World of Outlaws Prairie Dirt Classic

Sixteen drivers have punched their tickets into one of the biggest DIRTcar UMP Modified races of the season and are ready to battle for a $5,000 grand prize.

Friday night of the 36th annual Prairie Dirt Classic for the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals brought Tyler Nicely, Mike McKinney, Ricky Thornton Jr. and Trevor Neville to Fairbury Speedway Victory Lane in the four Showdown Features. The top four finishers in each of the 15-lap events transferred to Saturday’s main event, and the top two in each will redraw during opening ceremonies for their starting spots in the main event.

Here’s how each Showdown Feature played out:

Summit Racing Equipment Showdown #1 — Tyler Nicely

The inaugural Modified Prairie Dirt Classic winner is back in FALS Victory Lane. Tyler Nicely cruised to his third career PDC Showdown victory, leading all 15 laps uncontested to secure the win and punch his ticket into the redraw on Saturday.

“The atmosphere — this place is awesome,” Nicely said. “I came up here for that Street Stock race, and I’m not gonna miss the PDC as long as I’m still racing a Modified. I’ve got to thank Allgaier Performance, the Allgaier family, Kelly Kovski, Johnny, and everybody at their place for the opportunity. We’ve had some struggles, but this thing is pretty good right now.”

Two-time Summit Modified winner in 2026 Damian Kiefer finished second, fourth-starting Cody Laney finished third and third-starting Allen Weisser got the final transfer spot in fourth. 2026 Summit Modified champion Zeke McKenzie rounded out the top five.

Showdown #1 — 1. 7N-Tyler Nicely[1]; 2. 0K-Damian Kiefer[2]; 3. 4-Cody Laney[4]; 4. 25W-Allen Weisser[3]; 5. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[5]; 6. 150-Collin Alexander[6]; 7. 77-Ray Bollinger[12]; 8. 8K-Levi Kissinger[7]; 9. 757-Bradley Jameson[15]; 10. 2-Brayden Doyle[9]; 11. 10Y-Trent Young[8]; 12. O5-Dave Wietholder[14]; 13. 88S-Alan Stipp[11]; 14. 3F-Carson Friedman[10]; 15. 121-Deece Schwartz[13]

 

All-Star Performance Showdown #2 — Mike McKinney

For the third time in his career, Mike McKinney is a Prairie Dirt Classic Showdown winner after leading flag-to-flag in the second Showdown race of the night. With an outside front row starting spot, the 2024 Summit Modified champion powered around the outside of Chris Spalding in Turns 1-2 on the opening lap and never looked back enroute to the checkered flag.

“We’ve been really good at this place,” McKinney said. “We can go really slow out here in the slick, and we weren’t too bad. I was able to get a really good start there, roll that middle and get down to the bottom. I know my buddy Cole was on me there in the end, but I was scared to search around — I just wanted to protect that bottom because I knew that’s where it was gonna be.”

Defending DIRTcar UMP Modified national champion Cole Falloway finished second, Spalding finished third, while Mississippi native Hunter Breland secured the final transfer spot in fourth.

Showdown #2 — 1. 96M-Mike McKinney[2]; 2. 66-Cole Falloway[3]; 3. 29-Chris Spalding[1]; 4. 21B-Hunter Breland[4]; 5. 27-Beau DeYoung[6]; 6. 24H-Mike Harrison[9]; 7. 5X-Jerry Bowersock[5]; 8. J82-Treb Jacoby[12]; 9. 99G-Hunt Gossum[7]; 10. 94-Mike Spatola[8]; 11. 7-Brad Deyoung[10]; 12. 51-Timmy Hill[14]; 13. 21D-John Dimmitt[13]; 14. 99M-Charlie Mohr[11]

 

HotRod Septic Treatment Showdown #3 — Ricky Thornton Jr.

He’s felt the high of winning the Prairie Dirt Classic in a Late Model, and now, Ricky Thornton Jr. has put himself in position to win it in a Modified as well with a victory in Showdown Feature #3.

The national Dirt Late Model champion from Chandler, AZ, had to work for the win, however, as three-time Fairbury track champion Michael Ledford pressured him throughout the first half of the 15-lap event. While Thornton stuck to the bottom lane around the 1/4-mile oval, Ledford raced one groove higher and pulled to the No. 20RT’s right quarter panel multiple times but was unable to make the pass.

“I couldn’t hear [Ledford] on the outside of me, and a couple times on the back straightaway I got tight, so I figured he was there,” Thornton said. “Our car was good, I think I gave it 150 percent in the Late Model, so there I just gave about 50 percent. Outside of that, I think our stuff’s a little better than what we were showing there. Probably had the wrong right-rear (tire) on — I think I should’ve went hard instead of soft. Heck, it’s only my first time running one of these outside of Volusia, so hopefully we can be just as good as Mike and those guys tomorrow and we can be up front.”

In the end, “RTJ” found the speed around the bottom to drive away from Ledford and under the checkered flag, punching his ticket into Saturday’s main event with Ledford, third-place Blake Brown and fourth-place Jeremy Nichols.

Showdown #3 — 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr.[1]; 2. 9-Michael Ledford[3]; 3. 99-Blake Brown[5]; 4. 01-Jeremy Nichols[2]; 5. 5-Steven Brooks[6]; 6. 12-Jeff Curl[7]; 7. 14C-Rick Conoyer[9]; 8. 8A-Austin Holcombe[4]; 9. 28M-Frank Marshall[10]; 10. B5-Matthew Baker[11]; 11. 111-Tyler Spalding[8]; 12. T23-John Toppozini[13]; 13. 36-Eric Vaughan[14]; 14. 27B-Kyle Barker[12]

 

Collision Concepts Showdown Feature #4 — Trevor Neville

Trevor Neville had won with the Summit Modifieds before, but never during the Prairie Dirt Classic. Friday night, he checked the box off his list in convincing fashion, taking the lead on a Lap 4 restart and driving away for his first Modified PDC Showdown win.

Polesitter Landen Miller jumped to the early lead, hugging the bottom lane around the track while Neville made speed on the top. An early caution flag restacked the field for a restart on Lap 4, and Neville took advantage right away, racing Miller into Turn 3 on the high side and making great speed off Turn 4 to zoom into the lead.

Miller didn’t go away, however, picking up his pace around the bottom and putting more pressure on Neville’s No. 777 over the next few laps — pulling even with him on multiple instances. In the end, Neville was not going to be denied, keeping Miller behind him at the checkered flag to secure the win.

“We came out here for Qualifying and I felt like I was two tenths off the pace. I knew we were a lot better than that,” Neville said. “It was a couple of changes I made, but then we went back and got to work. Everybody sticking me down there on the bottom, I didn’t know if it was (Michael) Long or Landen (Miller) — I didn’t mean to run down on them, but I did, so my apologies to everybody on that.”

Miller crossed in second, Kentucky native Charlie Mefford was third, followed by 2024 Modified PDC winner Michael Long getting the final transfer spot in fourth.

Showdown #4 — 1. 777-Trevor Neville[2]; 2. 110-Landen Miller[1]; 3. 13-Charlie Mefford[3]; 4. 18L-Michael Long[5]; 5. 89-Austin Friedman[6]; 6. 36W-Kenny Wallace[7]; 7. 35-Michael Altobelli[11]; 8. 5CS-Curt Spalding[8]; 9. 21S-Danny Schwartz[13]; 10. 97-Charles Hess[12]; 11. 26D-Derick Doerr[4]; 12. 14L-Dalton Lane[14]; 13. 21-Lyndon Whitfill[10]; 14. C40-Mike Chasteen Jr[9]

 

UP NEXT

The Summit Modifieds wrap up the 2026 campaign at Fairbury in the Prairie Dirt Classic finale on Saturday, July 25, with a 40-lap, $5,000-to-win Feature.

Any remaining tickets will be sold at the track. If you can’t be there in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.