OCALA, Fla. — Emerson Axsom parleyed a front-row starting spot, a terrific car and a right-rear tire so bald that it should have gone flat into claiming his first USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car Series victory Thursday night at Bubba Raceway Park.
The 17-year-old midget grad led Jason McDougal and Thomas Meseraull to the checkered flag in a 30-lap feature run in bits and spurts, with all three finishing with completely bald right-rear tires on a track so black that it looked like asphalt.
“They gave me a great race car and early on we were really good,” Axsom said after winning the season opener for the series. “I was watching for the rubber and once it took it about halfway the race was pretty much over. I just tried to keep the right rear under me and save it but near the end it was really vibrating and I wasn’t sure we’d make it.”
Axsom and McDougal drove away from the field early on, but C.J. Leary drew up on lap five to draw the first yellow, which also saw Robert Ballou pit for a right front tire. By then, Meseraull had already hauled his Chris Dyson-owned mount from seventh to third, passing Brady Bacon and Justin Grant.
A scramble on the ensuing restart brought the yellow right back out, but Axsom got a big jump on the restart only to have to surrender it three laps later when Bacon went around in turns three and four. The green flag then stayed out until lap 12, when Wesley Smith blasted the turn three wall and took a hard tumble to draw a red that led to an extended work period for the rest of the field.
The order at that point was Axsom, McDougal, Meseraull, Chase Stockon and Justin Grant, with the leaders holding those positions through a lap-18 yellow for a spin back in the pack. By then, tire wear was becoming a problem, with Shane Cockrum and Tanner Thorson pitting for new rubber.
Grant managed to get to fourth on the restart but then Cummins wormed his way by Grant, who won both of last week’s midget features at the odd-shaped oval.
As the laps dwindled, attention turned to Buddy Kofoid, making his maiden voyage in the KKR Toyota sprinter. With others struggling to pass, Kofoid advanced from 19th to fifth at the checkered flag, a run made even more notable by the fact that in a shakedown run at the track Sunday, he blew a tire and tagged the wall hard enough that the team thought the car was wrecked beyond immediate repair.
After contemplating going home, the team started cutting and welding and by race day rolled out a car that was one of the fastest in the field.
Grant led the second five, trailed by Stockon, Carson Short, Logan Seavey and Mario Clouser.
“The last few laps, my right rear was vibrating really bad,” said McDougal. “I was just riding, hoping to get to the end.”
Meseraull, with an equally bald tire, said “any night you end up on the frontstretch is a pretty good night. We might have had the best car out here, but I was just riding toward the end. We were lucky we made it on that tire.”
Keyword: Axsom Rules USAC Sprint Car Opener