Dirt Racing
Courtney and Larson Take High Limit Events at East Bay Raceway Park
GIBSONTON, FL (February 13, 2024): Charles Dickens was not talking about the 48th (and last) Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park when he wrote, in A Tale of Two Cities, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” But his famous opening line would have been an accurate assessment of Tuesday’s 410 Sprint Car event presented by the High Limit Racing Series. The races were the first two events of the newly formed national tour (best of times), and Clay by the Bay said farewell to the division that helped to make the Winternationals a major event (worst of times).
Tyler Courtney and Kyle Larson were the last two 410 racers to etch their names into the record books. Courtney took the thirty lapper that ended the twi-night doubleheader, and Larson scored in the twenty-five lap feature that was carried over from Monday’s rain-shortened program.
Courtney Wins
Courtney was unable to say why he has been so consistently fast at East Bay Raceway Park. “We’ve been fast ever since the first time we came here. We have a pretty good package for here.” He added, “it sucks that this is the last 410 race here. I know that they have 360s here at the end of the week or next week. Sad to see it go.”
Courtney summed up his performance as “a 50/50 day.” He explained, “earlier wasn’t the best feature but to come back for the win shows the grit these guys have.”
Corey Day, the latest California phenom to go onto a national Sprint Car stage, remarked “the track was badass. I wish that the top was there in one and two, I could have made some more speed.” Despite that, he was able to mix things up with two accomplished veterans, Courtney and Brad Sweet.
Sweet thought that he missed the set-up just a bit. “It was tough. I got the lead early and was running the bottom, then I got to lapped traffic and tried to move to the top, and that wasn’t the right place to be. It felt like we didn’t have the car quite right there to maneuver through lapped traffic or to make enough speed.”
Sweet had the pole for the nightcap, with Courtney to his right. Dominic Scelzi and Spencer Bayston were in row two, with Larson and Corey Day in the third row. The final Dash cars were Brent Marks and Cole Macedo. Then came Zeb Wise and Jacob Allen. Row six paired Kasey Kahne and Austin McCarl.
The initial start was waived off due to a multi-car incident that happened in turn four. Courtney got sideways, but kept going, and chaos ensued in his wake. Larson and Connor Morrell got the worst of it with flat left rear tires requiring trips to the pits for replacements, and they were able to restart at the rear of the field. No other racers required any remedial measures.
The second try was successful, putting Sweet in control. Courtney settled into second in the early going, with Bayston, Day, Marks, Wise, Macedo, Rico Abreu, McCarl, and Chris Windom fighting for positions behind them.
Sweet stayed out front for approximately a third of the contest. By then, he was into lapped traffic, and he was having difficulty maintaining his pace. Courtney, Wise, and Day were challenging Sweet, and Courtney emerged with the lead by lap twelve. Before the next round was completed, however, the action was interrupted by a caution for Larson.
Courtney, Day, Wise, Sweet, Bayston, Marks, Abureu, Macedo, Windom, and Anthony Macri made up the top ten for the restart. Abreu used the high side to gain several positions when the green light came on again.
After just three more laps, a three-car tangle off turn two involving Morrell, Kahne, and Larson led to another caution. Damage to Larson’s machine eliminated any hope of a second victory for him.
While Courtney continued to lead the way after that stoppage, Day and Wise were locked in a battle for the second spot. Abreu was up to fourth, with Sweet and Marks following.
Another shunt, involving Danny Sams and Kahne, set up a restart with ten to go. Abreu went to the high side again to try to pick off Wise and Day. He climbed Wise’s wheel approaching turn three but somehow he managed to keep the car under control. He did lose one position to Sweet however.
Courtney continued to lead Day, Wise, and Sweet as the laps counted down. Meanwhile, Macri was challenging Marks for fifth. Macri spun in turn three with two laps remaining, ending his inspired drive from twentieth on the grid.
Courtney had the point for the final restart, with Day, Wise, Sweet, Abreu, Marks, Parker Price-Miller, Windom, Bayston, and Allen lined up behind him.
The remaining two laps were hair-raising, as drivers throughout the field looked for any opening to move ahead.
After Courtney and Day took the checkers, Abreu flipped wildly in turn four. Most of the pack made it by his wreckage, but Cory Eliason clipped Abreu’s machine as he rounded the last turn.
Sweet checked in as the third place finisher, with Wise and Marks rounding out the top five. Price-Miller, Windom, Bayston, Allen, and Ryan Timms were sixth through tenth.
Wise blasted around the track in 12.229 seconds to set the mark in Group A, and Bayston turned in a lap of 12.544 seconds to top Group B. Davey Franek led the way in the non-qualifiers race. Courtney, Marks, Bayston, and Sweet prevailed in their respective heats. Brandan Mullen won the C Main, and Tanner Thorson captured the B Main. Sweet won the dash from the pole. Brenham Crouch and Cory Eliason were afforded series provisionals.
Larson Leads Off
The champion of the abbreviated 2023 High Limit schedule, Kyle Larson, was the matinee idol. He started on the pole and led wire to wire to get the first checkered flag of 2024 for the new national series. Along the way, Larson had to fend off challenges from Justin Peck, Tanner Thorson, and Cole Macedo.
A mid-race challenge from Tanner Thorson spurred Larson to victory. “I got kind of blocked, well, not blocked, but just my momentum kind of stalled out there in traffic. I saw Tanner’s nose in one and two. I was getting nervous because Jacob (Allen) was down there and he was inching away from us.
Then I saw Tanner and at that point I had to get up on the wheel and get past (Austin) McCarl pretty quickly. Once I did that, I was able to get going again.”
Series founders Larson and Sweet were on the front row, with Thorson and Macedo in row two. Abreu and Peck were matched in row three, with Sam Hafertepe, Jr. and Macri in the fourth. Price-Miller and Timms covered row five. Then came Day and Wise.
On the opening lap, Wise looped it at the entry to turn one. Remarkably, the fourteen racers behind him avoided contact. Larson led lap one, followed by Peck, Macedo, Thorson, Sweet, and Macri. Brenham Crouch brought out a yellow with one complete.
When the race resumed, Peck was shadowing Larson. When the leaders got to lapped traffic, Larson was picking his way through, while Peck was riding the rim to stay close. On lap eight, Larson split two lappers between turns three and four. Peck could not follow him through the hole. As he ran through turn two, Peck saw an opening between the lapped car of Chris Windom and the outside wall. Peck tried to sneak by, but Windom drifted up the track, pinching Peck against the wall and collapsing his front end in the process.
Larson completed the remaining sixteen laps without incident. Thorson gave chase most of the way, but Macedo made a slick move in traffic to take that spot away in the waning laps. Thorson held on for third. Sweet and Macri completed the top five. Day, Abreu, Marks, Hafertepe, and Baystonwere the next five across the scoring loop.
Sweet stopped the clock at 12.550 seconds to top Group A. Macri was the best of Group B with a time of 12.612 seconds. Chris Martin prevailed in the non-qualifiers race. Larson, Thorson, Macedo, and Abreu captured heat wins. Martin also won the C Main, and Tim Shaffer scored in the B Main.
Larson was the Dash winner. Series provisionals were awarded to Crouch and Morrell.
Mod Lites Do Double Duty
Support was provided by the DIRTcar United CCC Mod Lites. The wins went to Jimmy Wills in the afternoon race, and to Jimmy Smith in the final event of the night for the class. Following Wills across the line were Smith, Tim White, Logan Lewis, and Ryan Dodd. Wills chased Smith home in the finale. Then came Zach Sobotka, Ryan McKinney, and Teddy Williams, II. Smith and Todd Brennan took the honors in heats held on Monday before the rains came. White and Wills won the heats for the Tuesday contest.
MECHANICSBURG, PA (October 3, 2025) – Chase Dietz, of York, PA, led a Posse sweep of four of the top five positions on night number one of the National Open Weekend at Williams Grove Speedway. Joining Dietz on the front stretch were second place finisher, Lance Dewease, and the third place runner, Danny Dietrich. Justin Whittall was fifth in the race. The only card carrying Outlaw was Carson Macedo, who led the first twenty-one laps before fading to fourth at the finish.
“I just want to soak it in,” Dietz said as he tried to catch his beath following the exhilarating victory, his first ever against the travelling band. Although Dietz noted that he had speed all year at the Grove, his team assembled a new car this week and, in doing so, they made a lot of changes. “The car was very maneuverable.”
Although Dietz ran most of the race in the top groove, he admitted, “I knew that the bottom was going to come in. I knew that I had to get down there before Lance (Dewease) did. I saw his nose.” As it turned out, Dietz barely got to the bottom ahead of Dewease, forcing the cagy veteran to move to the middle in the closing laps.
“We’re just extremely grateful to be here, this sport can be very humbling,” Dietz added. Even last year, when he was running his own cars, Dietz explained that they fought hard to be competitive with the Outlaws. Although they were winless, they showed good speed and had a podium finish against the Outlaws in the 2024 National Open. “I looked back at the nights when we didn’t win, and I tried to figure out what we needed to do to bet better.”
Dewease, who followed Dietz into second on lap twenty-two and wh briefly challenged him for the lead, commented, “the last three or four laps I wasn’t very good. The lapped cars made it interesting.”
Dietrich, who completed the podium for the Posse, felt that he may have had the fastest car in the final laps but, he added, “things didn’t go my way.” He explained that, when he did pass Dewease, he did not get enough of a gap on him, and that let him (Dewease) get back in.”
Macedo drew the pole for the Dash and his win in that event placed him on the pole for the twenty-five lap preliminary, which paid $12,000 to the winner. Dietrich lined up on his right, Dewease and Dietz made up row two, followed by David Gravel and Buddy Kofoid. Diason Pursley and Justin Whittall stacked our row four. Then came Daryn Pittman and Bill Balog. Row six paired Kody Hartlaub with Justin Peck.
The back of the field was almost as impressive as the first six rows. Back there were racers such as Kerry Madsen (fourteenth), Giovanni Scelzi (sixteenth), Brock Zearfoss (seventeenth), Brent Marks (eighteenth), Ryan Timms (nineteenth), Freddie Rahmer, Jr. (twentieth), Sheldon Haudenschild (twenty-first), Logan Schuchart (twenty-first), and Troy Wagaman (twenty-sixth).
Macedo held off Dietrich in turn one to assume control of the race. Dietz ran in third on the opening lap, but he drove under Dietrich in turn four to take over second one lap later. Dewease ran along in fourth, followed by Kofoid, Gravel, Whittall, Pittman, Pursley, and Balog in the early going.
The running order was pretty static through the first five or six laps. The top ten had a major shake-up on lap seven, though. Something broke on Pittman’s car in turn three, and he spun wildly toward the outside wall. In the process, he collected Pursley, Balog, and Hartlaub. Pittman and Pursely retired from the race due to the damage incurred, but Balog and Hartlaub were able to rejoin the field for the restart after pitting for repairs.
That fracas was the only caution of the race.
Macedo and Dietz resumed the battle for the lead on the restart. However, one lap later, Dewease moved into third, ahead of Dietrich, Kofoid, and Gravel. Whittall, Peck, Scelzi, and Rahmer made up the balance of the top ten. At that juncture, Wagaman was about six positions behind Rahmer in their race within the race for the point championship.
Through the middle stage of the race, Dietz began to close in on Macedo. Dewease continued in third, several car lengths behind the leaders. Dietrich was about the same distance back in fourth.
Dietz caught up to Macedo with about five or six laps remaining in the contest. He managed to pass Macedo on the inside of turn three on lap twenty-one, but Macedo countered in turn four to regain the lead.
Macedo dove to the inside heading into turn one, but he scrubbed off spme speed. Dietz was able to get some momentum coming through turn two and that propelled hin down the backstretch. He slid Macedo for the lead coming through turns three and four, and Dewease followed in his tire tracks to take over second coming off turn four.
Dietz missed the bottom entering turn one, and Dewease poked his nose under him going through the turn, Dietz recovered, and he got a good run off turn two to preserve his lead. Dietz then committed to the low line for the final laps, requiring Dewease to move more toward the middle of the track.
Dietrich dispatched Macedo and he got a run on Dewease near the end of the race. However, Dewease was able to reclaim second soon thereafter.
At the finish, it was Dietz by a tad under eight tenths of a second over Dewease. Dietrich was third, followed by Macedo and Whittall. Kofoid, Gravel, Scelzi,Peck, and Marks completed the top ten.
Rahmer was eleventh, and Wagaman sixteenth. Although Wagaman was the hard charger at plus ten, he lost valuable points to Rahmer. The two racers will be separated by 125 points, unofficially, heading into Saturday’s season finale.
Heat wins were scored by Gravel, Kofoid, Dewease, and Pursley. Ryan Newton won the non-qualifiers race. Kyle Spence recovered from a tipover in his heat race to capture the C Main. The B Main went to Haudenschild. Gravel was the evening’s fastest qualifier, with a lap of 16.409 seconds topping Group A. Dewease timed the best in Group B, with a lap of 16.760 seconds. Fifty-six cars participated in the event.
HARTFORD, OH (September 27, 2025) – Dale Blaney had the hometown crowd on their feet and screaming after winning the World of Outlaws feature Saturday Night at Sharon Speedway, the track owned for years by the Blaney family.
Blaney started fifth and passed Cole Macedo on lap 11 for the lead then held off a furious last lap charge by Buddy Kofoid to win by just 0.136 seconds for the $12,000 payday!
The victory was Blaney’s first World of Outlaws victory in 10-years, becoming the oldest winner in Series history at 61 years 7 months and 28 days. Blaney broke the previous record set by his older brother Dave when he won at 58 years of age in 2021 at Sharon.
“There’re so many good young race car drivers out here, but to win a race at 61 (years old) is awesome,” said Blaney. ““I had the feeling that I was never going to win an Outlaw race ever again. I don’t race much. This is our sixth race this year. I haven’t run in seven weeks. The car was awesome. We just got it back together this week. I don’t know what to say. It’s great and cool to win this at Sharon Speedway- it’s the only place I’ve run this year. This is a special freaking night. I know that.”
“I wanted traffic,” said Kofoid. “My car is usually amazing in traffic. He slipped up, and then I kind of got in his air and got me slipped up. And then I hit the wall coming to the checkered, and it shot me down the track. I tried to send it and was close. I’m just happy for Dale and Dave.”
Sheldon Haudenschild finished third follow by WoO points leader David Gravel in fourth. Logan Schuchart rounded out the Top 5.
The night however belonged to the Blaney family, who fittingly closed out the the first year of the new ownership group of Dave Blaney, Ryan Blaney, and Will Thomas III in Victory Lane.
ABBOTTSTOWN, PA (September 27, 2025): A persistent, localized drizzle forced a stoppage of the Fallen Heroes Memorial at the Lincoln Speedway. The event, which was originally dubbed the Fallen Firefighters Memorial, was expanded to give tribute to the three York County police officers recently slain while serving a subpoena.
Brett and Jordan Strickler, policemen in the area, honored the fallen officers on the wings of their 410 Sprint Cars.
The 410 Sprint Cars were ready to take to the track for their feature event when the rain set in for the second time of the night. A brief shower interrupted the heat races for the 358 Sprint Cars. However, after the rain stopped, the track crew and push truck operators quickly prepared the surface so that all qualifications could be completed.
The line-ups for both feature races are set, and the events will be completed on October 18, along with the full program for both divisions in the Final 50. So, fans will be treated to four features that evening.
The point races in both divisions will conclude on October 18.
Dallas Schott, Kyle Moody, and Billy Dietrich won the heat races for the 410 Sprinters. Ryan “Fig” Newton prevailed in the B Main. Troy Wagaman, Jr. was the fastest qualifier of the twenty-nine cars on hand. His time was an astonishing 12.855 seconds. He was one of four racers to turn sub-thirteen second laps.
In the 358 Sprint Car preliminaries, the checkers waved for Cameron Merriman, Logan Spahr, and Cody Fletcher. There were twenty-one 358 Sprints checked in for the contest.
On October 4, Lincoln Speedway will present AMA Flat Track Motorcycles and Quads. There will be no auto races in consideration of the National Open to be held at Williams Grove Speedway. The World of Outlaws will take on the Pennsylvania Posse on October 11. The Lincoln season will conclude with the blockbuster event, the Final 50 plus the held over features.
Dietz Does It, Leads Posse Sweep
Corey Heim parlays overtime restart into record 10th NASCAR Truck Series win
Opportunistic Chase Elliott steals a NASCAR Cup Playoff win at Kansas
Dale Blaney Wins World Of Outlaws At Sharon Speedway
