In 2025, Denny Hamlin suffered a massive heartbreak. He missed out on the Cup Series championship by a mere 40-second gap due to a fateful late-race caution at Phoenix Raceway. And the person on the opposite side of his battered emotions was Kyle Larson, who ended up the champion. As 2026 starts, it seems that Larson is not ceasing his streak of inadvertently causing heartbreaks, as a dirt racing star recently revealed.

Kyle Larson’s Chili Bowl rival is focused

“Hopefully, we have another one of these opportunities this week. Just a lot of luck that goes into it this week to prepare yourself for Saturday. But you know, he always ends up there on Saturday. So hopefully we do as well too and I know I can compete with him race just as good as him. It’s just a matter of getting there,” Daison Pursley told FloRacing in a recent interview.

The Chili Bowl Nationals week tends to churn out intense emotions in drivers. It did the same for Daison Pursley, who finished second to Kyle Larson in the Midget Nationals. But had the race been its usual 55 laps, Pursley also believes that it could have become a different story entirely. Larson drilled the frontstretch wall and ripped down a banner, bringing out a debris caution. That was exactly when Pursley was on the verge of making a race-winning pass.

Unfortunately, this rings a bell for Daison Pursley. The Locust Grove, Oklahoma, native was close to his first Golden Driller in the 2025 Chili Bowl final. And during that race as well, Kyle Larson had fought off Pursley’s charge during the last lap and landed his third Chili Bowl triumph. Pursley had also made a costly mistake beginning the white flag lap that cost him a final shot to go for the win. He settled for a third runner-up finish.

This time, however, Daison Pursley is clenching his teeth. “Definitely, I feel like I was giving it my all by all means. And like anybody would really inside this building trying to chase down one of the best as Kyle. So yeah, it was great. And you know I felt like I only get those opportunities every once in a while to race against people like that.” Pursley clashed with Larson last November as well, at the Hangtown 100.

Now, Kyle Larson’s rival is rolling up his sleeves, while expressing his gratitude.

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Receiving a legend’s opportunity

“That is a dream come true,” Daison Pursley said about replacing Brad Sweet in the iconic Kasey Kahne Racing 410 Sprint. “Like, I grew up dreaming of racing in World of Outlaws and now a series like High Limit, and I was always No. 9 because of my dad.”

“So to take that number there and to share it because it was Kasey’s number is so cool to me. I ran the same kind of swoosh he uses, too, because Kasey was my guy growing up. There are a lot of full-circle moments to this. Like, Kasey called me to drive his car, right, so I feel super blessed and excited, nervous, anxious, all those things.”

Driving for Kasey Kahne, an 18-time Cup race winner, Daison Pursley has come a long way. A USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Champion, a 4-Crown Nationals Champion, and a winner in High Limit competition, Pursley has raced on the biggest stages in dirt track racing. He was briefly paralyzed after a crash in a Midget in 2021. He fully recovered and is now back to racing for the biggest wins in dirt track racing.

Kyle Larson clearly has a strong rival. Let’s wait and watch the excitement unfold on Saturday, the finale of the Chili Bowl Nationals.