One race into his return to the DIRTcar Summer Nationals, Ashton Winger has picked up right where he left off.
Winger, the reigning Hell Tour champion from Hampton, GA, commenced Week 3 competition with a win in his first appearance with the Summer Nationals in 2024, leading all 30 laps of the main event Tuesday night at Springfield Raceway for his 13th career tour victory.
After not competing in either of the first two weeks, Winger said he is glad to be back racing in the Midwest.
“It feels like home out here,” Winger said. “We seen [Tyler Erb] beating up on these guys and figured we’d come out here and give it a shot.”
While Winger dominated the Feature, he had to go through some adversity before that. After qualifying fourth quickest in his group, the 24-year-old drove from fourth on the starting grid to the win in his Heat and then redrew the outside pole for the Feature. So, what changed from Qualifying to his Heat Race?
“That was really all me, a hiccup on my part,” Winger said. “Just got to try to clean up those mistakes because, I mean, things aren’t always going to go your way.”
At the drop of the green in the Feature, Winger took the lead, beating Scott Crigler to the start/finish line while riding the high side of the 1/4-mile oval. Once he took the lead, Winger was forced to restart twice within the first 10 laps with Erb – a six-time winner this season – lined up right behind him.
Both times, Winger got the advantage on the start and did not allow Erb to close the gap and take the lead from him.
“I felt pretty good about it,” Winger said of his confidence on the restarts. “I kind of changed up what I did there. Tried not to do the same thing so them guys could get a run on me, but I couldn’t really tell how close they were.”
Winger had to face a restart one more time on Lap 22. But just like the previous two, he had no issues and led the field to the checkered flag unchallenged, finishing over two seconds ahead of runner-up Dillon McCowan.
After winning his first start on the 39th DIRTcar Summer Nationals, you couldn’t wipe the smile off Winger’s face.
“I’m happier than a tornado in trailer park,” Winger said. “Any time you can win man, it don’t matter if it’s a local two or $3,000-to-win, they’re all hard to win nowadays.”
UP NEXT
The DIRTcar Summer Nationals next head for Macon Speedway for the Herald & Review 100 on Thursday, June 27, racing alongside the Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals.
Tickets will be on sale at the gate and if you can’t be there catch all the action on DIRTVision
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view results here)
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 12-Ashton Winger[2]; 2. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 3. 1-Tyler Erb[3]; 4. 15-Clayton Stuckey[7]; 5. 58-Tyler Clem[8]; 6. 49-Justin Wells[13]; 7. 25-Jason Feger[15]; 8. 30-Mark Voigt[10]; 9. 71-Jim Body[21]; 10. 128-Kylan Garner[16]; 11. 38-Thomas Hunziker[18]; 12. 12C-Scott Crigler[1]; 13. 10-Garrett Smith[4]; 14. 36-Logan Martin[6]; 15. 1/4J-Jaxon Ertel[11]; 16. 75-Daniel Adam[9]; 17. 11-Sawyer Crigler[14]; 18. 4W-Tyler Wolff[17]; 19. 5-Austin Vincent[19]; 20. 7-Cole Wells[20]; 21. USA1-Chris Hawkins[22]; 22. 3-Brennon Willard[12]
