The Comeback Of All Comebacks; Daison Pursley’s Remarkable ’24 Nets Him USAC Midget Title

Story By: RICHIE MURRAY / USAC – SPEEDWAY, IN – A team of Disney writers couldn’t have produced a better script than the reality of Daison Pursley’s storybook USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship season in 2024.
From the depths of despair after suffering a major spinal cord injury during a 2021 USAC Midget crash at Arizona Speedway to the highest mountaintop with his championship clinching moment in 2024 at California’s Ventura Raceway, the now 20-year-old Pursley endured a journey that so few could even comprehend.
Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) was diagnosed as an incomplete quadriplegic in the immediate aftermath of his accident with paralysis from the neck down. Throughout 2021-2022, he endured a rigorous rehabilitation program to aid his recovery from his severely damaged C4-C5 vertebrae.
“I’m definitely sure there was doubt,” Pursley explained when asked if he thought this day would come after what he had been through. “I would be lying if I didn’t say that. There were always goals. At first, I just wanted to be quote/unquote a normal person again and just live a normal life, which was just walking, eating on my own and breathing on my own. Just all the little things that we wake up and take for granted.”
Literally and figuratively, it was all about taking one step at a time. Soon enough, steadily and surely, the thoughts of returning to the seat of a racecar came creeping back into Pursley’s daily thoughts.
“It started out with accomplishing those little, but big things,” Pursley noted. “Once I checked off all those goals, it was going to the rehab center to run and ride a bike, then once those were checked off, I wanted to race again. It was a big step not only to want to race, but to also race at the level I wanted to. Once I got back in a micro sprint, after about five laps, I was saying to myself, ‘this feels right. This feels like exactly what I want to do.’ I knew it was just going to take some time to get back to where I once was, but I knew it was definitely something I wanted to pursue.”
By late 2022, Pursley was back behind the wheel. By 2023, he was regaining his footing at the wheel. By the end of 2024, he was a champion, something that was almost hard to imagine just three years ago. Three years definitely seems like a long time in the world of a young racer, but as he reflects now, a USAC national championship is something that happened a lot faster than he ever could’ve imagined. It’s a feat he’ll forever be proud of and thankful for. It’s a feeling of accomplishment that, after all the pain and emotional he’s been through, he can proudly proclaim that’s he’s back.
“I don’t think it’s ever really going to sink in that I’m a USAC champion,” the humbly confident Pursley stated. “It’s something that people dream of but never get to accomplish. It’s something that I’m going to cherish forever and always remember.”
In 2024, Pursley and his CB Industries/PristineAuction.com – NOS Energy Drink – TRD/Spike/Speedway Toyota compiled a series high seven USAC National Midget victories, while leading 87 laps, capturing 11 heat race wins and producing 16 top-five finishes in 23 feature starts. In the process, Pursley provided CB Industries its first USAC National Midget entrant title, and the second for team principal Chad Boat who scored a series championship as part of Tucker-Boat Motorsports in 2020 with driver Chris Windom.
After a runner-up finish in the season opener, Pursley celebrated his 100th career USAC National Midget start in style by winning the following night’s feature at the Belleville (Kan.) Short Track, his first series victory since August of 2021, three months prior to his injury. Before the end of spring, he added two more scores at Bloomington Speedway and Kokomo Speedway, plus top-three finishes in five successive starts to earn his first USAC Indiana Midget Week crown by a record 74-point margin.
By midsummer, Pursley was still rolling, winning in his home state of Oklahoma at Red Dirt Raceway, the location of his first career USAC National Midget win in 2021. He followed up the next evening with a triumph during the Chad McDaniel Memorial at Kansas’ Mitchell County Fairgrounds That put Pursley’s win streak at three, which coincidentally, all came after he started seventh on the grid.
In September, Pursley put together one of the most incredible runs in USAC history by winning USAC National Midget features on back-to-back nights at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway, followed by a USAC National Sprint Car victory before leading the first 12 laps and finishing fourth in the USAC Silver Crown race, all within a 27-hour span during the 4-Crown Nationals.
From the beginning, Pursley could tell his partnership with CB Industries was going to be promising. After a slight setback buried Pursley in the Saturday D-Main of his first ride with the team at the January 2024 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals, Pursley proceeded to advance through the alphabet soup, passing 45 cars along the way en route to a fourth place finish in the A-Main. Furthermore, when time allowed, Pursley stepped foot into CBI’s micro and proceeded to win there as well.
As it turns out, this whole championship pursuit may not have even been possible without Pursley’s friendship with Jesse Love, who was his teammate with the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports USAC Midget team during the 2020 season. Toward the end of the 2023 season’s California swing for the series, Love, who was driving for CBI at the time, chatted with Pursley in the pit area, which led to a conversation with Boat regarding 2024 plans. One thing led to another and Pursley had his plans set for 2024.
When Pursley clinched the USAC title with a third-place run in the season-ending Turkey Night Grand Prix at Ventura, eyes were drawn to the embrace between Daison and his father, a moment which represented so much more than just a congratulatory bear hug. It meant the entire world.
“I absolutely owe everything to my mom and dad,” Pursley said of his parents, Shawnda of Klint Pursley. “They’ve sacrificed so much for me and I can’t even begin to imagine everything that they’ve done for me. I don’t quite understand it because I’m not a parent by any means but I can’t imagine what they felt when their kid was at his absolute lowest and now he’s at the absolute highest, all within a three-year span. They are the best parents I could ever ask for and they’ve taught me how to be the person that I am today.”
If there’s anybody who can attest to the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in both motorsports and life, it’s Daison.
“Cherish all these moments and don’t get too high on yourself or too low when things get rough and stay level-headed,” Pursley shared. “My parents have done a great job in teaching me that. I’ve just been able to ride the wave – the good and the bad – and definitely wouldn’t change anything that my parents have done for me, and I’m forever grateful for them to travel up and down the road with me, with my dad driving all the miles to get me to all these racetracks while I sat in the passenger seat and slept. It’s just a very cool moment that I get to share with my mom and dad, and even more special with all of them getting to be there as well.”
Meanwhile, Cannon McIntosh (Bixby, Okla.) added three victories on his way to a career best second place finish in the standings, including May’s season opener at the Belleville (Kan.) Short Track which ended a 616 day dry spell since his last series win. He also added September’s Firemen’s Nationals at Wisconsin’s Angell Park Speedway and the $20,039-to-win Driven2SaveLives BC39 Presented by Avanti Windows & Doors later that month at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, utilizing a pass on the white flag lap to secure the big payday. He also led all drivers with 20 top-ten finishes in 23 starts.
Reigning series champion Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) finished third in points after notching a pair of wins at Missouri’s Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex in May before picking up another in June during Indiana Midget Week at Tri-State Speedway. His four fast qualifying times during the season made him the leader in the clubhouse with the series. His eighth place finish in the opener at Belleville set a new all-time USAC record. The result marked his 23rd consecutive top-10 USAC National Midget feature finish dating back to last season, breaking the record held by Jason Leffler since 1997.
Ryan Timms (Oklahoma City, Okla.) followed likewise with a couple of wins during the Indiana Midget Week opener in June at Lawrenceburg Speedway which provided Mike Curb his milestone 200th USAC national victory as a car entrant. Timms picked up another in July at Nebraska’s Jefferson County Speedway, boosting him to his second consecutive fourth place finish in the standings. His 20th to 2nd run at Eldora in September resulted in the biggest charge of the year with the series.
The Max Papis Innovations Bob Stroud Rookie of the Year battle was tight all year long with Zach Wigal (Belpre, Ohio) edging Kale Drake (Collinsville, Okla.) for the award. Wigal became the first Ohioan to win top Rookie honors with the series since Todd Beach in 2004. Both were also feature winners during their initial 2024 campaign as well with Wigal pocketing Angell Park in early September and Drake hoisting the trophy during a BC39 prelim in late September at IMS.
Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) checked off a USAC National Midget win for the eighth consecutive season in July when he prevailed at Jefferson County. The night also marked his 80th overall USAC feature win, one of just 12 drivers to reach the mark along with Rich Vogler (171), A.J. Foyt (162), Sleepy Tripp (161), Mel Kenyon (131), Dave Darland (115), Bryan Clauson (112), Damion Gardner (106), Tracy Hines (98), Tom Bigelow (89), Gary Bettenhausen (82) and Brady Bacon (80).
Meanwhile, a number of non-series-regulars arrived on the scene and raced their way into victory lane: Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) in June at Lincoln Park Speedway and Chase McDermand (Springfield, Ill.) in September for his first career USAC National Midget win during a BC39 prelim.
The end-of-year five-race November California swing produced four different winners with Corey Day (Clovis, Calif.) tallying a win at Merced Speedway in which he utilized a 20-year-old Wirth Mopar engine that was older than Day himself who turned 19 between his two victories. Furthermore, it was the first USAC National Midget win of any kind for a Mopar powerplant since Brad Sweet 14 years earlier in 2010 Angell Park Speedway. Day capped the year by becoming the youngest ever winner of the Turkey Night Grand Prix in the 83rd running at Ventura Raceway.
Carson Macedo (Lemoore, Calif.) got his win in the series’ return to Thunderbowl Raceway after a 14-year hiatus, while Kyle Larson (Elk Grove, Calif.) was spectacular in winning at Merced. Tanner Thorson (Minden, Nev.) wired all 30 laps at Bakersfield Speedway to become just the 14th driver to reach 30 career USAC National Midget feature victories.
Jacob Denney (Galloway, Ohio) finished his season a career best fifth in the standings while Zach Daum (Pocahontas, Ill.) started feature events for six different teams on the path to a sixth place result in the points, his best placing since grabbing fifth a decade ago in 2014. Gavin Miller (Allentown, Pa.), fresh off Rookie of the Year accolades in 2023, followed up in his sophomore season with the series with his second straight eighth place points finish.
An all-time series record 10 drivers started all 23 feature events during the 2024 season. The previous record for the number of drivers starting all USAC National Midget features in a season was eight in 2021. Drivers starting them all in 2024 were Zach Daum, Jacob Denney, Kale Drake, Justin Grant, Cannon McIntosh, Gavin Miller, Daison Pursley, Logan Seavey, Ryan Timms and Zach Wigal.
Overall, 110 drivers started a USAC National Midget feature in 2024, the most in a single season since 119 competed eight years ago in 2016.