In the opening 2025 DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals race in Indiana, a Hoosier State native claimed his first career tour win on Saturday night.
Petersburg, IN’s Zach Fair took his first career tour win at Tri-State Speedway as he used experience and knowledge of his local racetrack to keep the tour’s top drivers out of reach.
Fair began the night with a win in his Heat race, then drew the Pole Position for the night’s 25-lap battle around the 1/4-mile bullring.
Behind Fair was 2023 Summit Modified Nationals champ Tyler Nicely, who followed behind the No. 35S around the bottom lane of the track. While he attempted to run the middle and high lines of the track to create momentum, Fair extended his lead to over six seconds until the caution on Lap 13 brought the field back together for the final run to the finish.
Fair withstood the challenge of Nicely while John Clippinger battled Nicely for second place. As Nicely and Clippinger battled, Fair rebuilt to a four-second interval over his opponents as he scored his first career win after a 14-year wait since his first start at Haubstadt in 2011.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Fair said. “It’s been a long time coming, so this is awesome. We’re definitely gonna soak this one up. I can’t thank Dave and Junior (enough). We had a motor go down at Highland (Speedway), so last night, they picked this engine up and got it in there for us. I kind of thought I was done in 2018, but here we are, and we got it done.”
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals finish Week 4 in the tour’s debut at Wheel, TN’s Duck River Raceway Park for the Independence Day Special on Sunday, July 6.
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 (25 Laps): 1. 35S-Zach Fair[1]; 2. 25-Tyler Nicely[3]; 3. 16C-John Clippinger[7]; 4. 81K-Kyle Cole[11]; 5. 75-Daniel Adam[6]; 6. 99T-Tyler Loughmiller[8]; 7. 50-Tyler Weiss[2]; 8. 67-Chris Moore[18]; 9. 98-Zac Harris[12]; 10. 27G-Jason Garver[14]; 11. 1S-Brian Shaw[17]; 12. 2X-Wes Harms[20]; 13. 00-Troy Gay[22]; 14. (DNF) 10Y-Trent Young[9]; 15. (DNF) 45H-Chase Holland[4]; 16. (DNF) 12B-Eric Brantley[5]; 17. (DNF) 81C-Christopher Cole[10]; 18. (DNF) 95K-Levi Kissinger[13]; 19. (DNF) 327-Dustin Bruce[16]; 20. (DNF) 711B-Jerry Bland Jr[19]; 21. (DNF) 23B-Ethan Boomsma[21]; 22. (DNF) 24-Jarod Deckard[15]
