Jacoby Controls Hometown Modified Nationals Field

Treb Jacoby (center) and his crew in Summit Modified Nationals victory lane Friday night. (Tyler Carr photo)

PEVELY, Mo. – Treb Jacoby knew the first DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals feature during the World of Outlaws St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff was his to lose.

He was in his home state of Missouri, at his home track in I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park, with a car he’d already brought to victory lane a week ago.

If all that wasn’t enough, Jacoby found himself on the pole of the 25-lap feature due to being quickest in his qualifying group, and the night’s heat races being scrapped due to excessive temperatures that delayed the program.

While he’d won at the track during weekly competition, Jacoby had never won there with a national tour and was eager to change that.

When the green flag dropped, he launched ahead of the field and raced into his own zip code. By lap three, Jacoby already had a 1.3-second lead over the field. By lap 10, it was nearly a two-second lead.

The race was his to lose. However, with every lap that went by, Ethan Dotson was putting himself in a position to potentially take the spoils away.

The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series rookie, driving a car that had won the night before, was up to fourth from sixth by lap 10, and a restart at halfway helped him jump to second.

That didn’t shake Jacoby, though. He continued his march and maintained a straightaway lead.

Dotson got one last shot at the white and pink No. J82 car on a restart with three laps to go. But like every other restart, no one could keep up with Jacoby.

He ultimately scored his second career Summit Modified Nationals win and first national win at home.

“I think when they decided not to do the Heat Races, I don’t want to say it played into our favor, but we’re here every Saturday, it’s our home track,” said Jacoby, who hails from nearby O’Fallon, Mo. “This is only my third feature win here, after we’ve come here every week for the last 12 years, so that’s a good track record (laughter). But, I want to thank everyone here that came to help tonight.”

Dotson crossed second ahead of Trevor Neville, Josh Harris, and Cole Falloway. Former NASCAR star Kenny Wallace finished ninth in the 24-car feature field.

The finish:

Feature (25 laps): 1. J82-Treb Jacoby [2]; 2. 5-Ethan Dotson [6]; 3. 777-Trevor Neville [13]; 4. 22-Josh Harris [3]; 5. 66-Cole Falloway [5]; 6. 14-C.J. Springer [1]; 7. 14C-Rick Conoyer [12]; 8. 13-Charlie Mefford [11]; 9. 36-Kenny Wallace [9]; 10. 0X-Steve Picou [4]; 11. 51-Timmy Hill [15]; 12. 45H-Chase Holland [21]; 13. 98-Joshua Hawkins [16]; 14. 24S-Jacob Steinkoenig [7]; 15. 8A-Austin Holcombe [8]; 16. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr. [14]; 17. 23-Dylan Sharp [19]; 18. 75-Daniel Adam [23]; 19. 23B-Ethan Boomsma [24]; 20. 10X-Jim Black [20]; 21. 17V-Mike Vanderiet Jr. [22]; 22. 5S-Owen Steinkoenig [18]; 23. 24H-Mike Harrison [17]; 24. 18L-Michael Long [10].