PEORIA, Ill. — Nick Hoffman spent Wednesday night at Peoria Speedway just doing what champion drivers do – dominating and winning more races.
For the second night in-a-row, Hoffman, of Mooresville, N.C., had a perfect night – setting fast time in Qualifying, winning his Heat Race and leading all 25 laps of the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals feature — the 40th of his career.
“I was trying to pick the smoothest line down this front straightaway, just didn’t want anything to happen. Hats off to the track prep crew, it was probably the best I’ve ever seen this place,” Hoffman said.
The quarter-mile was very racey, and although Hoffman generally stayed clear of having to race with any of his competitors, he knew what could have been had things gone different in the qualifying events earlier on in the program.
Tyler Nicely is always a threat to win wherever he goes and often times is a challenger when Hoffman’s up front. However, he broke on lap one of his heat race and was forced to start 14th on the feature grid, making it back up to fifth by lap 25 – something Hoffman would have rather raced out with him instead had he not broke in the heat.
“I just hate it for Tyler [Nicely] there in that heat race,” Hoffman said. “I think we could’ve raced pretty well out there [in the feature].
“Dave [Wietholder] – he’s one of my customers – he’s been on a tear up here, so for him to run second, that’s pretty cool.”
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps) 1. 2-Nick Hoffman[1]; 2. 05-Dave Wietholder[2]; 3. 77-Ray Bollinger[3]; 4. 25W-Allen Weisser[5]; 5. 25-Tyler Nicely[14]; 6. 292-Josh Allen[10]; 7. 5-Steven Brooks[4]; 8. 777-Trevor Neville[7]; 9. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[17]; 10. 45-Kyle Hammer[15]; 11. 37-Michael Ledford[12]; 12. 26D-Derick Doerr[6]; 13. 11D-Brian Diveley[8]; 14. 9H-John Demoss[9]; 15. 59R-Jacob Rexing[18]; 16. 0-Travis Kohler[13]; 17. 21B-Dustin Branch[16]; 18. 26-Derick Tassart[11]; 19. 19-Travis Thrasher[21]; 20. 61-Chris Osborne Jr[19]; 21. 3-Mike Brooks[20]; 22. 524-Jamie Lusher[22]; 23. (DNS) 16C-John Clippinger