Lonnie Wheatley, SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (June 21, 2022) – It has been a turbulent start to the 2022 season for Brian Shirley.
But the tides seem to be turning for the Chatham, IL, as he picked off his second consecutive $5,000 payday in the seventh round of the DIRTcar Late Model Summer Nationals “Hell Tour” at Missouri’s Springfield Raceway on Tuesday night.
Shirley pounced on early leader and fast qualifier Payton Freeman on a lap 18 restart and then fought off Max Blair and Bobby Pierce over the closing rounds to secure his second win of the season.
“We’ve had a pretty rough start to the season, so it feels good to be gaining some momentum,” Shirley explained in victory lane. “It gives us some confidence and helps our guys realize that the hard work that they have been putting in is paying off.”
While Shirley gridded the field outside the second row, Freeman gunned into the lead at the outset from the pole position and set the pace in the early going as Shirley diced with Joe Godsey and Blair for position before taking command of second by the time a caution flew after 17 laps.
Shirley wasted little time disposing of Freeman on the restart and survived a barrage of cautions over the last half of the race to secure the win.
“My car wasn’t feeling good at all coming off two there late in the race,” Shirley explained as his right rear tire flattened while in victory lane.
Seventh-starter Pierce and Blair kept Shirley honest in the closing laps, battling for position with Pierce taking runner-up honors as Blair settled for the show position.
Logan Martin battled amongst the top-five throughout before settling for fourth with Kyle Beard rebounding from an early incident to round out the top five after starting 16th.
Freeman fell back to sixth with Mason Oberkramer, Ryan Unzicker, Jason Feger and Rusty Schlenk completing the top ten.
The final car to present for qualifying, Freeman set the quickest overall time of 12.650-seconds atop the ¼-mile before Shirley, Unzicker, Godsey and Freeman topped scintillating heat race action and then Kylan Garner besting the “B” Main.
DIRTcar Late Model Summer Nationals “Hell Tour”
Springfield Raceway – Springfield, MO
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
DIRTcar Late Models:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[4]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[7]; 3. 111V-Max Blair[5]; 4. 36-Logan Martin[8]; 5. 86-Kyle Beard[16]; 6. F1-Payton Freeman[1]; 7. 93-Mason Oberkramer[6]; 8. 24-Ryan Unzicker[3]; 9. 25-Jason Feger[11]; 10. 91-Rusty Schlenk[13]; 11. 14G-Joe Godsey[2]; 12. 77-Preston Luckman[9]; 13. 10-Garrett Smith[15]; 14. 0-Deshawn Gingerich[10]; 15. 50-Kaeden Cornell[12]; 16. 45-Kylan Garner[17]; 17. 30-Mark Voigt[19]; 18. 14R-Jeff Roth[22]; 19. 26M-Brent McKinnon[18]; 20. 4D-Doug Tye[20]; 21. 23NZ-Mick Quin[14]; 22. 31AUS-Kye Blight[21]
Last Chance Showdown (12 Laps): 1. 45-Kylan Garner[3]; 2. 26M-Brent McKinnon[1]; 3. 7-Cole Wells[11]; 4. 97-Cade Dillard[14]; 5. 14R-Jeff Roth[5]; 6. 49-Justin Wells[8]; 7. 12-Scott Crigler[13]; 8. 75-Terry Phillips[12]; 9. 31AUS-Kye Blight[4]; 10. 3-Brennon Willard[15]; 11. 13-Joey Smith[7]; 12. 26-Glen Powell[2]; 13. 4D-Doug Tye[6]; 14. 30-Mark Voigt[16]; 15. (DNS) 14W-Dustin Walker; 16. (DNS) 11-Steve Johnson
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[2]; 2. 111V-Max Blair[3]; 3. 77-Preston Luckman[5]; 4. 91-Rusty Schlenk[7]; 5. 26M-Brent McKinnon[4]; 6. 14R-Jeff Roth[6]; 7. 14W-Dustin Walker[8]; 8. 12-Scott Crigler[1]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 24-Ryan Unzicker[3]; 2. 93-Mason Oberkramer[2]; 3. 0-Deshawn Gingerich[4]; 4. 23NZ-Mick Quin[5]; 5. 26-Glen Powell[6]; 6. 4D-Doug Tye[7]; 7. 11-Steve Johnson[8]; 8. 97-Cade Dillard[1]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 14G-Joe Godsey[1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 3. 25-Jason Feger[3]; 4. 10-Garrett Smith[4]; 5. 45-Kylan Garner[7]; 6. 13-Joey Smith[8]; 7. 7-Cole Wells[5]; 8. 3-Brennon Willard[6]
Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. F1-Payton Freeman[1]; 2. 36-Logan Martin[2]; 3. 50-Kaeden Cornell[4]; 4. 86-Kyle Beard[3]; 5. 31AUS-Kye Blight[8]; 6. 49-Justin Wells[6]; 7. 75-Terry Phillips[5]; 8. 30-Mark Voigt[7]
Qualifying 1 (2 Laps): 1. 12-Scott Crigler, 00:12.706[3]; 2. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:12.784[5]; 3. 111V-Max Blair, 00:12.853[7]; 4. 26M-Brent McKinnon, 00:12.941[1]; 5. 77-Preston Luckman, 00:12.998[4]; 6. 14R-Jeff Roth, 00:13.252[8]; 7. 91-Rusty Schlenk, 00:13.377[6]; 8. 14W-Dustin Walker, 00:13.498[2]
Qualifying 2 (2 Laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:12.755[8]; 2. 93-Mason Oberkramer, 00:12.906[4]; 3. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 00:13.048[3]; 4. 0-Deshawn Gingerich, 00:13.322[2]; 5. 23NZ-Mick Quin, 00:13.359[5]; 6. 26-Glen Powell, 00:13.794[1]; 7. 4D-Doug Tye, 00:13.854[7]; 8. 11-Steve Johnson, 00:14.281[6]
Qualifying 3 (2 Laps): 1. 14G-Joe Godsey, 00:12.736[1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:12.887[7]; 3. 25-Jason Feger, 00:12.972[2]; 4. 10-Garrett Smith, 00:13.133[5]; 5. 7-Cole Wells, 00:13.173[4]; 6. 3-Brennon Willard, 00:13.449[3]; 7. 45-Kylan Garner, 00:13.458[8]; 8. 13-Joey Smith, 00:13.461[6]
Qualifying 4 (2 Laps): 1. F1-Payton Freeman, 00:12.650[7]; 2. 36-Logan Martin, 00:12.933[5]; 3. 86-Kyle Beard, 00:13.026[2]; 4. 50-Kaeden Cornell, 00:13.247[1]; 5. 75-Terry Phillips, 00:13.254[6]; 6. 49-Justin Wells, 00:13.570[4]; 7. 30-Mark Voigt, 00:13.785[3]; 8. 31AUS-Kye Blight, 00:13.785[8]