For the second time in Shannon Babb’s career, he stands alone at the top of the DIRTcar Summer Nationals all-time wins list.
The Moweaqua, IL driver took his seventh win at the track where he won his first career Hell Tour Feature in 1999, and overtook Billy Moyer for the No. 1 spot with his 102nd overall on Saturday night.
“It means a ton,” Babb said. “I got my first ever Hell Tour win right here in 1999, and the Helfrich family gets us one heck of a place to race at. The effort and the (perspective) they see of what a racetrack should be like is unreal. I’ll tell you one thing, I’m getting way too old for that, but it’s a torture test. It’s pretty cool my family’s here with me, and it just means a ton.”
Babb began the 40-lap Feature around Haubstadt, IN’s Tri-State Speedway as the polesitter with Parkersburg, WV’s Colton Burdett to his side for the start. Babb took the lead by hitting the top of the cushion while Burdett stayed even on the bottom lane, but could not overcome Babb’s speed on the straightaway.
Babb kept running the cushion of the track to hold Burdette from making a slide job attempt on him, while stray lapped cars had Babb adjust to the bottom lane to block Burdette’s momentum.
The “Moweaqua Missile” targeted the open lanes around him to squeeze by the lapped traffic while Burdett followed Babb’s shadow to stay in contention for his first career win with the Summer Nationals.
When Babb caught a larger group of lapped cars in his fold, he could not gain any ground as Burdette and Mark Whitener crept up to Babb’s bumper.
Moments before Burdett attempted to go for the winning pass, the caution was flown with four laps to go to keep Babb at the top of the leaderboard.
Babb executed a perfect restart aboard the No. 18 Longhorn Chassis while Whitener took over second place with a slide job through Turns 1-2. While he attempted the move on Babb with two laps remaining, Whitener was unable to get clearance for the spot as the four-time Summer Nationals champion broke the tie with Billy Moyer for No. 1 on the all-time wins list.
“I’ve watched enough races from a long time ago,” Babb said. “Don O’Neal showed me how to get around this place. The top coming down the hill, getting your wheel straight, and making long drag strips out it is hard to beat. I had that in the back of my mind the whole time.
“I’d seen Whitener there, and he probably could’ve slid me at some point if he really wanted to, but I could have crossed back over and got back going. I had the tires on fire, so I did get to slow down. I was just fortunate to be at the front.”
Leaving the night in Haubstadt, Feger leads the overall standings by 64 points over Tyler Erb, while trailing by four points to Whitener in the Week 4 standings entering the finale on Sunday.
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals finish Week 4 in the tour’s debut at Wheel, TN’s Duck River Raceway Park for the Independence Day Special on Sunday, July 6.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 18-Shannon Babb[1]; 2. 5-Mark Whitener[8]; 3. 53L-Colten Burdette[2]; 4. 1-Tyler Erb[6]; 5. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[4]; 6. 15-Clay Stuckey[20]; 7. 75-Dillon McCowan[15]; 8. 91-Rusty Schlenk[10]; 9. 31M-Tyler Millwood[11]; 10. 25F-Jason Feger[16]; 11. 20-Tyler Neal[14]; 12. 14JR-Trey Mills[19]; 13. 8-Rob Anderzack[9]; 14. 17SS-Brenden Smith[5]; 15. 71R-Rod Conley[21]; 16. (DNF) 27M-Rodney Melvin[3]; 17. (DNF) 14-Haiden Cowan[7]; 18. (DNF) 5S-Kyle Hammer[12]; 19. (DNF) S21-Seth Daniels[23]; 20. (DNF) 29-Christian Hanger[22]; 21. (DNF) 81-Jason Riggs[17]; 22. (DNF) 81F-Jadon Frame[13]; 23. (DNF) 388-Jackson Hise[18]
