Of the thousands of drivers across the nation who competed in DIRTcar Midwest’s 42nd season, nine have earned the title of division champion.
They include Jason Feger (Super Late Models), Cole Falloway (DIRTcar UMP Modifieds), Dakota Ewing (Pro Late Models), Deece Schwartz (Pro Modifieds), Lee Hobbs (UMP Sportsman), Nick Seplak (Stock Cars), Blake Hull (Factory Stocks), Matt Mackey (Sport Compacts), and Kaden Breymeier (Kid Modifieds).
Each will be honored for their work during the DIRTcar Racing Awards Banquet, along with special award winners, on Saturday, Jan. 10, at the Springfield Crowne Plaza located in Springfield, IL.
Late Model and UMP Modified drivers finishing inside the top-70 of national points, plus any driver in the top-25 of all other divisions, are eligible to receive their points fund check and trophies at the banquet. The top-10 of each division’s region are also eligible for recognition during the ceremony, in addition to the top-10 finishers in the overall DIRTcar Summer Nationals championship standings.
Congratulations to each DIRTcar national champion from the 2025 season:
Super Late Models – Jason Feger (Bloomington, IL)
Continuing a three-year streak of winning DIRTcar’s biggest events and championships, Jason Feger again proved why he is considered one of the best in the division.
The driver of the Longhorn Chassis No. 25 celebrated a plethora of achievements this year, including a national DIRTcar championship, his second championship with the DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models – his first since 2010 – and a third consecutive title in the MARS Racing Series Late Models.
“That was probably my most successful year to date,” Feger said. “We won five $10,000-to-win races, and 18 overall, so it was just a great year. Being MARS champion, Summer Nationals champion, and national champion, plus two region championships, so it was pretty amazing.
“I’m fortunate to live where I do and have a lot of great tracks that it works out for us. We have really good regional drivers, and the competition was as tough as ever. It makes it really hard to make money, but we’re fortunate to keep running good.”
At the heart of his success, the “High Side Hustler” has built a foundation with his two crew members, crew chief Jason Palubicki (Red Beard) and tire specialist David Karban. Since 2023, the three-man operation has led to the three-peat of championships in MARS and national standings. The Hell Tour title in 2025 was Karban’s first and Palubicki’s second.
“It’s Jason’s fourth year and David’s third year with me,” Feger said. “Jason came here when I made the switch to Longhorn Chassis, David came a year after, and we’ve been able to like everything with the Longhorn program. During the summer, Craig and Richard from New Zealand got an extended visa, so they came over from the (Dirt Late Model) Dream to the World (100). Red Beard can focus on what he does, David focuses on what he’s good at, and same thing with me. So, we have a lot of big help from people close to us to help run a three-man team.”
DIRTcar UMP Modifieds – Cole Falloway (Owensboro, KY)
Cole Falloway has made it clear that he is here to stay in a DIRTcar UMP Modified.
The 23-year-old driver from Owensboro, KY, was the shining star of the division in 2025, tackling a season of new tracks and building a resumé through his first career championship with the MARS Racing Series.
Falloway started the season with his first visit to Volusia Speedway Park, winning five Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals Golden Gator trophies en route to a runner-up result in both the Big Gator and Florida Speedweeks points standings.
“Our cars and stuff with Nick (Hoffman) and Tyler (Nicely) have been good down there for years,” Falloway said. “The way the racetrack was, it fits how we all drive the Modified anyway. After that first night, we had to drive back up the field and won. After that, we just got on a roll from there.”
Through 61 total races in UMP Modified points competition, “Payday” earned 56 top-10s, 49 top fives, and 20 wins to clinch his first national Modified championship by 54 points over Pontiac, IL’s Michael Ledford. Falloway is the second “Blue Grass State” driver in three seasons to score the national title since his friend and mentor, Tyler Nicely, won in 2023.
“It’s cool for sure,” Falloway said. “It was a lot there at the end of the year. Ledford was running really good at the end, and I knew I had to go out and keep winning races or else he was gonna catch me. It helps, and it hurts because me and him race together a lot. I mean, I knew that a lot of them races, I needed to outrun him to get the national title.”
Pro Late Models – Dakota Ewing (Warrensburg, IL)
Dakota Ewing has found a championship rhythm.
Capturing his first career DIRTcar Pro Late Model championship in 2024, the 26-year-old “Land of Lincoln” driver backed up his performance in 2025 with his second consecutive Pro Late Model title.
Through 26 starts across the midwestern dirt tracks, Ewing amassed 18 wins, 21 top fives, and 23 top-10s to best Denny Woodworth by 45 markers in the final points tally of the year.
Pro Modifieds – Deece Schwartz (Ashmore, IL)
Deece Schwartz is not finished with etching new records in the Pro Modifieds history books.
The 22-year-old grandson of 2006 UMP Modified national champion, Denny Schwartz, has been unmatched in the category since he won his first title in 2022. While he’s begun the transition of moving up the ladder to a UMP Modified, his knowledge behind the Pro Modified helped him secure a fourth straight national championship in the category.
“It’s great being able to go out there and still be competitive,” Schwartz said. “The Pro Mod guys are getting faster and faster, and it’s harder and harder to keep up in the work that me, Mark Bush, and all my other guys that I have helped over this past season to make a really good program.”
To win the title this year, Schwartz had to go head-to-head with his 17-year-old brother, Drew. While Drew was able to top his older brother through three Feature wins, Deece scored 15 wins aboard the Mark Bush Race Cars No. 121 to clinch the title by 190 points over his younger sibling.
“He’s beat me a couple times, and they think I definitely gave it to him, but it was not the case,” Schwartz said. “He has grown exponentially every single season. He’s become a really, really fierce competitor in the Pro Mod scene.
“Being able to run the last 20 or so nights with him was definitely a good moment in my heart. My little brother has always told me, ‘I want to win my first Feature, but like, I really want to beat you.’ Just seeing that he is not afraid of anything, and that he is here to win, it makes me feel happy. I’ve been able to help him and be with him along for the journey because that’s kind of our brotherly bonding thing to do.”
UMP Sportsman – Lee Hobbs (Mitchell, IN)
With a racing career spanning four decades, Lee Hobbs earned a new honor to add to his accomplishments: DIRTcar UMP Sportsman national champion.
After one of his sponsors floated the idea of chasing the title, the Indiana native turned the statement into a primary goal for the 2025 season.
“We used to do some UMP Modified stuff, and this was actually the first year we’ve ever actually sit down to try to do the Sportsman,” Hobbs said. “It felt pretty good to get it. One of my sponsors wanted me to concentrate on that this year, and, since we’d never done it before, he said, ‘Let’s go try to go for it this year.’ I mean, it was pretty special for us to get it for him.”
Competing in 32 DIRTcar Sportsman events through the year, Hobbs captured a division-high 14 Feature wins, along with 25 top fives and 30 top-10s to best Zach Sasser by 40 points for the crown at season’s end.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better year, I don’t think,” Hobbs said. “I mean, we ended up with the Bloomington track championship, Putnamville, and Lincoln Park championships also. It seemed like the first part of the year, I was about ready to give up. I had a few problems breaking stuff, and I ended up talking to my sponsor. He told me, ‘Oh, you remember last year? You didn’t really start doing real good until about May or so.’ Once we started getting everything together, we pretty much ended every night with a top two or top three car most of the time.”
Stock Cars – Nick Seplak (Coal City, IL)
Building his equipment from scratch, Nick Seplak holds an extra sense of gratitude towards his biggest career milestone.
In his sophomore season behind the wheel of a DIRTcar Stock Car, the Illinois native claimed his first career national championship behind the wheel of a machine that was all built inside his race shop.
“It means a lot to me,” Seplak said. “Me, my parents, and this car, we built it from the frame up by just me and my dad. The motor was built by us, all our shocks, suspension parts, we built all of it for this car. So, it means a lot when you put a lot of work. Being in Victory Lane damn near every weekend, I’m pretty proud to be able to do that from a shop-built car.”
Seplak previously competed in the DIRTcar UMP Modifieds before making the switch to a Stock Car prior to the 2024 season. The Coal City, IL native took his second season to dominate the division for the title. Through 28 races, he earned 18 wins, 26 top fives and 27 top-10s in racing around the “Land of Lincoln.”
“Last year was our first year in that car,” Seplak said. “Over the winter, we did a bunch of changes in the car. The attitude of the car, and honestly, more experience behind the wheel got me more confident every race with what we need to do.
“The adjustments, for example, whenever we went to Fairbury, we felt dialed in when it came to Feature time. There’s 100,000 different things that can go wrong, 100,000 adjustments that we can do, and I feel like we had a car pretty much the best it could be all year long. That goes back to all the time my dad and I worked in the shop trying to get the car perfect.”
Factory Stocks – Blake Hull (Butlerville, IN)
Dominating across the Indiana dirt tracks, Blake Hull satisfied a dream in 2025 by claiming his first career DIRTcar Factory Stock championship.
Before he began racing around Indiana dirt tracks in 2019, Hull had no prior knowledge of DIRTcar or UMP. After attending his first DIRTcar banquet in 2023, he set a goal to return to the event as a national champion.
“Truthfully, it’s something I’ve dreamed of since I was young,” Hull said. “I started when I was 15 in 2019, and I actually didn’t know about DIRTcar, nothing about UMP. My dad raced his whole lifetime and drove Stocks back in the day with real four cylinders.
When I moved up to Street Stocks, we finished eighth or ninth in the nation, and after seeing them checks at the banquet, I said ‘Man, next time I come back, my name’s gonna be all over them.’ So, we went back home, got busy, and built a new car before the start of last season. We put our hands together, and the rest is history, I reckon.”
Hull depicted the season as one where he had to “find a way” to the front. The 22-year-old driver dominated the year at Brownstown Speedway, scoring 14 wins around the “Hoosier State” facility to leave the year possessing his first career track championship and national title.
“We built that new car and our goal was to have fun,” Hull said. “We started at Brownstown for the Icebreaker, and we hit on something right out of the box. It matched my style, and it was what I was looking for. My style is forward drive, I gotta be able to go in a straight line. Brownstown’s usually slick and slow come Feature time, so you got to find a place to make speed where other guys ain’t.
“We raced against 30 cars most nights, and that’s a lot of the ticket to how we won the title. We barely made the 20-night cut, but we just found a way to make speed and stay patient. I knew in the back of my mind once we started winning, the national title was what we set out to do. That was kind of my motto for the year; find a way.”
Sport Compact – Matt Mackey (Delavan, IL)
After scoring his second career DIRTcar Sport Compact national championship in 2025, Matt Mackey is taking the time to soak in the honors while building a racing future for his family.
The 37-year-old Illinois native took the year to compete across the state to own eight Feature triumphs in DIRTcar-sanctioned competition. While racing against the best in the “Land of Lincoln,” Mackey also had to be one step above his two children in the division, Haylee Mackey and Matthew Mackey Jr.
“It’s a great accomplishment,” Mackey said. “Fortunately, it meant a lot more to me this year getting to go racing with the kids. It made it more of a family thing. Definitely a bonus with being able to share the track with my kids. To experience that all year long was a good time for sure.”
Mackey’s season of winning eight Features, 24 top fives and 29 top-10s helped him secure the season’s national championship. Mackey Jr kept pressure on his father in the points race as 24 points separated the 15-year-old from besting Matt in the final standings.
“It’s definitely a little complicated racing them,” Mackey said. “You want them to do well, but also, you gotta beat some of the best to be the best. That makes it much better that I get to race them, and I think that helped both kids out a lot.
“Throughout the year racing with me, I think it gave them more inspiration to want to do better, to wanna beat dad. I want them to do better against me. I think their goal was to go out there and beat me weekly so they could rub it in my face all week long.”
Kid Modifieds – Kaden Breymeier (Pekin, IL)
At 14 years old, Kaden Breymeier can call himself a DIRTcar National champion.
In the first year of Kid Modifieds sanction on the national DIRTcar level, the Pekin, IL driver was the dominant force to topple in the division, earning top 10s in each of his 21 starts. He also bagged seven wins and 19 top fives to claim the title by 11 points over Weston Hicks.
“It feels so amazing,” Breymeier said. “Just getting to be the first one, that’s history to me. That’s something big to both me and my dad because we worked hard for it. So, I believe that it’s good to have something like that.”
As Breymeier begins to make a career through racing Modifieds in the American Heartland, 2025 gave him the chance to learn and succeed at tracks he’s never driven around. On top of scoring the national honors, the pilot of the No. 25K Modified also secured his first career Peoria Speedway track title.
“Getting my first win and championship at Peoria was pretty awesome,” Breymeier said. “We got seven wins this year, and the most exciting thing for me was winning at Spoon (River Speedway). That’s a track I always wanted to win at. All these wins, and my sponsor, D&N Autobody, help us out a lot. I’d also say moments like getting to win with my little brother, my dad, and all of my family just make me excited about what we did this year.”
