Of the six drivers that visited Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals Victory Lane Thursday night at Volusia Speedway Park, three hoisted a gator trophy for the first time in their careers, cementing their name into the record books of one of Florida’s biggest motorsports events.
Dave Pinkerton, Greg Moore and Ryan Ayers clinched their first gators, while Jonathan Taylor, Dustin Sorensen and Ken Schrader added another to their collections in the six-pack of Features, lined-up according to event points.
Feature #1 – Dave Pinkerton
Ohio racer Dave Pinkerton kicked-off Thursday’s UMP Modified action, scoring his first career gator trophy in the first Feature.
Illinois veteran Rob Fuqua led the first two laps before Pinkerton gave him a challenge to the inside on Lap 3. Pinkerton dove to the bottom lane in Turn 3 and took the lead off Turn 4 as Fuqua bobbled on the cushion.
“I heard Fuqua on the last few restarts, and I knew I had to get up on the horse when I saw [Brian] Shaw was in third,” Pinkerton said.
Through multiple restarts, Pinkerton held strong and led the field back around to collect the checkers. In Victory Lane, Pinkerton proudly hoisted a gator trophy for the first time in his career.
“I’ll take a gator any way I can get it,” Pinkerton said. “I’ll tell my grandkids that this was DIRTcar Nationals.”
Feature 1 (89+ in points) (15 Laps): 1. 8-Dave Pinkerton[1]; 2. 3F-Rob Fuqua[2]; 3. 78-Raymond Rogers[16]; 4. 95J-Justin Cullum[6]; 5. 77S-Jim Shipman[7]; 6. 59-Doug Stine[5]; 7. 12M-John McClure[9]; 8. 0-Dylan Murray[11]; 9. 2G-Troy Girolamo[14]; 10. E85-Jesse Strange[12]; 11. 89W-Rick Weitekamp[3]; 12. 07K-Curtis King[4]; 13. 1S-Brian Shaw[10]; 14. 23-Jerol Stepp[17]; 15. 55-Alyssa Rowe[8]; 16. 99W-Wade Olmsted[13]; 17. 187-Tyler Wiles[15
Feature #2 – Greg Moore
From 13th on the starting grid, Greg Moore completed his 15-lap charge to the front with an exciting, last-lap pass for the win.
Moore, of Defiance, PA, took advantage of some attrition in the opening laps, advancing into the top-five after a few incidents in front of him. He and Ryan Gierke battled for the second spot after the halfway point, but Moore was able to retain the position and mount a charge on then-leader Mark Anderson in the final laps.
At the white flag, Moore was only a few tenths behind Anderson. He got a great run off Turn 2, dove low into Turn 3 with speed and slid up in front of Anderson out of Turn 4 to take the lead and his first career gator trophy.
“I kept tracking [Anderson] down lap-by-lap, trying to run the cushion there; I kinda figured it was gonna be a last-lap deal,” Moore said. “I set it down in there underneath him, he left the door open, and thankfully it stuck.”
Feature 2 (55-72 in points) (15 Laps): 1. 8W-Gregory Moore[13]; 2. 43A-Mark Anderson[1]; 3. 72-Todd Neiheiser[12]; 4. 21C-Drew Charlson[18]; 5. 26-Ryan Gierke[2]; 6. 6B-Dave Baldwin[6]; 7. 4K-Jason Kinney[9]; 8. 3-Josh Sanford[7]; 9. 01-Brayden Weller[4]; 10. 5B-Bobby Bagley[15]; 11. 54-Zachary Hawk[5]; 12. 25B-Greg Belyea[16]; 13. 11W-James Whittredge[17]; 14. 2J-Troy Johnson[3]; 15. 28B-Jason Brookover[8]; 16. 51-Dalton Lanich[10]; 17. 57-Charlie Sandercock[11]; 18. 99G-Mark Grosvenor[14]
Feature #3 – Jonathan Taylor
For the third time in his career, Jonathan Taylor is a DIRTcar Nationals Feature winner.
The 34-year-old from Saltsburg, PA, had won twice on the points-ranked lineup night of DIRTcar Nationals before – traditionally held later in the week – and did it a third time Thursday night. He made the moves he needed to early, getting by polesitter Michael McGee with a run down low on Lap 3 and holding on through multiple restarts in the final laps to secure the win.
“We made a few changes throughout the week fighting some issues – not car-related, motor-related – and we finally got our feet under us,” Taylor said. “We were happy to get out front and stay there for the duration.”
Feature 3 (37-54 in points) (15 Laps): 1. 5-Jonathan Taylor[3]; 2. 27G-Jason Garver[11]; 3. 1-Randy Giroux[4]; 4. 21-Scott Ladner[2]; 5. 11M-Michael McGee[1]; 6. 07-Eric Moon[6]; 7. 7D-TJ DeHaven[17]; 8. 90-Jason Beaulieu[15]; 9. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[7]; 10. 91-Chris Beaulieu[12]; 11. 88-Matt Crafton[5]; 12. 17C-Coleman Evans[18]; 13. 18K-Brandon Kinzer[14]; 14. 114-Jordan Koehler[10]; 15. 97-Mitch Thomas[9]; 16. 4-Mike Learman[13]; 17. 11N-Gene Nicholas[8]; 18. 21B-Hunter Breland[16]
Feature #4 – Dustin Sorensen
The biggest points-getters of the week filed in line for a 15-lap scramble to decide early DIRTcar Nationals supremacy. When the dust settled, Dustin Sorensen was the lone driver standing at the head of the field as winner of Thursday’s fourth Feature event.
“I felt really good in that Feature – the best I’ve felt all week,” Sorensen said. “I’m looking forward to qualifying tomorrow night and the big show on Saturday.”
The 23-year-old World of Outlaws CASE Late Model Series Rookie of the Year contender from Rochester, MN, started third on the grid and gave chase to Cole Czarneski’s brightly colored 21cz for the first 10 laps, finally getting around him on a late restart.
Meanwhile, out front, Will Krup continued to lead since the drop of the green. That was until Lap 11 when his right-rear tire blew, forcing him to bring out caution as the leader for the second-straight night.
Sorensen inherited the top spot for the race’s final restart and held off all challengers to secure his second gator in as many nights.
“I think we’ve got probably one of the top-10 cars here, but it’s so competitive,” Sorensen said. “I haven’t raced against these guys that much, but there’s so many good cars there. It’s kinda crazy, and it makes it a lot of fun.”
Feature 4 (1-18 in points) (15 Laps): 1. 19-Dustin Sorensen[3]; 2. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[1]; 3. 11X-Tom Berry Jr[7]; 4. 36-Kenny Wallace[6]; 5. 35-David Stremme[8]; 6. 25-Tyler Nicely[10]; 7. 777-Trevor Neville[5]; 8. 77-Ray Bollinger[17]; 9. 95-Michael Altobelli[18]; 10. 4TW-Tim Ward[13]; 11. 8S-Kyle Strickler[9]; 12. 23Z-Austin Self[15]; 13. 18L-Michael Long[16]; 14. 49-Brian Ruhlman[12]; 15. K9-Will Krup[2]; 16. 13-Charlie Mefford[4]; 17. 12L-Lucas Lee[14]; 18. 27-Michael Turner[11]
Feature #5 – Ken Schrader
Ken Schrader got his first gator since 2013 Tuesday night and followed that up with his fourth career DIRTcar Nationals win two nights later.
Similar to his path to Victory Lane on Tuesday, Ken Schrader jumped to the lead on Lap 1 and never looked back, leading all 15 laps and crossing the stripe by a margin of over four seconds on runner-up Shannon Fisk.
“They changed a lot of stuff on the car today just because what we’d been doing just wasn’t working,” Schrader said. “And I’m old, and I drive different.
“We’ve got 80 percent of what we need, we’ve just got to get some more.”
His third DIRTcar Nationals trophy waited 10 years to be presented to him, but #4 waited only 48 hours. Schrader had positive things to say about the new format that allows drivers more chances to win a DIRTcar Nationals Feature, which he took full advantage of throughout the week.
“The competition level just gets more intense every year with the number of cars we have and stuff,” Schrader said. “I hear some rumblings, some guys saying that the way they do it now where everybody’s running a Feature isn’t like the way it should be. But I think what [DIRTcar] has done, got so many people that come down here and support this thing and everybody getting to run a race, I think it’s fabulous.”
Feature 5 – (19-36 in points) (15 Laps): 1. 9-Ken Schrader[2]; 2. 60-Shannon Fisk[1]; 3. 7-Justin Allgaier[4]; 4. 5CS-Curt Spalding[6]; 5. 7T-Evan Taylor[5]; 6. 24-Zeke McKenzie[8]; 7. 10Y-Trent Young[7]; 8. 90H-Raymond Kable[10]; 9. 96M-Mike McKinney[13]; 10. 17T-Tyler Evans[15]; 11. 7B-Brad Deyoung[17]; 12. 463-Daniel Sanchez[12]; 13. 114B-Clayton Bryant[16]; 14. 2T-Ty Norder[14]; 15. 6ST-Joseph Thomas[11]; 16. 16C-John Clippinger[18]; 17. 77D-George Dixon[3]; 18. 09-Michael Leach[9]
Feature #6 – Ryan Ayers
After a week on the struggle bus at Volusia, Ryan Ayers couldn’t help but crack a smile standing in Victory Lane Thursday night as winner of the final Feature of the night.
The Newton, NC-racer took advantage of a Lap 4 restart, shooting to the bottom in Turn 1 to get underneath leader Glenn Styres and take the top spot. From there, Ayers was smooth sailing out front, bringing the field back around to the checkers after multiple restarts to claim his first career DIRTcar Nationals gator trophy.
“It feels really good, coming from the week we’ve had,” Ayers said. “We’ve just struggled all week. Worked all day just to try and make the car go back to the basics. Nothing fancy, just plain-Jane stuff, and this thing’s really fast tonight.”
Feature 6 (73-88 in points) (15 Laps): 1. 6-Ryan Ayers[3]; 2. 0S-Glenn Styres[4]; 3. 32-Chad Roush[1]; 4. 40-Ronald Wadforth[6]; 5. 7G-Seth Geary[18]; 6. 82-Gary Dillon[8]; 7. 3D-Makayla Tyrrell[2]; 8. 00B-Buzzie Reutimann[9]; 9. 8A-Austin Holcombe[17]; 10. 4S-Craig Shaw[11]; 11. 12-Robert Gast[10]; 12. 58F-Donnie Farlling[12]; 13. 18-Miles Beaulieu[5]; 14. 99-Cole Hilton[15]; 15. 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt[7]; 16. 77C-Jason Cox[13]; 17. 57M-Fletcher Mason[16]; 18. 33-Kenny Mihalik[14]
UP NEXT
DIRTcar UMP Modified racing at Volusia Speedway Park continues Friday night, Feb. 9, with another six-pack of Features, also on the card with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.
Tickets and information are available at DIRTcarNationals.com. If you can’t be at the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
