In his first trip to Butler Motor Speedway, Michael Ledford battled through unfamiliarity to leave the track as a winner.
In the Thursday night battle around the 3/8-mile high banks, the Pontiac, IL driver took home his third career DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals win after leading flag-to-flag through the 25-lap Feature.
Todd Neiheiser led the field to the green flag as Michael Ledford used the middle lane to stay beside the No. 72 UMP Modified. In Turns 3-4, Neiheiser lost his footing on the bottom and gave way for David Stremme and Tyler Nicely to take second and third, respectively.
Ledford made hay around the Michigan facility by running the middle as Stremme used every inch of the bottom lane to keep Ledford within his sights.
When Ledford approached lap traffic, Stremme chopped the gap by running down to the bottom lane while Ledford had to mix around the top, middle, and the bottom to create obstacles in Stremme’s way.
While Stremme’s No. 35 Lethal Chassis closed the distance to Ledford in the final five laps of the Feature, he was too far back to attempt a pass for the lead as the No. 4 Royal Racecars pilot captured his second win of the 2025 tour.
“I started running what I ran in the Heat race through the middle,” Ledford said. “It seemed like it was the smoothest part, but then once a lot of that blowed off, you had to go down to the bottom. Luckily, I’ve raced long enough to know when to make that switch, but I had a good car.”
Entering the final five races of the Summit Modifieds Nationals season, Tyler Nicely’s fourth-place finish helped him pass Chase Holland for second place in the standings while sitting 91 points back from Trevor Neville, who finished in third.
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals finish the Michigan swing with Crystal Motor Speedway on Friday night, July 11.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 4-Michael Ledford[2]; 2. 35-David Stremme[3]; 3. 777-Trevor Neville[5]; 4. 25-Tyler Nicely[4]; 5. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[13]; 6. 45H-Chase Holland[6]; 7. 24-Zeke McKenzie[9]; 8. 74M-Manix Furqueron[14]; 9. 96S-Terry Sroufe[7]; 10. 14-Dalton Lane[22]; 11. 75-Daniel Adam[8]; 12. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[19]; 13. 21B-Hunter Breland[16]; 14. 9R-Garrett Rons[18]; 15. (DNF) 5CS-Curt Spalding[10]; 16. (DNF) 65-Todd Sherman[12]; 17. (DNF) 23Z-Austin Self[21]; 18. (DNF) 72-Todd Neiheiser[1]; 19. (DNF) 7-Brad Deyoung[17]; 20. (DNF) 463-Daniel Sanchez[15]; 21. (DNF) 117-Kevin Reeve[11]; 22. (DNF) 8C-Corey Bevard[20]
