Tyler Nicely is back to full form.
The Owensboro, KY driver returned to DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals Victory Lane for the first time in over a year in a limited schedule aboard a UMP Modified.
Nicely began the 25-lap dash from the pole and took immediate command over Daniel Adam entering the first set of corners while tour points leader Trevor Neville swung by Adam for second place on the bottom lane of Turns 1-2.
The pilot of the No. 5 Elite Chassis established his place at the front while withholding a one-second advantage over the Mackinaw, IL driver of Neville while racing around the 1/4-mile bullring by using the bottom lane. At the same time, Neville attempted to run the middle and top side to try and close the gap on Nicely.
When Nicely had to maneuver around lapped traffic in the late stages of the Feature, he was able to place cars between himself and Neville, while the No. 777 Lethal Chassis had to face the challenge of Mike Harrison riding the cushion for second place.
With Neville and Harrison racing against each other for the podium position, it made them the first drivers to witness Nicely earning his 12th career Summit Modifieds win to tie Michael Long for fifth on the all-time tour wins list.
“It feels real good,” Nicely said. “We’ve only raced a handful of times with this thing, and it’s been really good. To knock the first Summer Nationals win off with a couple of good buddies with me that’s helping. Charlie Mefford, he took off not racing to come out here and do this deal with me, and it feels really good.”
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals head southeast to Tennessee’s Clarksville Speedway for the Week 3 finale on Sunday, June 29.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every DIRTcar Summer Nationals race live on DIRTVision.
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 25-Tyler Nicely[1]; 2. 777-Trevor Neville[3]; 3. 24H-Mike Harrison[7]; 4. 95S-Rick Salter[12]; 5. 52JR-Cole Knebel[5]; 6. 45H-Chase Holland[4]; 7. 77-Ray Bollinger[6]; 8. 787-Cody Zobrist[15]; 9. 87Z-Zeb Moake[10]; 10. 21T-Talen Beard[8]; 11. 5S-Owen Steinkoenig[9]; 12. 81-Kevin Cole[13]; 13. 75-Daniel Adam[2]; 14. 19-Jimmy Cummins[19]; 15. 88L-Christian Lee[21]; 16. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[18]; 17. 35S-Zach Fair[16]; 18. 29H-Cale Hartnagel[24]; 19. 63V-Cody Ventimiglia[20]; 20. 16E-Todd Eyman[22]; 21. 6-Jeremy Pate[25]; 22. 69-Noah Sugg[11]; 23. 27E-Tory Ernst[17]; 24. 28-Tom Smallwood[14]; 25. (DNS) E55-Chad Sellers
