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Dirt Racing

Brooks Bags Tuesday Prelim Victory

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Chili Bowl

TULSA, OK (January 14, 2025): Landon Brooks, a relatively unknown Sprint and Midget racer from California, scored a major upset win on Tuesday night at the Chili Bowl. His victory was the first for car owner Matt Wood, and gave that small team the distinction of having two cars locked into the Saturday A Main. The lead driver for Matt Wood Racing, Shane Golobic, finished second to Kyle Larson on Monday and spent Tuesday acting as crew chief and driver coach to the twenty-one-year old pilot.

“It honestly feels unbelievable,” Brooks noted. “I haven’t taken it all in yet. When I passed the checkered flag, I couldn’t believe it. I fell back to seventh there and, you know, I started rolling the bottom and got back to fifth. They all kind of creeped to the bottom, and I was able to rip the top and get to second. Luckily, I was able to reel in Brenham (Crouch) and throw a few sliders on him and pull it off.” He added, “by the end of it I was trying to go where they weren’t. Luckily, when I did go to the bottom I could make up some ground and, when I went to the top, I was able to pass some cars.”

The thirty lapper had Brenham Crouch and Hunter Schuerenberg paired up on the front row. Kevin Thomas, Jr. and Gunnar Setser were in row two, followed by Corbin Rueschenberg and Clinton Boyles. Brooks was inside Billy VanInwegen in row four. Then came Stevie Sussex and Brad Sweet. Derek Hagar and Jake Bubak occupied row six. Further back in the field were former winners Hank Davis and Buddy Kofoid (both in row nine), and notable veterans Jonathan Beason and Thomas Meseraull (both in row ten).

Crouch staked out an early lead, but a quick caution for Thomas nullified the start. Crouch again surged ahead, with Rueschenberg, Schuerenberg, Setser, and Boyles giving chase.

Sweet and Bubak tangled on lap two, and their skirmish was followed by another involving Schuerenberg and Sussex three laps later.
With those early incidents out of the way, the racers finally got into a rhythm. Crouch maintained his advantage for a dozen laps, with Setser holding second. Boyles was third, and coming, but his crash in turn two ended his race soon after the midpoint in the contest.

Meanwhile, Brooks was working his way forward again, having lost several positions in the early going. He was up to fourth, and held his own through a pair of cautions.

The next five laps consisted of Crouch fighting off Setser and Rueschenberg with Brooks searching for an opening. He found the top line and, with five to go, he began to assert himself. He rolled by Crouch with three to go. Crouch came back on the next round, but he could not complete the pass. The duo traded sliders on lap twenty-nine.

While that excitement was happening, Kofoid climbed into contention. He was hovering around seventh and he picked up a couple of spots before the stretch run. He was third and closing when the checkers waved.

Crouch noted that he was able to stay in clean air quite a bit with the cautions. “I kept looking over and they just kept telling me ‘you are doing good, good.’ They didn’t tell me anybody was doing anything I wasn’t. I just stuck to the top. I started stripping the nose and I started getting up on the wall there a couple of times. I figured, you know, somebody’s gotta be coming. I just felt comfortable up there. Landon (Brooks) got by me and he did the same thing, and we kind of got to racing. I kind of thought maybe I slide myself and I wanted to keep my momentum up, I thought I chose the best option. Landon was able to get back by me when I made a mistake, ultimately ran second. As hard as it is to be mad at myself to run second, we are in the show and we accomplished what a lot of people can’t, so just very grateful for that.”

Kofoid explained his run to third thusly. “I needed to pick off some guys and kind of make up most of passes early. I was able to kind of run the bottom a little bit and then get to the top. I was good on restarts and then once we had some of those crashes in front of me that kind of helped me out. I looked up and I was running seventh or eighth. I had a good restart and I was, like, I’ll try the bottom and I think I got to fifth. I think maybe another restart and was almost third and had the yellow and had to go back to fifth. Some of the guys moved to the bottom and I probably showed them the bottom, and some of them got up through there. Landon (Brooks) got up through there, so I was, like, OK, I guess I’ve got to go back to the top. I actually fell back to like sixth or seventh and kind of started hunting them down. I was trying to minimize my mistakes and not use the cushion as mush as maybe some other people were and (I) was able to pick and choose where I was able to pick up the cushion. I was able to pick up the cushion. I was able to not throw the nose and get close to guys and slide them and kind of put them away. When it gets that slick you can’t really cross people over. I was just able to pick them off one by one.”

After Brooks, Crouch, and Kofoid came Rueschenberg and Setser, making for a very unlikely top five. Kameron Key, Davis, Kaylee Bryson, Bubak, and Derek Hagar rounded out the top ten. Ricky Thornton, Jr. came from the shotgun position to reach twelfth.
The nine heat winners were Setser, Bubak, Kofoid, Nathan Crane, Mason Hannagan, Davis, Bryson, Brooks, and Brandt Twitty. Crouch, Brooks, Sussex, and Sweet captured the qualifiers. High Limits race director Mike Hess was a C Main winner, along with Caleb Stelzig. Davis and Kofoid won their respective B Mains.

Dirt Racing

Dietz Does It, Leads Posse Sweep

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Photo by Paul Arch

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.

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Dirt Racing

Dale Blaney Wins World Of Outlaws At Sharon Speedway

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Photo by Paul Arch

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.

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Dirt Racing

Rain Halts Fallen Heroes Memorial at Lincoln Speedway

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File Photo

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.

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