It came down to the final weekend of the year to decide it, but Billy Knebel Jr. was able to hang onto his slim points lead to capture the first DIRTcar Pro Modified national championship of his career.
Just one week after being crowned Macon Speedway Pro Modified track champion, Knebel took a 17-point lead into the DIRTcar Fall Nationals at Lincoln Speedway and successfully defended it with a fifth-place finish on Friday night, sealing the championship by 13 points over Deece Schwartz.
Statistically speaking, Knebel and Schwartz tied for wins in the division with 11. Despite Knebel recording two less starts than Schwartz, bonus points for higher car counts at certain races was the deciding factor in Knebel’s first title.
Overall, Knebel recorded an impressive eight feature wins at Macon, complimenting his two checkered flags at Kankakee County Speedway and one at Farmer City Raceway. Ryan Hamilton, Anthony Tucker and Kyle Helmick rounded out the top-five in the points standings.
Another first-time national champion, Bryce Shidler took home the UMP Sportsman national championship by a slim margin of 26 points over Josh Litton.
Five feature wins for Shidler was enough to earn him the most of any driver in the division – one greater than Litton. Both drivers recorded 25 nights of DIRTcar competition, but the extra win and a few more top-five finishes sealed the deal.
While Litton walked away with the Lincoln Park Speedway track title, back-to-back wins in back-to-back weeks at the Greencastle, Ind., facility highlighted Shidler’s DIRTcar championship run. One trip to Paragon Speedway victory lane on June 26 rounded out his win column.
Shidler becomes the tenth different champion since 2006 and the fourth different champion in the last four years. Tyler Neal, Austin Phelps and Kyle Johnson rounded out the top-five in national points.
The fourth first-time champion graces the top of the Stock Car national points standings, and his name is Lance Evans.
Winning one of the closest points battles in DIRTcar history, Evans edged-out Terry Reed Jr. by just a single point in the final race of the year at Charleston Speedway’s Street Stock Fall Nationals.
Coming into the DIRTcar Fall Nationals at Lincoln Speedway, Evans trailed Reed by four points on the back of nine wins and 21 top-five finishes. While Friday night’s race at Lincoln did not change the margin, Evans finished fourth at Charleston on Saturday night while Reed was left to face reality after a 16th-place result, pulling Evans ahead in the standings by one point.
Evans ended up tied for the third-most points night appearances of all drivers in the division at 29, while Reed topped the list at 36 starts, collecting eight Feature wins. Evans certainly showed off his versatility this season, collecting Feature wins at several different tracks including Fairbury, Jacksonville, Macon, Lincoln and LaSalle, highlighted by back-to-back trips to victory lane at Fairbury and Jacksonville on Aug. 22-23.
After posting his 14th feature win of the season at Fayette County Speedway on Sept. 26, Trevor Isaak officially clinched the DIRTcar Factory Stock national championship.
This is the second DIRTcar Factory Stock title of Isaak’s career; he joins Jesse Simmons as the only other driver since 2007 to win the national title more than once.
Isaak was downright dominant in DIRTcar action this season, scoring five wins at Fayette County, six wins at Tri-City Speedway and three at Highland Speedway, with all points-contributing finishes of no worse than fourth.
After 21 nights of competition, Isaak finished 98 points ahead of runner-up Terry McCann, who totaled the next-highest number of feature wins at seven. No other driver inside the top-10 in national points had more than three Feature wins.
The fifth and final first-time DIRTcar national champion makes his home in East Peoria, Ill. – Sport Compact young gun Dallas Strauch.
Strauch bested Dave Lauritson, who has now finished runner-up in national points three years in-a-row, by 25 points, on the back of nine Feature wins in 32 DIRTcar-sanctioned appearances.
Cleaning up at Peoria Speedway with four feature wins, Strauch also parked it in Lincoln, Tri-City, Spoon River and I-55 Raceway victory lane this season. Although Lauritson had one more victory, Strauch pulled it off in the end with a few more slightly valuable top-five finishes.
Two big weekends highlighted Strauch’s season this summer, making back-to-back trips to Victory Lane at Tri-City and I-55 on Sept. 11-12, and again at Lincoln and Spoon River on June 19-20.