The final week of Florida Speed Weeks kicked off on Monday night, February 11th at the Volusia Speedway Park for the Federated DIRTcar Nationals with the USAC Sprint Cars in action as they shared the stage with the UMP Dirtcar Late Models.
An excellent field of drivers was on hand in each of the classes and the opening night winners were Kyle Cummings in the Sprint Cars and Nick Hoffman in the Late Models.
The Sprint Car race was the first of the new season for USAC and a number of new driver-owner combinations were debuted here with a program necessary to determine which players were with which teams. Thirty four drivers signed in to race for the Sprint Car program with Daison Pursley topping the qualifying with a lap of 16.156 seconds.
Four heat races were held for the Sprints and using the USAC formula, the top three rows for each of the heats were inverted with the top five drivers in each heat making the feature. One B main qualified four more drivers with two dozen taking the green flag for their twenty five lap feature race.
Brady Bacon held the pole position and he shot into the initial lead but he would hold that spot for just a single lap. Meanwhile, Cummings started on the outside of row two but he split Logan Seavey and Mitchel Moles on the opening lap to move into second and going to the cushion, he blew past Bacon just one lap later to take over the lead.
A quick yellow for a stalled car slowed the action one lap later but the green quickly came back out and Cummings pulled away from the pack as Bacon couldn't stay with him and neither could the rest of the pack. Pursley moved up from the third row in the six car invert and drove up into second spot as Justin Grant and Briggs Danner both moved into the top five.
At the halfway point, that was the running order with Cummings still comfortably in the lead. It looked like the rest of the race would roll off nonstop but then two late yellows bunched the field. First, Kobe Simpson blew up a motor on the back chute with quite the ball of flames as Grant had raced past Pursley for third just before this.
Then, just as the leaders were coming around to take the checkers, Jake Swanson rolled to a half in turn four and under USAC rules, a green, white and checkered finish was called for.
This was no problem for Cummings however, as he pulled away strong on the restart to drive under the checkers with a solid win. However, Pursley caught fire on the last two laps, first passing Grant for third and then also getting by Bacon for second with a late dive in turn one. Danner completed the top five in the running order. Only one driver failed to finish what was a very smooth program for the Sprint Cars.
A large field of fifty one drivers signed in to compete in the UMP sanctioned Late Model portion of the program. Apparently a number of drivers that generally would not run the first few shows of the Volusia week joined in the racing action on this night to get laps in preparation for the points and bigger money to be presented as the week rolls on.
Along with the fifty one drivers that took the green on Monday night, there were another nine of the grounds and in the pits that chose not to race including Dustin Walker, Carson Ferguson, Brenden Smith, Boom Briggs, Hudson O'Neal, Jimmy Owens, Kyle Strickler, Daniel Hilsabeck and Dillon McCowan who are all expected to join in perhaps as early as Tuesday night.
With UMP providing the sanctioning of this event for the first three nights, their rules and procedures would be followed. The group was divided into six heat races and drivers would qualify only against the other cars in their group. The heats were straight up with the top three making the show and then there would be three B Features, lined up finishes in the heats with two out of each B making the show. Only twenty four started the feature and there were no provisional starters so a number of top drivers watched the Monday night show from the pits. Cade Dillard was the third driver out for time trials and he turned the quickest lap of the night at 15.672 as the Late Models proved to be quicker than the non winged Sprints.
All six heats and the three B Features were won from the front row but this pattern was not followed, thankfully, in the main event which was a very good race with much moving and shuffling of positions. And best of all, it went nonstop for twenty five laps.
This was probably a very good thing because just as the Sprint feature ended , the fog blew in with a rush, engulfing the facility with a thick layer of visibility limiting moisture. As the interviews continued, it was got to the point where there was some doubt whether or not the Late Models would be able to run. However, the cars circling the track moved the fog just enough that they could safely race, even though from the stands, it was tough seeing just what was happening on the back chute.
But what was happening was some darn good racing. Dillard took off like a shot from the pole and opened up some distance over Nick Hoffman and Ricky Thornton Jr. Ryan Gustin and Jonathan Davenport were both charging too and after a few laps, it was apparent that the pack was catching leader Dillard as he started to fade after his initial burst of speed.
Hoffman caught him first and on lap eleven he blew past to take over the lead as the other members of that pack also challenged Dillard. Cade was still second at the halfway point with Thornton Jr, Gustin and Davenport all tight behind him.
As they fought, Hoffman put some distance on the field but then he caught traffic which was difficult to deal with. It slowed his pace and Thornton Jr, who had taken over second, was closing fast and it looked like Ricky was ready to make his move. But just as he sized up Hoffman, Gustin moved to the outside and came rushing forward, pulling up beside Thornton Jr and causing him to take defensive action to hold on to second.
Then, with just four laps to go, Hoffman made the move of the race as he split two lapped cars on the front stretch which gave him running room and he quickly then pulled back away from the pack. The rest of the battlers were stuck and they duked it out amongst themselves with still, much shuffling right down to the end.
As Hoffman drove under the flags for the win, Thornton managed to hold off a last lap rush by Davenport for second while Max Blair appeared from virtually no where to steal fourth from a fading Gustin. By the end, it was difficult to distinguish who was who as they came out of the fog on turn four but the race was completed safely and with the final checkers waved, the ceiling sank even lower over the facility.
The race was a quick one but only one driver failed to complete the contest and only three fell a lap behind the leaders. All racing was done by 10 pm and a large crowd was on hand, a group that will get only bigger as the week progresses.
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