Mad Max Grabs a Gator on Night 4 of Super DIRTcar Nationals & PIT NOTES  

Max McLaughlin picked up his first win of the week and moved forward every night this week with an 8^th, 3^rd, 2^nd and finally a 1^st place finish in four nights of racing competition.  The 2021 defending “Big Gator” points champion is going “big gator” hunting again in 2022 and looking to add another “Big Gator” to his collection from last year.  The win vaults McLaughlin into the “Big Gator” points lead with a narrow 5-point margin over both Matt Williamson and teammate Jimmy Phelps while Peter Britten is lurking close by in 4^th place only 18 points behind.    

In four nights of racing there has been four different winners – McLaughlin, Friesen, Britten, and McLaughlin each picking up wins this week.

McLaughlin was followed to the finish line by Heinke-Baldwin Racing Teammate Jimmy Phelps for their first 1-2 finish since 2015.  Both Phelps and McLaughlin are having consistent and strong finishes night in and night out.  Phelps has posted a 6^th, 4^th and two 2^nd place finishes.  Jimmy also led 29 of 30 laps only to lose the lead to Peter Britten on the final lap in one of his 2^nd place finishes. 

Matt Williamson was looking for back-to-back wins from his 3^rd redraw position.  But on the 4^th restart he was cited for an early start by officials and docked one position from the front row back to 3^rd on the for the ensuing restart.  That pretty much sealed the deal, and he finished the night with a 3^rd place finish.  Williamson commented “We went with a harder tire and couldn’t fire on restarts.  Hats off to Max and Jimmy they ran a good race.  That rule where you get put back a row is kinda horseshit.  They say you can fire by the VP Racing Power point but apparently you can’t fire from there since they put me back.”

Larry Wight just keeps making strong runs through the field with another back to front 4^th place finish from a 15^th starting position.  Wight has posted consistent finishes of 8^th, 5^th, 9^th & 4^th with an average of +8 from his starting position.

Marc Johnson finished 5^th from his 11^th starting position and posted his best finish of the week.  Johnson has qualified for all the races, but his feature finishes have of been subpar with a 20^th and two 24^th place finishes.  Johnson is looking to move into the top 3 and finish the DIRTnationals on a strong note.

Demetrios Drellos drew the pole position and lead the first half of the race and finished 6^th for his best finish of the week.   He started the week strong with a 7^th place finish on night 1 but then had two races where he couldn’t move forward during the feature and he fell back through the field.  Demetrios is hoping to use his solid 6^th place finish to springboard to a podium finish and better yet a trip to victory lane on the 5^th and final day of the DIRTcar Nationals.

Jack Lerner finished 7^th from his 7^th redraw starting position and has shown flashes of consistency this week and the ability to get up front from the heats and stay up front in the feature.  His 7^th place finish is added to a 3^rd place finish in which he was in contention for the win.  Lerner has been strong from opening night where he had the misfortune to get in a wrong place wrong time racing incident but made a statement thrash in the pits with help from his racing friends and proceeded to finish 16^th from a 28^th starting position in the feature.

Kyle Coffey grabbed an 8^th place finish to add to his previous 4^th place finish.  Kyle noted “Restarts were tough on us since we went with the harder compound tire and it didn’t take off as well as the softer stuff that most guys were running.  We were best on long green runs and the cautions hurt us tonight.”

Justin Haers posted a 10^th place finish from a 26^th provisional starting.  Haers has qualified all week but got his best run of the week from a provisional starting position showing you never know what’s going to happen when it comes to racing.  Justin is looking to finish out his DIRTcar Nationals with another top ten finish.

Big Block modified rookie Andrew Smith qualified for the field and finished 20^th in only his 3^rd outing in a big block modified. 

Both Peter Britten and Matt Sheppard saw their luck take a turn for the worse on night 4.  Britten came into the night leading in the points but a broken shock on lap 4 took him out of the top 5 and sent him to the back of the field.  Another trip to the pits on lap 23 for a flat tire just capped off a disappointing day and 22^nd place finish.

After changing cars on night 3 Matt Sheppard started to head back to the front with a 4^th place finish on night 3 for his best finish of the week.  Sheppard’s backup car continued to run strong on night 4 but his luck started to fade with an 8^th place redraw and continued to go downhill during the feature with a flat tire and later a broken shock dropping him to a 25^th place finish.

37 modified were on the grounds for night 4 which was down from 43 at the beginning of the week.  Friesen was missing due to his NASCAR commitment and attrition has sidelined five other drivers – Erik Rudolph, Matt Stangle, Russell Morseman, Jeffery Lapalme, and Jeremiah Shingledecker.

DIRTcar Nationals Feature #4 (30 Laps): 1. 8H-Max McLaughlin[2]; 2. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[6]; 3. 88-Mat Williamson[3]; 4. 99L-Larry Wight[15]; 5. 3J-Marc Johnson[11]; 6. 111-Demetrios Drellos[1]; 7. 2L-Jack Lehner[7]; 8. 23C-Kyle Coffey[5]; 9. 35M-Mike Mahaney[10]; 10. 3H-Justin Haers[26]; 11. 215P-Adam Pierson[14]; 12. JS98-Rocky Warner[13]; 13. 16X-Dan Creeden[12]; 14. 30W-Joseph Watson[20]; 15. 8S-Rich Scagliotta[9]; 16. 54-Steve Bernard[24]; 17. 12S-Darren Smith[25]; 18. 14-CG Morey[19]; 19. 1K-Rick Laubach[22]; 20. 1-Andrew Smith[16]; 21. 35LJ-LJ Lombardo[23]; 22. 21A-Peter Britten[4]; 23. 1G-Darwin Greene[21]; 24. 83-Brian Swartzlander[17]; 25. (DNF) 9S-Matt Sheppard[8]; 26. (DNF) 19-Tim Fuller[18]

DNQ: Michael Trautschold, Jim Britt, Scott Huber; Corbin Millar; Olden Dwyer; Dave Rauscher, Jimmy Zacharias, Marcus Dinkins, Jeff Taylor, Mike Parent & Francois Bellemare.

UP NEXT
The Super DIRTcar Series returns to Volusia Speedway Park for the 51st DIRTcar Nationals finale, Saturday, Feb. 19 – the Big Gator Championship night.