DirtonDirt Dispatches
Dispatches: Reversal for RTJ at Wheatland
Thornton's winning Koehler Motorsports team. (Todd Boyd)
Among the latest notes and quotes from around Dirt Late Model racing heading into the second weekend in July, including DIRTcar Summer Nationals and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series action (look for World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series and Schaeffer's Southern Nationals coverage elsewhere). Also find a listing of live-streaming video from specials around the country:
RTJ's reversal
Ricky Thornton Jr.’s Friday victory in the CHM Diamond Nationals opener at Lucas Oil Speedway was mostly stress-free, but he did have one moment where he was a little uncomfortable when he entered turn three too high.
“I'm like, ‘Oh well, I'm gonna knock this thing into the wall,’ ” Thornton said in victory lane.
Luckily he didn’t, a significant reversal from the previous night’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series action at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa, where he twice got into the wall, had multiple flat tires, was towed from the track and returned, and was part of three cautions.
Thornton's $15,000 victory in Wheatland, Mo., his series-leading 10th of the season on the national circuit, helped erase some of those memories from 24 hours earlier.He credited crew members Zach Fields, Nick Hardie and Skyler Cooper for the turnaround.
"I mean, they bust their butts We drove all night and got here at 4 this morning. They slept a few hours, back up at 8:30. They had the motor and a little bit of front suspension is the only thing on it, so worked all day just trying to give ourselves a chance,” Thornton said. “Obviously yesterday, the driver screwed up a lot and and cost us a lot of parts and stuff like that. So I just got to thank them for all their hard work.”
Thornton hopes the weekend remains drama-free with $25,000 up for grabs in Saturday’s Diamond Nationals finale.
“Hopefully we can have a quiet day tomorrow,” he said in victory lane after his first Lucas Oil victory since May 17. “No rain or anything like that hits us and we can be up here again.” — Staff reports
Alberson rebounds
After leading 35 laps at 34 Raceway but slipping back to third behind Brandon Overton and Hudson O’Neal, it appeared polesitter Garrett Alberson’s hopes for his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series of the season were over. But Alberson had one last move up his sleeve in West Burlington, Iowa.
“We just never quit,” the Las Cruces, N.M., driver said, who made a third-to-first move with four laps remaining.
With Evans, Ga.’s Overton and Martinsville, Ind.’s O’Neal battling for the lead on the 47th of 50 laps, Alberson got his Roberts Motorsports Longhorn Chassis rolling on the high side and suddenly found himself right back in contention.
Overton and O’Neal had hoped they’d dispensed of Alberson, but they weren’t so lucky.
“I seen Hudson and I'm like, ‘Man, just get down and try to block him and then run back to the top.’ And as soon as I moved down, I stalled out and I seen Garrett come around me,” the third-finishing Overton said. “I didn't even know he was still there, you know? So it is what it is.”
It was a similar story for O’Neal, who never led but ended up improved nine positions from his 11th starting spot.
"I really felt like I had something there and I was rolling on Brandon, and Brandon went down there to protect, and just kind of shut it down in that bottom,” O’Neal said. “And I heard a motor fire up out there outside of me and I was like, ‘Oh no!’ And then whenever we got about the center of the corner, I seen the white nose and I figured that's who it was. He made a great move, just kind of took advantage of Brandon trying to protect a little bit and just shut us down in the bottom, and he was able to make the winning move.”
Alberson wasn’t seriously challenged the first half of the caution-plagued race, but when he slipped to third, his chances appeared grim. He jumped to the high side and hoped for the best.
"I just got up there where I tried to get my right rear high and try to get my momentum back up,” Alberson said. “At first I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. It was kind of treacherous feeling, but then a couple laps, I just started to kind of like make some ground and then I think Hud (went to) the bottom over there — or they told him to get down — and it was like perfect timing because I just got my run going and everything worked out just right there.” — Staff reports
Hell Tour breakthrough
Twenty-five races into his first attempt at the grueling DIRTcar Summer Nationals, Mark Whitener of Middleburg, Fla., found himself nearing an elusive victory on Thursday night at Butler Motor Speedway in Quincy, Mich. But with the checkered flag in the 30-lap feature ready to be thrown over his Longhorn Chassis, the 44-year-old driver came oh-so-close to blowing his perfect evening.
“Well, I screwed up and about went over the cushion on the last lap,” Whitener said, shaking his head in dismay over his stumble rounding turns three and four for the final time. “(The spotter) was telling me to get to the top (groove), and I was trying to get to the top … and hell, I really don’t know what he was telling me.
“You couldn’t really tell a groove. I couldn’t tell one, so I was just balls out from the green flag to the checkers. So if they beat me, they beat me. If they didn’t, I tried to give these fans a show and give it everything I had for sure.”
Whitener fortunately had built enough of a cushion after overtaking Ryan Gustin of Marshalltown, Iowa, for the lead on lap two to withstand his stumble. He gathered up his car to triumph by 1.746 seconds over Cody Overton of Evans, Ga., who became a first-time Summer Nationals winner himself the previous night at Montpelier (Ind.) Motor Speedway.
The $5,000 victory finally provided the satisfying payoff that Whitener has been chasing throughout his month-long odyssey on the Hell Tour. An especially accomplished racer in Limited and Crate Late Model action in his home region — though he’s also enjoyed success in Super Late Model racing — he decided to tackle the Summer Nationals in hopes of honing his craft on unfamiliar turf.
It’s been a worthwhile, eye-opening experience, but also one that’s been physically and financially draining.
“I come up here (to the Midwest) to try to learn how to run these cushions and get a better feel of a race car for these tracks,” said Whitener, whose wife, Bridgett, wasn’t at Butler because she had to fly home on Thursday because of work commitments. “I mean, I race them tracks (in the Southeast) all the time, so I really wanted to come up here and do this, and we’ve took every dollar we’ve had, and every part we’ve had, and I’m beat. I’m out of sheet metal. When somebody hits me or I hit them or whatever, we just beat the sheet metal out and rivet it back on. I know (the car) looks like s—, but we’re giving it all we got.”
Whitener has perfect attendance on the circuit with just three races remaining on the schedule this weekend in Michigan and Ohio. He failed to qualify for two of the first three features but hasn’t missed one since while tallying seven top-five and 14 top-10 finishes. He’s been at his best since July 1’s stop at Benton (Mo.) Speedway, recording five top-five runs and finishing no worse than eighth in the last nine races.
“To be up here in victory lane on this (series) … I mean, hell, Ryan Gustin, Jason Feger, you know, just everybody that's here, it’s pretty bad ass,” said Whitener, whose best finish entering Thursday’s program was second at Benton and July 5 at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind. “Them guys can go win World of Outlaw shows or wherever, so that’s where I wanna be. I wanna go win World of Outlaw shows, Lucas Oil shows, whatever.”
Whitener, who sits fourth in the overall Summer Nationals points, became the fourth driver from the Southeast to win on the series this season. He joined Overton, fellow Floridian Trey Mills and Zack Mitchell of Enoree, S.C. — Staff reports
Cody Overton’s rally
Winless since March 1, Cody Overton of Evans, Ga., was in contention midway through Wednesday’s 30-lap DIRTcar Summer Nationals event at Montpelier (Ind.) Motor Speedway. But with eight laps remaining, he’d slipped to seventh and his chances of victory appeared to be over.
Instead, the 27-year-old Overton came alive after race-long leader Tyler Erb’s collision with a slower car, roaring into the lead on the lap-24 restart with a dramatic four-wide pass and earning $5,000 for his first victory on the Midwestern tour.
The driver of the Dave and Judy Steine-owned Tri-Star Motorsports entry knew it meant a lot, his voice cracking a few times in victory lane.
“We've been struggling and struggling and it just sucks going up and down this road and just thinking that maybe it's you,” Overton said. “I don't know, I'm just super thankful for my car owner, Dave and Miss Judy. They've been behind me 100 percent and I'm trying to give them 100 percent, but hey, we needed it.”
Overton said he drove on softer tires than most of the competition. On long green-flag runs, that did him no favors.
"Oh man, God was looking out for me, We definitely gambled on tires tonight and I don't think it was right. The longer I ran, I was like, I'm (fresh) out of luck. I'm just gonna ride,” he said. "I mean, I hate it for Terbo, but they knocked the (infield) tire (barrier) in and my tires went back to firing and thank God for all that, because I definitely needed that infield.
“I wasn't too worried about the restarts because I knew I could probably get back out front, but it was just a matter of time and they could start circling and getting their hard tires back good, so, I don't know. I’ll take it. I mean sometimes you just gotta be lucky.”
In victory lane lane, along with his car owners, Overton thanked Vinny Guliani of VP Performance ("that guy's been on the phone with me nonstop since I've been out here”), his fiancee Ahnna Parkhurst and crew members Donnie Birdwell and Ty Giles. He’s put his crew members through the wringer.
"They have busted their ass, and I know if I was them, I'd be ready to go home,” Overton said, “but they have stuck through it and helped me.”
With Overton’s victory, Georgia produced two Summer Nationals winners for the first time in series history. Kingston’s Tyler Millwood won July 3’s event at La Salle (Ill.) Speedway. — DIRTVision and staff reports
English’s resurgence
Through the first five months of the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series, Tanner English of Benton, Ky., was an also-ran, at best. With a single top-10 finish, then hampered by engine problems and forced to borrow a car from Jim Bernheisel, things weren’t looking good for the Coltman Farms Racing driver when the tour began a month-long break on May 18.
But a new motor and a new Longhorn Chassis — the first time in the Kentuckian’s career he’s gotten a fully new race car — during the break helped him return to the tour with a vengeance. In seven races from Jun 20-July 4, English has six top-10 finishes including a pair of fourth-place finishes last weekend at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn.
“I feel like I’m kind of hitting a reset button, mentally and setupwise,” English said. “When we went to Longhorn and we built that car, I told them I wanted to leave there like they want me to leave setupwise and everything like that. Kind of just washed my hands of it so I could just think about driving and not think about the car. Did that and it was good right out of the box. I really haven’t changed much since then, just tweaked a few things here and there, been in close contact with (Longhorn employee) Matt Langston. Just trying not to mess it up, that’s the main thing, just don’t overthink everything.
“You want to perform to what you feel like you’re equipment is capable of,” English added. “I put a lot of pressure on myself. I don’t feel like I need any coaching or anybody telling me to pick it up, because I’m constantly feeling like I need to improve and be better. It takes some stress off of you just knowing that you’ve got new stuff, and you know it’s going to make it. You’re not looking for little things that could be wrong when trying to find some speed. You try to find new ways to do different things, and it takes your mind off of stupid stuff.”
English’s upward trend now heads for this weekend’s WoO action at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, with $12,000 up for grabs Friday and $15,000 on Saturday. It’s a track where English hasn’t finished worse than eighth in five WoO starts and had a runner-up finish two years ago.
“When I first went there, I was like, ‘This is an odd joint,’ ” English said. “It’s just really slick and you can get up there by the wall and really get after it sometimes. More than anything, it just slows down and gets really technical, and that’s what I like to do. Everybody knows I’m not really a bounce-off-the-cushion kind of guy, so any time it gets like that, I seem to do better than if there is a cushion and a really aggressive-type track.”
English has crept to 10th in points and sees more ground to gain in the championship chase.
“We’re in striking zone right now anyways to maybe get to sixth,” English said. “That’s kind of my goal to get there. Maybe even further if we can, but we’ve had such a bad start that you’ve got to kind of set realistic goals. I feel like we can do that, and we’ve set ourselves up in a good spot in the year, good tracks that I feel like we can make up some ground and get on up there in points.” — Spence Singleton
Looney’s return
One of southwest Missouri’s most-popular drivers — and one of only two home-state Show-Me 100 winners in the event’s history — makes a return in front of the local fans this weekend Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. It’s in a big-time doubleheader, to boot.
Republic, Mo.’s Payton Looney, who’s competed sparingly since 2021 because of work and family commitments, will take on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series heavyweights during the two-night, 19th annual CMH Diamond Nationals presented by Wieland.
Looney has been named to drive a Capital Race Cars Late Model owned by Jefferson City’s Tucker Cox, a regular in the track’s weekly Late Model division. Cox, a long-time friend, has equipped the car with a Super Late Model motor.
“Tucker reached out to me a couple of months ago and said he was getting a super motor and asked if I’d be interested in driving it the first couple of nights,” said Looney, who raced against Tucker Cox's dad, Chris, early in his racing career. “I said yeah and it all kind of worked out. We kind of planned it a couple of weeks back, so we’re just gonna see what we can do Friday and Saturday.”
A three-time winner at Lucas Oil Speedway this season, Tucker Cox said the two originally talked about putting Looney in the car for the Show-Me 100 in late May “and just didn’t have enough time to get it all together with my work and everything.”
Cox said Looney will drive the Capital that Cox drove last season in a handful of open events. Looney drove a Capital to the landmark 2020 Show-Me 100 win when he joined Springfield’s Terry Phillips as the only Missourians to win that crown jewel race.
Looney, 30, lost a hard-fought battle for the Lucas Oil MLRA championship that season. He cut back on his racing the next season to commit more time to wife Emilee and their two children. Son Baylor (7) daughter Elliott (5) are involved in multiple sports.
With a busy job as an estimator for one of the area’s largest roofing companies, Looney has been extra busy the last couple of months after widespread damage in the Springfield area from a pair of strong storms.
Looney has competed in a single 2025 event and didn’t competed in the Show-Me 100.
“It sucked,” Looney said. “I went Saturday and watched. We took my brothers and a couple of buddies and had a good time, but it’s definitely not nearly as cool watching it as racing it, for sure.”
He’ll get a chance in Cox’s car this weekend.
“My expectations are to try and make the race both nights,” he said. “I haven’t ran in a while and my goal would be to make the races both nights and see where that takes us.” — Lyndal Scranton
Streaming schedule
Among upcoming Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events available via live streaming:
Thursday, July 10
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa (FloRacing)
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Butler Motor Speedway in Quincy, Mich. (DIRTVision)
Friday, July 11
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. (FloRacing)
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Models at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio (DIRTVision)
• Schaeffer’s Southern Nationals at Beckley (W.Va.) Motor Speedway (FloRacing)
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Crystal (Mich.) Motor Speedway (DIRTVision)
• Appalachian Mountain Speedweek at Selinsgrove (Pa.) Speedway (FloRacing)
• Comp Cams Super Dirt Series at Old No. 1 Speedway in Harrisburg, Ark. (ArrowVision Live)
• Jail Breaker Topless Outlaw Series at Golden Mountain Speedway in Sparta, Tenn. (Mad Speed TV)
• Florence Speedway Super Late Models in Union, Ky. (FloRacing)
• Tri-State Late Model Series at Rapid Speedway in Rock Rapids, Iowa (Advantage Racing TV)
• Ohio Valley Late Model Series at Jackson (Ohio) County Speedway (Dirt Rich TV)
Saturday, July 12
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. (FloRacing)
• World of Outlaws Real American Late Models at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio (DIRTVision)
• Malvern Bank East-West Series at Shelby County Speedway in Harlan, Iowa (IMCA TV)
• Schaeffer’s Southern Nationals at Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, Va. (FloRacing)
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals-Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series at Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon, Ohio (DIRTVision)
• Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway DIRTcar Super Late Models (FloRacing)
• Southern Thunder Super Dirt Series at Needmore Speedway in Norman Park, Ga. (Hunt the Front TV)
• Comp Cams Super Dirt Series at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Ark. (ArrowVision Live)
• Ohio Valley Late Model Series at Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio (Dirt Rich TV)
Sunday, July 13
• DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Wayne County Speedway in Orrville, Ohio (DIRTVision)
Monday, July 14
• Schaeffer’s Southern Nationals at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn. (FloRacing)
Tuesday, July 15
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Shelby County Speedway in Harlan, Iowa (FloRacing)
• Schaeffer’s Southern Nationals at I-75 Raceway in Sweetwater, Tenn. (FloRacing)
