BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Wednesday night DIRTcar UMP Modified Features at Volusia Speedway Park put three new faces and three returning drivers in victory lane, awarding them the signature gator trophy in the 53rd Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals.
Dustin Sorensen, Trevor Neville and Raymond Kable each scored their first career Volusia wins in Features 1-3, while Kenny Wallace, Charlie Mefford and Tyler Nicely triumphed in features 4-6.
First Feature — Dustin Sorensen
The first Feature of Wednesday night put a first-time winner in victory lane when Dustin Sorensen crossed the stripe.
The 23-year-old took the lead on lap three after lap-one leader Mitch Thomas and lap-two leader Will Krup each brought out cautions early. Sorensen was there to pick up the pieces, advancing into the lead for a lap-three restart and leading the rest of the way to bag his first career victory at Volusia.
“I thought for sure [Thomas and Krup] were gonna be tough, those guys have been fast all week,” Sorsensen said. “I was looking forward to racing with them really, and I didn’t really get the chance – they dropped out pretty early. I don’t really know where we stack up against them, but we’ll find out tomorrow.”
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 19-Dustin Sorensen[3]; 2. 77D-George Dixon[4]; 3. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[6]; 4. K9-Will Krup[2]; 5. 5-Jonathan Taylor[10]; 6. 95-Michael Altobelli[7]; 7. 4TW-Tim Ward[8]; 8. 28B-Jason Brookover[5]; 9. 2T-Ty Norder[11]; 10. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[16]; 11. 01-Brayden Weller[15]; 12. 18-Miles Beaulieu[14]; 13. 5B-Bobby Bagley[12]; 14. 40-Ronald Wadforth[19]; 15. 89W-Rick Weitekamp[17]; 16. 57-Charlie Sandercock[9]; 17. 58F-Donnie Farlling[13]; 18. 2G-Troy Girolamo[18]; 19. 97-Mitch Thomas[1]
Second Feature — Trevor Neville
Heading into turn one on the final lap, Trevor Neville said he was prepared to settle for a respectable second-place finish to David Stremme. That was, until Stremme broke going through turn two.
Neville, 23, had chased Stremme the entire race and entered the corner right on his heels. When one of Stremme’s brake calipers busted apart going through turn one, the car suddenly pushed up the track and out of the bottom lane, opening the door for Neville as they raced out of turn two.
Neville raced into the lead down the backstretch, brought it through turns three and four and back to the checkered to clinch his first gator trophy.
“This is a dream come true,” Neville said. “There’s two platforms that a guy should win on to become something or achieve something, and this is one of them. This is breathtaking, and to beat some of the guys we beat and compete where we are, I can’t thank enough people for it.”
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 777-Trevor Neville[2]; 2. 96M-Mike McKinney[4]; 3. 35-David Stremme[1]; 4. 18L-Michael Long[5]; 5. 27-Michael Turner[8]; 6. 7D-TJ DeHaven[3]; 7. 17T-Tyler Evans[7]; 8. 18K-Brandon Kinzer[14]; 9. 9-Ken Schrader[10]; 10. 21C-Drew Charlson[6]; 11. 00B-Buzzie Reutimann[15]; 12. 12M-John McClure[17]; 13. 21-Scott Ladner[9]; 14. 2J-Troy Johnson[11]; 15. 32-Chad Roush[12]; 16. 59-Doug Stine[16]; 17. 4UW-Bobby Regot[18]; 18. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[13]
Third Feature — Raymond Kable
Maryland racer Raymond Kable had been a DIRTcar Nationals regular for the past several seasons but had never had any hardware to show for it, until Wednesday night.
Kable started third and turned on the jets in the second half of the race, getting by Shannon Fisk for second by lap 10 and hunting down Monday night winner Brian Ruhlman five laps later to take the lead in traffic. From there, Kable was smooth sailing out front, winning Wednesday’s third feature right before a notable face joined him in a victory celebration.
“It’s kind of unreal,” Kable said. “We just really struggled the first night – we were horrible – and then we picked it up last night, and tonight I’m sharing victory lane with Kenny Wallace. It was awesome.”
The finish
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 90H-Raymond Kable[3]; 2. 49-Brian Ruhlman[1]; 3. 10Y-Trent Young[4]; 4. 60-Shannon Fisk[2]; 5. 463-Daniel Sanchez[5]; 6. 7B-Brad Deyoung[8]; 7. 8W-Gregory Moore[9]; 8. 51-Dalton Lanich[7]; 9. 11W-James Whittredge[11]; 10. 17C-Coleman Evans[17]; 11. 4S-Craig Shaw[10]; 12. 3D-Makayla Tyrrell[13]; 13. 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt[14]; 14. 99-Cole Hilton[6]; 15. 33-Kenny Mihalik[18]; 16. 77S-Jim Shipman[15]; 17. 0-Dylan Murray[16]; 18. E85-Jesse Strange[12]
Fourth Feature —Kenny Wallace
Since 2012, Kenny Wallace had gone winless at DIRTcar Nationals.
But as he crossed the finish line first Wednesday night and stepped into victory lane, emotion filled the 60-year-old as he hoisted his fifth career gator trophy and first in nearly 12 years.
“I almost started crying,” Wallace said. “You don’t know how bad you want something until you accomplish it. I’m just so excited and so happy.”
Wallace was stout all night long, setting quick time in his group before grabbing the lead on the opening lap of the feature and never looking back, leading all 20 laps virtually unchallenged to score the win in a car fielded by seven-time Big Gator points champion Nick Hoffman.
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 36-Kenny Wallace[1]; 2. 8S-Kyle Strickler[2]; 3. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[3]; 4. 4-Mike Learman[7]; 5. 24-Zeke McKenzie[4]; 6. 8A-Austin Holcombe[11]; 7. 90-Jason Beaulieu[6]; 8. 16C-John Clippinger[9]; 9. 88-Matt Crafton[8]; 10. 43A-Mark Anderson[17]; 11. 1S-Brian Shaw[5]; 12. 82-Gary Dillon[13]; 13. 6-Ryan Ayers[16]; 14. 72-Todd Neiheiser[12]; 15. 95J-Justin Cullum[15]; 16. 0S-Glenn Styres[14]; 17. 8-Dave Pinkerton[10]; 18. 78-Raymond Rogers[18]
Fifth Feature — Charlie Mefford
“Chargin’ Charlie” has done it again, winning DIRTcar Nationals for the second night in-a-row at Volusia Speedway Park.
The 17-year-old started second and trailed Michael Leach through the first half of the race before reeling him in on lap 10, shooting to the inside of Leach’s No. 09 in turn one and sliding up in front of him through turn two to take the lead.
From there, Mefford held strong on the multiple restarts he faced and led the field back around to the checkers to bag his third career gator trophy.
“This thing was pretty good tonight,” Mefford said. “It wasn’t as good as last night; we’ve gotta tweak on it before we go into the points day tomorrow.
“We’re just really good at Volusia.”
The finish:
Feature 6 (20 Laps): 1. 13-Charlie Mefford[2]; 2. 5CS-Curt Spalding[3]; 3. 09-Michael Leach[1]; 4. 7T-Evan Taylor[5]; 5. 11M-Michael McGee[7]; 6. 91-Chris Beaulieu[4]; 7. 27G-Jason Garver[6]; 8. 4K-Jason Kinney[8]; 9. 54-Zachary Hawk[12]; 10. 25B-Greg Belyea[10]; 11. 6B-Dave Baldwin[11]; 12. 77C-Jason Cox[16]; 13. 55-Alyssa Rowe[13]; 14. 187-Tyler Wiles[14]; 15. 1-Randy Giroux[9]; 16. 23-Jerol Stepp[15]; 17. 114B-Clayton Bryant[17]; 18. 97G-Jason Crose[18]
Sixth Feature —Tyler Nicely
Tyler Nicely’s streak of perfection at DIRTcar Nationals this week lives on. He’s now three-for-three in pursuit of his first Big Gator points championship.
Nicely, 28, once again led all 20 laps en route to the checkered, unchallenged by Justin Allgaier and Ray Bollinger who completed the podium behind him. Despite his success, Nicely still is not satisfied with everything going on in his operation.
“I feel like we were still a little bit out there,” Nicely said. “The longer the run goes, I just keep getting tighter getting in and it’s just killing my speed.”
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 25-Tyler Nicely[2]; 2. 7-Justin Allgaier[3]; 3. 77-Ray Bollinger[6]; 4. 114-Jordan Koehler[4]; 5. 23Z-Austin Self[8]; 6. 26-Ryan Gierke[11]; 7. 21B-Hunter Breland[5]; 8. 11N-Gene Nicholas[15]; 9. 07-Eric Moon[12]; 10. 12L-Lucas Lee[1]; 11. 12-Robert Gast[9]; 12. N8-Nathan Huffingham[18]; 13. 07K-Curtis King[16]; 14. 3-Josh Sanford[10]; 15. 99W-Wade Olmsted[17]; 16. 57M-Fletcher Mason[14]; 17. 3F-Rob Fuqua[13]; 18. 99G-Mark Grosvenor[7]