Kollin Hibdon and John Oliver Jr. Headline Tuesday Action At Independence

Pick a night, any night at this point where the weather forecast calls for sunny skies, temps in the eighties with light winds and declare "We Are Racing!" That's exactly what promoters Dana Benning and Mike Van Genderen did on Tuesday at the Independence Motor Speedway and not only did the pit area swell with 137 entries in six divisions, but there was also a very solid crowd for a weeknight show that was not even on the schedule until the past seven days. And finally, the first race of 2026 in eastern Iowa went into the books on a beautiful night where shirt sleeves were the order until a sweatshirt was needed come feature time.

Always the innovator, Van Genderen also introduced a new qualifying procedure for the Modifieds and Stock Cars on this night where no more than eight cars at a time would take to the track for hot laps that would also serve as two laps of qualifying. The three heat races were then lined up with a six car invert where, for example, quick qualifier Casey Shelliam would start sixth in heat one and he would then need to finish in the top four to "earn" his qualifying spot for the feature. That he did by finishing second, thus putting him on the pole position for the twenty lap main event.

This definitely produced more action in the heat races and I would have to think that drivers found it to be fair as it definitely placed more of their fate in their own hands rather than the draw/redraw process. Sure a few of the fast guys will always lobby to qualify and then start straight up while the rest of the group will act like that is what they want even though you know that secretly they would like to see some type of a handicapping process that starts the faster cars farther back in order to give them a fighting chance. Just goes to show that the minority rules when it comes to setting the qualifying process in the major touring series. Or as the line says "money talks", and I do not see that changing anytime soon despite the fan-unfriendly-follow-the-leader heat races that so often comes from that.

That wasn't the case on this night in Independence though and it made good use of the technological advances that nearly all tracks now have with MyRacePass.

The penultimate event of the night, the Stock Car feature was a good one with Kodey Miles using the high line to take the lead over Shelliam at the drop of the green and when Miles slipped high off turn two the second time around, Shelliam went back to the front just as Adam Streeter's car went for a couple of rollovers in turn one. Miles would retain the lead for the restart and second row starters Tom Schmitt and John Oliver Jr. would take up the chase until lap fourteen when Jack Hockaday spun in turn one just ahead of the trio. All three would take evasive action wile two of the soon to be lapped cars were collected in the mishap.

As the cars were retrieved by the tow trucks, drivers were forced to go above the cushion in turns one and two to give them room, so on the restart the wily veteran Schmitt used that now even higher line to get a big run off of turn two and then drive to the bottom of turns three and four. Kodey was able to ward off each challenge though before the red flag waved with three laps to go when Vern Jackson tumbled off the top of turns one and two.

As they lined up for the restart I was surprised to see that Schmitt had chosen the inside of the first double row and, having only seen him to his inside in turns three and four, Miles went straight to the bottom at the return of the green to try to take away the line of his primary challenger. This was like a gift to John Oliver Jr. who had been consistently using a more middle groove approach to stay in contention and he would now use that line to take second away from Schmitt and then drive by Miles coming to the white flag to take the lead by inches. Then, in a drag race to the checkers, the two-time and defending All Iowa Points champion would edge out Miles by .051 seconds to take win! Schmitt was right there in third as well while Gage Neal finished fourth and Tanner Allen came from row eight to take fifth.

With thirty-one Modifieds on hand, four heats were run with the six car invert meaning that a driver had to get in the top three to earn their qualifying spot while the top five finishers all advanced to the feature. This was great in that just one eleven-car B-Main would then be needed to qualify the final four starters because if you are new to the Back Stretch, multiple B-Mains suck......imho.

Kollin Hibdon was on a rail from qualifying, to his heat race where he was the first driver to really get the bite off the bottom, to the feature where the Pahrump, Nevada, native who is now based in Waterloo went green to checkers to take the win. It wasn't a walk in the park though as Joel Rust kept him within striking distance throughout the twenty lap distance and, once lapped traffic was involved, Ethan Braaksma closed quickly to make it a three car chase. Hibdon would post the win while Braaksma slipped by Rust in the final set of turns to steal second. Spencer Diercks and Troy Morris III filled out the top five.

Once again the experimental qualifying procedure produced some great heat race action and while there were some glitches as the scoring staff tired to sort things out, it was not that noticeable to the crowd, other than when the Crown Vic feature was called to the track ahead of the Modified heats.

This would be the first ever Crown Vic main event at Independence and it would be a runaway for Derrick Dean who at one point enjoyed a half lap advantage over the drivers racing for second and he would lap all but the second, third and fourth place finishers in the thirteen car field. Michael Lamer held off Rob Culbertson to finish second, David Culbertson was fourth and Jacob Tuttle took fifth.

Zach McNeese would lead the first ten laps of the Hobby Stock feature until he slipped wide in turn two and that allowed Karter Miles to take the point and bring along his teammate Carson Butt into second. Things went from bad to worse for McNeese as he would limp to the infield with a flat tire a few laps later just before the checkers waved over Miles and Butt. Briar Kriegel drew the twelve after winning his heat race and he would race his way up to third. Joren Fisher came out of nowhere in the closing laps to finish fourth after a DNF in his heat dropped him to the back of the twenty-five car field and Leah Wroten closed out the top five.

Will Wolf set a quick pace in the Sport Mod feature, so quick that he slowed on lap thirteen and then ducked to the infield to the water hose to cool his engine before rejoining the field at the back for the restart. Cole Suckow would assume the lead from there and he would hold back Ben Chapman to take the victory in the twenty lapper. Tony Olson slipped off the back stretch while running third on the final lap allowing Austin Kemp to join the podium after starting from nineteenth, Jackson Carey finished in fourth while Olson recovered to salvage a top five. 

Traveler Tyler Fiebelkorn would pace the first two of fourteen laps for the Sport Compacts before Dyllan Bonk slipped by on lap three. Fiebelkorn would now stay close in second even though he was being challenged by Mike Peyton and contact between the two would leave Peyton's front bumper cover on the racing surface with four laps remaining. On the restart Bonk, who made the 210 mile tow from Hannibal, Missouri, would maintain his lead and take the win while contact again from Peyton in turn three of the final lap would loosen up Fiebelkorn enough to allow Drew Stanek to come from fourth to second at the checkers. Fiebelkorn would hold off Peyton for third while Devin Coghlan finished out the top five.

It was a great night of racing that was enjoyed with good friends Gary Lee and my Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert, and it was also good to see another of our favorite Super Fans through all these years Bob Litton in attendance as well. Thanks to Dana, Mike and the entire Race Indee staff for their hospitality and remember that they will be in action next Tuesday night as well, April 28th, with the World of Outlaws Late Models headlining. While I may return for that show as well, I am definitely looking forward to working with my goof friend Jeff Kropf when the IMCA Summer Nationals comes to Independence on May 31st, June 1st, 2nd and 3rd!

Thanks for visiting the Back Stretch and we hope to see you at season openers at both Quincy and Oskaloosa in the week ahead.

Chris Martin Continues Early Season Success With Winged Sprint Car Win at Stuart

When I was at the Scotland County Speedway back on Friday March 20th, I told a friend that over the past several years we have had better weather to go racing in March than we we have had in April and, unfortunately, that trend has continued here in 2026. In fact there has not been a single race in Iowa east of Interstate 35 yet this season and it is going to take a "look, there is a good weather forecast on a Tuesday" event at Independence tomorrow night to break that goose egg. In the meantime though we made the trip west to the Stuart Speedway on Sunday for the annual visit from the Winged Sprint Cars that is becoming a must-see event.

With this co-sanctioned event now being the season opener for both the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders and the newly re-titled Malvern Bank ASCS Midwest Region, a stellar field of 41 360 Sprints signed in along with 118 drivers in the five IMCA Sanctioned divisions that race regularly at Stuart bringing the total to a whopping 159 cars for the Sunday night program.

With the co-sanction I had the night off from my announcing duties for the Invaders, giving me the opportunity to write about an evening where the Sprint Invaders were in action. The night got off to a bit of a rough start when it came time to simultaneously hot lap/qualify the cars by the four heat race groups as the ASCS format would prevail on this night with their officials taking the lead. Cars were slow coming to the track and slow pushing off creating a delay that set back the show from the beginning despite the 5:30 p.m. start of hot laps. Then, to make matters worse, it was later determined that some of the qualifying times could not be verified due to transponder issues, so the whole qualifying process was later scrapped and the heats would be lined up by the pill draw with passing points only from the heats determining who would make the show. However, I'm not quite sure how that all shook out either evidenced by the fact that Mason Heimbaugh, the grandson of Mackie Heimbaugh who was making his Winged Sprint Car debut tonight started tenth and finished tenth in the fourth heat and Austin Wood started seventh and finished seventh in that same heat race. Yet Wood, the 2025 Sprint Car Challenge Tour champion from Sacramento who flew to Iowa from California on Sunday after racing the night before at Placerville, later found himself starting sixth in the C-Main while Heimbaugh made his way into the B-Main to start sixteenth. But I digress.....

Once they got to racing the Sprint Cars offered up plenty of speed and action and outside of a couple of minor incidents during the heat races, everybody stayed clean and green on the quick quarter-mile. With signs of the track starting to take rubber in the middle groove during the B-Main, promoter Mike Van Genderen took the time needed to groom the surface prior to the twenty-five lap feature and that gave the bundled up crowd the show that they deserved on this cool April evening. 

Colton Fisher would set a quick early pace and just as he was beginning to work lapped traffic he slowed suddenly after leading lap nine to draw the only caution of the race. It was another tough break for the young speedster from Danville who we had hoped had used up his share of bad luck in 2025 when incidents would take him out of the lead on three occasions. Once back to green the defending Malvern Bank series champion Chase Brown would assume the point, but he would soon be stalked by the two-time Sprint Invaders champion Chris Martin. A winner on the ASCS National Tour in Salina, Oklahoma, eight days earlier, Martin and his crew chief Danny Lasoski have the #44 dialed in and he drive by Brown with six laps remaining on his way to victory, his second here at Stuart in just the three times that the winged warriors started racing here in 2023.

Austin McCarl, who started alongside Martin in row two would be the runner-up with Brown holding down the final step on the podium. Seth Bergman would finish in the fourth spot while the winner's younger brother, Cameron Martin would be the hard charger on the night coming from seventeenth to fifth. Next up for the Sprint Invaders will be a long awaited Friday May 1st appearance at the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction and then on May 8th these two regional series will collaborate for a second time on the Super Half Mile at the Eldon Raceway.

The Sport Compacts would start the evening with fourteen laps of two and three wide action with defending All Iowa Points champion Michael Gardner leading the way until the caution waved for a stalled Joseph Carolus in turn four. On the restart Gardner was swallowed up by both Carson Hayes and Tyler Fiebelkorn with Hayes now setting the pace. Colbin Funke, who had started seventh soon joined the battle and he would use the inside line to grab the lead on lap nine and he would hold off Fiebelkorn over the final six laps to take the win. Hayes would finish third followed by the opening night winner Johnny Thomas while Daniel Clayton filled out the top five.

With Brayton Carter, Jake Sachau and Dylan VanWyk lined up ninth, tenth and eleventh respectively we knew that the twenty lap Sport Mod headliner would be interesting, just not in the manner that we had hoped for. Josalyn Elmquist would lead the first three laps before it was ruled that Brayden Shepherd had turn Kaden Rice in turn three and that is where things would go downhill. Six more cautions would wave over the next eight laps and the drivers were then told that they could either go five more laps under green, or the race would be complete with one more caution flag.

That elite trio had already made their way to the front and when the race was under green flag conditions we were being treated to quite a battle with Sachau doing his best to hold off the duo from Oskaloosa. The final caution would come with two laps still remaining on the scoreboard when it was determined that Dayton Swatek was at fault for turning Elmquist in turn one as they were racing for fourth and the checkers would finally wave over Sachau. VanWyk would take second over Carter while Elmquist was scored fourth and fifth went to Will Wolf.

Twenty-one of the twenty-three IMCA Stock Cars on hand took the green for their twenty lap main event with Miciah Hidelbaugh doing his back to hold off several challengers. A flat tire would sideline Todd VanEaton mid-race and Florida native had his challenge end with six laps remaining when smoke billowed from his exhaust while running second. The third and final caution of the race would fly when Brad Derry sat sideways on the front stretch. During the caution it looked like Hidelbaugh was having some steering issues with the two front wheels seemingly headed in different directions and when the race restarted he was no match for Buck Schafroth who powered by for the victory. The winner had started the race from seventh. Hidelbaugh would hold on for second, Dillon Richards advanced from twelfth to third, Austin Meiners came from tenth to fourth and Mike Albertson closed out the top five.

It was now 10:30 and we made the tough decision to head home as the Hobby Stock feature took to the track. Braden Gifford would take the win in that won and, from watching some highlights online today, we missed an interesting battle between Tyler Inman and Tom Berry Jr. where Berry wound up spinning late in the race. Todd Shute would then make the move on Inman to take the win. For more details on these two races as well as his full report on the evening, check out the report from my Positively Racing colleague Ed Reichert. 

Thanks to Mike Van Genderen for the hospitality as I was able to introduce my good friend Bruce Trautman to some good ol' Iowa short track action in style. My current plan is to follow MVG to Independence on Tuesday for that rescheduled event mentioned earlier and then on Sunday I hope to catch the season opener at the Quincy Raceways. Thanks for taking a look at the Back Stretch and I hope to see you at the track soon!

Becerra Puts On A Show, Murty, Livezy, Griffiths and Fullenkamp Are Winners At Memphis

The great thing about life is that no matter what age you get to, you are still going to come across a "first time" experience and my most recent example of this came on Friday afternoon as I left Mount Pleasant to make the sixty-five mile drive to Memphis, Missouri. I recall going to a late March NKF Tour race in Webster City and seeing snow drifts slowly melting in the ditches along highway 20 and when I was just eighteen my friends and I loaded up the LeMans and drove through some snow flurries on our way to the NSCA Frostbuster at the Missouri State Fair Speedway in Sedalia. In both instances we had to bundle up and use every blanket we had to stay warm during the races. This, however, was the first time that I left my neighborhood with piles of snow still visible to drive just a tick over one hour from home to watch races with just a sweatshirt after the sun went down!

Seriously? From blizzard warnings on Sunday and Monday to a dirt track race on Friday? Incredible, and a tip of the hat to Mike Van Genderen, Jerad Fuller, Kevin Eggleston and everybody at the Scotland County Speedway who were able to get the facility into a condition where it could take advantage of this wild weather swing and present this weekend's Spring Nationals. It was a phenomenal effort and race fans ready to kick off the 2026 season were entertained by 94 drivers in five divisions who traveled near and far to compete and the track held up quite well with some choppiness only at the apex of turns one and two.

The Sport Compacts would be the first of the five features on this night and they would provide a very entertaining non-stop twelve lapper. Defending All Iowa Points champion Michael Gardner would come from the inside of row two to take the lead on the opening lap and it would soon be a three car breakaway with Chuck Fullenkamp and Brandon Reu in hot pursuit. Fullenkamp would draw right up to the leader's rear bumper entering the turns until lap six when he was able to slip under Gardner in turn two bringing Reu with him into second.

With lapped traffic now coming into play, Luke Fraise made it a four car battle for the lead after starting eighth and he would soon drop Gardner back one more position. As the laps wound down though this would be decided between two southeast Iowa drivers who have been racing, and winning in this division for a long time as Reu was able to pull even with Fullenkamp twice. Chuck would hold his line and maintain his momentum to hold him off and take an exciting victory with Brandon and Fraise close behind. Gardner would follow them in for fourth as young Katelyn Watts finished fifth.

With thirty-one B-Mods on hand four heats and a B-Main would set the field for the twenty lap feature with Cam Reimers snagging the early lead from his pole position. Austen Becerra was behind the wheel of the #6 owned by Bobby Six on this night and on the opening lap he hit that hole in turns one and two the wrong way putting him up on two wheels and after racing in third for the first two laps he would then slow with a flat right front tire.

The crew would make the quick tire change under caution and Austen would rejoin the back of the field just as the green flag waved with Colton Livezy making the move on Reimers to take the lead. As Livezy started to pull away, all eyes were on Becerra who was quickly making his way back to the front. Brayton Carter was racing in the top three when he slipped high in turn four on lap six losing several positions and then two laps later the 2025 IMCA Northern Spot Mod National Champion slowed and pulled into the infield.

With five laps remaining Becerra had made his way back to fifth, but his charge would not end there and you can bet that if another caution had waved he might have been able to challenge for the lead. With just two laps to go Becerra was now third behind his friend Adam Birck who was wheeling a car formerly owned by Austen and when contact was made in that final pass for second, any other driver might have been more upset in victory lane as the podium drivers received their hardware. Livezy was an impressive winner in the debut of his new Vanderbilt Sport Mod and while Birck and Becerra had plenty of gesturing during their post race conversation, all was well come photo time. Reimers would finish fourth while Lonnie Hibner filled out the top five.

The first try at starting the twenty lap Stock Car feature would see a four car scramble on the back stretch with Ty Hill getting the worst of it coming to a sudden stop on the big clods of dirt that had been scraped down to the infield earlier in the week. As the race went back to green one of the perennial favorites here at Memphis, John Oliver Jr. would suffer a flat tire and instead of drawing a caution he would let the field clear and then pull to the infield.

Michael Jaennette who inherited the pole when Wisconsin's Pressley Harrington did not come to the track would set the early pace with some of the best in the business close behind including Dallon Murty who just spent the month of February racing a Super Late Model against the best in the country. Murty would look low, then high only to have Jaennette hold him off until lap nine when Dallon was able to take the lead.

Young Rowdee Van Genderen followed him into second and then mounted his own challenge for the lead pulling even with Murty with seven laps remaining. Dallon would hold him off and Van Genderen stayed close until lap eighteen when he slowed suddenly on the front stretch with mechanical issues. On the restart Derrick Agee would move to second and size up the leader, but there would be no stopping Murty from taking the win back in the familiar seat of his Stock Car. Agee was second followed the winner's father Damon Murty with Todd Reitzler and Jaennette completing the top five. 

A short field of ten Modifieds lost one car during the heat races when Preston Dawson showed smoke while running second so it would be nine cars taking the green for twenty laps. Jadin Fuller would race out to an impressive lead until lap five when he slowed suddenly and pulled to the infield, while just behind him Jon Melloway also slowed and Blaine Bryant came to a stop in turn two to bring out the caution. This would take out 33% of the field in what I believe were unrelated circumstances.

Once back to green Kurt Kile would assume the lead until lap nine when Austen Becerra, driving his own #22, cruised past and then drove away to a convincing victory. Kyle Brown slipped by Kile in the final turns to finish second, Robbie Reed was fourth and Brian Reed closed out the top five.

The fourteen lap Hobby Stock finale got off to a rugged start as the red flag was needed for an incident on the back stretch. I did not see what happened, but the car of Tony Strable was upside down with sheet metal strewn across the track ahead of him. Soon it became evident that those parts were not just from the 3T car of Strable as Dylan Hill slowly drove by the grandstand headed for the pit area with the entire right side body work ripped from his car. Thankfully all drivers were okay and we were soon back to action.

Coming off of a dominant 2025 season in his Hobby Stock, it was a good bet that Dustin Griffiths would win this one from the front row, but not without a mid-race challenge from Keaton Gordon. As the two raced side-by-side in turns three and four coming to score lap eight, contact would cut down the right front tire on Gordon's car ending his night.

One final caution would wave on lap ten when Kael Koch found himself sideways on the back stretch and after the restart Brad Graham kept him honest, but there would be no stopping Griffiths from taking the win. Graham was second with Des Moines driver Tom Killen Jr. joining the podium. Daniel Wauters would wheel Jared Miller's #17M in for fourth as Briar Kriegel filled out the top five.

I always enjoy my visits to the Scotland County Speedway considering it to be one of those hidden gems in our sport with a great race track, a rustic facility and one of the best cheeseburgers that you will find anywhere! Thank you to the fair board and promoter Mike Van Genderen for the hospitality. The Spring Nationals continue this evening with hot laps scheduled for shortly after 5:00 p.m. and while I will not be able to attend, my Positively Racing colleague Danny Rosencrans will be on hand to give the story from night number two in Racin' Down The Road.

Next up for me will be all three nights of the annual King of America event at the Lucas Oil Speedway featuring the USMTS Modifieds along with the Ironman series openers for the B-Mods and Stock Cars. Perhaps I will see you there! 

Overton Extends Hot Streak, USAC Opener To Seavy

The temps are inching back toward normal in Florida and Monday was a nice night to return to Volusia Speedway Park as the 2026 Winter Nationals entered its final week with the first appearances of the DIRcar Late Models and the USAC Sprint Cars. Not only was it sweatshirt weather, at least until feature time, but it was also more of a laid back atmosphere following the massive crowds that gathered here last Friday and Saturday for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars. There was still a nice crowd on this Monday night, but compared to Friday's standing room only gathering and what I was told was even a bigger crowd on Saturday, it was nice to be able navigate the grounds with a bit of free space around you.

Fifty-six Late Models were on hand with the standard UMP "qualify and start the fast guys in front" format and while all six pole-sitters would win their heat races, there was some late race drama in a couple of heats for the third and final transfer spot. Three Last Chance races would advance two more from each and with no provisionals being handed out on this night it would be a twenty-four car field set for twenty-five laps with a $7,000 check waiting for the winner.

Brandon Overton entered the night with a three race win streak intact starting with a romp over fourteen starters at a frozen Needmore Speedway and then a sweep of the Winter Freeze at Screven this past weekend and he would set quick time, win his heat and then essentially go unchallenged in tonight's feature to make it four in a row. His younger brother Cody Overton was happy to chase him in for second after starting third while Devin Moran started twelfth and finished third. Max Blair also went forward coming from seventh to fourth while Nick Hoffman finished fifth after briefly moving to second early in the race.

With Overton's domination my focus was on Iowa's own Dallon Murty who was making his Skyline Motorsports debut in his first appearance at Volusia. Murty started third in the second heat and, after challenging his teammate Tyler Bruening for second early on, he lost touch with the lead duo of Cade Dillard and Bruening, but fought off a late challenge from local hero Mark Whitener to finish third and lock in the fourteenth starting position in the main event.

Ironically he would spend the first several laps of the feature racing with Ryan Gustin and it was notable that while others were running the bottom or the middle, Murty was running the high line that he has been known to do throughout his stock Car and Modified career. At one point he jumped the curb in turn two and caught the wall a bit doing some damage to the right rear quarter panel and spoiler and with that slight break in his momentum, and perhaps due to that damage, he would drop to the back of the field. He would be credited with 22nd at the finish ahead of Ricky Thornton Jr. and Dillard who both did not finish.

Still it was an impressive night for Murty who made the show while others such as Outlaw regulars Dustin Sorensen, Jake Timm and Tristan Chamberlain did not. Another young driver who made his debut with the Coltman Farms team tonight, Michigan's Luke Morey qualified well to start second in his heat, but slipped to fourth at the finish and then in his Last Chance Race he was passed on the final lap by Jackson Hise to miss the show by one spot. It will be interesting to see how Dallon improves from night to night here at Volusia because I truly believe that he has a bright future ahead of him in the Super Late Models!

The USAC Sprint Cars qualify, but they then invert six in their heat races giving the crowd more action to enjoy during the qualifying events. Logan Seavey would land on the pole position for the twenty-five lap main event, but it would be fellow front row starter Brady Bacon that would take the early lead. Seavy and Justin Grant would give chase and when traffic first came into play Logan would throw a slider at Bacon in turns one and two only to have Brady cross him over and maintain his lead.

With laps winding down, Brady would find himself trapped behind two lappers racing side-by-side through turns three and four and when he made a late decision to go to the cushion off turn four, Seavey would get a big run and would make the pass in turn one with five laps remaining. Bacon would now be the chaser and as the white flag waved he would drive to the bottom in turn one to briefly take back the lead only to have Seavey go storming by him down the back stretch and he would hold on to take the win in the non-stop event.

Grant would watch that battle throughout the race from third, but could never get there to join it. C.J. Leary finished fourth and Briggs Danner came from eighth to finish fifth. The USA Sprint Cars close out their brief visit to Volusia tonight before moving over to Ocala for the remainder of the week.

I will make my final Speed Weeks event on Wednesday night when the Late Models will be split into three $5,000-to-win features and the Big Block Dirt Modifieds will start their four day run, and then I will look forward to the start of the 2026 racing season in the Midwest. Thanks for visiting the Back Stretch!

Kofoid Holds Off Gravel For Outlaws "Opener"

Buddy Kofoid and David Gravel left the rest of the field in their wake Friday night at Volusia Speedway Park and waged an entertaining battle in the 2026 season opener for the World of Outlaws. Yes, Spencer Bayston did win a World of Outlaws feature here on Wednesday night, but that was a non-points event that replaced what had traditionally been a practice night here at the DIRTcar Winter Nationals so, after Thursday's rainout, Friday's show would serve as the first points race for the Outlaws and it would play out in front of a standing room only crowd on a breezy and chilly evening in Florida.

You could actually trace Kofoid's win back to a final lap pass that he made in the fourth heat race where Iowa's Chris Martin had set a blistering pace and appeared headed for victory before a late caution reset the table with Logan Shuchart and Buddy Kofoid close behind him. Shuchart would put a slider on Martin in turn four only to have Chris answer with a crossover to maintain the lead. Schuchart would come right back at the leader the next lap and as they sped under the white flag Logan would edge down to block Martin and it would take away just enough of his momentum to allow Buddy to charge under Martin down the back stretch to steal second as the checkers waved.

Now why was this so newsworthy? I often say that you can point to a moment earlier in the evening that was crucial in determining the final outcome and this is a prime example as the last lap pass for second moved Kofoid into the Dash where, as the last driver to draw for starting positions, he found the number one as the only chip left in the NOS Energy can. He would then go on to finish second to Garret Williamson in the Dash putting him on the outside of the front row for the twenty-five lap feature and without that final move in the heat race he would have instead lined up twelfth for the main event.

Officially Kofoid would lead the race flag-to-flag, but there were at least three occasions in the final ten laps where Gravel was ahead of him only to have Buddy come charging back to always lead at the stripe. With two laps to go he was able to overtake two lapped cars in turns one and two and when Gravel was unable to do the same down the back stretch the race was decided with the young Californian taking the win over the two-time and defending Outlaws champion David Gravel. Carson Macedo would come from seventh to finish third, Anthony Macri was a contender early before slipping to fourth while Logan Schuchart finished where he had started, in fifth.

Just like Wednesday night, Donny Schatz did not qualify well, but he raced like old times as he came from seventh to win the B-Main and then started twenty-first and raced to sixth in the finale in his CJB Motorsports team car to young Brenham Crouch. The pole-sitter Williamson slipped to seventh, still an impressive run for the 2025 WoO Rookie-of-the-Year, Justin Peck finished where he started in eighth while two movers closed out the top ten. Cole Macedo who earlier went eighth to fifth in his heat race just to make the show then raced from seventeenth to ninth while Wednesday's winner Spencer Bayston overcame a slow qualifying effort to race to tenth after starting on the outside of row eleven,

Wisconsin driver Scotty Thiel was the rookie of the race finishing nineteenth after starting tenth. Thiel had a spot in the Dash seemingly in hand while running second in the third heat only to have Parker Price-Miller steal it away in the final lap. The 2025 Knoxville Nationals champion Ryan Timms finished fourteenth while Knoxville's track champion from last year, Austin McCarl, was twentieth and Chris Martin finished twenty-second in the twenty-seven car starting field. 

Conner Morrell who is starting his second full year on the tour never took the green flag in either his heat race or the B-Main, but still came to the track as provisional starter for the feature where again the push truck brought him straight into the infield. That's a tough break for 2026 rookie contender Scott Bogucki who may have been next in line for an emergency provisional and who would have actually been able to compete in the main event, but instead watch from the pits.

An even one hundred UMP Modifieds were listed on the roster and they would run six fifteen-lap main events on this night with the top three in each locking in to Saturday's Big Gator finale for the division that has been in action here since Thursday the week before. We would see the first three of those races that were run prior to the Outlaws main event with southern Illinois ace Will Krup going flag to flag to win the opener over Tyler Nicely and Chris Wilson. In the second feature Maryland's Mitch Thomas got too high in turn two on lap number three and briefly climbed the wall dropping him from second to fourth and he battled back to second before the caution waved on lap seven. On the restart leader Zeke McKenzie was no match for the rim riding Thomas who made the pass in the same corner that nearly took him out previously and he would drive away to victory over McKenzie and David Stremme.

The third feature would see Kyle Strickler hold off a persistent challenge from Charlie Mefford to take the win while the third and final qualifying spot was like one of Jack Donlan's tasty hot potatoes that nobody could hold on to fresh off the grill. George Dixon had it until he clipped the wall on the back stretch and then climbed it in turn three. Justin Allgaier raced his way up to third on that restart but then lost it on the final restart to Vermont driver Justin Stone. Wait, they have UMP Modifieds in Vermont? Well no, not really as while Stone does race the division here in Florida during SpeedWeeks he regularly races in the Big Block Modifieds when back home in the northeast.

The final three Modified features took to the track as we headed for the warmth of our car Jordan Koehler, Trevor Neville and Ricky Thornton Jr. taking wins. Thanks to a former hometown Mount Pleasant race fan Troy Spence, and his now west Florida neighbor Scott Baldwin for organizing the fun afternoon and then evening and as always there is no better person to locate in a parking lot at a dirt track race than my good friend Jack Donlan who, as always, fed us well before the races.

With the weather warming up I hope to get back out to Volusia either once or twice next week with the Late Models headlining the action in this my first time back for Speed Weeks since 2022. Thanks for stopping by the Back Stretch!