Dirt Racing
Thomas and Trout Sprint to Wins at Williams Grove
MECHANICSBURG, PA (June 20, 2025): Kevin Thomas, Jr. and Chad Trout were victorious at Williams Grove Speedway. Thomas’ win came in the United States Auto Club National Sprint Car Championship Series event that was part of the Eastern Storm mini-series. Trout’s triumph came on the winged 410 Sprint Cars that compete weekly at the famed dirt track.
The feature events were delayed briefly by a power outage that struck the speedway just as the USAC feature was about to push off. A motor vehicle accident nearby was the cause.
Thomas Goes Wire-to-Wire
Kevin Thomas, Jr. earned the $6,000 for the victory which tied him for sixth with Jack Hewitt on USAC’s all-time winner’s list. It was not an easy one because Thomas had to withstand numerous starts and restarts, including one with just two laps to go.
Thomas acknowledged that starting strategy was an important part of the successful outcome. He explained that variations were difficult to come by. “It’s hard here, especially the way that the corners are shaped. To change up your approach to it, if you get it wrong, you can really open yourself up for failure down there in (turn) one.” Indeed, he admittedly “overcooked the first one, I thought it had a little more grip than what it did and I just got up there in the marbles. Fortunately, I got another shot at it.”
The numerous interruptions also concerned him late in the race because of fuel consumption. “I was just hoping we didn’t run out of fuel like Briggs (Danner) did last year.”
The number of restarts also helped Kyle Cummins to dial in his car for his journey to second place. “I got myself a little spooked thinking it (the track) was tacky.” He kept making adjustments to his car under cautions. He even had the opportunity to correct some of his mistakes along the way.
For the third place finisher, Briggs Danner, the race was all about patience. “I knew I had to be patient, I had to hit my marks.”
For the second night in a row, the first two starters in the A Main were Thomas and current USAC points leader, Kyle Cummins. Behind the pair of Mach 1 Chassis were Jake Swanson and C.J. Leary. In the third row were Justin Grant and Mitchel Moles. Daison Pursley, who was doing double duty this night, and Robert Ballou were next in line. Logan Seavey and Briggs Danner made up row five, with Gunnar Setser and Hayden Reinbold departing from row six.
It took three tries to get the race started, as flips in turn three nullified the first two attempts. The first victim was J.T. Ferry. The second incident claimed two more racers, Leary and Abby Holbein. Fortunately, none of the drivers were injured. Also retiring from the event before a single lap was completed were Mike Haggenbottom, Joey Amantea, Pursley, and Leary.
Thomas got progressively better on each of the green flag attempts. On the third go at it, he raced out to a lead of several car lengths. Swanson settled into second, with Cummins pressing him from the third position. Moles, Grant, Ballou, Danner, Seavey, Setser, and Kale Drake were giving chase.
While the top five remained static for the first several laps, Danner was working his way forward. He reached sixth by lap ten, but he was nearly a straightaway behind the fifth place machine of Grant. A caution for Seavey on lap fourteen closed the field up, giving Danner a new lease on life.
Just three laps after that restart, Danner was up to the fourth spot. He was chasing the three leaders, Thomas, Swanson, and Cummins. It took him nine more rounds of the famous half mile to overtake Swanson, who had slipped to third a lap or two earlier.
Another caution, on lap twenty-eight, gave Cummins and Danner a chance to challenge Thomas for the win. Thomas led the field into turn one. Cummins went low, and Danner tried the middle of the track. Their struggle for second allowed Thomas to scoot away. Meanwhile, Swanson was struggling to stay ahead of Grant.
Grant closed out the final two laps ahead of Cummins. Danner was close behind in third. Swanson held on for fourth, followed by Grant. Drevicki earned hard charger honors by advancing eight positions to get sixth. Teammates, Reinbold and Moles, were seventh and eighth. Setser and Drake rounded out the top ten.
The three heats were captured by Pursley, Grant, and Ballou. There was no B Main. Moles was the fastest of the twenty-three cars to qualify. His time was 19.246 seconds.
Trout’s Romp
Chad Trout also led the entire race to pick up his win. His journey to victory lane was considerably easier than Thomas’ was. Trout jumped out to the early lead and the race went non-stop.
Trout, a long-time competitor at Williams Grove, earned his first career win in the 410 Sprint Car division to go along with his four tallies in 358 Sprint Car competition. “All these young kids coming up say ‘I can’t believe this happened. Well, I’ve been here for a long time.”
Trout chalked the win up to good luck, which does not ride along with him often enough. “We just got lucky. I didn’t know where to race. Fortunately, we started where we did.”
Trout had the pole for the twenty-five lapper that closed out the evening at the track. Next to him was Austin Bishop. Behind them were Ryan Newton and Cole Knopp. In row three were Justin Whittall and Ricky Dieva. T.J. Stutts and Brock Zearfoss made up row four. In row five were Derek Hauck and Troy Wagaman, Jr. Ryan Taylor and Freddie Rahmer, Jr. made up row six.
Trout led the way to turn one at the drop of the green. Bishop, Newton, Zearfoss, Whittall, Knopp, Stutts, Wagaman, Dieva, and Rahmer followed.
Trout led a three-car breakaway at the front of the pack. Behind them, positions were changing frequently. Fourth and fifth were hotly contested, as Zearfoss, Whittall, and Wagaman battled it out. Wagaman took control in the middle stage of the race and Whittall eventually moved into fifth.
As Trout navigated the lapped traffic, Bishop did close in somewhat. However, he ran out of laps and he was over 1.1 seconds behind
Trout at the finish. Newton was fourth, Zearfoss regained the fifth position in the closing laps. Positions six through ten went to Whittall, Lance Dewease, Rahmer, Chase Dietz, and Stutts.
Trout, Bishop, and Newton claimed the heat wins. The B Main went to Jordan Thomas, who was making his first start in the John Trone number 39.
Coming Events
The next two contests at Williams Grove Speedway will be part of the annual Pennsylvania Speedweek. The 358 Sprints will provide support on June 27. The July 4 holiday event will be for the 410 division only, as it will be the Mitch Smith Memorial paying $20,000 to the winner.
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
