The FLO/Racing Night in America 2026 series started on Wednesday night, May 6th at the Spoon River Speedway in Lewiston Illinois. Originally scheduled to begin on Tuesday night at LaSalle Speedway, that event was rained out and rescheduled for September 15th, thus allowing Spoon River to host the 2026 opener.
The FLO/Racing Night series has been an immediate hit since some clever minded folks at FLO came up with the concept of creating a largely midweek series of high paying events, scheduled so that the biggest names in dirt Late Model racing would be in attendance and provide spectacular shows for both the audience in attendance and more importantly, all those folks sitting at home and watching on FLO which they presumably had bought a subscription to, at least in some measure because of this series.
The FLO/Racing Night has also been able to bring the series to some deserving tracks that otherwise probably couldn't or wouldn't dare to get on a national series schedule but have shown their tracks to more than worthy of such competition.
Using the FLO/Racing Series as a baseline, other special events such at Illinois Speed Weeks, which this race is a part of, have been able to be organized.
These lucrative midweek races, running when otherwise teams would be idling away time between events, have been an excellent source of extra income for them and with a point fund from a short eleven race series that offers $50,000 to the winner and seventy five if they run all races, a great additional source of income while also bringing their product to some places that otherwise would never see them race.
Wednesday's event at Spoon River produced a power packed lineup of Late Model drivers with most of the best in the entire country on hand. Not only were the Lucas and WoO drivers on hand but a lot of independent racers that just hit the big shows across the country. Thirty nine of them signed in to race on Wednesday in a quick series of events that offers no provisional starters for the first race so if you don't race your way in, you watch from the sidelines which in a perfect world should be the way it is for every race, extenuating circumstances disregarded.
Along with the Late Models, UMP Modifieds were also on the card but with just the two divisions racing, these shows are almost always very quick running events, packaged for the tv audience but also great for the fans on hand who mostly have to work the following morning. Back in the day, these races were almost entirely for the tv audiences with the live crowd secondary. Many times the cost to get into the races was very cheap as they just wanted to fill seats and make it look better for the tv audience. That has changed over the years with ticket prices comparable to other specials but with more fans on board, race teams can do better with things such as apparel sales etc.
The standard big show format was used for the Late Models with qualifying setting the running order for heats and the heats setting the field for the main events and B Features. Bobby Pierce was quickest overall at 13.100 seconds while Brandon Overton topped the second group with the track slowing a bit and he turning a lap of 13.480.
The Spoon River Speedway has been a "hit or miss" preposition for me over the years with some nights being good and some nights were everyone was hugging the bottom and the passing was at a premium. Well, on Wednesday night we saw the Spoon at its best as it provided excellent racing all night with the heat races probably as entertaining events as seen all year. There was much passing and multiple grooves as drivers were passing and then being repassed as they jockeyed to get into the top five spots and make the mains.
Two B Features set the rest of the field with just twenty four drivers starting the main and many very fast teams just watching from the sidelines where they make no money.
And while the box score will show that Brandon Sheppard led all fifty laps to score the twenty grand victory, the actual race itself was much better and more exciting than that. While Sheppard took the lead right from the start, there was quite a battle for position behind him. Overton faded back quickly while Pierce and Hudson O'Neal moved to the front. An early yellow with seven laps complete when Dan Ebert and Ricky Thornton Jr got together found those two aleady behind Sheppard for the restart as Tyler Erb also moved into contention.
Only one other yellow, with fifteen laps completed, slowed the action as Devin Moran showed in the top five for the first time. The last thirty five laps went green to checkers. Sheppard continued to run up front, running a line that was just a bit higher than most but he was fast right through the middle of the track.
Pierce and O'Neal continued to trade the second and third spots before Hudson claimed the spot for good. With somewhere less than twenty laps to go, Sheppard finally hit lapped traffic for the first time and this allowed O'Neal to close in on him some. O'Neal was running lower in the corners and he seemed to be getting a better run off the turns than Sheppard. It got down to just a few cars length difference as Sheppard battled with traffic while still a bit higher up the track.
Perhaps the winning move was made when Sheppard, with just over ten laps to go, split a pair of slower cars while at the same time seemingly finding that low line which did have more speed and following that, he quickly expanded his lead once again.
O'Neal experimented with the top side for one lap but it nearly cost him second spot before he dove back low to block off Pierce's charge. Sheppard crossed the line with room to spare while O'Neal and Pierce followed.
Tyler Erb and Moran completed the top five with nineteen drivers still on the track at the finish, four of them a lap behind. It was a clean run event with no drivers suffering any major issues that shouldn't be able to be repaired for Thursday night's event at Lincoln Speedway.
Nick Neville was quick qualifier for the Modified drivers, running a lap at 13.976 seconds or nearly as fast as the Late Models. However, it should be pointed out that the Mods qualified first with the track still in prime speed shape.
Three heats and a B Feature set the twenty car field for the Modified main which also featured a star studded field with drivers on hand from as far away as North Carolina and Florida to run this event and presumably, other Midwestern events in the days to come.
Their twenty five lap feature, run last and after the Late Models, saw the track with plenty of rubber from those Late Model tires and the low side of the track was the place to be. Drivers quickly lined up in the low groove and raced off the bottom, hoping to slip under other drivers as their best passing opportunities.
Neville led early and indeed, did lead all twenty five laps. He did get a major scare though, near the midway point of the race when Blake Brown put on a serious challenge for his top spot. Brown was coming off the corners at speed just a little lower than Neville and after starting outside of Neville, he began to close up on him.
Just past the halfway point of the race, he made his most serious attempt to get under Neville and take over the lead. Coming off turn four, he got a good run to the inside of Neville and they squeezed into turn one. However, Brown didn't have enough room to execute the pass down low and he smashed hard into the ute tire marking the inside of the track which caused him to spin.
This triggered the lone yellow of the race and Brown departed with serious front end damage. This restored Neville to the lead and he wouldn't fail, as he pulled away over the final ten laps to record the win. Michael Ledford chased Neville the last ten laps but couldn't catch him and settled for second. Drake Troutman, racing just Modifieds on this night, finished third with Cole Falloway and Mike McKinney next in line as area drivers more than held their own against the visiting stars.
As is the expectation with FLO Midweek events, it was a quick racing program with the final checkers waving just after 9:30 pm. Lucas Oil officials were on hand to help the MARS Series officials run the program as an all star cast was assembled for this week.
FLO debuted their new big video board for live timing and scoring and also for showing replays to the live audience, a group often forgotten these days but still desperately needed. This board will also be used at Lucas Oil races the rest of the year. FLO/Racing also uses the Choose Cone for restarts, a system I still really like even though it seems that not a lot of groups have adopted for whatever reason.
Thanks to Matt Curl and Kari Perkins for their help and as always, Dustin Jarrett and Ben Shelton, both always willing to help out. If a FLO/Racing Nigh in America event comes to your area and you want to see the best Late Model drivers in a quick and entertaining program, make sure you attend.
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