Racing in unfamiliar territory for the majority of the 2025 DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models season, Tyler Millwood completed a major goal in his rookie season.
The Kingston, GA driver had a hard-charging night at the Hell Tour’s return to LaSalle Speedway with 10 spots gained to win his first Feature race.
Overall points leader Jason Feger controlled the pace early by outrunning Dillon McCowan with his No. 25 Longhorn Chassis holding the high side of the track. At the same time, his title opponent, Tyler Erb, performed slide jobs from a third-place starting spot to catch Feger.
Erb caught up to Feger’s bumper when he got caught in lap traffic, as both the high and low lanes were blocked. Feger attempted the middle lane, but could not keep his car stuck to the line as he slid up the track. “Terbo” used the high line to take the lead, but could not make the line stick around Turns 1-2 as the “High Side Hustler” crossed back under Erb to retake the lead.
Feger paced the field with Erb riding behind until a mechanical failure at the halfway flags ended his hopes to battle against Feger for the win.
Behind the leaders, Millwood climbed up onto the podium on the lap that Erb brought out the caution after starting in 10th place and using the cushion to his advantage. Millwood built momentum on the top lane to outrun his opponents into the corner for clearance.
When the cushion began to falter on the final restart, Millwood had to chop a 1.3-second gap on Feger as lapped traffic played a hand for the final time in the Freedom 40.
While Feger got blocked in his lane, Millwood crept to the middle line to crowd Feger in behind the lapped car. The two stayed door-to-door as the No. 31M slowly separated from Feger until he was fully clear for the lead with four laps remaining.
At the helm of the pack, Millwood crafted a 1.4-second gap to Feger as he became the 115th different Summer Nationals winner in the first visit to LaSalle since 2021.
“It’s awesome ‘cause this ain’t easy,” Millwood said. “It might look easy sometimes, but it’s not. This is really hard and it took every ounce of my knowledge to say ‘Can I move out and try to get by (Feger) there.’ This is badass, and hopefully we can get us a couple more (wins).”
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals celebrate Independence Day in the Illinois finale at Red Hill Raceway on Friday night, July 4.
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 (40 Laps): 1. 31M-Tyler Millwood[10]; 2. 25F-Jason Feger[2]; 3. 18-Shannon Babb[6]; 4. 75-Dillon McCowan[1]; 5. 5S-Kyle Hammer[14]; 6. 29-Christian Hanger[19]; 7. 27M-Rodney Melvin[12]; 8. 5-Mark Whitener[18]; 9. 28B-Carson Brown[9]; 10. 33-Mike Harrison[11]; 11. 388-Jackson Hise[7]; 12. 38-Thomas Hunziker[20]; 13. 15-Clay Stuckey[15]; 14. 17SS-Brenden Smith[22]; 15. 21B-Rich Bell[17]; 16. 55X-Mike Lofgren[16]; 17. (DNF) 14-Haiden Cowan[5]; 18. (DNF) 14JR-Trey Mills[3]; 19. (DNF) 55-Eli Johnson[13]; 20. (DNF) 1-Tyler Erb[4]; 21. (DNF) 3-Dale Markham[21]; 22. (DNF) 81F-Jadon Frame[8]
