Dirt Racing
Wolfe and Best Win at Williams Grove
MECHANICSBURG, PA (May 17, 2024): Lucas Wolfe had to play defense in the final five laps of the 410 Sprint Car race, but the strategy paid off. He captured his first win of the season at Williams Grove Speedway. But, getting his first career win at the track was Andy Best in the 358 Sprint Cars.
“I did see him (Freddie Rahmer, Jr.), he was beside me, but I had good enough traction coming off turn two, and I got to three ahead of him,” Wolfe said. Rahmer was not done, though. With Wolfe stuck behind a lapped car, Rahmer took to the outside in an unsuccessful attempt to overtake the leader. “I had trouble getting by a lapped car, so I took the ‘all over line,’” Wolfe added. His final defensive maneuver was to crowd Rahmer going down the backstretch with two to go.
Kyle Reinhardt and Wolfe were on the front row under the point average handicapping system employed for this race. Devon Borden and Chad Trout were in row two. Tim Wagaman, Jr. and Rahmer were the final cars subject to the handicap. Row four consisted of Dylan Cisney and Ryan Wilson. Jeff Halligan and Jarrett Cavalet made up row five. The sixth belonged to Logan Wagner and Matt Campbell.
Wolfe got a great start, and he led Reinhardt and company by several car lengths entering turn one. Trout ducked under Reinhardt for second, and Rahmer settled into fourth as the field rounded turn two. Borden, Wagaman, Wilson, Cisney, Campbell, and Halligan followed. As the field began to sort itself out, a light rain began to fall, resulting in a caution on lap two.
After a brief delay, the cars returned to the track to complete the race. Wolfe started on the point, and he maintained the lead when the race went green again. Rahmer moved ahead of Reinhart, but the running order otherwise remained static.
Another caution came on two laps later for the spin by Tony Jackson in turn three. On the ensuing restart, Wolfe led Trout, Rahmer, Reinhardt, Wagaman, and Borden.
Halligan, who was running inside the top ten at the time, spun himself out of contention on lap seven. That turned out to be the final incident of the race.
Wolfe opened up a slight margin over Trout on the restart. Rahmer continued in third, with Wagaman and Borden now running ahead of Reinhardt.
Soon after the halfway signal, Rahmer began to challenge Trout for second. Trout was able to stay ahead of the current points leader for a couple of laps, but he lost the position in turn one when he got over the cushion with fifteen laps complete.
Rahmer then began to close in on Wolfe. By lap twenty, Rahmer was stalking the leader. Rahmer tried the inside line, but Wolfe won the drag race to turn three to preserve his dwindling lead.
Wolfe caught up to a lapper soon thereafter, but he could not make the pass to earn some breathing room. Rahmer came charging back, this time to the outside. Wolfe moved up the track on the backstretch with two to go, and Rahmer had to burp the throttle a bit. That allowed Wolfe to scoot away by a car length or two.
Wolfe maintained the advantage to the checkered flag. Rahmer was a close second, followed by Wagaman, Trout, and Campbell. Campbell’s strong stretch run earned him the hard charger award. Borden, Reinhardt, Wagner, Justin Whittal, and Cisney completed the top ten.
Reinhardt, Wolfe, and Borden captured the heat wins. Ryan Taylor prevailed in the B Main. The evening’s fastest qualifier was Wagaman, who toured the speedway in 16.609 seconds.
Andy Best romped to an easy win in the nightcap for the 358 Sprinters. “It was a really good piece,” he said with a sigh of relief. “We struggled the last three weeks, we were a lapped car. We just threw things at it,” the Delaware pilot explained.
Best had a prime starting spot for the twenty lapper, outside row one. On the pole was Logan Rumsey. In the second row were Derek Locke and Steve Owings. The third row paired Sam Miller and Joe Timmins. Chase Gutshall and Tyler Rutherford made up row four. Behind them were Justin Foster and Dwight Leppo. Wyatt Hinkle and Kyle Spence occupied row six.
Best hopped out to the early lead, with Locke, Owings, Rumsey, Gutshall, and Leppo in tow. As Best drove away from the field with ease, the first five remained in order, but the second five were battling for positions.
Best’s lead was erased when the red flag came out for the spectacular crash by Miller at the entry to turn three. He was not hurt, but his car was demolished.
Best picked right up again after the stoppage. He completed the remaining ten laps with Locke giving chase. Owings, Gutshall, and Rumsey were the first five finishers. Next in line were Hinkle, Spence, Doug Hammaker, Leppo, and Adam Carberry.
Rumsey, Best, and Locke scored the heat wins. Carberry claimed the B Main, which put him into position to be the hard charger.
Next week, Williams Grove Speedway will present the John Trone Tribute race, with a hefty $10,039 going to the winner of the 410 Sprints. The PASS IMCA 305 Sprints will provide support. Fireworks will also be included. The merry month of May will close with a 410 and 358 Sprint Car doubleheader. The 410s will pay $8,000 to the winner. Extra money will be on the line for the 358s as well, with $2,500 on the winner’s nose from a purse that will exceed $12,000. The first Friday in June will be fan appreciation night. The 410s will be joined by the USAC East Coast Sprints with 5Gs going to the winner of the Bill Gallagher Memorial.
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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