BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Danny Martin Jr. swept the weekend in the 360 sprint car division during the second annual battle in Barberville at Volusia Speedway Park.
After starting third in the 20-lap, $3,000-to-win feature, Martin got a clean jump on the front row of Garrett Green and Mark Ruel Jr. to take the lead by the end of the first lap.
Using his experience and clean air to his advantage, the driver of the Shaw Racing No. 24 proved why he can succeed at Volusia, leading every lap and winning his second consecutive Boot trophy.
“This place is interesting,” Martin said. “Clean air was important to get it fast, and we made it happen. Our motor wasn’t taking off as quick but it runs really good once you get wound up. I played with the fuel valve right on the start and there are little tricks to the trade. I got lucky, but it all worked out.”
With the feature victory, Martin has claimed the first spot into the $10,000-to-win second Annual Germfree Southern Sprint Car Shootout.
“We have a lot of laps here,” Martin said. “There’s going to be a lot of heavy hitters here and it’s good to be locked in. So we still have to be on our game and I really want to win it. I have won races at almost every state in the southeast, but never a $10,000-to-win. We’ll be here and ready to give them hell.”
Tyler Clem came home with a second-place finish.
Completing the night’s podium was Mark Ruel Jr. with Garrett Green and Nick Snyder rounding out the top five.
The journey back to Volusia victory lane was a culmination of hard work for Hunter Gustafson, with an action-packed 20-lap UMP modified feature to boot.
After a caution stacked up the field for a run to the checkered flag, Gustafson used the low line to race side-by-side with Shead as the laps began to wind down. Then, with a fully committed send on the bottom line, Gustafson powered by Shead to win his first Battle in Barberville Feature, capping off the road back to the top.
Gustafson had to build his way back and was super happy to be back at Volusia and earn a Boot trophy.
“I used to race out here weekly,” Gustafson said. “We had some evil people take away a lot from us during DIRTcar Nationals a couple of years ago, so we had to move to Leesburg and finally got back to racing again. I raced all of last year (at Volusia) and raced only three times this year. It feels so good to get a win because of work, I haven’t had a chance to race much. Volusia is my home track, I got all of my UMP Modified wins here.”
Shead came home with a second-place finish, a valiant effort for the local favorite.
Completing the night’s podium was Eric Moon.