Erb Passes Herrington Late to Win Ninth Summer Nationals Race of 2024 at Butler

QUINCY, MI (July 11, 2024) – Another DIRTcar Summer Nationals race, another win for Tyler Erb.

Erb, 27, of New Waverly, TX, claimed his ninth win of the 2024 Hell Tour Thursday night at Butler Motor Speedway, but not without putting his aggressive driving style on display throughout the 30-lap main event.

After he and new Big Frog Motorsports driver Wil Herrington came together racing hard for the lead late in the race, Herrington and Michigan racer Chad Finley made contact of their own and brought out a caution in the final laps while Erb sped off on the restart to another $5,000 payday.

“I had to fix my nose so it’s only fair,” Erb said of the contact between he and Herrington in the battle for the lead. “It was kind of a bonehead move so I made a bonehead move back and ensured we’d both have to work on a little bit of something. Nothing [vengeful] or nothing.

“Fair is fair. I passed him, he slid the lapped car, the lapped car hit me. Like, it was going to wreck me by him hitting the lapped car, so there was no lapped car for me to hit, so I just hit him.”

The overall Summer Nationals points leader started on the pole but lost the early lead to Finley and Herrington as they both moved past him on Lap 3. Finley crossed only .088 seconds ahead of Erb to take lead at the line before Herrington drove the bottom lane through Turns 1-2 to take second from Erb and then set his sights on Finley.

The next time around, Herrington got a great drive off Turn 2 on the bottom and moved past Finley into the lead heading into Turn 3.

Once Herrington got the lead, he started to set the pace around the 3/8-mile oval and was over a second ahead of second-place Finley with 10 laps left. However, Herrington soon caught lapped traffic and got stuck behind Carter Schlenk, allowing Erb to reel him in.

As Erb continued to rip the high side, he took the runner-up spot on Lap 21 and on Lap 25 pulled even with Herrington down the backstretch. With Herrington still struggling to make it by Schlenk, Erb edged in front before Herrington finally got by Schlenk and dove to the bottom of Turn 3.

“I tried not to blow the tires off this thing,” Erb said. “Once we caught lapped traffic, I started picking the pace up and [Herrington and Finley] were hung up behind lapped traffic for sure.

“I kind of maneuvered my way through there and raced [Finley] hard and was able to get by him. And on the back straightaway there I passed Wil and two lapped cars and really thought that was going to be the move to win the race.”

Once Herrington got by Schlenk, the slower car of Brad Harden was riding the middle groove while Herrington was coming through and the two made contact, causing Harden to wash up the track right into the nose of Erb. As Harden spun off Erb’s nose and off the top side of Turn 4, Erb kept his wheels rolling, lining him up behind Herrington for the restart.

On the restart, Herrington led the first circuit with Erb close behind, still riding the high banking. The next time around, Erb dove underneath Herrington going into Turn 3 and as he slid in front of Herrington in Turn 4, he made contact, slowing Herrington and allowing Erb to take the lead.

On Lap 27, Herrington and Finley came together in Turn 3 in the battle for second, causing both to spin out and retire early. The caution forced Erb to restart with Rusty Schlenk and Dillon McCowan behind him, but Erb had no problem on the restart as he crossed under the checkered flag over a second ahead of Rusty Schlenk.

“It all worked out,” Erb said. “On the restart, I knew that I was either going to drive off the top of [Turns] 1 and 2 or get something and make something happen. Once I started driving harder into 1 and 2, I honestly got faster and was just able to make a move and take the lead and kind of do whatever I wanted from there.”

Erb entered the race with a 19-point advantage over McCowan in the overall Summer Nationals championship standings and stretched out his lead with the win to 29 points as McCowan finished third.

UP NEXT

Week 5 of the 39th annual DIRTcar Summer Nationals continues Friday, July 12, at Crystal Motor Speedway in Crystal, MI. Tickets will be on sale at the gate and if you can’t be there, watch all the action live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view results here)

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 1-Tyler Erb[1]; 2. 91-Rusty Schlenk[8]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[3]; 4. 14JR-Trey Mills[9]; 5. 15-Clayton Stuckey[10]; 6. 27-Eric Spangler[5]; 7. 19M-Carter Murday[13]; 8. 12-Ashton Winger[4]; 9. 55-Michael Archer[12]; 10. 388-Jackson Hise[15]; 11. 06-Jake Rendel[11]; 12. 30-Mark Voigt[19]; 13. 38-Thomas Hunziker[22]; 14. LIL91-Carter Schlenk[21]; 15. 42-Chad Finley[2]; 16. 58-Wil Herrington[6]; 17. 07-Rylee Knoll[17]; 18. 51-Devin Shiels[18]; 19. 52-Brad Harden[20]; 20. 41-Mike Vandermark Jr[16]; 21. 71-Rusty Smith[7]; 22. 4-Travis Stemler[14]

McKinney Outduels Neville for Fifth Summit Modified Victory of 2024 at Butler 

Thursday night at Butler Motor Speedway wrote the next chapter of a summer-long battle between Trevor Neville and Mike McKinney.

Coming into the contest, the two Illinois racers held first and second place in the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals points standings – a fitting scene for the two, who put on a hard battle in the closing laps that ended with McKinney getting by Neville to secure his fifth Hell Tour victory of the season.

“We race each other every week whether it’s Summer Nationals or not,” McKinney said of his competition with Neville. “[Neville] has been really good this year, and it’s twice now leading has kind of bit him. I’ve been able to run him down from second and just do the opposite of what he does, but you’ve got to be good enough to be able to do that.”

From third on the starting grid, McKinney found himself three seconds behind Neville five laps into the main event. But a few cautions and lapped traffic allowed McKinney to reel in Neville, and by Lap 19, he was right on Neville’s tail.

Going into Turn 3, McKinney rode the middle of the track while Neville stayed on the high side. Coming out of Turn 4, McKinney crept in front of Neville and beat him to the start/finish line by .035 seconds to take the lead.

However, McKinney was forced to restart one time after taking the lead. On the restart, Neville attempted a slider on McKinney out of Turn 2 but McKinney held strong up high to maintain the lead, finishing over a second ahead of Neville when the checkered flag flew.

“That top of [Turns] 1 and 2 was really thin and I just started running that a lot harder and was able to get a little bit of a better exit out of 2,” McKinney said. “Was running a little bit lower than [Neville] was in [Turns] 3 and 4 and just saw the gap get closer and closer and was running him down before we hit that lapped traffic, and obviously the lapped traffic helped.”

UP NEXT

Week 5 of DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals competition continues Friday, July 12, at Crystal Motor Speedway in Crystal, MI. Tickets will be on sale at the gate on race day. If you can’t be there to watch in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view results here)

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 96M-Mike McKinney[3]; 2. 777-Trevor Neville[2]; 3. 24-Zeke McKenzie[1]; 4. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[5]; 5. 7-Brad Deyoung[9]; 6. 5CS-Curt Spalding[7]; 7. 74M-Manix Furqueron[6]; 8. 117-Kevin Reeve[4]; 9. 14-Dalton Lane[10]; 10. 25-Josh Lolmaugh[12]; 11. 54-Zachary Hawk[11]; 12. 65-Todd Sherman[15]; 13. 82-Brennan Sherman[8]; 14. 14T-Mario Toniolo[16]; 15. 8C-Corey Bevard[13]; 16. 9-Garrett Rons[18]; 17. 5D-David VanGuilder[17]; 18. 26-Anthony Carter[19]; 19. 7S-Rick Swartout[20]; 20. 64M-Tim McCafferty[21]; 21. 96S-Terry Sroufe[22]; 22. 4M-Dustin Moore[14]