Schrader Among Volusia’s UMP Modified Winners

BARBERVILLE, Fla. – Dave Pinkerton, Greg Moore, Jonathan Taylor, Dustin Sorenson, Ken Schrader, and Ryan Ayers shared the spoils of victory during Thursday’s six DIRTcar UMP modified features held at Volusia Speedway Park as part of the 53rd Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals.

The field of 107 DIRTcar UMP Modifieds was split up via their event points accrued throughout the first three nights of competition, setting the stage for a half-dozen 15-lap main events at the half-mile dirt oval.

Eights were wild in the first pair of features, with a pair of first-time DIRTcar Nationals winners taking the gator trophies home – both driving cars carrying the No. 8.

After starting from the pole, Pinkerton lost the top spot early, but regained the lead on the third lap of the first feature and never trailed again. He hung on through a late green-white-checkered finish that extended the race an extra lap, capturing the victory over Rob Fuqua by .614 seconds.

“We’ve been spending a lot of time with David Stremme [of Lethal Chassis], and Dan Davies … they helped me get this car set up after some of the bad luck we’ve had,” noted Pinkerton. “They finally got the car tuned in better for me tonight, and now we’ll just keep working on it.”

Raymond Rogers, Justin Cullum, and Jim Shipman filled out the top five in the feature for drivers ranked 89th or worse in event points through the first three nights of competition.

A caution-filled second feature took more than 15 minutes to complete, but the end of that 15-lapper was worth the wait, after Moore made a last-lap pass of race-long leader Mark Anderson.

Moore used a perfectly executed slide job through turns three and four to sneak past Anderson and go on to his first DIRTcar Nationals victory by .301 seconds.

“I started reeling [Anderson] in a little bit there, and kind of figured it was going to be a last-lap, slide-job type of deal,” admitted Moore. “I still can’t believe we actually pulled it off.

“This is something that I’ve always wanted to do, is come down and race here, and I can’t say enough about this track and this event,” he added. “This win is for Chris, my father-in-law who passed away. [Racing at Volusia] was the thing we wanted to do, and he never got to do it, so this is for him.”

Todd Neiheiser, Drew Charlson, and Ryan Gierke were third through fifth in the feature for the drivers ranked 55th through 72nd in event points entering Thursday night.

After the sprint car C-main, Dash, and Last Chance Showdown, the third feature of the night saw Salzburg, Pa., native Taylor roll from third starting spot to the lead in just three laps.

From there, he led the remaining distance, holding a hard-charging Jason Garver at bay during a two-lap sprint to the finish to notch his third career DIRTcar Nationals gator trophy.

“That may have come down to a little bit of luck,” said Taylor, whose previous DIRTcar Nationals wins came in 2017 and 2022. “We’ve been struggling all week, and it was kind of cool to be in the spot we were in to be able to take advantage, get out front, and hold everyone off.

“I’m excited to be here. We’ve been fighting gremlins all week, but it’s awesome to be back in victory lane.”

Randy Giroux, Scott Ladner, and Michael McGee filled out the rest of the top five finishers. Three-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Matt Crafton was 11th in that feature rundown.

The fourth feature of the night was the headliner, featuring the top 18 in event points through three nights of racing, with 15 of the 18 starters having won at least one gator trophy in their DIRTcar Nationals careers.

An apparent fast start by Will Krup was negated by a spinning Michael Turner on the initial green flag, but Krup was undeterred and leapt back to the lead over young Cole Czarneski during the second try.

Krup appeared to be in control after that, driving out to a full second lead before the yellow flag waved halfway through for Lucas Lee’s wounded racecar rolling to a stop on the low lane of the racetrack.

He led through the ensuing restart, but slowed with five to go with a flat right-rear tire that scuttled his chances at victory.

That handed the lead to Sorenson, who held off Czarneski for the remaining distance en route to a 1.8-second victory. It was the second DIRTcar Nationals victory for the Rochester, Minn., native in his first appearance at the weeklong event.

“I don’t know if we’d have had anything for Will,” admitted Sorenson, who won for the second night in a row, once again after inheriting the lead because of issues befalling Krup.

“His tire might have been going down before I got to him, but I thought I might have had a chance,” he added. “I reeled him back in a bit on the restart … but his tire went down and we know what happened after that. It’s been tough for him two nights in a row, but happy to get the win against tough competition. I felt really good in the car all night, and hopefully this is a good omen for the last few nights of the week.”

Tom Berry Jr. finished third ahead of Kenny Wallace and David Stremme in the powerhouse feature of the night.

Features five and six closed the night following the World of Outlaws sprint car main, with the start to the fifth main punctuated by a four-car crash in turn one on the initial green flag.

Once that incident was cleaned up, however, Schrader led all 15 laps of the penultimate race to earn his second gator of the week and fourth career DIRTcar Nationals win.

“This is just about the team around me,” said Schrader, who won by a whopping 4.276 seconds. “We weren’t that good [Tuesday] night when we won, but we started up front … just like we did again tonight.

“David Stremme and our guys made a bunch of changes today that have continued to help up, and it got us a hell of a lot better,” Schrader added. “We’ve got a couple more nights to keep having fun.”

Shannon Fisk crossed second, followed by NASCAR Xfinity Series star Justin Allgaier, Curt Spaulding, and Evan Taylor.

Thursday’s nightcap saw Ryan Ayers pass early leader Glenn Styres on a lap-four restart and cruise the rest of the way, despite II more caution flags that forced him to maintain his advantage on restarts.

Ayers was flawless, however, en route to his first DIRTcar Nationals gator trophy – the fourth first-time winner of the night and eighth so far in DIRTcar UMP modified action this year at Volusia.

“We really threw everything at this car today, and it was pretty good there when it counted,” Ayers noted.

Styres was second, with polesitter Chad Roush, Ronald Wadforth, and Seth Geary filling the top five.

DIRTcar Nationals action continues Friday with another slate of features for the DIRTcar UMP modifieds, alongside the third of four days of action for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.

Those unable to watch the action at the racetrack can stream every lap through DIRTvision.

The finishes:

DIRTcar UMP Modified Feature #1 (89+ in points) (15 laps): 1. 8-Dave Pinkerton [1]; 2. 3F-Rob Fuqua [2]; 3. 78-Raymond Rogers [16]; 4. 95J-Justin Cullum [6]; 5. 77S-Jim Shipman [7]; 6. 59-Doug Stine [5]; 7. 12M-John McClure [9]; 8. 0-Dylan Murray [11]; 9. 2G-Troy Girolamo [14]; 10. E85-Jesse Strange [12]; 11. 89W-Rick Weitekamp [3]; 12. 07K-Curtis King [4]; 13. 1S-Brian Shaw [10]; 14. 23-Jerol Stepp [17]; 15. 55-Alyssa Rowe [8]; 16. 99W-Wade Olmsted [13]; 17. 187-Tyler Wiles [15].

DIRTcar UMP Modified Feature #2 (55-72 in points) (15 laps): 1. 8W-Gregory Moore [13]; 2. 43A-Mark Anderson [1]; 3. 72-Todd Neiheiser [12]; 4. 21C-Drew Charlson [18]; 5. 26-Ryan Gierke [2]; 6. 6B-Dave Baldwin [6]; 7. 4K-Jason Kinney [9]; 8. 3-Josh Sanford [7]; 9. 01-Brayden Weller [4]; 10. 5B-Bobby Bagley [15]; 11. 54-Zachary Hawk [5]; 12. 25B-Greg Belyea [16]; 13. 11W-James Whittredge [17]; 14. 2J-Troy Johnson [3]; 15. 28B-Jason Brookover [8]; 16. 51-Dalton Lanich [10]; 17. 57-Charlie Sandercock [11]; 18. 99G-Mark Grosvenor [14].

DIRTcar UMP Modified Feature #3 (37-54 in points) (15 laps): 1. 5-Jonathan Taylor [3]; 2. 27G-Jason Garver [11]; 3. 1-Randy Giroux [4]; 4. 21-Scott Ladner [2]; 5. 11M-Michael McGee [1]; 6. 07-Eric Moon [6]; 7. 7D-TJ DeHaven [17]; 8. 90-Jason Beaulieu [15]; 9. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum [7]; 10. 91-Chris Beaulieu [12]; 11. 88-Matt Crafton [5]; 12. 17C-Coleman Evans [18]; 13. 18K-Brandon Kinzer [14]; 14. 114-Jordan Koehler [10]; 15. 97-Mitch Thomas [9]; 16. 4-Mike Learman [13]; 17. 11N-Gene Nicholas [8]; 18. 21B-Hunter Breland [16].

DIRTcar UMP Modified Feature #4 (1-18 in points) (15 laps): 1. 19-Dustin Sorensen [3]; 2. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski [1]; 3. 11X-Tom Berry Jr. [7]; 4. 36-Kenny Wallace [6]; 5. 35-David Stremme [8]; 6. 25-Tyler Nicely [10]; 7. 777-Trevor Neville [5]; 8. 77-Ray Bollinger [17]; 9. 95-Michael Altobelli [18]; 10. 4TW-Tim Ward [13]; 11. 8S-Kyle Strickler [9]; 12. 23Z-Austin Self [15]; 13. 18L-Michael Long [16]; 14. 49-Brian Ruhlman [12]; 15. K9-Will Krup [2]; 16. 13-Charlie Mefford [4]; 17. 12L-Lucas Lee [14]; 18. 27-Michael Turner [11].

DIRTcar UMP Modified Feature #5 (19-36 in points) (15 laps): 1. 9-Ken Schrader [2]; 2. 60-Shannon Fisk [1]; 3. 7-Justin Allgaier [4]; 4. 5CS-Curt Spalding [6]; 5. 7T-Evan Taylor [5]; 6. 24-Zeke McKenzie [8]; 7. 10Y-Trent Young [7]; 8. 90H-Ray Kable [10]; 9. 96M-Mike McKinney [13]; 10. 17T-Tyler Evans [15]; 11. 7B-Brad Deyoung [17]; 12. 463-Daniel Sanchez [12]; 13. 114B-Clayton Bryant [16]; 14. 2T-Ty Norder [14]; 15. 6ST-Joseph Thomas [11]; 16. 16C-John Clippinger [18]; 17. 77D-George Dixon [3]; 18. 09-Michael Leach [9].

DIRTcar UMP Modified Feature #6 (73-88 in points) (15 laps): 1. 6-Ryan Ayers [3]; 2. 0S-Glenn Styres [4]; 3. 32-Chad Roush [1]; 4. 40-Ronald Wadforth [6]; 5. 7G-Seth Geary [18]; 6. 82-Gary Dillon [8]; 7. 3D-Makayla Tyrrell [2]; 8. 00B-Buzzie Reutimann [9]; 9. 8A-Austin Holcombe [17]; 10. 4S-Craig Shaw [11]; 11. 12-Robert Gast [10]; 12. 58F-Donnie Farlling [12]; 13. 18-Miles Beaulieu [5]; 14. 99-Cole Hilton [15]; 15. 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt [7]; 16. 77C-Jason Cox [13]; 17. 57M-Fletcher Mason [16]; 18. 33-Kenny Mihalik [14].