Brian Shirley has been eager for a return to Victory Lane in 2025.
Before visiting Fairbury Speedway, Brian Shirley scored 18 top fives, 25 top-10s, and seven podium finishes. 15 of those finishes came since his only previous win of the year at Springfield Raceway.
On Saturday night, the “Squirrel” broke the waiting period with his first DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models Feature win since 2023.
Shirley, from Chatham, IL, started the 50-lap Feature from the pole position and took immediate claim of the lead by sliding up on reigning Hell Tour champion Tyler Erb for the lead between Turns 1-2 on the first lap.
While Shirley established his dominance on the high side, Brandon Sheppard, Jason Feger, and Drake Troutman shuffled positions inside the top five through the opening portion. Troutman moved up to second place around Erb until a mechanical failure on Lap 7 took him out of contention, then Sheppard lost a right rear tire under the caution period.
Leading back to the green flag, Shirley went back to his comfort on the high side of the track and extended the lead to 2.3 seconds until lapped traffic began to block out Shirley’s lanes for passing.
His No. 3S stuck in traffic gave headway for Bloomington, IL’s Feger to use the bottom line to swing by Shirley for the lead with 21 laps remaining.
Feger continued to roll around the traffic on the low side until a caution with 15 laps to go gave Shirley the chance at taking back what was once in his grasp.
On the restart, Feger went back to the bottom line while Shirley found new life next to the cushion. With 12 laps to go, Shirley took that chance by getting to Feger’s door through Turns 1-2, then got clear of the No. 25 off of Turn 4.
Shirley glued his Longhorn Chassis to the edge of the cushion as the five-time Summer Nationals champion drove towards his 43rd career tour win and his second of 2025.
“(Clean air) was huge,” Shirley said. “Feger was just really good on that (bottom) again, and then I realized I needed to slow down just to try and get by them guys. He just had a little better patience being behind me and not seeing where everyone was. We wasn’t as good as him on the bottom, but boy, that old right foot ******* went.”
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models visit Maple Park, IL’s Sycamore Speedway on Sunday, June 16, while the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modifieds take three days off until Quincy Raceways on Wednesday, June 18.
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 (50 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 2. 25F-Jason Feger[6]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[5]; 4. 10-Joseph Joiner[12]; 5. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[15]; 6. 96-Tanner English[11]; 7. 18-Shannon Babb[23]; 8. B5-Brandon Sheppard[10]; 9. T2-Brayton Wallace[18]; 10. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[22]; 11. 1-Tyler Erb[2]; 12. 99-Mckay Wenger[24]; 13. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[19]; 14. 40B-Kyle Bronson[26]; 15. 15-Clay Stuckey[13]; 16. 8L-Jeffrey Ledford[25]; 17. C6-Oakley Johns[16]; 18. 5-Mark Whitener[17]; 19. (DNF) 24-Ryan Unzicker[3]; 20. (DNF) 89-Mike Spatola[9]; 21. (DNF) 75-Dillon McCowan[21]; 22. (DNF) 38J-Jake Little[14]; 23. (DNF) 14JR-Trey Mills[7]; 24. (DNF) 22*-Drake Troutman[4]; 25. (DNF) 29-Christian Hanger[8]; 26. (DNF) 33-Mike Harrison[20]
