John Ruggiero Jr. has entered the WIX Filters Mid-East 602 Late Model portion of the World Short Track Championship three times since 2021.
All three times, he left The Dirt Track at Charlotte with the trophy.
The Lincolnton, NC maintained his status as the man to beat on regional racing’s biggest stage in 2025, leading all 20 laps en route to victory to become the division’s first three-time World Short Track champion.
“Certainly feels good, certainly can’t thank my dad enough for everything he’s done for me this weekend, both cars was a lot of work for the two of us,” Ruggiero said. “604 [Late Model] race went well, car’s in one piece, ran top three, I was pretty stoked. Then to follow it up with a win is always really special.”
Ruggiero started the main event from the inside of the second row, but got to the inside of polesitter Dylan Beaver on the opening lap and edged ahead off Turn 4 to lead Lap 1. Ruggiero cleared Beaver going into Turn 1 to take command, but a spinning Nathan Walker brought out the yellow before he could build a lead.
Once the field settled in for some green-flag racing, Ruggiero wasted no time setting sail from the rest of the field. By the halfway point of the 20-lap contest, Ruggiero’s gap was well north of three seconds, but that was when traffic started to become a factor. The impeding cars allowed second-running Luke Cooper to get within a second, but he couldn’t find enough to battle it out with Ruggiero until a caution for Bubba Roling set up a two-lap dash to the finish.
That gave the field their chance at the win, but Ruggiero denied all of them, nailing the bottom on his way to his fifth overall World Short Track triumph between the 604 and 602 Late Model divisions.
Behind him, Cooper held on to the second spot on the restart to secure a new World Short Track career best.
“Kind of wish it went green,” Cooper said. “I sucked right back up to him when we got in lap traffic. It just wasn’t our year, I guess. We got that caution, and then I just couldn’t get anything fired back off with a two-lap restart.”
Rounding out the podium was Steven Thompkins, who put his No. 22T machine in the top 10 for the first time in his fourth trip to Charlotte.
“I think the race car was pretty good the majority of the weekend,” Thompkins said. “I think we showed speed between Qualifying and Heat racing. I hate the way we did in the pill draw, we just drew the pill there for the sixth position. I feel like this was a pretty good finish with what we were dealt.”
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 44-John Ruggiero Jr[3]; 2. 57-Luke Cooper[5]; 3. 22T-Steven Thompkins[6]; 4. 117-Dylan Beaver[1]; 5. 66-Preston Dimsdale[14]; 6. 04-Tyler Leach[4]; 7. 23-Beckham Malone[11]; 8. 611-Koulten Herbert[12]; 9. 2-Wyatt Coffey[10]; 10. 149-Seth Speed[8]; 11. 20S-Trey Stamper[9]; 12. 15M-Marty Massey[18]; 13. 7J-Dalton Jacobs[21]; 14. 62-Jason Alexander[15]; 15. 00T-Kendal Tucker[27]; 16. 03-Olivia Gentry Williams[22]; 17. 5-Robbie Gibson[25]; 18. 5J-Jody Wilson[13]; 19. J12-Jason Dickerson[19]; 20. 1-Morghan Johnson[26]; 21. 9-John Marshall Pursley[28]; 22. 515-Bubba Roling[7]; 23. 15D-Daniel Durham[20]; 24. 51-Luke Clements[24]; 25. 75-Joey Whitaker[16]; 26. 5S-Robbie Stevens[23]; 27. 22W-Nathan Walker[2]; 28. 10-Parker Daniel[17]
