Jason Feger’s third DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Model Feature win at Highland Speedway came with a bonus milestone Saturday night.
The victory was his 29th career win overall, passing Scott Bloomquist for sixth on the Hell Tour’s all-time wins list.
“Growing up, I never dreamed of winning one Summer Nationals race,” Feger said. “To be able to break any record with Scott being one of the best ever, it’s really cool. I definitely looked up to the way he raced. It definitely makes it a little more special on top of a really great night.”
To accomplish the feat, Feger started on the outside pole of the 40-lap Feature but fell behind polesitter Chad Zobrist in the early going. He never let Zobrist get further than a car length ahead and made the move to get by him on Lap 14.
With Zobrist on the high side and Feger low, Feger pulled even with Zobrist coming out of Turn 2 and down the backstretch and edged in front of him on the bottom coming out of Turn 4, sealing the pass by the start/finish line on Lap 14.
Feger (25) sealing the pass on Zobrist (7). (Tyler Carr Photo)
“I was just being really patient down there,” Feger said. “I just kept waiting and putting a little pressure on him. He was overdriving a little on entry and pushed out and I got it timed good. Got him squared up, got a pull off the corner and got underneath of him.”
Once Feger got by Zobrist, he started to set a sizeable gap between himself and the field. Even as he ran into lap traffic, Feger distanced himself more from the cars chasing him, using every lane of the 1/4-mile oval.
“I felt like I could run top, bottom or middle so I felt like I was really confident in lap traffic,” Feger said. “The more you can get between you and the next guy, the more of the buffer or safe zone you have so I felt very confident in that.”
Then, the only caution of the race came on Lap 37 and forced Feger to restart with 2022 World of Outlaws Rookie of the Year Tanner English and Week 1 points champion Tyler Erb lined up right behind him. On the restart, Feger proved he had the best car as he got a great jump and crossed under the checkered flag a second ahead of runner-up English for his third win of the season.
“I definitely didn’t want to see [the caution],” Feger said. “Just try not to overdrive the corner, make sure you come off the bottom and then maybe swing a little wide to the wall so if somebody is trying to run that top they couldn’t get a run on it.”
With the win, Feger is atop of the Week 3 points standings, eight ahead of Erb, who finished third. Going into Sunday’s race at Red Hill Raceway, Feger has to finish ahead of Erb or stay a spot within him to clinch the Week 3 points championship.
UP NEXT:
The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models will crown the Week 3 champion at Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, IL on Sunday, June 30. Tickets will be available at the gate. The pit gate opens at 3 p.m. (CT) and the grandstands open at 5 p.m.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every lap live on DIRTVision.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view results here)
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 25-Jason Feger[2]; 2. 96-Tanner English[4]; 3. 1-Tyler Erb[7]; 4. 7-Chad Zobrist[1]; 5. 27M-Rodney Melvin[6]; 6. 24H-Mike Harrison[10]; 7. 10J-Jordan Bauer[5]; 8. 52-Matt Bailey[13]; 9. 58-Tyler Clem[12]; 10. 33-Kye Blight[8]; 11. 6K-Michael Kloos[17]; 12. 8-Dillon McCowan[19]; 13. 75-Daniel Adam[14]; 14. 15-Clayton Stuckey[15]; 15. 28-Carson Brown[9]; 16. 30-Mark Voigt[22]; 17. 12-Ashton Winger[11]; 18. 1H-Josh Heuiser[18]; 19. 11K-Shannon Kuhn[16]; 20. 4-Jordan Suhre[21]; 21. 14M-Morgan Bagley[20]; 22. 10K-Daryn Klein[3]
