CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Just one night removed from this first runner-up finish of the entire season, Nick Hoffman went right back at it on Saturday night at Clarksville Speedway and won his 16thh DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals feature.
It was another 25-lap drive of perfection by the three-time and defending champion, as he led every lap en route to the $1,500 payday and his 54th career Summit Modified victory – once again putting him in a tie for most all-time with six-time champion Mike Harrison.
But this run didn’t exactly get off to the greatest start from inside the Hoffman cockpit.
“I knew the initial start was gonna be the race, really,” Hoffman said. “I hit the fence down the front straightaway and was really worried about getting a right-front flat going through turns one and two. But we kept the air in it.”
Hoffman’s biggest challenger was the seven-time UMP Modified winner in local Clarksville action so far this year – Trent Young. Young stayed top-three the entire race and cracked the whip in the final circuits but could not make up the gap.
“Trent was hustling pretty hard at the end and made me step it up there,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman had himself some issues in the final stretch as well.
“There was about five or six to go, and I entered in on the cushion in one and two and something broke in the right-rear or left-rear, I’m not really sure. I was just kinda hanging on from there,” Hoffman said.
And hang on he did, savoring the victory at a track he won both races at in last year’s back-to-back show to make it a three-peat in 2021.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps) 1. 2-Nick Hoffman[2]; 2. 10Y-Trent Young[1]; 3. 99-Hunt Gossum[16]; 4. 12L-Lucas Lee[4]; 5. 98-Zac Harris[5]; 6. T6- Tommy Sheppard Jr[17]; 7. 88R-Dustin Rollins[9]; 8. 00D-David Reutimann[15]; 9. 02-Chris Cook[8]; 10. 7D-Pete Sabatino[11]; 11. 11-Brian Ashby[12]; 12. 176-Scotty Owens[14]; 13. 96-Curtis Rodenhaber[6]; 14. 9H-John Demoss[7]; 15. 88-Adam Wright[13]; 16. 13-Charlie Mefford[10]; 17. 19-Travis Thrasher[18]; 18. 21S-Kenny Shaw[20]; 19. 16-Todd Riley[19]; 20. (DNS) 19S-Garrett Schmidt