Of the 106 DIRTcar UMP Modifieds that made the trek to Volusia Speedway Park for the 54th Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals, 18 have clinched a spot into Saturday night’s Big Gator Championship Feature.
While Friday did not produce a first-time winner with the Modifieds, it did see the return of George Dixon to Volusia Victory Lane for the first time since 2023. Other drivers adding another Gator trophy to the record books included Trevor Neville, Will Krup, Curt Spalding, Kyle Strickler, and David Stremme.
FEATURE #1
Betting odds would’ve favored Cole Falloway in the first DIRTcar UMP Modified Feature of the night as he’s won five races in his first eight starts at Volusia Speedway Park and started on the pole. However, Trevor Neville didn’t care about the odds.
Starting outside Falloway, Neville darted ahead of the No. 66 when the green flag flew and pulled away by five car lengths after the first lap.
From there, Neville entered a league of his own. Three cautions slowed the program, bringing the field back to Neville, but he was again untouchable each time the race resumed.
While he pulled away, Falloway – who entered as the Big Gator points leader – struggled. Todd Neiheiser passed him for second on Lap 10 and then Kenny Wallace passed him for third on Lap Lap 19, placing Falloway in fourth at the finish – one spot out of the transfer into tomorrow’s Gator Championship Feature.
Neville, Neiheiser, and Wallace are locked into to compete for the $5,000 top prize and the Big Gator trophy.
“It feels good,” Neville said about putting himself in contention for the Big Gator title and Gator Championship win. “I don’t know how the points are going to fall, but we get a redraw and I’ll probably get to redraw somewhere in the back. That’s kind of my luck this week. But we’re having fun and that’s all that matters.”
RESULTS:
Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 777-Trevor Neville[2]; 2. 72-Todd Neiheiser[4]; 3. 36-Kenny Wallace[3]; 4. 66-Cole Falloway[1]; 5. 88-Matt Crafton[5]; 6. 0K-Damian Kiefer[14]; 7. 43A-Mark Anderson[16]; 8. 6-Ryan Fowler[15]; 9. 21-Scott Ladner[10]; 10. 114K-Evan Koehler[8]; 11. 07K-Curtis King[11]; 12. T9-Zack Tate[12]; 13. 01-Brayden Weller[9]; 14. 35A-Michael Altobelli[6]; 15. 25-Greg Belyea[7]
FEATURE #2
The second DIRTcar UMP Modified Feature of the night was all about Will Krup.
The five-time Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals winner won everything he could in the Feature. He started on the pole, led all 20, won the race and took the Big Gator points lead.
“High confidence here, especially to get a win before the big race,” Krup said. “The car is pretty good. We just got to see what this redraw has in store for us. Hopefully get a good redraw and start up front and hopefully be there at the end.”
While he stole the show out front, Ryan Thomas and Cole Czarneski – both fighting to hold a podium spot to lock into Saturday’ Feature – had the battle of the race. Czarneski passed Thomas for second at the start of the Feature, but Thomas never let him get away.
Thomas’ best shot to reclaim the runner-up shot came on Lap 11 when a caution brought them back together.
Czarneski pulled ahead of the No. 9T on the restart, but not far enough. Chipping away at the gap each lap, Thomas found the grip he needed and passed Czarneski to take back second and hold on to the spot until the end.
Krup will compete for his first Big Gator title and Gator Championship Feature win, along with Thomas and Czarneski.
RESULTS:
Feature 2 (20 Laps): 1. K9-Will Krup[1]; 2. 9T-Ryan Thomas[2]; 3. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[3]; 4. 15X-Justin Stone[4]; 5. 60-Shannon Fisk[7]; 6. 7D-Brad Deyoung[5]; 7. 114B-Clayton Bryant[6]; 8. Z1-Zac Oedewaldt[18]; 9. 21B-Hunter Breland[11]; 10. 155-Gavin Shaw[12]; 11. 3S-Josh Sanford[10]; 12. 3F-Rob Fuqua[14]; 13. 18-Miles Beaulieu[8]; 14. 321-Denny Schwartz[13]; 15. 10X-Billy Uptegraff[16]
FEATURE #3
Celebrating the seventh anniversary of the day Curt Spalding and Chris Terry started their dirt racing venture together, the Watervliet, MI driver honored it with another Golden Gator trophy – his third win in eight races.
To do so, Spalding put on another dominating performance, leading all 20 laps of the Feature.
“This is pretty surreal with all of this stuff happening,” Spalding said. “Obviously, we have a good hot rod, right? I can pretty much drive… I was messing around there, trying some stuff and kind of got in trouble and I said, ‘Hey, just get back to what you know and get this thing won.’
“We can still lose in the redraw tomorrow. You start 12th, that’s a tough hill to climb with this crowd. It doesn’t matter. We’re singing and this thing is cooking along.”
Behind him, Charlie Mefford and Colton Profitt argued for the runner-up spot, not wanting to be the vulnerable driver in third that could fall out of a transfer spot.
The two spent more time side by side during the 20-lap event than they did single file. Profitt ran low while Mefford ran high. Then they’d trade lanes once, twice, three times throughout the race until Mefford won the battle in the second half of the race.
Once in second, Mefford started to gain ground on Spalding as he was “messing around” with different lines. But once Spalding got back in his groove, he expanded his gap to Mefford and grabbed the victory.
Spalding, Mefford, and Profitt joined the list of drivers looking for their first Gator Championship win and Big Gator title.
RESULTS:
Feature 3 (20 Laps): 1. 5CS-Curt Spalding[1]; 2. 13-Charlie Mefford[2]; 3. 56-Colton Profitt[3]; 4. 19-Dustin Sorensen[6]; 5. 45-Chase Holland[4]; 6. 17C-Coleman Evans[7]; 7. 9R-JP Roberts Jr[11]; 8. 70H-Jim Britt[15]; 9. 60M-Jim Manka[9]; 10. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[13]; 11. 11N-Gene Nicholas[8]; 12. 7-Evan Taylor[5]; 13. 81K-Kyle Cole[17]; 14. 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt[14]
FEATURE #4
Kyle Strickler’s plan for DIRTcar Nationals was to put himself in position for Saturday’s Big Gator Championship Feature.
He executed the plan to perfection with a flawless performance, commanding the 20-lap Feature for his 17th Gator trophy – his third of 2025.
“When you’re running all these days in a row, you wanna make sure your stuff’s there,” Strickler said. “Especially for the Big Gator tomorrow, that’s kinda my cup of tea. I’ve always planned all week to win the Big Gator come Saturday, so we put ourselves in position, and the guys are all doing a great job working on this thing and having a lot of fun down here in Florida. We got us a lock-in redraw spot, so we’ll see how it plays out.”
From the drop of the green flag, the Mooresville, NC outran Thursday night winner Lucas Lee through the first two turns, then used the remaining laps of the race to find his rhythm and separate himself from the field by over two seconds for the Friday night win.
“It took me a little bit to get my momentum going,” Strickler said. “Later on in the week, we were getting the car better and keep on tuning on it. The motor was running a little hot last night, but tonight we changed stuff around and got it to where the temperature came down.”
The podium of Strickler, Gregory Moore, and Lee are set in stone to race in the Gator Championship on Saturday.
RESULTS:
Feature 4 (20 Laps): 1. 8S-Kyle Strickler[1]; 2. 8W-Gregory Moore[4]; 3. 12L-Lucas Lee[2]; 4. 77-Ray Bollinger[5]; 5. 97-Mitch Thomas[10]; 6. 90K-Ray Kable[8]; 7. 5-Jonathan Taylor[18]; 8. 49-Brian Ruhlman[3]; 9. 0-Glenn Styres[6]; 10. 11-Aidan Hinds[9]; 11. 99-Jimmy Wagner[11]; 12. 77C-Jason Cox[16]; 13. 463-Daniel Sanchez[7]; 14. (DNS) 2J-Troy Johnson; 15. (DNS) S8-Jordan Stotts; 16. (DNS) 41-Brad Goff; 17. (DNS) 8-Dave Pinkerton; 18. (DNS) 26-Adam Ogle
FEATURE #5
David Stremme felt mixed emotions about his performance throughout the running of DIRTcar Nationals.
Though he hasn’t finished outside of the top five once throughout the previous seven nights of racing, Stremme knew there was room for improvement behind the wheel of his No.35 Lethal Chassis.
Not letting an opportunity for a Gator slip by him once more, Stremme went to work by beating reigning Summit Modified Nationals champ Mike McKinney to the jump on the start, then extending his early gap to three seconds while McKinney and Jordan Koehler dueled for second place.
Koehler got the best of McKinney by taking second until the caution waved on the fifth lap. The ensuing restart saw McKinney retake the position but lose touch with Stremme by a one-second gap.
In the remaining laps, McKinney cut the distance down to half a second on Stremme, however, it was too late for the No.96M to make a move on Stremme as he took the checkered flag for his eighth career DIRTcar Nationals Feature win.
“It was better resolved because the last two nights I’ve sucked,” Stremme said. “I felt like I haven’t been able to capitalize and the balance of the car was loose to where we weren’t stuck. Tomorrow’s gonna be a whole different deal. It always is, so we’re in the redraw. Curt (Spalding) did well, we’ll see if (George Dixon) gets it, but I’m pretty proud of all our efforts. We’ll just see how lady luck deals us tomorrow.”
McKinney and Koehler’s second and third-place finishes joined Stremme in claiming a spot to Saturday night’s finale.
RESULTS:
Feature 5 (20 Laps): 1. 35-David Stremme[1]; 2. 96M-Mike McKinney[2]; 3. 114-Jordan Koehler[4]; 4. 24-Zeke McKenzie[6]; 5. 65-Matt Miller[13]; 6. 2K-Taylor Kuehl[9]; 7. 23T-Ryan Toole[18]; 8. 29C-Joey Cotterman[15]; 9. 99W-Wade Olmsted[16]; 10. 5B-Bobby Bagley[10]; 11. 10Y-Trent Young[3]; 12. 23Z-Austin Self[5]; 13. 11J-Jesse Rupe[7]; 14. 11L-Jimmy Lennex Jr[8]; 15. 45H-Kyle Hammer[12]; 16. 11D-Brian Diveley[14]
FEATURE #6
Despite four top-fives, six top-10s, and two podiums scored, George Dixon was still looking for the Golden Gator to catch in 2025.
That wait ended on Friday night for the Shirleysburg, PA driver as he picked up a second career DIRTcar Nationals Feature win.
Dixon got the jump on Wednesday night Gator winner Michael Long on the initial start and immediately broke away from the pack.
Long had to deal with a tough set of competition as fourth-place starter Austin Holcombe took third place on the opening lap, then chased down the No.18L for the second position.
Halfway through the Feature, Long, and Holcombe battled for the spot, with Holcombe’s No.8A sliding down the bottom of Turns 3 and 4 to clear Long.
Their battle hurt their chances of catching Dixon, who extended the lead to over 1.3 seconds and crossed the twin checkered flags for victory.
“I’m super happy,” Dixon said. “We unloaded fast on Thursday and we had a lot of speed then, and it didn’t work out. But you wonder if that’s gonna be the only night you get a chance, but luckily, we hung on in all week long, some seconds, thirds, fourths, and then tonight ended up working out and we pulled it off.”
Dixon, Holcombe, and Long’s finishes in the final Feature gave them the reward of a guaranteed place in the Gator Championship.
RESULTS:
Feature 6 (20 Laps): 1. 77D-George Dixon[1]; 2. 8A-Austin Holcombe[4]; 3. 18L-Michael Long[2]; 4. 05-David Wietholder[9]; 5. 7J-Justin Allgaier[5]; 6. 27G-Jason Garver[11]; 7. 1H-Ben Harmon[8]; 8. 17-Chris Wilson[13]; 9. 51-Dalton Lanich[6]; 10. 81C-Christopher Cole[16]; 11. 57-Charlie Sandercock[3]; 12. 27-Michael Turner[7]; 13. 72S-Eric Shepherd Jr[12]; 14. 32-Chad Roush[14]; 15. 28C-Jeff Cotterman[15]; 16. (DNS) 16-Shawn Deering; 17. (DNS) 90-Jason Beaulieu
Up Next: The final night of DIRTcar UMP Modified racing at the 54th Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals will see the determination of a UMP Modified Speedweeks and Big Gator champion on Saturday, Feb. 8. Tickets are available here:
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.
