PEVELY, Mo. — After several seasons trying and coming so close, Cole Falloway finally broke through for his first career DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals feature win Saturday night at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55.
The 21-year-old from Owensboro, Ky., had been knocking on the door with three top-five finishes in Hell Tour competition in 2023, and most recently, a third-place finish Thursday at Spoon River Speedway.
Falloway battled with Treb Jacoby – who was also looking for his first career Summit Modified win – for most of the race, swapping the top spot multiple times in the first half before Falloway put a slide job on Jacoby on lap 20 to take the lead for good.
“I’ve been close a couple of times and never been able to get one,” Falloway said. “To finally get one and at Pevely. I’ve never ran really great here and it feels good to finally get one.”
Falloway and Jacoby lined up on the front row and Falloway took the lead on the opening lap using the bottom of the track. Jacoby then took the lead on Lap 5 around the top side before Falloway took it back once again a few circuits later.
Jacoby got the lead back again on the high banking and held it for several more laps, but Falloway never got further than car length behind. On lap 19, Jacoby switched lines and dove to the bottom in Turns 3 and 4 while Falloway rode the middle groove and pulled slightly ahead of Jacoby for the lead.
Entering turn one on lap 20, Falloway sealed the pass as he dove to the bottom of turn one and slid up in front of Jacoby coming out of turn two. Once he executed the slider on Jacoby, Falloway drove off, finishing over two seconds ahead of Jacoby.
“I was kind of watching the laps just to see how much time I had,” Falloway said. “[Jacoby] started trying to protect and protect and he was killing all his speed leaving in the corners. So I finally got in hard enough behind him where I could really diamond it and drive back up beside him and whenever I did, I committed to sliding in front of him.”
Feature Finish (25 Laps)
1. 66-Cole Falloway[1]; 2. 111-Treb Jacoby[2]; 3. 18L-Michael Long[3]; 4. 99-Hunt Gossum[4]; 5. 14C-Rick Conoyer[6]; 6. 22-Josh Harris[5]; 7. 96M-Mike McKinney[8]; 8. 12L-Lucas Lee[7]; 9. 777-Trevor Neville[12]; 10. 58R-Ryan Hamilton[10]; 11. 9-Ken Schrader[16]; 12. 00Z-Steve Picou[11]; 13. 42-Clint Young[20]; 14. 67-Austin Seets[17]; 15. 72-Todd Neiheiser[13]; 16. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[19]; 17. 25-Greg Belyea[9]; 18. 4G-Paul Schrempf Jr[15]; 19. 3L-Bill Larue[21]; 20. 14-Dalton Lane[18]; 21. 27-Michael Turner[22]; 22. 21-Randy Dickman[14]