FARMER CITY, Ill. – Let it be known – Mike McKinney is really, really good at Farmer City Raceway.
McKinney tracked-down and passed the two-time and defending Summit Modified champion Nick Hoffman in the closing laps to score his third tour victory of 2020 Friday night and his fourth in-a-row on Friday nights at Farmer City.
After a caution-filled start, Hoffman jumped out to the lead as McKinney fought-off challengers to retain his spot inside the top-five. Once he cleared the rest of the leaders in the early going, McKinney set his sights on the Elite Chassis builder.
McKinney kept digging in all three lanes to get around Hoffman but could not seem to find the momentum. That was, until he made all the momentum he needed with a big slide job in turns three and four with five laps remaining to grab the lead – one he would not relinquish as he held off Hoffman and crossed the stripe for the $1,500 victory.
“Man, I’m out of breath,” McKinney told Announcer Ruben Mireles in victory lane. “I don’t know if we were that good or not, it was just another case where I wanted to win this deal really bad. There’s nobody in the pit area I want to beat more than my best buddy Nick. Just had to get up on the damn wheel and get it done.”
Hoffman crossed the line second while Michael Long came home third, Jeff Leka in fourth and Kyle Hammer fifth.
The finish:
1. 96M-Mike McKinney [1]; 2. 7-Nick Hoffman [2]; 3. 18L-Michael Long [6]; 4. 3L-Jeff Leka [4]; 5. 45-Kyle Hammer [7]; 6. 25W-Allen Weisser [12]; 7. 15-Chris Smith [14]; 8. 5-Curt Spalding [13]; 9. 77-Ray Bollinger [16]; 10. 93W-Brayden Watson [8]; 11. 24-Zeke McKenzie [9]; 12. MB4-Marty Lindeman [15]; 13. 22W-Wade Wenthe [11]; 14. 34T-Tanner Reed [17]; 15. 24L-Sydney Landes [20]; 16. 37L-Michael Ledford [10]; 17. 22-Josh Harris [5]; 18. 21-Troy Dodson [22]; 19. 87C-Alan Crowder [19]; 20. 389-Matt Dillon [18]; 21. K19-Will Krup [3]; 22. 35-Ethan Weber [21].