Unzicker’s rally

Without a top-five finish on the MARS Championship Series after five events, Ryan Unzicker needed something to go his way. The El Paso, Ill., driver got it with the perfect race on the schedule — Peoria (Ill.) Speedway’s Garry Swibold Memorial, a race he’d won the previous two seasons.

And despite starting a deep 14th at the quarter-mile oval, the 43-year-old racer stormed to the front, overtook reigning series champion Jason Feger and led the final 16 laps for a $5,098 payday and Peoria threepeat.

“I suck at qualifying, that’s basically where it’s at. I’ve started in the back many a times. Last year I think I started 12th and came up and won,” Unzicker said. “I’m just glad they watered the top cause it gave an extra lane, ya know. I made an adjustment tonight that I’ve never done before in this Longhorn and I think it paid dividends right there. I’ve been wanting to do it, just didn’t have enough cojones to try it. I think I might stick with it now.”

Feger, who started outside the front row and led laps 7-24, couldn’t repel his fellow home-state racer.

“Ryan is always good here, I mean he must’ve been really good coming from that deep,” he said. “I didn’t really feel that good all night long, I guess I kinda got lucky I feel like to get the lead there, but I knew I wasn’t very good, I just think there was enough moisture early to keep the car where it needed to be.”

Unzicker’s victory was unofficially the 18th of his Super Late Model career in Peoria competition, second at Peoria on the MARS circuit and seventh in Peoria special event competition. It also marked his first MARS victory since Aug. 24, 2024, at Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, Ill.

“I needed (the victory) really,” Unzicker said. “You guys know this sport’s expensive and this is what keeps me going right here, to be able to come and still put it in victory lane. Again, to my sponsors, without them I definitely wouldn’t be here either, so thank you.” — Staff reports

Reddick visits

With the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series racing at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Ala., on NASCAR weekend at the massive Talladega Superspeedway across the street, Cup Series regular Tyler Reddick couldn’t resist returning to his roots.

Reddick is now 29 years old and an established Cup Series standout with 23XI Racing fielded by teammate Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan, but he earned his first national attention running the WoO tour in 2009 as a teenager. Being in the pit area for Saturday’s Alabama Gang 100 certainly brought back memories for a driver who hasn’t raced Dirt Late Models regularly in more than a decade but still has friends in the division.

“Supporting short track racing in the World of Outlaws, it’s for me just so cool,” Reddick said in an interview with WoO announcer Ruben Mireles during track prep before the start of Saturday’s $50,000-to-win headliner captured by his pal Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill. “I got to get my start in Late Models with the World of Outlaws, trying to follow them around and keep up with the big name guys. It’s just really, really cool to be here again and get to show my son what I grew up doing and what racing’s all about.”

Reddick brought along his young son, Beau, to experience a night of dirt-track racing.

“Getting to come back to a place that I’ve gotten to race at myself is a lot of fun tonight,” Reddick said. “(But) even more especially because, you know, my son, we got to come here two years ago, but as he’s gotten older now and being a 5-year-old, he’s really just soaking up everything that we get to do over at the big track and everything we get to do in between.

“So getting to bring him over here and show him what I used to do, just get to experience this again, is great. But seeing his expression and getting to experience it for the first couple of times is always really fun.”

Reddick said his boy was wide-eyed over his dirt-track visit. He also had some questions.

“Oh, he's loving this, you know? It’s just so cool, right?” Reddick said of his son, who he says is “really passionate” about racing and the “clock is ticking” for his own entrance to the sport as a driver. “Like with NASCAR racing, you have to know somebody or it takes a bit to get the access into the pits, which is fine, understandable, but it’s just so cool to be able to, you know, bring my son into the pits here, get up and close and personal with the cars.

“He’s like, ‘Dad, why isn’t there a fence (around the outside) in turn three and four? I’m like, ‘Man, that’, you know, that’s racing. Some places you go there’s a fence, and some there isn’t.”

Reddick told Mireles that there is one particular aspect of dirt racing that he misses.

“I think the thrashing, man,” said Reddick, who has eight Cup Series wins since becoming a regular in 2020 after two consecutive Xfinity Series championships. “The cars came in from qualifying and we were down there at Bobby's hauler and they’re making adjustments to the car, getting ready for the heat race, and just that intensity, that spark, you know? Things happen quick on the racetrack certainly once we get going, and the pit stops are fast on the Cup side, but yeah, just how fast you got to move and how quick the decisions you make throughout the night on the track and in the pits on the car, just that go, go, go mentality is just something (with dirt racing) that’s always really fun.

“There’s a lot of things I miss about it, but that for me was fun to see, just everyone in the pits probably thrashing on their stuff in between each time on track.”

Mireles inquired with Reddick on the likelihood of him ever returning to compete in a Dirt Late Model.

“I mean, I’m all … it’s always about never saying never,” Reddick said. “I remember when I first started my Cup career, a little over five years ago, I’m like, ‘Yeah, you know, I’ll get settled in at home, and once I kind of know what the week looks like and preparation, and we get that all locked in, hopefully I can go sneak away for a night or two and go race dirt.’ And as things have changed, as we went from the Gen 6 car, the Next Gen car, I left RCR and then found my home at 23XI Racing … things just continue to change. Life continues to change.

“I need to, at some point, pull the trigger and just go do (some dirt racing) and figure it out. But, yeah, I’m just really thankful that I have owners like Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin who are open to me being able to go out and do those other things, so hopefully one day soon, I just need to get up on it and just go do it. It’s been a while.” — DIRTVision and staff reports