI). 2:33.755
ALSO AT THE TRACK: Matt Goodnight (#23 Simon)
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Daison Pursley (6), 2. Ryan Timms (20), 3. Logan Seavey (2), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 5. Chris Windom (10), 6. Zach Daum (3), 7. Justin Grant (9), 8. Jacob Denney (4), 9. Drake Edwards (17), 10. Gavin Miller (11), 11. Jade Avedisian (15), 12. Briggs Danner (13), 13. Hayden Reinbold (12), 14. Michael Smith (18), 15. Luke Hall (21), 16. Thomas Meseraull (16), 17. Zach Wigal (1), 18. Cannon McIntosh (5), 19. Kale Drake (8), 20. Kyle Jones (14), 21. Kayla Roell (19). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-9 Logan Seavey, Laps 10-25 Daison Pursley.
**Zach Wigal flipped on lap 1 of the feature.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-1133, 2-Cannon McIntosh-1037, 3-Ryan Timms-979, 4-Logan Seavey-947, 5-Zach Daum-947, 6-Jacob Denney-895, 7-Justin Grant-888, 8-Gavin Miller-844, 9-Zach Wigal-779, 10-Kale Drake-776.
USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-191, 2-Logan Seavey-174, 3-Robert Ballou-145, 4-Justin Grant-118, 5-C.J. Leary-117, 6-Kyle Cummins-115, 7-Chase Stockon-112, 8-Brady Bacon-111, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-103, 10-Mitchel Moles-93.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 26-27-28, 2024 – The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Speedway, Indiana – 1/5-Mile Dirt Oval – Driven2SaveLives BC39 Presented By Avanti Windows & Doors
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Kale Drake
Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Logan Seavey
T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.
Hard Charger: Ryan Timms (20th to 2nd)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night: Chris Windom
Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race: Ryan Timms
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MOLES MUSCLES TO FIRST USAC SILVER CROWN WIN AT ELDORA
ROSSBURG, Ohio -- To finish first, you must first survive.
Yeah, that’s not exactly the way the old adage goes, but it’s a reasonably apt description for Mitchel Moles’ path to becoming a first-time USAC Silver Crown winner during Saturday night’s 42nd installment of the 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO at Rossburg, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.
While several drivers fell by the wayside during the waning laps, Moles (Raisin City, Calif.) retained control throughout much of the 50-lap distance despite an incident with a lapped car and flat tire after flat tire down the stretch en route to a $15,000 prize.
The fourth place starting Moles (Raisin City, Calif.) took over the lead when he stepped up a lane and drove around Daison Pursley for the top spot in turn four on lap 13, then aced the remaining 38 tumultuous laps aboard his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – Southern Pacific Farms/DRC/Stanton Chevy.
In what was the 100th USAC Silver Crown race ever held on a 1/2-mile dirt track, Moles became the fifth first-time winner of the 2024 USAC Silver Crown season: Kaylee Bryson (Belleville), Daison Pursley (Port Royal), Dakoda Armstrong (Madison), Kevin Thomas Jr. (Salt City) and Mitchel Moles (Eldora). That’s the most in a season with the series since 2010. Meanwhile, Moles became the first driver since Tyler Courtney in 2017 to score his first career USAC Silver Crown at Eldora.
On an evening in which the checkered flag flew at a quarter ‘til 2am Eastern on Sunday morning, Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports also joined in on a rare feat by becoming just the 17th team ever to win feature events with the USAC Silver Crown, National Sprint Car and National Midget series over the years.
The first 16 entrants to achieve the feat include Mike Curb, Keith Kunz Motorsports, Cary Agajanian, Hoffman Auto Racing/Dynamics, Inc., Wilke Racers, Tony Stewart Racing, A.J. Foyt, 6R Racing, RW Motorsports, Klatt Enterprises, Louie Seymour, Kasey Kahne Racing, Leary Racing, Santos Motorsports, Dave Calderwood and Jason Leffler.
Though the team has been heavily active in USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car and USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget competition over the past several seasons, they have proven to be a quick study in the champ cars. The Eldora round was just the team’s fifth Silver Crown start and Moles’ ninth with the series.
Initially, Pursley had the upper hand from his pole starting position. After winning all three of his starts between the midget and sprint car during the Eldora weekend, Pursley was aiming to become the fourth driver to sweep all three USAC division victories in a single night at the 4-Crown Nationals following Jack Hewitt (1998), Kyle Larson (2011) and Logan Seavey (2023).
On the sixth lap, 25th running Dave Berkheimer spun to a stop in turn two to bring out the caution. However, under the yellow, the driver who had won each of the past three Silver Crown races at Eldora in 2021-2022-2023, Logan Seavey, pulled into the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area with a brake issue. Seavey restarted at the tail and managed to get back to 10th at the finish line.
As Pursley altered his line from high to low and from low to high, Moles saw an opening through the middle groove where rubber had accumulated. Finding instant traction, Moles propelled to the lead a lane above Pursley on the lap 13, then quickly established a half-straightaway advantage over the next handful of laps while Kody Swanson also followed along in the path to second.
“I felt like we had every end of the spectrum there,” Moles exclaimed. “The rubber actually came really fast. I was pacing Daison there, and all of a sudden, I went to the outside and it was fully rubbered. As soon as I got in front of him, I knew it was going to be a conservation deal. I had (spotter) Dylan (Cook) in my ear the whole time telling me I’m doing a good job and to just keep it rolling.”
With a narrow lane to work with, lapped traffic was going to be tricky for Moles. When he reached the 25th place running car of Tom Savage in turn three on lap 21, that’s where calamity ensued. As Moles attempted to pass Savage on the inside, room ran out. Moles right rear tire ramped over Savage's left rear, sending the rear end of Moles’ car airborne briefly before landing. Miraculously, he kept on going after the crash landing. At that some moment, flames erupted out of the left side of Savage's ride, forcing him to bail out and jump from the seat while his car was still rolling through turn two. The flames were quickly extinguished and Savage walked away.
“The lapped car came across me there,” Moles recalled. “I was just going to circle him, but he just lost the handle on it and went across the racetrack. So, I actually had to try to turn down underneath him, and when I ended up underneath him, he started coming down, and I was like, ‘it’s going to be one of those deals.’ Luckily, I made it through that deal. If it would’ve happened late in the race, it would’ve probably cut the tire, so we got lucky there. I don’t like to win races like that, but I feel like I did a pretty good job other than that all the way around.”
With traffic now clear in front of him, Moles immediately reestablished his stranglehold to the tune of a 3.6 second interval separation on the field with 17 laps remaining. However, that’s when the tire situation became the frame of focus. Mark Smith (14th), Zach Daum (16th), Kaylee Bryson (10th), Matt Goodnight (16th), Chase Stockon (8th) and Brady Bacon (6th) all became victims of a lack of right rear tread, resulting in numerous cautions and restarts.
But through it all, Moles kept it all intact to collect a 0.489 second victory over Kody Swanson who equaled his best Eldora Silver Crown finish of second. Briggs Danner also tied his personal best career Silver Crown performance with his second consecutive podium result after also finishing third at Du Quoin. Pursley came home fourth after leading the initial 12 laps.
Brian Ruhlman, a three-time 4-Crown Nationals feature winner behind the wheel of a modified, rounded out the top-five with his best career series finish. In doing so, he earned a $500 bonus as the recipient of the Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race award.
For his escape of literally avoiding the flames, Moles’ earned recognition for the aptly named Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Night.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 20-21, 2024 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 42nd 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: (Held on September 20) 1. Daison Pursley, 21, Team AZ-17.605; 2. Brady Bacon, 9, Dyson-17.608; 3. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran/Binks-17.682; 4. Mitchel Moles, 119, Reinbold/Underwood-17.705; 5. Chase Dietz, 86, Lee-17.712; 6. C.J. Leary, 6, Klatt-17.757; 7. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-17.763; 8. Logan Seavey, 22, Rice/Abacus-17.838; 9. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-17.924; 10. Mark Smith, 01, L & M-17.958; 11. Kyle Steffens, 08, Steffens-17.975; 12. Briggs Danner, 10, DMW-17.976; 13. Zach Daum, 37, Felker-17.997; 14. Carmen Perigo, 52, Stehman-18.108; 15. Chris Fetter, 15, Fetter-18.111; 16. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-18.112; 17. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-18.126; 18. Trey Osborne, 81, BCR-18.232; 19. Nathan Moore, 48, Thomas/Moore-18.273; 20. Kaylee Bryson, 26, Pierce-18.292; 21. Mark Bitner, 4, Yeska-18.336; 22. Tom Savage, 38, Savage-18.360; 23. Matt Goodnight, 24, Haggenbottom-18.402; 24. Joe Trenca, 66, Karlsen-18.558; 25. Gregg Cory, 32, Williams/Cory-18.679; 26. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-19.209; 27. Aric Gentry, 3, Simmons-19.427.
FEATURE: (50 laps, starting positions in parentheses, held on September 21) 1. Mitchel Moles (4), 2. Kody Swanson (3), 3. Briggs Danner (12), 4. Daison Pursley (1), 5. Brian Ruhlman (7), 6. Matt Westfall (17), 7. Justin Grant (16), 8. Carmen Perigo (14), 9. C.J. Leary (6), 10. Logan Seavey (8), 11. Trey Osborne (18), 12. Mark Bitner (21), 13. Chris Fetter (15), 14. Joe Trenca (24), 15. Kyle Steffens (11), 16. Aric Gentry (27), 17. Gregg Cory (25), 18. Chase Stockon (9), 19. Nathan Moore (19), 20. Kaylee Bryson (20), 21. Matt Goodnight (23), 22. Brady Bacon (2), 23. Mark Smith (10), 24. Zach Daum (13), 25. Tom Savage (22), 26. Chase Dietz (5), 27. Dave Berkheimer (26). 51:52.371
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Daison Pursley, Laps 13-50 Mitchel Moles.
USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-742, 2-Justin Grant-715, 3-Logan Seavey-651, 4-C.J. Leary-574, 5-Kyle Steffens-471, 6-Kaylee Bryson-411, 7-Trey Osborne-395, 8-Gregg Cory-384, 9-Bobby Santos-366, 10-Nathan Moore-342.
USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-191, 2-Logan Seavey-174, 3-Robert Ballou-145, 4-Justin Grant-127, 5-C.J. Leary-117, 6-Kyle Cummins-115, 7-Chase Stockon-112, 8-Brady Bacon-111, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-103, 10-Matt Westfall-101.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: October 6, 2024 – Terre Haute Action Track – Terre Haute, Indiana – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 20th Sumar Classic
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: Brady Bacon (17.017)
Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Daison Pursley (17.605)
Hard Charger: Matt Westfall (17th to 6th)
Inferno Armor Fire Move of the Race: Mitchel Moles
Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race: Brian Ruhlman
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