Milestone moments rarely come easy. Jason Feger had to work for a big one Thursday night at Lincoln Speedway, topping a thrilling, three-car battle for the lead and going on to his 40th career DIRTcar Summer Nationals Feature win.
Feger, the two-time Hell Tour champion from Bloomington, IL, made the most of a restart just past the halfway point to get by Sam Seawright and race-long Tanner English in a race that had the crowd on their feet before driving off with his fifth Feature win of the summer.
“When it’s right, Lincoln puts on a heck of a show,” Feger said. “I feel like a lot of times it can get a little top dominant, but usually when you can keep the bottom around and run the top like that, it’s a lot of fun. The top is just skinny and technical, so it’s not like anyone can get up there and do really good.”
A Lap 18 debris caution was the catalyst for a thrilling battle for the lead that started with current points leader English leading the opening 18 laps.
What happened next was nothing short of spectacular as the field restarted with just 12-to-go. Seawright dove under English entering Turn 3 and threw a big slide job on the No. 96 before making contact with the outside wall in Turn 4 and allowing English to slip back by to his inside.
As English and Seawright continued their battle, Feger soon reeled-in both drivers to make it a three-car duel for the top spot.
Feger rolled the bottom and attempted to pick off both as the exited Turn 2 with just 10 laps to go. The lead trio went three wide down the backstretch, splitting Seawright and leaving the top two in points side-by-side as they entered Turn 3.
Feger then executed a slide job of his own on English, bouncing off the Turn 4 wall and speeding down the front stretch to take the lead on Lap 21. From there, it was all Feger and his No. 25 out front as he went on to lead the final 10 laps and pick up the win in front of his home-state crowd.
“I didn’t think my car was that good; I was just trying to be really patient, and I knew there was a few different tire combinations there, and I wasn’t sure what was going to play out,” Feger said. “I was really struggling to get off the bottom like I wanted to, I didn’t think we had anything for [English]. I raced Sam (Seawright) hard because I wanted that row on the restart. I got to the bottom on the restart and everything I needed to happen, happened.”
English finished second, Jake Little rallied for third, Luke Morey was fourth, and Trey Mills rounded out the top five.
UP NEXT
The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models head to Red Hill Raceway in Sumner, IL, on Friday, July 3. Tickets for the event will be sold at the track on race day.
How else can you watch the DIRTcar Summer Nationals? Every race is live on DIRTVision.
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 25-Jason Feger[5]; 2. 96-Tanner English[1]; 3. 38J-Jake Little[9]; 4. 49-Luke Morey[8]; 5. 14JR-Trey Mills[4]; 6. 16S-Sam Seawright[2]; 7. 91-Rusty Schlenk[3]; 8. 45-Kyle Hammer[10]; 9. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[15]; 10. 99-Kyle Hardy[12]; 11. 21B-Rich Bell[16]; 12. 74-Mitch McGrath[11]; 13. 17SR-Brody Smith[21]; 14. 37L-Michael Ledford[13]; 15. 31M-Tyler Millwood[14]; 16. 15-Clay Stuckey[18]; 17. 09-Michael Leach[19]; 18. 89-Mike Spatola[6]; 19. 30-Mark Voigt[20]; 20. 74X-Ethan Dotson[7]; 21. 51B-Brandon Carpenter[17]; 22. 75-Daniel Adam[22]
