The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models race at Oakshade Raceway has become a special date for Ashton Winger with three Birthday Race wins in his three appearances at the event.
Winger, 24, of Hampton, GA, led all 40 laps at Oakshade Raceway Saturday night for his second-straight DIRTcar Summer Nationals win at the track’s prestigious event and third in the last four years.
Why the success?
“I really I don’t know, it just fits” Winger said. “You can get away with driving pretty hard and typically I feel better in the slick. I like where you gotta drive really crazy lines.
“Once that bottom gets blown off a little bit you can actually keep your momentum in that middle to top and straightaways are so wide it holds moisture better than a lot of places.”
This race also happened to fall on the birthday of Winger’s late grandfather who passed away 10 years ago. During the last caution of the race Winger said he was thinking about his grandpa to keep him calm.
“When he passed, I was so young I probably didn’t pay attention to him as much as I should have,” Winger said. “When we did spend time together, we were always talking about racing, and it was around the time I started racing when he passed.
“He probably always paid as much attention to me as anybody. Looking back on it, it’s just one of those things where you look back on and wish you had more time. I was definitely thinking about it with eight (laps) to go and was trying to do something to keep myself calm and got to thinking about that.”
After winning his Heat Race and redrawing the pole, Winger jumped out to a big lead in the opening laps as he was over a second ahead of second-place Rusty Schlenk by Lap 5 of the 40-lap main event.
Winger continued to pace the field around the 3/8-mile oval and then the final caution came out on Lap 32. With Tyler Erb – who’s won 10 Hell Tour races this season – lined up behind him, Winger had no problems on the restart and sped off, finishing over two seconds ahead of Erb for his second Summer Nationals win this year.
Winger (12) holding off Erb (1) on the last restart. (Tyler Carr Photo)
“I felt as long as I didn’t do anything stupid, I felt like we had a shot,” Winger said of his mindset going into the last restart. “I’m just glad we were able to execute the way we know we’re capable of.”
Going into the final race of Week 5 at Wayne County Speedway, Winger sits third in points – 39 points behind leader Tyler Erb. Dillon McCowan, still looking for his first Series win of the season, is 25 points behind Erb in second.
UP NEXT
Going into the final race of Week 5, Wayne County Speedway will crown a Week 5 champion and possibly an overall champion Sunday, July 14.
Tickets will be available at the gate and if you can’t be there watch all the action on DIRTVision.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view results here)
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 12-Ashton Winger[1]; 2. 1-Tyler Erb[3]; 3. 51-Devin Shiels[6]; 4. 06-Jake Rendel[12]; 5. 14JR-Trey Mills[14]; 6. 58-Wil Herrington[10]; 7. 50-Ryan Missler[2]; 8. 1N-Casey Noonan[11]; 9. 57-Steve Kester[15]; 10. 46-Colin Shipley[8]; 11. 15-Clayton Stuckey[17]; 12. 38-Thomas Hunziker[13]; 13. 8-Dillon McCowan[7]; 14. 91-Rusty Schlenk[4]; 15. 388-Jackson Hise[9]; 16. LIL91-Carter Schlenk[5]; 17. 71J-Joe Smith[22]; 18. 71-Rusty Smith[23]; 19. 42*-Bob Mayer[24]; 20. X3-Daniel Wallace[20]; 21. 19M-Carter Murday[21]; 22. 18-Jacob Stuhr[18]; 23. B4U-Brad Eitniear[16]; 24. 71DS-Drew Smith[19]
