'I was praying for the motor': Thomas Meseraull dominant in BC39 preliminary feature win
INDIANAPOLIS — While Thomas Meseraull led every lap to win Thursday night’s preliminary feature race for the Driven to Save Lives BC39 at the dirt track inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, that victory didn’t come without a bit of late-race drama.
The California native brushed the Turn 4 wall with the No. 7X RMS Racing machine with just over three laps to go. Some excess oil came out of the dry sump tank on the left side of the car, creating a bit of a temporary smokescreen and some worry for “T-Mez” behind the wheel.
“Did I slow down? No. I was praying for the motor, did a little prayer for the motor and luckily everything panned out,” Meseraull said. “It’s the only Ford (motor) in the building and we just picked off a win, pretty excited about that.”
After Meseraull regained his momentum, he then had to deal with Taylor Reimer’s fast-approaching No. 25K KKM Racing entry. The Oklahoma native’s last-corner slide job was unsuccessful, but her performance was good enough to remain in second despite some mid-race drama behind the wheel.
“Toward the middle of the race a rock kind of got stuck under my throttle pedal,” Reimer said. “So I was kind of pushing around with my throttle to try and get it unstuck, but I could tell in lapped traffic I would catch [Meseraull] a bit there.”
Following a pair of early caution periods for multi-car accidents, Meseraull seemingly pulled away from the field at will during the race’s longest green flag run. Lapped traffic brought the leaders closer together and while maneuvering through that traffic, Meseraull bumped Kyle Jones’s car, spinning the No. 7M machine in Turn 2 on Lap 24, setting up a late dash to the finish.
Meseraull finished just over a half-second ahead of Reimer with Chase McDermand third ahead of Jacob Denney and Michael Kofoid rounding out the top five.
By finishing in the top three in Thursday’s feature, Meseraull, Reimer and McDermand locked themselves into Saturday night’s 39-lap main event.
McDermand qualified on pole for Thursday’s feature race after earning the most passing points in his heat race and qualifying race. By going from eighth to third in his heat race and then fifth to winning his qualifying race, the Illinois native became the top qualifier over Meseraull.
After McDermand fell back to third place on the start, the goal was simple: lock into Saturday night’s main event.
“Once I was able to get up to the top (of the track), I felt like we were maybe the same speed,” McDermand said of the top two finishers. “I think the top two were a little bit better on exit, but overall the car was really good. We had a really good night tonight and I’m looking forward to Saturday.”
Meseraull’s win at IMS was sweetened by the return of long-time crew chief Donnie Gentry. After working with Meseraull for many years, Gentry took some time off from racing to be with his family in Kentucky before Meseraull called him to come back. The duo won numerous USAC Midget racing features and getting Gentry back for Indy might’ve sparked a reunion tour of sorts.
“I think after being in victory lane, he’s going to start coming to more races,” Meseraull said of his crew chief.
After that performance, nobody could blame Gentry for wanting to come back.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: BC39: Thomas Meseraull dominant in preliminary feature win at IMS
