The DIRTcar Nationals reached its midweek point on Wednesday night, February 16th with a doubleheader show featuring the World of Outlaws Late Models and the Big Block center steer Modifieds. The Modifieds would be in action with their second thirty lap feature of the week while we would get to see a rare, doubleheader run for the Late Models with a regularly scheduled forty lap event plus a left over, makeup forty lapper from the Sunshine Nationals also run here at VSP last month.
The Modifieds are overachieving this week with another dandy feature race that would be won on the final lap by Aussie Peter Britten while the Late Model mains would be split between Brandon Overton who barely held on to take the opener while Ashton Winger used a very impressive run to dominate the Sunshine makeup feature.
We learned that surprisingly, while there was no rain along the Coast, inland at the track there were scattered rain showers until about Noon but by race time the skies had cleared and it would be a nice night for racing. It has, however, been a somewhat disappointing week as far as the weather has been concerned with not much sun and temperatures not as high as hoped for. We are, however, racing in February and that I guess should be enough for all of us.
The Late Model field would grow to fifty eight cars on Wednesday night with the addition of a couple more new drivers. This would, I'm guessing, probably be the largest field we will see this week as blown motors and teams rolling out back up cars are starting to increase and there were a few haulers that pulled out of the pits following the show, most prominently Earl Pearson Jr who I point out mostly because his rig is so easy to determine.
Ashton Winger used two cars on this night along with Brandon Sheppard, Kyle Bronson replaced a motor along with Shane Clanton and there would be several more motors including Ricky Thornton Jr who would blow up while leading a heat race and park it for the night. Clanton would also have to hammer out his car after clipping the wall in hot laps. The track has been so fast and it must be brutal on the equipment as the motors don't even get much time to breath and with back to back forty lappers with very little break, plus all the bouncing around at high speed through the increasingly rugged turn one bumps, man and machine would be tested on this night.
In what will likely be the last car additions of the week, Tanner English moved over to his own car for the start tonight of the WoO points here this week but that surprisingly left the very strong running #99 car, a top three finisher last night, sitting in the pits with apparently no driver. Hudson O'Neal made his first start of the week and he would eventually get top five finishes in both feature races. Caeden was brought in to drive Reid Millard's car on this night while Millard broke out a different Black Diamond car to try for himself. The Scott brothers pulled out of the pits having not even unloaded as they were likely on a sad funeral trip back to Oklahoma.
Tonight would mark the first appearance of Case Construction Equipment as the title sponsor of the World of Outlaws Late Model series since the recent announcement that they would be replaced Morton Buildings as the main backer of the series. The race tonight would run under the same format as used in recent nights with qualifying, six heat races, three B Features and the forty lap main event. The most marked difference would come when provisional starters were appointed as WoO has a different way of ascertaining who makes the show as a provisional as opposed to UMP.
The first Late Model feature start a big field of thirty cars with those just mentioned provisional starters helping to balloon the field. The green flag would see Chris Madden get the initial jump but before a lap could be scored, Kyle Strickler surged past him and took over the lead. Strickler would set a torrid pace, bouncing through the holes and launching his car on several occasions. It would be a question of not whether he was fast or not but whether the car would hold up or he wouldn't stick it into the wall first.
A couple of contenders were eliminated early when Mike Marlar got a flat tire and Dale McDowell spun after contact from Madden. Then, on lap sixteen, Strickler rolled to a halt, the driveline not able to withstand the brutal treatment it was receiving.
Madden would inherit the lead but on the restart, Brandon Overton flew past him to take over the top spot and as we have seen so far this week, the easiest time to make a pass is following a restart on this high speed track. At the halfway point, Overton would continue to lead Madden and Devin Moran who had worked his way forward after starting ninth. The first half of the race was problematic with seven yellow flag slowdowns but then things would settle down and the last half of the race would go green to checkered.
Overton would dominate the second half of the race although as the laps ran down, Moran, who had moved to second, would slowly start to eat into Overton's advantage as he worked through traffic. The race was reaching its conclusion when smoke started to appear from the car of Overton and it was clear he was having some major motor issues. The smoke got heavier and heavier and the lead margin began to shrink considerably. It seemed questionable whether he could last but the motor held on just long enough for him to cross the line with an .8 second win over Moran. The car likely wouldn't have lasted another lap as he pulled into victory lane with the car coated in oil and covered with smoke and steam. He had "cooked it" for sure. Brandon Sheppard had quite a ride of his own, having taken his back up car from twenty fifth to third in a combination of passed cars and drop outs.
The Late Models would get a break but it was a short one as the Modified feature clicked off thirty laps in quick fashion. The make up feature, from January 21st, was required when the Sunshine Nationals, the first races of the new Outlaws season, were plagued by track conditions and two days of rain with this feature, that had already determined its starting field, needing to be postponed to this week for its completion. Therefore, there were some drivers that raced in both events but some that had qualified for the makeup race that didn't run the first feature of the night.
Twenty seven drivers would start the makeup race which would also be a forty lap event. And following the trend set in the first feature, the race would see four slow downs in the first twenty one laps and then the last nineteen laps would go green to checkered. Ashton Winger would start on the pole and except for a one lap break following an early restart when Chris Madden would sneak in to lead a lap, Winger would lead the rest of the race to get his first win of 2022 and first here in Florida.
Winger applies a driving style much like Strickler with the tires off the ground as much as they are connected to "Mother Earth" and his runs are often marked by spectacular sliders, bold moves and often DNF's. However, somehow his car held together for forty laps which he performed at blinding speed and once get got away from the field following the last yellow, no one had anything for him as he ran away from the field. It should be pointed out that he switched cars following the first feature so his car was only asked to stand up to forty laps of abuse.
Just before the last yellow, McDowell took over second from Madden and it looked like he was gaining ever so slightly on the leader. However, Winger took off like a rocket following that last yellow and there would be no catching him on this night. Madden would settle for third while Moran and O'Neal would complete a night with two solid finishes each.
To illustrate the difficulties and frustration that racing can provide, one needs to only look at Ryan Gustin. Last night he was on top of the world, producing a stirring drive to get his first win of the year and highlighting a very special night for him. Tonight his performance was just the opposite as he was scored dead last in both the feature races. Talk about going from the summit of the mountain to the pit. And after Wednesday night's huge disappointment, he has to pull himself up by his boot straps and try again on Thursday.
While the Late Model features would not be slouches by any means, once again it was the Modifieds that would provide the thrilling finish to their thirty lap main event. And actually, to their credit, they made lemonade out of lemons as the track seemed to turn against side by side racing but with some determined efforts, they still made a whale of a race out of their contest.
Forty two Modifieds would sign in to race on Wednesday with only Erick Rudolph missing after his grinding crash when the accelerator stuck and he plowed the third turn wall. Rudolph opted not to run Wednesday even though they did have a back up car available.
Jimmy Phelps would lead the opening lap and actually would lead twenty nine laps, only to get the win stolen on a last lap, "Hail Mary" by Peter Britten. Phelps would fight off determined challenges by Stewart Friesen in the early going until Friesen started to struggle and was shuffled back to the fifth spot by halfway as Jack Lehner and Britten came to challenge.
There was only one yellow for a spin on lap nine and the rest of the race ran green right to the finiish. By the halfway point, Phelps had settled in as the leader with Lehner, Britten and Kyle Coffey trailing. For some reason, the Modifieds found that the fast way around the track was right on the bottom and they lined up in a big train, nose to tail. I thought that the track was perhaps "rubbering up" but after this race the Late Models came back out and ran all over the track so I can't explain why the Mods couldn't make the second lane work, but it was clear that they couldn't . Friesen tried to go top side but he dropped like a rock before he was able to get back in line, so no one was able to get that groove to open up.
Things went smooth until Phelps caught the back of the pack, all running that same line. Phelps tried to get by on the tall side but he nearly lost the lead to Lehner and quickly dived back to the bottom so we saw the top three running in close fashion but frustrated that they couldn't go any faster.
As the laps ran down, Lehner made a bold move, pulling out of line and trying to drive around Phelps. But he couldn't make it work and had to dive back to the bottom, just barely beating Britten back to second. However, it was clear that Britten wasn't out to run for a good finish, he wanted to win. So when Lehner pulled back to the bottom, Britten put on his signal light to make a right turn(something that no one from Florida doesn't when they drive!), and he went to the second lane in a bold move. He actually used the big hole in turn one as a launching platform, getting bit off the hole and roaring past Lehner. He then did the same thing again and pulled up and then past Phelps for the lead with a bold and aggressive drive. He got too high in the final corner though, as there was nothing up there as other drivers had found out and it would be a final sprint to the line for the finish.
However, the momentum that Britten had build up on the final lap paid off as he surged to the outside of Phelps and nipped him at the line by .025 seconds in a dandy race. It was a case of Britten just not settling for a good finish and truly willing himself to victory lane with a determined and gritty drive. It was a heartbreaker for Phelps, however, after leading all but the final front chute as he was between a rock and a hard place, not knowing whether to settle for his line or try an outside move that could have very likely back fired and then everyone would have been on him for pulling out of line. It was one of those cases where he was in a "no win" situation. Lehner would finish third in the thriller.
Strolling through the pits before the show, I found the first actual Gator in the Gator pond of the week. It was a disappointment though as it was just a little tyke that could have not been more than two feet long. I don't know where the "big boys" from last year are as perhaps they were relocated for the week by officials to keep the dogs and small children safe.
WoO officials are on hand again to run the show and as always here at Volusia, it is head starter Dave Farney who is waving the flags in a spectacular manner as always. He commends the flag stand like no one else can and who else but "Mr Fastidious" Farney would be seen sweeping out the stand before the start of each night's show.
After Ruben Mireles called the UMP shows, WoO veteran announcer Rick Eshelman has had the call for the WoO race programs. I'm sure Mississippi Thunder Speedway promoter Bob Timm, when Eshelman was discussing the upcoming schedule , was surprised to find out that MTS is close by to Illinois! There is another state just across the river from MTS, but it is Minnesota, not Illinois.
The same two classes will be in action for the last three shows of the DIRTcar Nationals starting on Thursday night with the warmest day of speedweeks promised as drivers will cinch up their belts tight and give it another whirl.
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