When Tyler Erb set out to do the first week of the 39th annual DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models tour, he had no intentions of competing for the overall championship. Even when he was atop the points standings after Week 3, he still had no plans to take the crown.
But no matter how hard he tried to stay away, Erb kept coming back for more. And on Sunday night at Wayne County Speedway, Erb clinched the Hell Tour championship with his 11th win of the season.
“This is the most fun I’ve ever had racing in my whole life,” Erb said. “There’s been a year or two in between since I’ve been racing for a living that it just ain’t no fun. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing that sucks. I’m enjoying every bit of this.
“It’s pretty cool because I’ve never won any sort of points in my life. I’ve never been a good points racer because of my approach to racing. My approach to racing is perfect for something like this because everybody works hard but we try to go the extra mile and we like racing every day. Definitely wasn’t on my bingo card but it happened and happy to say I did it.”
Erb started sixth in the 35-lap main event at Wayne County and swapped between the sixth- and seventh-place spots for the first 20 laps, riding the high side of the 3/8-mile oval. Then, chaos ensued in front of him.
After leading the first 18 laps, Dillon McCowan had a bad jump on the Lap 19 restart and a few laps later he discovered it was because he had a flat tire. When McCowan surrendered the lead on Lap 19, Nick Hoffman grabbed it, but the same fate soon followed him.
McCowan going to the infield to fix his flat tire. (Tyler Carr Photo)
A few laps after Hoffman took the lead, a caution occurred on Lap 23. While the cars rolled around the track waiting to restart, Hoffman pulled into the infield due to a right rear flat tire. The new race-leader became Todd Brennan who charged his way from 18th to inherit the lead from Hoffman.
Hoffman having to fix a flat tire of his own. (Tyler Carr Photo)
On the restart, Erb lined up fifth and shot up to second riding the momentum of the high side. Erb took advantage of the cars falling apart in front of him and now he had his sights set on Brennan
“When shit is going your way, it’s going your way,” Erb said. “When McCowan had a flat I was just able to get lined up on a couple of restarts and make some moves. I seen Hoffman’s tire going flat and there was still 15-to-go.
“It just set me up perfect because then I was on the outside for the restart and the top I could actually see, and it was clean. It gave me an opportunity to make something happen.”
The opportunity came on a Lap 26 restart with Erb lined up right behind Brennan. Brennan jumped out to the lead the first lap, but the next circuit around belonged to Erb. Erb kept his line to the high side in Turns 1 and 2, but then switched low down the backstretch to charge to the inside of Brennan.
Erb (1) chasing down Brennan (20B). (Tyler Carr Photo)
While trying to seal the pass going into Turn 3, Erb contacted Brennan’s left side with his right side. The move caused Brennan to slow down while Erb shot up to the high side in Turn 4 for his third dramatic late-race pass for the lead of Week 5.
“[Brennan] was making poor decisions,” Erb said “On the restarts he would f–– get sideways, spin out, lock ‘em up and crash the field. My left door is ripped off single-handedly because he f–– couldn’t restart the race so once again fair is fair.
“This [track] is 18 lanes wide, and he was using all f–– 18 of them. And for five laps before that I probably could’ve slid him hard and passed him, but I didn’t want to give him the opportunity to return serve so when the opportunity presented itself I f–– put my right door on his left door and I don’t know when he hit the brakes but I was ahead of him.”
Once Erb got by Brennan, he sped off the last eight laps and finished over one second ahead of Trey Mills for his first major Late Model championship and Week 5 points title.
“Everything worked out how it was supposed to be, and we were able to win,” Erb said. “It wasn’t my plan. My plan was to win races and whatever happens with that will follow and it did.”
UP NEXT
The final DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Model race of 2024 will take place Thursday, July 18, at Sycamore Speedway. Tickets will be on sale at the gate and if you can’t be there, watch all the action live on DIRTVision.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view results here)
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 1-Tyler Erb[6]; 2. 14JR-Trey Mills[9]; 3. 14C-Corey Conley[12]; 4. 388-Jackson Hise[15]; 5. 9-Nick Hoffman[3]; 6. 20B-Todd Brennan[18]; 7. 71R-Rod Conley[7]; 8. 15-Clayton Stuckey[5]; 9. 8-Dillon McCowan[2]; 10. 14-JR Gentry[1]; 11. 59B-Larry Bellman[21]; 12. 12D-Doug Drown[22]; 13. 79-Ryan Markham[17]; 14. 12-Ashton Winger[11]; 15. 38-Thomas Hunziker[19]; 16. 58-Wil Herrington[20]; 17. 10-Nathan Loney[4]; 18. 1*-Kyle Moore[8]; 19. 14D-Charlie Duncan[13]; 20. 50-Ryan Missler[14]; 21. 28-Tyler Carpenter[16]; 22. 12P-Ryan Payne[10]
