Dirt Racing
Martin Marvelous in East Bay 360 Sprint Opener
GIBSONTON, FL (February 11, 2021): After suffering through two embarassing starts during last week’s Top Gun Sprint Series races held at East Bay Raceway Park, Danny Martin, Jr. dominated the action on night one of the King of the 360 Nationals. Martin spun out in the early going in two of the three races for the Limited Sprints during the 45th running of the Winternationals. However, on this night, the native of Sarasota, FL kept the car pointed in the proper direction for all 25 laps.
“Man, I’m getting old,” a Martin said while struggling to catch his breath. “I’m going to be 35. I need to hit the gym. That was a long green flag run on a heavy track like that,” he added. Martin, who passed up a 360 Sprint show at another Florida speedway, explained that the extra laps at East Bay, albeit in a Limited Sprint, helped him find the winning formula. “A lot of these guys were sliding up. I kinda figured out how to arc the corner and keep it low and it just worked out. I haven’t been able to do that in a long time.”
Brett Wright had the pole for round one of the 360 Sprints by virtue of his eighth to second place run in his heat race. The passing points system put Dale Howard, a heat winner, to his outside. Terry McCarl, who also excelled in his heat, started in third, next to Tyler Gunn. Jacob Karklin and Conner Leoffler were in row three, followed by ageless Terry Gray and Danny Martin, Jr. Row five paired Ben Brown and Davey Franek. Mark Smith, who battled TMac throughout their exciting heat race, was inside row six. Dustin Gates was his dancing partner for the start of the event. Tim Shaffer, making his 360 Sprint debut for the Heffner stable, started in row seven.
Howard blasted out to the lead, followed by Wright, Terry McCarl, Gray, Martin, and Gunn. Howard led the way for the first seven laps, but Martin was slicing and dicing the competition. He moved into second by lap five. He rolled the outside of turn three to sweep into the lead when Howard hesitated momentarily after closing in on a lapped car. Martin pinned Howard behind that machine and never looked back.
While Martin was getting most of the attention, Shaffer was also marching toward the front. He passed nine cars in the first five laps and he had plenty of momentum. He reached second by lap ten and he was closing in on Martin as they worked through the heavy traffic.
It appeared as though Shaffer’s only shot at the leader would have to be in traffic. However, the only caution of the race came on lap 21, when Austin McCarl pulled his sputtering car off the track at the entry to turn three. McCarl was positioned too close to the racing surface to please race control, so the yellow was displayed.
Although that eliminated Martin’s shrinking margin over Shaffer, it also gave him a clean track to work with. When the green light flashed on again, Martin took off like a startled cat. He opened a three car length advantage over Shaffer instantly and continued to pull away in the remaining laps of the race.
Meanwhile, Howard was struggling to stay ahead of Smith in the final laps. Wright and Eric Riggins, up from
nineteenth at the start, were fighting for fifth. TMac and Gunn were holding off Leoffler and Max Stambaugh.
At the checkers, it was Martin by 2.056 seconds over Shaffer. Howard prevailed over Smith, with Riggens claiming fifth. Terry McCarl, Wright, Gunn, Stambaugh, and Cale Conley completed the top ten.
Six heats were held, with the winners hailing from six different states. Leoffler, Gray, Martin, Howard, Brown, and Gunn each saw the checkers first. Stambaugh, Conley, and Riggens won their respective B Mains. Forty-nine drivers from 18 states registered for this contest.
Support races were held for the Mini Sprints and Micro Sprints. Bruce Comer topped Jim Kradel, Don Quinn, Jojo Davis, and James McNulty in the Minis. Doug Dyal survived a one-lap dash to the finish of the Micro main which was shortened to ten laps due to attrition. Paul Seburn was the other finisher. Richard Sapp, Joshua Davis, and William Burnside were scored third through fifth based on laps completed.
MECHANICSBURG, PA (May 9, 2026): David Gravel, the two-time World of Outlaws champion and current points leader, dominated the finale in the fifteenth running of the Morgan Cup at Williams Grove Speedway. Gravel’s win, the tenth of his career at the venerable speedway, secured possession of the perpetual trophy for the World of Outlaws for the eighth time. Moreover, the win gave the touring stars a two-to-one edge in the win column for the three-race Pennsylvania swing.
Gravel seized control of the race on the opening lap and he was never challenged during the course of the thirty lapper. The only threat to Gravel during the non-stop affair was a bumping incident when he was lapping Brent Shearer. Shearer’s right rear wheel contacted Gravel’s left rear. Fortunately, the two cars quickly separated and both drivers maintained control as they rocketed toward turn one. Gravel expressed concern that he might have gotten a flat tire from such contact, but he said that the double bead locks on the left rear of his car probably saved the day.
“From the rain this morning, that grip up high was there. They patted it down with the push trucks and water trucks. It just launched really good, and actually my motor was really cold. It didn’t run good for the first five or six laps, but it had enough horsepower to beat him (Kasey Kahne) going into (turn) one. He didn’t try to slide me. It looked like he backpedaled and tried to run the bottom, but that was obviously the winning move of the race.”
Gravel added that it was important for him to control the pace of the race. “You just don’t know, this could’ve been ten cautions or green-to-checkered. Luckily, it went green-to-checkered. Maybe I was getting a little complacent down here in (turns) three and four. Maybe should have moved up. Those guys said the 67 (Justin Whittall) was coming, so. It’s just so hard to lead these races. Lincoln, here, it doesn’t matter where it is. When you’re up front, you know, the track changes and people can judge you, behind you. I feel like I got through the lapped cars pretty good.”
Justin Whittall was making just his second start in his new joint venture with Rod Gross Motorsports. The first outing was a disappointing seventeen in the preliminary night program. He gave props to his crew for working late on Friday night and early on this race day to get more speed in the car. He was able to close in on the leader in the closing laps, but was several car lengths behind him when the checkers waved. “I saw David (Gravel) struggling with the lapped car. He finally got him. That was when I really started to catch him.”
Third place went to defending track champion and current points leader, Troy Wagaman, Jr. Wagaman’s podium finish stretched his points lead over Lance Dewease, who failed to qualify because he was plagued by mechanical problems all night long. Wagaman explained that he put together a complete night. “I felt good. I timed good, I had a good heat race, and a good dash. I had speed in the feature.”
For the second night in a row, Kasey Kahne started on the front row for the A Main. This time, he had the pole as a result of his dash victory. But the difference in lanes may have been his undoing. David Gravel had the outside position, which was clearly superior for the start of the event. Freddy Rahmer lined up third, with Whittall as his running mate. Wagaman and Sheldon Haudenschild were in row three. The last pair of preferred starters were Ashton Torgerson, aboard Kyle Moody’s machine, and Chad Trout. Then came Carson Macedo and Bill Balog, followed by Emerson Axsom and Danny Dietrich.
Gravel and Kahne raced wheel to wheel into turn one, but Gravel had the better line through the corner. He emerged from turn two with the lead and never looked back. Kahne followed closely in the early going, but, with each successive lap, Gravel added to his lead. Whittall, Wagaman, Rahmer, Haudenshild, , Torgerson, Trout, Carson Macedo, and Balog made up the balance of the top ten during the opening laps.
The first five–consisting of Gravel, Kahne, Whittall, Wagaman, and Haudenschild–raced in order through the first half of the event.
Soon after the midway signal, Whittall begal to stalk Kahne. On lap nineteen, Whittall rode the rin in turns three and four to reach second spot. Wagaman and Haudenschild soon followed suit.
Whittall trimmed Gravel’s lead in the closing laps. As he was doing so, Haudenschild was applying some pressure to Wagaman for third. A few spots back in the running order, Rahmer and Carson Macedo were battling for sixth.
At the checkers, it was Gravel over Whittall, Wagaman, Haudenschild, and Kahne. Carson Macedo was sixth, with Rahmer, Torgerson, Dietrich, and Balog completing the top ten.
Carson Macedo was named the hard charger, advancing three positions. Several others also passed as many cars but they were all behind him in the finishing order.
The four heat wins went to Gravel, Kahne, Whittall, and Trout. Daryn Pittman won the B Main. Gravel set the fast time, at 16.431, to top Group A. Whittall was the best in Group B with a time of 16.897.
Williams Grove Speedway will be back in action on Friday, May 15, with a Sprint Car doubleheader. The 410s and 358 Sprints will do battle on York County Racing Club Night. There will be no racing on May 22 , but the American Flat Track Motorcycles will compete on May 23.
MECHANICSBURG, PA (May 8, 2026): After more than 220 career starts with the Greatest Show on Dirt, Kasey Kahne is finally a winner with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. The unexpected victory came at Williams Grove Speedway, where his only triumph came on opening day in the year 2000. Adding to the novelty of it all, Kahne was pinch hitting for Anthony Macri, who was injured earlier this season at the track.
“This is crazy,” Khane said after scoring the upset. “I couldn’t believe this happened this weekend.”
He added, “two weeks ago, I was still building my own cars to get prepared to hopefully race them later this year. Now, I am with this team. I knew this was a good team.” Kahne just didn’t appreciate how good the team truly was until he became part of it.
Kahne was making just his third start for Macri Motorsports. He was eleventh in his debut at nearby Lincoln Speedway on Saturday night. Tuesday night, in the World of Outlaws event held there, he improved to ninth.
Kahne was tabbed to be the substitute driver because of his connection to the crew chief, Joe Mooney. Mooney was the car chief for Brad Sweet at Kasey Kahne Racing before joining Macri Motorsports in November of 2022.
When Mooney approached Kahne to tell him about his opportunity to join Macri Motorsports as the crew chief, Kahne told him that he had to take the job.
Mooney acknowledged that the decision to bring Kahne aboard as a substitute driver while Macri was on the mend “was a little bit of a payback.” He added, “it’s a little bit of repaying the favor of getting to work for him for four years and a lot of good times. When I went to take this job and told him I was probably leaving and where I was going, he was my biggest cheerleader. It’s pretty damn cool.”
Kahne led from start to finish in this one. But, it was not an easy win for the veteran driver. He had to fight off David Gravel and, later, Sheldon Haudenschild.
And, although the car was strong throughout the race, Kahne had to compensate for some of its quirks, which he attributed to the differences between his driving style and that of Anthony Macri. “I had my wing so far back, it was lifting the front down the straightaways.” He also noted that the car was leaning over on the right rear, but he needed that to get enough drive off the corners.
Sheldon Haudenschild chased down Kahne in the closing laps, and he made a bold outside move in turn two to challenge for the lead. “Kasey was running a slider line and had it kinda blocked. I thought I had him off of (turn) two, but I got a little push. Sometimes, you just have to let it go,” he explained.
David Gravel held on for third. “I thought I had the best car for the first fifteen laps,” he said. “But Sheldon picked me,” and Gravel had difficulty the rest of the way, especially while working through traffic.
Chase Dietz shared the front row with Kahne for the twenty-five lapper. Gravel and Haudenschild were next in line. They were followed by Troy Wagaman, Jr. and Bill Balog. The final you preferred starting spots went to Daryn Pittman and Kody Hartlaub. The fifth row belonged to T.J. Stutts and Carson Macedo. Buddy Kofoid and Spencer Bayston.
Kahne got the jump on Dietz at the start of the race and he immediately went to the cushion in turn one. He rode the outside line to a lead of several car lengths on the opening lap. Dietz was struggling to hold off Gravel, while Haudenschild was lurking right behind them. Wagaman, Balog, Pittman, Carson Macedo, Kofoid, and Hartlaub followed in the early laps.
Just before the midpoint of the race, Gravel and Haudenschild worked past Dietz. Gravel caught up to Kahne in traffic and briefly challenged for the lead. By lap twenty, though, Haudenschild overtook Gravel for second and he began slicing into Kahne’s advantage. Meanwhile, Dietz was pressing Gravel for third.
In the final five laps of the contest, Haudenschild caught Kahne. Haudenschild got a good run through
turn two and pulled up next to the leader coming off the corner. Before Haudenschild could complete the pass, though, he developed a push, which required him to burp the throttle. Kahne scooted away as they headed toward turn three.
On the last lap of the race, Kahne passed the lapped car of Ashton Torgerson. That gave him some extra breathing room.
The fans gave Kahne a standing ovation as he took the checkers. Haudenschild was second, and Gravel was third. Dietz and Wagaman completed the top five. Kofoid was sixth, followed by Pittman, Carson Macedo, Balog, and Donny Schatz.
The fifteenth place finisher, Cameron Smith, was the hard charger at plus eight.
Kahne, Dietz, Gravel, and Balog scored the heat wins. Kasey Jedrzejek won the C Main. Doug Hammaker topped the B Main. Gravel was the evening’s fastest qualifier, with a lap of 16.379 seconds, in Group B. Kahne was the best of Group A with a lap of 16.446 seconds.
During the heat race action, there was a spectacular crash in turn one involving Cole Macedo and Freddie Rahmer, Jr. Although both cars sustained heavy damage, neither driver was injured. Rahmer confronted Macedo after the incident, swinging his helmet at Macedo while he was still strapped in his car. Rahmer was disqualified for his actions.
IMPERIAL, PA (May 9, 2026) – Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway (PPMS) is cancelling their Saturday night program after heavy overnight rains and cloudy skies throughout the morning forced track officials to make the difficult decision.
“After evaluating conditions throughout the property Saturday morning, speedway officials determined that the amount of water absorbed overnight created conditions that would not allow for a practical or enjoyable event experience for fans, teams, and staff” the Speedway announced in a statement.
Fans who purchased advanced tickets for tonight’s event have already had their refunds processed automatically..
Next Saturday PPMS will host a ‘Night of Champions’, which will honor 2025 track Champions and those who finished in the top 10 in points in the respective divisions.
“We’re ready to get this season rolling in a big way and hopefully Mother Nature starts working with us soon,” said Tyler Harris, PPMS Operations Manager. “We know fans, racers, and teams are anxious to get back to the speedway, and we appreciate everyone continuing to stick with us through a difficult start to the year.”
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