He’s waited nearly three years, but Dalton Lane is back in Victory Lane with the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals.
Lane scored the win with the Summit Modifieds Sunday night at Wayne County Speedway for the second time in his career and the first since breaking through at Oakshade Raceway in 2023.
The Feature began with Matthew Baker taking the early lead over Kyle Moore. A caution for a slowing Jason King restacked the field for a restart on Lap 2.
The restart was where Baker began to take fire from Moore as the local favorite went for a slide job maneuver in Turns 3–4 that ended with both drivers scrubbing the outside wall. While both drivers were able to straighten out, Baker came away with damage to the nose of his No. B5 car and began to fall back. This opened the door for Lane to move into second and set his sights on Moore, still leading the race.
A Lap 7 caution for Ryan Markham slowing created another opportunity for a restart. Moore pulled away while Lane found himself in a battle for second as Nathan Loney made a bid for that position to his inside.
The race then turned on its head as Moore’s No. 21D slowed on the backstretch on Lap 13, turning what was the battle for second between Lane and Loney into the battle for the win. Over the next 10 laps, the two ran neck-and-neck for the top spot — Lane ripping the top side around the track and Loney riding the bottom.
Their battle reached a boiling point on Lap 22, crossing the stripe in a dead-heat tie. But with momentum from a great run off the top side in Turn 2, Lane charged ahead of Loney and led the field back around to the checkers.
“We put together a great night, we started off a little slow in Qualifying and we made that up all night,” Lane said. “A place like this, right around the wall like that where you can just get after it, really fits my driving style. So, it just came to us tonight. There really was nothing left on the bottom so all I had left was just to get up there and pound the cushion for 25 laps.”
Loney finished second, Dusty Swecker was third, Andre Layfield finished fourth, and Jimmy Lennex Jr finished in fifth.
UP NEXT
The DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals heads to Fairbury Speedway to crown a champion at the Prairie Dirt Classic on July 24-25.
How can you watch the Summit Modifieds? Every race is live on DIRTVision.
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 14-Dalton Lane[3]; 2. 10-Nathan Loney[6]; 3. 21-Dusty Swecker[22]; 4. 11L-Andre Layfield[8]; 5. 21CZ-Jimmy Lennex Jr[9]; 6. B5-Matthew Baker[1]; 7. 89-Jason King[16]; 8. 22G-Jesse Griffitts[12]; 9. (DNF) 01-Denny Benjamin[21]; 10. (DNF) 21D-Kyle Moore[2]; 11. (DNF) 5-Ryan Markham[7]; 12. (DNF) 42JR-Chaz Dawson Jr[11]; 13. (DNF) 68-Andrew Hammond[13]; 14. (DNF) 185-Ron Miller[17]; 15. (DNF) T23-John Toppozini[10]; 16. (DNF) 16-Caden Alexander[19]; 17. (DNF) 60-Jimmy Humphrey[4]; 18. (DNF) 16H-Ron Hamlin[20]; 19. (DNF) 75-Tristen Bickford[18]; 20. (DNF) 18-Michael Amick[15]; 21. (DNS) 11-Jason Brennan; 22. (DNS) S25-Pete Caplinger; 23. (DNS) 41-Brad Goff; 24. (DNS) 76JD-Darrick Hubbard Jr.
