Cole Falloway has already won several big races in his young career. But there was one on his bucket list that he had been eying since becoming one of the top DIRTcar UMP Modified drivers in the nation — the Prairie Dirt Classic.
On Saturday night, the 23-year-old Kentucky native punched through to Victory Lane on Fairbury Speedway’s biggest stage of the year, leading all 40 circuits around the iconic Illinois 1/4-mile racetrack to bank the $5,000 check and his fifth career DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals Feature win.
“I’ve wanted this thing. I haven’t raced it a whole lot, but I knew it would just be a cool one to win with the amount of people here, the eyes on this race and everything,” Falloway said. “It’s one that I wanted, for sure.
“Anything you win here at Fairbury — it’s always tough to win here. There’s so many good cars and everything. It’s up there with a few really big ones that I’ve won. One of the top three, for sure.”
Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals. Merrill Downey Memorial. Mega 100. Plowboy Nationals. Troutman Memorial. Falloway’s list of marquee event wins in the DIRTcar UMP Modified world is rapidly expanding and now features a trophy from one of Illinois’ most prestigious motorsports events.
Josh James Artwork
From outside of the front row, Falloway jumped to the lead on the opening lap, powering around the outside of Trevor Neville through Turns 1 and 2. The race’s first caution flag with 12 laps complete restacked the field and put Neville and three-time Fairbury track champion Michael Ledford on Falloway’s rear bumper for the restart.
Ledford got a strong restart on the top side of the track and pulled ahead of Neville to take second at the flag stand to complete Lap 13. Damian Kiefer and Ricky Thornton Jr. got by Neville around the halfway point to move into positions three and four and set their sights on Ledford in second. When Ledford stumbled out of Turn 2 on Lap 28, Kiefer and Thornton both went by in Turn 3 to take the podium spots.
A second caution flag flew one lap later, restacking the field once more and erasing the lead of over two-and-a-half seconds Falloway had built.
“I got hung up in some of that lapped traffic, but I knew I still had a decent lead, so I was kind of okay either way — getting back out of lapped traffic with a yellow or just staying in it,” Falloway said. “I got through like three of them there before that yellow, and I felt like I could put a decent cushion between me and whoever was behind me.”
Falloway picked up the throttle on the restart and resumed his drive through the middle groove on the track. Kiefer gave him a challenge to the inside through Turns 1 and 2 but was unable to get close enough to make a move as Falloway began to speed away in the closing laps.
Josh James Artwork
“I saw Curtis (crew member), he had the sticks opened up a decent amount, and I felt like I was making pretty good laps and pretty good speed there through the middle,” Falloway said. “I just tried to watch him, and if he moved me, I knew there were some good cars behind me that could’ve made speed either around the bottom or the top. So, I just tried to keep making speed like I was through the middle and keep an eye on him in case he did try to move me.”
Uncontested in the final circuits, Falloway crossed underneath the checkered flag to seal the victory with Ledford getting back to second, Kiefer in third, Thornton in fourth and Tyler Nicely rounding out the top five.
Feature (40 laps) — 1. 66-Cole Falloway[2]; 2. 9-Michael Ledford[4]; 3. 0K-Damian Kiefer[5]; 4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr.[8]; 5. 7N-Tyler Nicely[7]; 6. 96M-Mike McKinney[6]; 7. 777-Trevor Neville[1]; 8. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[17]; 9. 29-Chris Spalding[10]; 10. 18L-Michael Long[16]; 11. 13-Charlie Mefford[12]; 12. 77-Ray Bollinger[21]; 13. 5-Steven Brooks[23]; 14. 89-Austin Friedman[18]; 15. 21B-Hunter Breland[14]; 16. 01-Jeremy Nichols[15]; 17. B5-Matthew Baker[24]; 18. 8K-Levi Kissinger[19]; 19. 36W-Kenny Wallace[22]; 20. 4-Cody Laney[9]; 21. 12-Jeff Curl[20]; 22. 99-Blake Brown[11]; 23. 110-Landen Miller[3]; 24. 25W-Allen Weisser[13]
