Pursley Stronger Than Ever In Pursuit Of Chili Bowl Glory

TULSA, Okla. – He may be just 20 years old, but Daison Pursley is starting to seem like a seasoned veteran when it comes to racing at the Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink.

After all, Pursley has made two straight championship feature starts, was the hard charger during last year’s finale after climbing from 20th to fourth, and has been visible inside the SageNet Center since before he was a teenager – having grown up in nearby Locust Grove, Okla.

Pursley is also a veteran of the micro sprint Tulsa Shootout, so he’s turned more laps than most at the temporary fifth-mile dirt oval constructed each year for the biggest two weeks in dirt racing.

However, he comes into the 39th edition of the Chili Bowl seeming calmer and more confident than ever before.

Part of that quiet assurance can be attributed to his championship campaign last year with the USAC National Midget Series, where he won seven times and outdueled fellow Okie Cannon McIntosh on the final weekend of the season to secure the crown.

But the other piece to the puzzle is Pursley’s consistency in relationship with his team – Chad Boat’s CB Industries operation – with whom he drove all year en route to the USAC title and also contested the 2024 Chili Bowl with as well.

It all adds up to what Pursley believes could be a winning formula in Tulsa, hopefully allowing him to finally hoist a coveted Golden Driller trophy at week’s end.

“If you look at it, stats-wise or confidence-wise, with everything we’ve done leading up to (the Chili Bowl) I think it’s hard to say this isn’t the best shot coming in that I’ve ever had here,” Pursley told Motorsports Hotspot Wednesday morning in advance of his preliminary night. “We had a good run here at Chili Bowl last year, and that built a lot of confidence for the regular season, and then we went into the regular season and executed and won the championship.

“When you break it down, we won seven races, but we ran on the podium (more than) 50 percent of the time. It was just an incredible stretch for us,” he added. “Chad and I have clicked and have worked really, really well together … and as a whole, with Justin (Grant) coming on board and having (Chris) Windom back, I think as a whole team that CB Industries is coming in here with a real chance this year, for sure.”

When Pursley made his Chili Bowl debut in 2021, he was with a different Toyota-powered team in the powerhouse Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports squad, which brought 16 cars to Tulsa this year.

Though Boat’s team is less than half that size, Pursley tipped that the preparation the two veteran car owners put into preparing for the Super Bowl of Midget Racing is nearly identical.

“Keith (Kunz) and Chad have some similarities with the car setup; the feel is pretty dang similar, I feel like,” Pursley explained. “My driving style kind of revolves around what Keith taught me, just because as a teenager and everything, I was just always listening to what he would say and everything. But I don’t feel like the cars are crazy different. They definitely have their differences, but they all still drive the same.

“Usually, I’d say whatever Chad wants to do is similar to what I feel like I need or want to do as well to the car, and it just jives together where it works out really well,” he added. “Preparation-wise, I think it’s just the same goal as everyone else: you walk into this building, want to have success, and everyone wants to walk out with that little golden guy.”

Though he’s only in his fourth Chili Bowl this year, Pursley first raced the historic midget car event at 16, and would have done so even sooner had there not been age restrictions in place at the time.

He’d still come to the SageNet Center each January even in his early teenage years, though, helping the KKM team in any way that he could even before he was eligible to strap on a helmet and compete.

So, when it seems like Pursley has been in the building forever, “I kind of have been,” he laughed.

“I feel like I got a super early start, so it just feels like I’ve been in the game for quite some time now. I had to wait until I was 16 to run the Chili Bowl because they didn’t change the age limit in time for me. But I’ve been running midgets for a long time, since 2019, so I’ve got the laps and the experience even if I am on the younger side still.”

That doesn’t mean his road to victory – on Wednesday or Saturday – is going to be any easier, though.

“There’s just so much young talent right now in the field. It's hard to pick one, honestly, to circle specifically,” Pursley noted about his chief competition. “I feel like on our prelim night, there are so many good young guys. It’s going to be a fun one, where I feel like some people will never have heard of some of the guys, and then of course there are those that everyone knows well.

“I think it’s going to be a cutthroat battle on Wednesday. Tulsa can do some weird things and have some unforgettable winners, but hopefully it can be us in that category when it’s all done and over with.”

Pursley got a chance to run the Chili Bowl’s Race of Champions for the first time Monday night, invited by virtue of his USAC midget title, and finished runner-up to race winner Christopher Bell.

While it wasn’t a victory, it did give Pursley valuable laps ahead of his prelim night as he aims for one of the two guaranteed lock-in spots to Saturday’s grand finale.

“This event and track only come around one time a year, so as many laps as you can get on the track … no matter if it’s in a micro at the Tulsa Shootout or a midget at Chili Bowl, when you're racing here it’s very valuable,” Pursley said. “And, too, when you get to line up against the best of the best in the Race of Champions, it gives you a good snapshot of knowing if you’re somewhere in the ballpark or you need to get better before the real important nights to come.

“I think it helped us, and we’re going to see how much very soon.”

By now, everyone knows the story: Pursley suffered a broken neck and a spinal cord injury in a vicious USAC midget crash in November of 2021 at Arizona Speedway and was out of a race car for more than a year. He had to relearn how to walk before he could even think about getting back into the driver’s seat.

But the inspirational young star not only did that, he’s built himself back up – perhaps – even better than he was before the night more than three years ago when his life’s course was temporarily altered.

“I would say that I’m more whole, more complete, because of what I went through and everything I learned throughout that entire journey,” Pursley noted. “It has made me who I am today, all the bad times, and even though it’s unfortunate that I did go through it … the injury and the recovery brought a lot of good as well and gave me a different outlook on life and racing in general.

“I wouldn’t change anything that I went through at all,” he continued. “My growth process in the race car just kind of got delayed a little bit, but I definitely feel like my race craft and mental strength – getting out of that young kid era, so to speak - has progressed compared to my earlier years.

“There’s some stuff I need to work on, like there is for anyone, but I feel like I’m at the top of my game right now.”

And if Pursley could hoist the Golden Driller and win the Chili Bowl finale Saturday night, it would not only make all he adversity the’s faced to get back to this point worthwhile, it would fulfill a lifelong dream for an Oklahoma kid who grew up simply dreaming of turning laps at Tulsa Expo Raceway.

“This place is somewhere that I’ve been coming to since I was four or five years old, and just walking around and seeing everyone was special then,” he reflected. “To finally get to compete in it five years ago, and now to have a shot at it where I feel as confident as ever walking into the building … it’s the stuff dreams are made of, especially for someone with my background.

“It’s really all I can ever ask for out of this place.”

Wednesday’s prelim night broadcast begins at 5 p.m. ET (4 p.m. local), with every lap of Chili Bowl week able to be streamed live with a FloRacing subscription.

Race Face Digital’s Chili Bowl coverage is supported by DPC Media, home of longtime motorsports and automotive photographer David Campbell. To purchase DPC apparel or order photos from Chili Bowl 2025, visit www.seemymind.com for more information.