Barberville, FL — What a difference a day makes.
Twenty-four hours after bouncing over the guardrail, Dave Groves of Morgantown, W.Va., drove to victory in the 20-lap UMP DIRTcar Modified feature during the 37th annual Alltel DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park .
Groves ’s $2,000 triumph came thanks to some misfortune suffered by Jason Miller of Osceola , Wis. , who relinquished the lead on lap 15 when his car slowed off turn two with mechanical trouble. Groves , who had led laps 3-6 before ceding the spot to Miller, moved back in front and stayed there to the finish.
“We’ve been working on it all week,” Groves said of his Baumberger-powered GRS Chassis. “Tonight, I said, ‘We were pretty good here last year, so let’s go back to what we did then.’ We did it and everything worked great.”
Groves made a memorable comeback from his fate the previous night, when his car vaulted the turn-one retaining wall and landed on the grassy area between the wall and catch fence. His car stayed on its wheels, however, and he actually drove along the grass and steered into the pit area on the backstretch.
“We got lucky there,” said Groves . “The car didn’t really get much damage – just bent an upper control arm and a couple ball-joints.
NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader of Fenton , Mo. , chased Groves across the finish line for a second-place finish that moved him into the Alltel DIRTcar Nationals points lead by 14 points over 17-year-old Austin Dillon of Welcome, N.C.
Kent Robinson of Bloomington , Ind. , finished third, followed by Dillon and Jesse Stovall of Branson , Mo.
A field of 85 cars made up the night’s action.
Heat winners were Jim Ransom of Williamsport , Ind. , Jeff Leka of Buffalo , Ill. , Dillon, Groves , Schrader, Randy Hall of Olean, N.Y., Miller and Randle Sweeney of Clifty , Ky. The B-Mains were captured by Kenny Wallace of St. Louis , Mo. , Tommie Seets Jr. of Alton , Ill. , David Cain of Corcoran, Minn., and Gary Cook Jr.
UMP DIRTcar Modified Feature Finish (20 laps):
1. Dave Groves
2. Ken Schrader
3. Kent Robinson
4. Austin Dillon
5. Jesse Stovall
6. Randle Sweeney
7. Dave Hess Jr.
8. Denny Schwartz
9. Brad Waits
10. Kevin DeYoung
11. Jeff Leka
12. David Cain
13. Tim Hancock
14. Mark Noble
15. Jacob Hawkins
16. Gary Cook Jr.
17. Brian Strand
18. Brian Ruhlman
19. Kenny Wallace
20. J.E. Stalder
21. Jim Ransom
22. Shane Sabraski
23. Chad Evans
24. Tommie Seets Jr.
25. Darrell Nelson
26. Jason Miller
27. Wayne Troseth
28. Randy Hall
DNQ: Tom Seets Sr., Rob Fuqua, Brandon Carlson, Devin Gilpin, Derick Groomer, Tony Anderson, Scotty Kincaid, Terry Hull, Lou Krushansky, Eric Bruce, Dale Mathison, Ralph Groomer, Rick Jones, Ben Ledgerwood, Mike Hohlbein, Mike Spatola, Terry McClintock, Gary Eicher, Julie McDermid, Bruck Takach, Gary Brooks, David Bumgardner, Tyler Townsend, Tim Bowen, Darrell George, Bob Gierke, Don Lamb, Rich Lottus, Bub Patrick, Larry Moreland Sr., Jeffrey Tyndall, Todd Sherman, Scott Drake, Josh Butler, Rich Robinson Jr., Ty Dillon, Dalton Zehr, Eric Nelson, David McWilliams, Jerry Gross, Kurt Allison, Alan Mondus, Jerod Landers, Jason Schill, Rick Conoyer, Richard Michael Jr., Cory Seckerson, Charlie McNichol, Frank Marshall, Corky Thomas, Jordan Whitehead, Kenny Gaddis, Tim Thomas, Mike Petosky, Kenny Johnson, Scott Green, Rick Scott
