Dirt Racing
Macri Makes it Two
PORT ROYAL, PA (July 3, 2024): Anthony Macri is still working to dig himself out of the hole which he dug by jumping the cushion while leading at Williams Grove Speedway on the opening night of Speedweek. He earned his second win of the week and third podium finish by chasing down and passing Brent Marks for the $10,000 victory.
“That was a little different. It was unconventional,” Macri said. He was referring to his lane choice on the big, fast half mile. Macri, who usually rips the top at the Speed Palace, ran a more conservative line. “Joe (Mooney) gave me a good car and I could float the middle.” Macri said he had some trouble finding the groove in turn four, but he eventually got the rubber at both ends of the track. “I didn’t want to get off the bottom and give up another one like I did last night.”
Mike Walter, Jr. and current track points leader Chase Dietz had the front row for the start of the thirty lapper. Marks and Danny Dietrich made for a potent second row. Macri and Derek Hauck manned row three. Behind them were Justin Whittal and Logan Wagner. Billy Dietrich was inside of Brock Zearfoss in row five. Kody Lehman and Ryan Smith lined up in row six.
Walter took the inside line entering turn one and Dietz was up on the rim. Walter had good grip and rolled off turn two with the lead. Marks ran ahead of Danny Dietrich, Macri, Hauck, Logan Wagner, Whittal, Billy Dietrich, and Zearfoss.
Walter remained out front while Dietz flogged the cushion in a vain attempt to close in. Instead, Dietz brushed the wall at both ends of the track, losing valuable ground to the leader. Meanwhile, Marks took second and Macri followed him to third.
It took that duo, Marks and Macri, several laps to catch Walter. Marks made a slider work in turn three to take the lead on lap thirteen. Macri followed suit to take over second on the very next lap.
The race remained under the green flag until lap fifteen, when Zearfoss coasted to a stop. Marks held the point for the restart, with Macri, Walter, Danny Dietrich, Logan Wagner, Dietz, Whittal, Billy Dietrich, Lehman, and Mike Wagner in tow.
Marks set the pace on the restart, and Macri followed close behind. Danny Dietrich took over third on the first lap under the green.
Macri was pressing the leader. Four laps into the second half of the race, Macri executed a slider coming through turn four to take the lead away. Marks tried to use the top in turns one and two to regain the lead, but Macri was hooked up in the middle of the track and he preserved his newfound advantage.
Macri steadily built his lead as the race progressed. Marks maintained second despite losing some air pressure due to a small hole found in the right rear tire after the race. Meanwhile, Danny Dietrich and Logan Wagner went back and forth for the third position, with the Pilot claiming it for good with five or six laps remaining. Nonetheless, Logan Wagner was quite upset with Danny Dietrich after the race was over. Apparently, there was some contact between the two.
After Macri, Marks, and Logan Wagner came Danny Dietrich and Lehman. Walter was sixth, followed by Dietz, Whittal, Danny Dietrich, and Lance Dewease, whose car came to life in the second half of the contest.
The four heat race winners were Hauck, Logan Wagner, Marks, and Walter. Steve Buckwalter copped the B Main.
The fastest time of the night was registered by Dietz, who topped Group A with a lap of 15.953 seconds. Macri was best in Group B with a time of 16.412 seconds.
Freddie Rahmer, Jr. was caught up in an unusual crash as the B Main was lining up. Another car pinched him against the front stretch wall. Rahmer’s car was demolished, but he was able to walk from the scene.
The next round of Speedweek will be held at Hagerstown Speedway. Danny Dietrich leads the points heading into that event, but his advantage over Macri has shrunk to just 25 markers. Troy Wagaman, Jr., Devon Borden, and Kyle Reinhardt make up the rest of the top five.
The nightcap for the United Racing Club 360 Sprint Cars had Doug Hammaker and Cody Fletcher out front. In row two were Robbie Stillwaggon and Tyler Ross. Jake Karklin and Kyle Smith were in the third row. Next came Seth Schnoke and Derek Locke. Adam Carberry and J.T. Ferry were in row five. Josh Weller and Ken Meisner were in the sixth row.
The twenty-five lap feature got off to a rough start. A four car flip entering turn one eliminated a total of six cars, including those of Meisner, Jacob Galloway, Kruz Kepner, Schnoke, Smith and Frankie Herr. Fortunately, none of the drivers were injured.
On the second try, Hammaker and Fletcher remained in tight formation, so Ross was unable to duplicate his dramatic start. “I didn’t think that they would leave me an opening again,” Said Ross after the race. Instead, he settled into third, but by the end of the lap, he was up to second. He wrestled the lead away from Fletcher on the next round.
With Ross alone out front, Karklin picked off Hammaker and Fletcher to take over the second position. Karklin caught a break on lap six when a caution for debris brought Ross back to him.
On the ensuing restart, Karklin pressed for the lead. The battle lasted for several laps. Ross found his comfort zone and then he began to pull away.
The final nineteen laps were run without a caution. Toward the end of that run, Hammaker regained third. Fletcher continued in fourth, ahead of Locke. Weller, Preston Lattomus, Reese Nowotarski, Ferry, and Stillwaggon completed the top ten.
Locke, Schnoke, and Ross were the heat winners. Jared Kreider prevailed in the B Main.
Port Royal Speedway will host the penultimate round of Speedweek. The Super Late Models will provide support.
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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