HUNGER & DESIRE: PURSLEY & CBI TO CHASE USAC MIDGET TITLE IN 2024

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Speedway, Indiana (February 21, 2024)………Thus far, throughout the first two months of 2024, Daison Pursley has already taken a CB Industries midget on a fascinating alphabet soup run at the Chili Bowl Nationals and also captured two of his three micro sprint starts for the team.

Now, Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) will take the wheel to compete for a USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship in 2024 for Chad Boat’s CB Industries team aboard the PristineAuction.com – TRD – NOS Energy Drink No. 86 Spike/Speedway Toyota.  Pursley will be teamed with USAC Rookie Zach Wigal (Belpre, Ohio) throughout the year on the CBI squad.

Pursley, twice a winner in USAC National Midget competition for Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports in 2021, made his return to full-time midget racing in 2023 for Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports.  However, toward the end of that season’s California swing, Pursley and CBI driver/friend Jesse Love began chatting in the pit area, which led to a conversation with Boat regarding 2024 plans.  One thing led to another and Pursley had some new plans for 2024.

“Chad asked me what I was going to do for the Chili Bowl, and I said I truthfully didn’t have any plans locked down,” Pursley recalled.  “I had a couple opportunities to race for people, but I didn’t have anything for sure.  Then Chad mentioned to me that he wanted to do something, which led into 2024 USAC Midget stuff as well.  All the stars aligned for us to go chase a national championship.”

After a bit of a struggle during Pursley and CBI’s first outing during the Wednesday prelim at the Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Okla., the team truly hit its stride in Saturday’s finale.  Buried in the D-Main, Pursley proceeded to win it from fourth, then grabbed the fifth and final transfer spot in the C-Main after starting 16th.  Mired in the 20th starting position for the B-Main, Pursley charged all the way up to fifth to advance to the feature event.  There, starting 20th again, Pursley traveled all the way to fourth by the checkered flag.  In all, Pursley advanced an astonishing 45 positions in just four races.

Not bad for a debut, and as Pursley noted, the chemistry between he and Boat was clear the moment they shook hands in late 2023, before they even hit the track.  With that said, Pursley was already keenly aware of CBI’s abilities.  After all, Pursley’s Rookie season with the USAC National Midgets came in 2020, which coincides with the very same year that CBI captured its first series championship with Chris Windom at the wheel.

“The year I came into USAC in 2020, they were the guys to beat with Chris Windom winning the championship that year,” Pursley remembered.  “To be able to race for this operation is pretty cool.  The equipment they have and the caliber of racing these guys want to do is absolutely unbelievable.  Everything Chad does and the things he’s put together are just top-notch and I think he has everything lined up to have a really good season for Zach and me both.”

In fact, Pursley and CBI’s year is already off to a flying start.  During the first week of February, together they captured micro sprint victories at North Carolina’s Millbridge Speedway and Florida’s Marion County Speedway within a three-night span.

Now, just a little more than two years removed from his spinal cord injury in a racing accident at Arizona Speedway, Pursley is hungry and determined to return to victory lane in USAC National Midget competition for the first time since 2021.

“I definitely want to get that first win in USAC since the accident,” Pursley stated.  “I wasn’t able to accomplish that last year, but I felt like we were so, so close, and midget racing is so close right now.  We finished as high as second, but we were never able to close out and finish the deal.  But this year, I think it’s going to be a pretty successful season, to say the least.”

The 2024 USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship season begins on April 26-27 with the Kokomo Grand Prix at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway.