By: Darci Miller
PUEBLO, Colo. – The 2024 Unleash The Beast season has almost turned into the Cassio Dias show, with the Brazilian rookie ranked No. 1 in the Unleash The Beast World Championship standings, 295 points ahead of his nearest competitor thanks to four event wins.
But one rider who will not be content to sit back and let the world title race play out is Dalton Kasel.
The 2019 Rookie of the Year is dead set on taking home a World Championship, and he’s slowly been finding his groove this season.
After going his first five events without cracking the Top 10 at an event, Kasel finished second in New York City and fourth in Tulsa, where he recorded his first – and, thus far, only – 90-point ride of the season.
Kasel told PBR.com in January that hitting the 90-point threshold again was a big relief for the rider nicknamed Mr. 90 Points.
“I didn’t think I could be over 86 points, 87 points, so it was very relieving knowing that I still am able to do that,” he said. “I knew I was able to, but I know that I had just gotten stale. Just going through the motions.”
In the subsequent three events, however, Kasel went just 1-for-7, failing to place in two of them.
But this past weekend at the U.S. Border Patrol PBR Jacksonville, Kasel looked like the world title contender that he is, going 3-for-3 to match his best result of the season with a second-place finish.
He got things started with 87 points on Mama’s Boy in Round 1, followed by 84.5 points on Don’t Come Easy in Round 2.
“That’s a win for Dalton Kasel right there, and we should see a really high ROB (rider over bull score) right here because Dalton Kasel is dominant throughout this ride,” 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis said on CBS Sports Network. “This bull normally goes to the right right here. Doesn’t phase Dalton whatsoever. Tracks him around there. Three points on the ROB. That’s why Dalton Kasel is Mr. 90 Points.”
Kasel was thrilled to get revenge on a bull he’d bucked off of in December.
“I didn’t get beat out of there this time,” Kasel told CBS Sports Network’s Kate Harrison. “I left riding like I needed to. I felt some things this week in the practice pen that I haven’t felt, so hopefully, it’s going to get me on the right track.”
He certainly stayed on the right track in the championship round, riding UTZ BesTex Smokestack for 89.5 points.
Thanks to his efforts, Kasel earned 97 points towards the UTB standings, climbing from No. 9 all the way up to No. 4. He’s still 474.83 points behind Dias – which is more than the 386 points he currently has – but we’ve seen Dalton Kasel get hot before. In fact, this time last year, he won two events back to back on the heels of a streak of three 15/15 Bucking Battles in which he finished first, second, and first.
“If Dalton Kasel gets on a roll right here,” Davis said, “he could make this whole World Finals run a lot of fun.”
The Unleash The Beast season is more than half over, and the 2024 PBR World Finals in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas, on May 9-19 is just over two months away. There’s a whole lot of bull riding still to be done, and if anyone knows how to hit some home runs, it’s Kasel.
He’ll be in action this weekend at the Ariat PBR Indianapolis on March 2-3 at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Kasel will take on Dream Walkin in Round 1 (March 2 at 6:30 p.m. ET on RidePass on Pluto TV).
All the while, he has his eyes on the ultimate prize: a gold buckle at season’s end.
“That’s the only goal I have right now,” Kasel said. “I’ve had that since I was a kid, and I haven’t achieved that yet, so I’ve just got to keep pushing and trying to do that.”
Photo courtesy of Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media
© 2024 PBR Inc. All rights reserved.
