After two years of anticipation, Chase Holland’s time in DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals Victory Lane has arrived.
Holland had to flex his muscles against the top Modified drivers in the country to score his first career win with the tour in his first trip to Missouri’s Benton Speedway on Tuesday night.
Holland began the night in fifth place for the 30-lap Feature, but a checkup on the bottom lane dropped him back to eighth by the end of the opening lap.
He immediately recovered as he found the cushion of the track to be his most useful line for the 25-lap Feature.
The Success, MS native drove back into the top five after passing two cars in one corner from the top to secure his spot after Lap 4, then moved by tour points leader Trevor Neville for fourth place on the following lap.
While front row starters Kenny Wallace and Lucas Lee ran the bottom lane, Holland used his momentum on the top to outrun the No. 36 and No. 12 UMP Modifieds along the frontstretch to take over second place.
Leader Tyler Nicely felt the challenge of Holland and shifted to the cushion to block Holland’s run at him. Holland responded with a slide job through Turns 3-4 and narrowly cleared Nicely before the No. 25 performed a crossover move to retake the lead.
Holland tried to slide job Nicely once more, but the two drivers slammed into each other going into Turn 3, which sent Nicely spinning into the wall and Holland in full possession of the lead.
Once Holland got to full speed on the final restart, Holland inflated the interval to 2.6 seconds over Zach Whaley as he crossed the twin checkered flags as a first-time Summit Modified winner.
“It means the world to me,” Holland said. “It doesn’t mean as much to me as the people that support this deal and make it possible.
“Let me start here. I’ve got a ton of respect for Tyler Nicely. I grew up watching that dude win his fair share of races, so I knew it was gonna be tricky racing against him. I figured that when we started throwing sliders that we’re not gonna block them. There was nothing I could do because I was committed down the backstretch.”
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modifieds visit the birthplace of the Hell Tour at Spoon River Speedway on Wednesday, July 2.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every DIRTcar Summer Nationals race live on DIRTVision.
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 45H-Chase Holland[5]; 2. 12-Zach Whaley[12]; 3. 12L-Lucas Lee[4]; 4. 36-Kenny Wallace[2]; 5. 94-Austin Rettig[16]; 6. 75-Daniel Adam[9]; 7. 98-Zac Harris[8]; 8. 2-Peyton Walker[11]; 9. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[7]; 10. 27G-Jason Garver[6]; 11. 76-Shawn Knuckles[15]; 12. 81-Kevin Cole[14]; 13. 18-Brent Thompson[10]; 14. 66-Chris Hall[17]; 15. 3G-Haleigh Gross[18]; 16. 151-Zach Resinger[23]; 17. 1H-Steve Hughes[21]; 18. 25-Tyler Nicely[3]; 19. 84G-Gary Gross[20]; 20. 777-Trevor Neville[1]; 21. 42-Clint Young[13]; 22. (DNS) 24-Zeke McKenzie; 23. (DNS) 13-Charlie Mefford
