Stone Grabs First Modified Gator As Others Repeat

BARBERVILLE, Fla. – Six more DIRTcar UMP modified winners graced victory lane Thursday night at Volusia Speedway Park as the 54th Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals rolled on.

Curt Spalding, Kyle Strickler, Cole Falloway, Charlie Mefford, and Lucas Lee all added to their respective Gator ponds, while Super DIRTcar Series driver Justin Stone earned his first DIRTcar Nationals win to bring the UMP modified division ever closer to a historic milestone at the half-mile dirt oval.

Feature One

Spalding made his pathway to a second Gator trophy in as many nights look effortless, driving past polesitter and early leader Austin Holcombe easily on lap seven with a deep turn-three slide job.

He then streaked away to a 3.559-second victory over George Dixon, who got past Holcombe for second at the halfway point but had nothing to contend with the No. 5CS Lethal Chassis modified.

“It was real tight racing all night,” noted Spalding. “Everybody’s fighting for that top spot. But my confidence is a lot, obviously, and it’s all about getting into that (clean) air here. But right now we’re just clicking and everything’s going right.”

Three caution flags slowed the 20-lapper in the first three laps – two for spins by Zane Oedewaldt and one for a crash involving Rob Fuqua and Josh Sanford on a lap-four restart – but the final 17 circuits went uninterrupted.

Ryan Thomas crossed fourth and Chase Holland, who was penalized for an infraction earlier in the DIRTcar Nationals that set his program back on event points, charged from 16th to finish fifth.

Feature Two

Strickler added to his record Gator haul and continued to build his overall UMP Modified Florida Speedweeks point lead with a wire-to-wire victory in the second feature Thursday night.

He started third, but used the second try at the initial start – after an accordion-style bottleneck caused a multi-car incident back in the field – to pass both polesitter Ray Kable and three-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Matt Crafton.

From there, despite two additional restarts later on, Strickler never trailed en route to his 16th career DIRTcar Nationals UMP modified victory.

“I just had to get that dog back in me,” admitted Strickler, whose win Thursday was his first of this year’s DIRTcar Nationals. “I felt like I was getting a little soft, so I definitely wanted to come back and get some redemption tonight. I was off my game (earlier in the week); I made mental mistakes and just worried about what was going on behind me more than what was going on in front of me.

“(This race was) take no prisoners. I wanted to come out and prove a point and show everybody that I know what I’m doing behind the wheel of a race car. … I was definitely on a mission tonight.”

Trevor Neville and Colton Profitt dueled wildly for second place in the second half of the main before Neville pulled away over the final three circuits. Unfortunately, Neville fell 1.681 seconds short of a win.

Profitt hung onto the final podium place, followed by Crafton and Dustin Sorenson. Kable faded back to seventh.

Feature Three

A caution-free third feature saw Falloway grab his fifth win of the DIRTcar Nationals in methodical fashion, starting fourth and using the first 10 laps to work into contention on the back bumper of early leader Trent Young.

Slower traffic provided Falloway with his opportunity to pounce, driving underneath both Young and a lap car in turn two on the 11th lap and then disappearing into the Florida night.

The Owensboro, Ky., driver ultimately took the checkered flag 1.021 seconds clear of Young, with Brian Ruhlman, Greg Belyea, and Todd Neiheiser closing the top five.

“Everybody’s working to keep getting better here, so we have to do that too,” admitted Falloway. “I wasn’t as good tonight as I have been, and some of it might have been me. I moved around some to get by Trent there and stayed around the bottom when I should have moved back up. But I think we’ve got a good car and a good shot for the rest of the week as long as things keep going well.”

Feature Four

Melton, Ky., young gun Mefford wired the fourth 20-lap feature and cruised to victory over Wednesday winner Will Krup by 1.188 seconds, though he had to survive multiple restarts to do so.

It took three tries at the initial start to get some green flag laps in, and the first attempt also yielded a melee that caused driver’s side damage to Krup’s No. K9.

Once a rhythm was established, it took Krup five laps to get past David Stremme for second, though from there Krup had little steam to try and chase down Mefford.

Three yellow flags through the middle stages gave him a trio of restarts to try and track Mefford down, but the latter made it look easy down the stretch en route to his fourth career Gator trophy.

“At the beginning of the week, I thought I was never going home with a Gator,” Mefford said. “I was down on myself, and Lucas Lee said before my race ‘You have to be a lion. You’ve got to claw, scratch, and bite your way to the top,’ and I think we did exactly that tonight.

“It just means more. We busted our tails on this thing. We had so much torn up, and now we’ve got her back together and it’s ready to go. Maybe we’ll be able to get another one, but at least that’s three years in a row that we’ve come down here and got a Gator.”

Stremme, Michael Long, and Coleman Evans closed the top five.

Feature Five

The fifth feature of the night yielded the DIRTcar Nationals’ 99th career UMP modified winner, as Justin Stone led from start to finish in dominant fashion.

Despite two yellow flags in the first five laps, Stone was still able to build leads of more than two seconds at times while behind him, Kyle Hammer worked from fifth to second by the ninth lap.

A caution at halfway for the spinning Wade Olmsted did nothing to deter Stone, nor did a yellow with five laps left that set up a dash to the finish.

Stone went unchallenged after the final restart, driving to victory for the first time at Volusia by 1.026 seconds over Hammer. Jordan Koehler, Cole Czarneski, and Mike McKinney were third through fifth, respectively.

“It’s so new to me,” said Stone, whose win Thursday came in just his sixth-ever race in a UMP modified. “I had never even sat in (a UMP modified) until we had it at the shop where we brought it down and drove it around in the parking lot. Everything is different, so it’s been a learning curve.

“I guess you could say this is a dream come true. It’s a little cliche, but it’s really cool. My wife is at home, and she told me, ‘I want a Gator for the mantle,’ so there you go, babe.”

Feature Six

Tennessee veteran Lee capitalized in the final feature after Wednesday winner Brad DeYoung suffered a flat right-rear tire on lap seven of 20, never looking back after that.

He survived three restarts in the second half, including one that set up a green-white-checkered finish after Ben Harmon cut a tire late, and held off Kenny Wallace by 1.746 seconds for his fourth DIRTcar Nationals Gator trophy.

Evan Taylor filled out the podium, followed by former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Austin Wayne Self and Aidan Hinds. DeYoung ended up 13th after leading the first six laps.

“The car was really good,” Lee said. “It started cleaning up a lot on the bottom, and I didn’t even know (DeYoung) broke. I hate that for Brad, he’s a good guy and has a good family.

“Those starts get so hectic, and it’s hard to race here more and more. It’s more technical than (Volusia’s) ever been, but I’ve got a lot of good people to help me, and I’ve got one good crew. If it wasn’t for my guys, then I wouldn’t be doing this anyway.”

The DIRTcar UMP modifieds return to Volusia Speedway Park Friday night for six features split by points earned through the week of DIRTcar Nationals thus far.

The results:

Feature #1 (20 laps): 1. 5CS-Curt Spalding [4]; 2. 77D-George Dixon [3]; 3. 8A-Austin Holcombe [1]; 4. 9T-Ryan Thomas [2]; 5. 45-Chase Holland [16]; 6. 8W-Gregory Moore [6]; 7. 17T-Tyler Evans [5]; 8. 16-Shawn Deering [10]; 9. 11J-Jesse Rupe [8]; 10. 23B-Ethan Boomsma [13]; 11. 3S-Josh Sanford [11]; 12. 0-Glenn Styres [9]; 13. 3F-Rob Fuqua [14]; 14. T9-Zack Tate [7]; 15. 5-Jonathan Taylor [17]; 16. 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt [12]; 17. 77S-Jim Shipman (DNS).

Feature #2 (20 laps): 1. 8S-Kyle Strickler [3]; 2. 777-Trevor Neville [4]; 3. 56-Colton Profitt [5]; 4. 88-Matt Crafton [2]; 5. 19-Dustin Sorensen [7]; 6. 51-Dalton Lanich [11]; 7. 90K-Ray Kable [1]; 8. 60M-Jim Manka [8]; 9. 11R-Reece Ogle [14]; 10. 99-Jimmy Wagner [9]; 11. 11D-Brian Diveley [12]; 12. 7X-Christopher Cole [16]; 13. 26-Adam Ogle [10]; 14. Z1-Zac Oedewaldt [18]; 15. 23S-Jerol Stepp [17]; 16. 81K-Kyle Cole [15]; 17. 8-Dave Pinkerton [6]; 18. 2C-Ronnie Chance (DNS).

Feature #3 (20 laps): 1. 66-Cole Falloway [4]; 2. 10Y-Trent Young [2]; 3. 49-Brian Ruhlman [3]; 4. 25-Greg Belyea [1]; 5. 72-Todd Neiheiser [5]; 6. 114B-Clayton Bryant [7]; 7. 463-Daniel Sanchez [9]; 8. 70H-Jim Britt [11]; 9. 18-Miles Beaulieu [6]; 10. 11L-Jimmy Lennex Jr. [13]; 11. 5B-Bobby Bagley [8]; 12. 72S-Eric Shepherd Jr. [10]; 13. 28C-Jeff Cotterman [14]; 14. 32-Chad Roush [12]; 15. 9R-J.P. Roberts Jr. [16]; 16. 89W-Rick Weitekamp (DNS); 17. 91-Chris Beaulieu (DNS).

Feature #4 (20 laps): 1. 13-Charlie Mefford [1]; 2. K9-Will Krup [4]; 3. 35-David Stremme [2]; 4. 18L-Michael Long [7]; 5. 17C-Coleman Evans [8]; 6. 24-Zeke McKenzie [6]; 7. 35A-Michael Altobelli [11]; 8. 7J-Justin Allgaier [5]; 9. 21-Scott Ladner [12]; 10. 05-David Wietholder [13]; 11. 27G-Jason Garver [15]; 12. 97-Mitch Thomas [3]; 13. 2K-Taylor Kuehl [10]; 14. S8-Jordan Stotts [14]; 15. 77C-Jason Cox [16]; 16. 07K-Curtis King [17]; 17. 41-Brad Goff (DNS).

Feature #5 (20 laps): 1. 15X-Justin Stone [1]; 2. 45H-Kyle Hammer [5]; 3. 114-Jordan Koehler [7]; 4. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski [4]; 5. 96M-Mike McKinney [2]; 6. 57-Charlie Sandercock [3]; 7. 01-Brayden Weller [14]; 8. 77-Ray Bollinger [6]; 9. 21B-Hunter Breland [13]; 10. 60-Shannon Fisk [8]; 11. 2J-Troy Johnson [10]; 12. 99W-Wade Olmsted [17]; 13. 29C-Joey Cotterman [16]; 14. 65-Matt Miller [11]; 15. 10X-Billy Uptegraff [12]; 16. 155-Gavin Shaw [15]; 17. 1-Randy Giroux (DNS).

Feature #6 (20 laps): 1. 12L-Lucas Lee [4]; 2. 36-Kenny Wallace [3]; 3. 7-Evan Taylor [8]; 4. 23Z-Austin Self [9]; 5. 11-Aidan Hinds [15]; 6. 43A-Mark Anderson [17]; 7. 321-Denny Schwartz [16]; 8. 114K-Evan Koehler [11]; 9. 11N-Gene Nicholas [14]; 10. 6-Ryan Fowler [12]; 11. 1H-Ben Harmon [6]; 12. 17-Chris Wilson [10]; 13. 7D-Brad DeYoung [1]; 14. 0K-Damian Kiefer [13]; 15. 31G-Stephen Pedulla [2]; 16. 27-Michael Turner [5]; 17. 9-Ken Schrader [7].