TULSA, Okla. – It did not matter where Dalton Kasel was living these past few years.

Whether it was at reigning Stock Contractor of the Year Chad Berger’s ranch in Mandan, North Dakota, this past summer, stock contractor Riley Samford’s place in Eula, Texas, or at home in Muleshoe, Texas, there was one thing you could bet on Kasel doing late at night.

“Almost every night, I will sit around and watch bull riding,” Kasel said. “I watch the heck out of it (on) YouTube. I watch replays of events. Shoot, when I am at Riley’s, every night we sit around and watch replays of events. It is what we love so we are going to keep doing it.”

If Kasel was not getting on practice bulls, he was likely training his mind, studiously watching bulls of various degrees and difficulties in preparation for the opportunity to one day compete on the PBR’s grandest stage.

That time is getting closer with this weekend’s Express Ranches Classic, presented by Osage Casino, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday and Sunday at the BOK Center.

Kasel is set to make his PBR Unleash The Beast debut after receiving a one-event invite from the PBR’s competition committee.

The 20-year-old began the summer break on June 1 unranked in the world standings (zero world points)after previously competing in only one Touring Pro Division event seeing as he was focusing on his collegiate career at Howard College.

Kasel is now the No. 43^-ranked rider in the world standings following a two-month climb up the standings.

The Texan has drawn Sun Country for Round 1 (RidePass 7:30 p.m. ET) at the BOK Center. World No. 2 Jose Vitor Leme rode Sun Country (2-1, UTB) last weekend at the Allen, Texas, Touring Pro Division event for 92.5 points. Kasel was bucked off by Air Support (46.5 points) in 4.56 seconds in Allen.

Kasel does not expect to have many nerves inside the BOK Center. He believes there will be not much difference between Tulsa and the summer run other than a higher quality bullpen.

“I am excited,” Kasel said. “To be honest, I am not really bothered by anything. I have been going against the same caliber guys almost every week. If anything, it is just going to fire me up because I know it is just better bulls, so I better just go out there and have fun and bear my ass down.”

Kasel is 13-for-38 (34.21%) with six Top-3 finishes, including two victories, in 12 Touring Pro Division events in 2019.

“Shoot, I am not No. 1 in the world yet,” Kasel said. “And shoot, if I ever am No. 1 in the world, I am not going to slow down any. I love bull riding so much. It doesn’t matter, really. As long as I am in good health, I am going to keep going to them.”

Kasel’s PBR career really took off this summer thanks to Samford and Berger.

Samford first met Kasel last year at a college rodeo. He then brought bulls to a collegiate rodeo practice in Texas where Kasel got on seven of his bulls in one day.

The two began a friendship and Kasel eventually moved in with Samford on a part-time basis.

During the past year or so, Samford had been encouraging Kasel to make a push at the PBR, even despite Kasel’s hesitations.

“If I was going to ride with the best, I didn’t just want to spend money and do that,” Kasel said. “Riley was telling me, ‘You are ready, and you just need to get out and go.’

“I would enter amateur rodeos and get on practice bulls all the time. He was like, ‘You have to get after it and get going.’”

Samford then really got the ball rolling for Kasel this past spring with the help of the always persistent Berger.

The two were at a bull sale in April when Samford introduced Kasel to Berger.

Samford and Berger were chatting about Kasel when Samford showed Berger some footage of him riding.

Berger was impressed, and offered Kasel the opportunity to come up north and hit the summer Touring Pro Division run in full force and live at his ranch.

Berger helped Kasel navigate the summer schedule, which features a series of events in the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming.

“I thought he was just saying that, and he ended up texting Riley a couple of different times asking when I was coming out,” Kasel said.

Kasel has been riding bulls for roughly five years.

The Muleshoe, Texas, bull rider got on his first steer just before he turned 15 years old and quickly fell in love with the sport.

Bull riding and Western sports were foreign to his parents, Kim and Ken, but they grew supportive of Kasel’s ambitions and began hauling him to various amateur rodeos and other youth events.

“Shoot, my parents, they don’t rodeo or anything like that,” Dalton said. “Never did. But it was something I was always attracted to. As a kid, I always wanted to play bull riding. It is something that just happened. I got on a couple of steers and stuff. I would go to junior rodeos and not be able to stay on anything. I would ride one and then suck after that.”

Dalton is one of three children Kim and Ken adopted, and he is the only one to pursue a rodeo career.

The family learned of the Riding on Faith Camp in Locust Grove, Oklahoma, at the Sycamore Springs Ranch and decided to enroll Dalton.

It was at that camp that Kasel met 10-time PBR World Finals qualifier Cody Nance, who he considers one of his biggest influences as a kid coming up.

Nance, though, was not the only Cody to offer a helping hand as Kasel worked to perfect the bull riding craft.

Kasel also attended Cody Custer’s bull riding school in 2016.

“Cody really laid down the fundamentals, and that stuff is something I really think on,” Kasel said. “That really stuck with me. The Riding on a Faith Camps helped me a whole lot, but Cody stuck with me a couple little things. I still remember those.

“Like covering up the front end is like football. You don’t tackle someone standing straight up. You have to be wide on everything. Stay spread and not be all tight.”

One year after working with Custer, Kasel finished fourth at the 2017 National High School Finals Rodeo and third at the state level in Texas.

Kasel then decided to put his pro career on hold and enrolled at Howard College, where Ring of Honor members Mike White and Cody Lambert went to school, to work with Hawks coach Chad Castillo.

He had hoped to pursue a collegiate national title his freshman season, but he injured his kidney weeks before the start of the 2018 Collegiate Finals Rodeo when he was stepped on and was unable to compete.

Kasel finished runner-up to current world No. 17 Daylon Swearingen at the 2019 Collegiate Finals Rodeo.

“I almost didn’t go to college, but I was like, I might as well go so I have a place to ride some bulls and take advantage of it,” he said. “My coach Chad Castillo has helped me a whole lot to by providing us with good stock.”

Kasel competed in one Touring Pro Division event this year before truly beginning his PBR career in June.

He really began to turn some heads in the PBR during the summer run when he made a sensational and rank ride aboard 2018 PRCA Bull of the Year Spotted Demon in Santa Maria, California.

The Texan left the chutes in a plum of dirt and handled everything that Spotted Demon threw at him for a career-best 93 points.

“I was talking to (PBR announcer) Clint Adkins earlier and the day before I (asked) him if he was ready to take on the world today, because that is something I say,” Kasel said. “Before I got on, he announced, ‘Dalton Kasel, are you ready to take on the world today?’

“I was pumped to take on that caliber bull today.”

Kasel then posted his second 90-point ride of the summer two weeks ago by riding Deep Water for 90.5 points to win the Big Sky PBR Touring Pro Division Major event. He bounced back from a 6.88-second buckoff against Element 79 in Round 1 by riding his final three bulls in Big Sky country.

Kasel rode Tested Crazy for 89.5 points before his 88-point ride aboard Keno in Round 3.

It was proof to himself that he can compete against the top bull riders in the world, and now he believes he can translate that success toward this weekend and make a march toward the 2019 PBR World Finals on Nov. 6-10 in Las Vegas.

“I am going to make it to the Finals,” Kasel concluded. “That is the plan. I am going to keep doing what I am doing, and it is starting to work out for me. I have been blessed getting on good stock, and I am going to keep doing what I am doing and hopefully I will be there.”

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko