Emerson Axsom Delivers On York Plumbing Qualifying Night

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Image Credit: Richard Bales

Bryan Hulbert – TULSA, Okla. (January 14, 2026) Going back-to-back with Wednesday York Plumbing and Mechanical Qualifying Night wins, Emerson Axsom delivered big in traffic, as well as holding off the many challenges of Daison Pursley.

“I tried to show the good lapped cars and nose a couple times, and unfortunately, those guys wouldn’t budge, which is fair enough; you’ve got to run your own race,” stated Axsom of the race through traffic.

On whether or not he could hear anyone closing in traffic, Axsom said, “I had no idea where they were, but I figured I was running slow enough that I knew my pace was really slowed down, and I didn’t really get to leg it out ever. I knew if there was a guy behind me hustling, he would have run me down pretty easily. I knew my pace was slow, but I didn’t really know where they were and I just kept my eye to outside the left side door making sure.”

Rolling to the lead on Lap 19, the laps leading up to that were controlled by Kevin Thomas, Jr. and Colby Copeland. Slipping back at the start from the front row, the Mountain Mechanical Contractors No. 39 was fourth on Lap 1. Working back to second on Lap 6, the NOS No. 27w of Copeland had already taken over the lead by that point.

Back to green after a Lap 5 caution, Axsom followed Copeland into traffic with the California shoe keeping Axsom at bay before slipping up on the cushion through the first and second turns. Threading between Copeland and a lapped car, Axsom held command as the race for second heated up with Daison Pursley now in the mix.

Mired in traffic through the closing laps, Pursley took more than one look at the lead, but there was no denying Axsom, who won by 1.052-seconds to lock into his fourth Saturday night JST Motorsports A-Feature in as many years.

Daison Pursley, in second, will also take the green in his fourth championship feature event. Colby Copeland ended up third, with Thomas Meseraull in fourth. Kevin Thomas, Jr. would end up completing the top five.

Wednesday’s York Plumbing and Mechanical Qualifying Night included a field of 74 drivers to bring the week’s total so far to 222 drivers in attendance. The Flip Count over the first three nights has grown to 21, with all drivers okay.

Racing continues on Thursday, January 15, 2026 with Hasty Bake Qualifying Night with cars on track at 4:00 P.M. for Hot Laps. The night’s racing program begins at 5:00 P.M. (CT). General Admission is available at the event.

The 40th annual Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS Energy Drink takes place January 12-17, 2026, under the giant roof of the SageNet Center in Tulsa, Okla. Fans unable to attend the Chili Bowl Nationals can watch every lap live at http://www.floracing.com.

For continued updates on the Chili Bowl Nationals, fans can follow along on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with @CBNationals. All official press, updates, and results on the Chili Bowl Nationals can be found online at http://www.chilibowl.com.

RACE RESULTS:

40th annual Chili Bowl Nationals powered by NOS

Tulsa Expo Raceway (Tulsa, Okla.)

York Plumbing Qualifying Night

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Car Count: 74

Overall Count: 222

JUGO Super Foods Heat Races (Top 40 in passing points advance to Qualifiers)

JUGO Super Foods Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 41-Corey Day[4]; 2. 8K-KJ Snow[5]; 3. 1R-RJ Johnson[8]; 4. 76-Chris Murray[7]; 5. 80M-Steve Miller[2]; 6. 75H-Hunter Wilson[1]; 7. 00H-John Heitzman[6]; 8. 2T-Eli Geidel[3]; 9. (DNS) 42-Matt Carr

JUGO Super Foods Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 22X-Steven Shebester[1]; 2. 32W-Alex Bright[2]; 3. 68T-TJ Smith[8]; 4. 19F-Chad Davis[4]; 5. 75X-Kaleb Johnson[7]; 6. 5A-Austin Hawkins[3]; 7. 19M-Isaiah Vasquez[5]; 8. (DNF) 7C-Stuart Snyder[9]; 9. (DNF) 7K-Whit Gastineau[6]

JUGO Super Foods Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 84UK-Tom Harris[2]; 2. 3N-Jake Neuman[4]; 3. 05-Alex Midkiff[1]; 4. 31B-Jake Swanson[5]; 5. 78-Brody Wake[3]; 6. 7P-Cap Henry[6]; 7. 19K-Riley Kreisel[8]; 8. 51T-Cole Tinsley[7]

JUGO Super Foods Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 88A-Austin Torgerson[2]; 2. 29-Tim Buckwalter[3]; 3. 5X-Jacob Dykstra[5]; 4. 75A-Will Armitage[6]; 5. 7RM-Ryan Marshall[4]; 6. 44R-Branigan Roark[7]; 7. (DNF) 1X-Jake Scott[1]; 8. (DNF) 1-Sammy Swindell[8]

JUGO Super Foods Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 19T-Mitchel Moles[3]; 2. 14K-Kevin Thomas Jr[8]; 3. 4B-Chelby Hinton[6]; 4. 12C-Colby Stubblefield[5]; 5. 16C-David Camfield Jr[7]; 6. 77K-Kevin Cook[1]; 7. 32J-Jason Tessier[4]; 8. (DNF) 3W-Brandon Waelti[2]

JUGO Super Foods Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 7AU-Harry Stewart[1]; 2. 71X-Aiden Price[4]; 3. 67K-Colton Robinson[6]; 4. 4KD-Kale Drake[7]; 5. 77B-Bret Klabunde[2]; 6. 17G-Gage Rucker[5]; 7. 91J-Jimmy Sivia[8]; 8. (DNF) 3VZ-Grant Schaadt[3]

JUGO Super Foods Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 27W-Colby Copeland[2]; 2. 45B-Bradley Cox[1]; 3. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[8]; 4. 45S-Caleb Stelzig[5]; 5. 121-Cord Kisthardt[3]; 6. 80D-Heath Nestrick[6]; 7. 18C-Sean Cleavland[7]; 8. (DNF) 33W-Rece Wommack[4]

JUGO Super Foods Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 39A-Emerson Axsom[4]; 2. 25B-Steve Buckwalter[2]; 3. 08-Jeffrey Newell[3]; 4. 71CR-Gunnar Pike[6]; 5. 91X-Danny Wood[5]; 6. 42K-Kevin Battefeld[8]; 7. 70-Cade Cowles[1]; 8. 715-Robert Bell[7]

JUGO Super Foods Heat 9 (8 Laps): 1. 86-Daison Pursley[5]; 2. 35-Tyler Robbins[1]; 3. 251-Johnny Brown Jr[2]; 4. 40S-Jace Sparks[7]; 5. 32X-Jordan Hermansader[3]; 6. 2F-Casey Friedrichsen[6]; 7. 29R-Ritchie Burcik[8]; 8. 4A-Kermit Burnam Jr[4]

Toyota Racing Development Qualifiers (Top 16 in combined Heat/Qualifier passing points advance to the A-Feature)

Toyota Qualifier 1 (10 Laps): 1. 14K-Kevin Thomas Jr[6]; 2. 3N-Jake Neuman[3]; 3. 22X-Steven Shebester[2]; 4. 76-Chris Murray[1]; 5. 8K-KJ Snow[4]; 6. 25B-Steve Buckwalter[7]; 7. 1R-RJ Johnson[5]; 8. 12C-Colby Stubblefield[9]; 9. 16C-David Camfield Jr[10]; 10. 71CR-Gunnar Pike[8]

Toyota Qualifier 2 (10 Laps): 1. 4KD-Kale Drake[1]; 2. 7AU-Harry Stewart[2]; 3. 86-Daison Pursley[6]; 4. 71X-Aiden Price[3]; 5. 68T-TJ Smith[5]; 6. 45B-Bradley Cox[7]; 7. 45S-Caleb Stelzig[9]; 8. 84UK-Tom Harris[4]; 9. 08-Jeffrey Newell[8]; 10. 19F-Chad Davis[10]

Toyota Qualifier 3 (10 Laps): 1. 29-Tim Buckwalter[2]; 2. 4B-Chelby Hinton[3]; 3. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[5]; 4. 41-Corey Day[6]; 5. 88A-Austin Torgerson[4]; 6. 40S-Jace Sparks[1]; 7. 35-Tyler Robbins[7]; 8. 05-Alex Midkiff[9]; 9. 251-Johnny Brown Jr[8]; 10. 42K-Kevin Battefeld[10]

Toyota Qualifier 4 (10 Laps): 1. 39A-Emerson Axsom[6]; 2. 27W-Colby Copeland[4]; 3. 19T-Mitchel Moles[5]; 4. 32W-Alex Bright[1]; 5. 31B-Jake Swanson[8]; 6. 67K-Colton Robinson[3]; 7. 5X-Jacob Dykstra[2]; 8. 91X-Danny Wood[10]; 9. 75X-Kaleb Johnson[9]; 10. 75A-Will Armitage[7]

Creek County Speedway C-Features (Top 4 advance to the B-Feature)

C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 78-Brody Wake[2]; 2. 7P-Cap Henry[5]; 3. 17G-Gage Rucker[7]; 4. 7RM-Ryan Marshall[1]; 5. 2F-Casey Friedrichsen[6]; 6. 32X-Jordan Hermansader[3]; 7. 70-Cade Cowles[12]; 8. 3VZ-Grant Schaadt[14]; 9. 91J-Jimmy Sivia[8]; 10. 75H-Hunter Wilson[9]; 11. 00H-John Heitzman[10]; 12. 2T-Eli Geidel[13]; 13. (DNF) 715-Robert Bell[11]; 14. (DNF) 80M-Steve Miller[4]; 15. (DNS) 1-Sammy Swindell; 16. (DNS) 33W-Rece Wommack; 17. (DNS) 7K-Whit Gastineau

C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 19K-Riley Kreisel[6]; 2. 51T-Cole Tinsley[10]; 3. 44R-Branigan Roark[1]; 4. 3W-Brandon Waelti[14]; 5. 4A-Kermit Burnam Jr[12]; 6. 77K-Kevin Cook[8]; 7. 29R-Ritchie Burcik[11]; 8. 80D-Heath Nestrick[5]; 9. 5A-Austin Hawkins[13]; 10. 77B-Bret Klabunde[4]; 11. 18C-Sean Cleavland[7]; 12. 121-Cord Kisthardt[2]; 13. (DNF) 7C-Stuart Snyder[3]; 14. (DNF) 32J-Jason Tessier[9]; 15. (DNS) 19M-Isaiah Vasquez; 16. (DNS) 1X-Jake Scott; 17. (DNS) 42-Matt Carr

Ferguson Enterprises B-Features (Top 4 advance to the A-Feature)

Ferguson Enterprises B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 45B-Bradley Cox[4]; 2. 88A-Austin Torgerson[1]; 3. 45S-Caleb Stelzig[5]; 4. 1R-RJ Johnson[3]; 5. 84UK-Tom Harris[6]; 6. 7P-Cap Henry[14]; 7. 05-Alex Midkiff[8]; 8. 78-Brody Wake[13]; 9. 71CR-Gunnar Pike[11]; 10. 7RM-Ryan Marshall[16]; 11. 5X-Jacob Dykstra[7]; 12. 16C-David Camfield Jr[9]; 13. 17G-Gage Rucker[15]; 14. 76-Chris Murray[2]; 15. 251-Johnny Brown Jr[10]; 16. (DNF) 19F-Chad Davis[12]

Ferguson Enterprises B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 31B-Jake Swanson[1]; 2. 32W-Alex Bright[2]; 3. 67K-Colton Robinson[4]; 4. 12C-Colby Stubblefield[7]; 5. 25B-Steve Buckwalter[3]; 6. 08-Jeffrey Newell[9]; 7. 19K-Riley Kreisel[11]; 8. 40S-Jace Sparks[5]; 9. 91X-Danny Wood[8]; 10. 75X-Kaleb Johnson[10]; 11. 35-Tyler Robbins[6]; 12. 51T-Cole Tinsley[14]; 13. 3W-Brandon Waelti[15]; 14. 44R-Branigan Roark[13]; 15. 42K-Kevin Battefeld[12]; 16. (DNS) 75A-Will Armitage

JST Motorsports A-Feature (Top 2 lock into Saturday’s A-Main)

JST Motorsports A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 39A-Emerson Axsom[2]; 2. 86-Daison Pursley[3]; 3. 27W-Colby Copeland[4]; 4. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[5]; 5. 14K-Kevin Thomas Jr[1]; 6. 41-Corey Day[7]; 7. 19T-Mitchel Moles[6]; 8. 29-Tim Buckwalter[8]; 9. 4B-Chelby Hinton[10]; 10. 31B-Jake Swanson[18]; 11. 67K-Colton Robinson[22]; 12. 45B-Bradley Cox[17]; 13. 32W-Alex Bright[20]; 14. 7AU-Harry Stewart[12]; 15. 45S-Caleb Stelzig[21]; 16. 4KD-Kale Drake[11]; 17. 3N-Jake Neuman[9]; 18. 22X-Steven Shebester[13]; 19. 88A-Austin Torgerson[19]; 20. 1R-RJ Johnson[23]; 21. 8K-KJ Snow[16]; 22. 12C-Colby Stubblefield[24]; 23. 68T-TJ Smith[14]; 24. (DNF) 71X-Aiden Price[15]