Twenty-one DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals races, and the championship will come down to the final lap at Fairbury Speedway.
Joining the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models during the Prairie Dirt Classic weekend, Friday-Saturday, July 26-27, the Summit Modifieds will conclude their 2024 season with four Showdown Features on Friday and a 40-lap, $5,000-to-win, Feature on Saturday.
While 60 of the best DIRTcar UMP Modified drivers will be in attendance, the spotlight will follow Mike McKinney and Trevor Neville all weekend. The two drivers, both chasing their first title, are separated by only six points entering the event with McKinney currently on top.
With the points this close, it’ll likely take until the final lap on Saturday to determine who will walk with the championship trophy and have their name written on the $5,000 championship check.
Can’t make it to the track? You can watch both nights of the Prairie Dirt Classic live on DIRTVision. For tickets, click here.
Here are the top storylines to follow:
FOR THE TITLE – Six points separate Trevor Neville from leader Mike McKinney, and their performances on both nights of the Prairie Dirt Classic will decide the 2024 series champion.
While neither driver has ever won the Summit Modified championship before, McKinney – 31, of Plainfield, IL – came close in 2018. Coming into the 2018 Prairie Dirt Classic, McKinney held a four-point advantage over five-time series champion Mike Harrison, but with a poor showing on Friday and a spin in the closing laps of the race on Saturday, McKinney lost the points battle to Harrison – who won his sixth title.
This year, McKinney is in a similar spot, holding a six-point lead over Neville with only the final two nights at the Prairie Dirt Classic remaining. McKinney leads all drivers in Feature wins this summer with seven compared to the four wins of Neville.
Neville, 23, of Mackinaw, IL, is in the midst of a breakout season, scoring his first career Summit Modified Feature win at Fairbury in June and adding three more wins on tour since then. To get his points lead back and have a shot at clinching the championship, Neville will need to finish either first or second in his Showdown Feature on Friday and on the podium in the Saturday finale to gain any points.
From there, he’ll need some help from potential misfortune for McKinney, who still has a worst finish of sixth place to dispense in the races that count toward his points total. Summit Modified competitors count their best 12 finishes of the summer toward the overall points standings, which creates unique points scenarios where drivers can gain large chunks of points at a time – in “replacing” their lower finishes with higher ones – while their opponents must finish on the podium or win outright in order to gain even the smallest amount of points.
TOP “PRAIRIE” DOG: While not in the hunt for the championship, three-time and defending Prairie Dirt Classic Modified winner Mike Harrison, of Highland, IL, is back to steal the limelight.
He’s only ran one race with the DIRTcar Summit Modified Nationals tour this year – finishing fourth at Highland Speedway – but the six-time Summit Modified champion has already won big at Fairbury this year. In May, he scored the $20,000 Illinois Dirt Shootout with the Midwest Auto Racing Series (MARS) – the richest DIRTcar UMP Modified race at Fairbury.
He’ll also get double the seat time this weekend, piloting his Modified and a Late Model with the World of Outlaws.
EYEING ONE SPOT BETTER: Michael Long, of Fowler, IL, has won nearly everything he can get his hands on this year – three Summit Modified Nationals wins and 14 DIRTcar Feature victories, including five at Fairbury Speedway. Could his first Prairie Dirt Classic triumph be next?
He finished second to Harrison at PDC last year in his second appearance at the crown jewel event. In his first appearance in 2022, Long won a Showdown Feature and then finished 19th in Saturday’s finale.
Of his three Summit Modified victories this year, all three have come at Illinois tracks – Tri-City Speedway, Adams County Speedway and Farmer City Raceway.
TRACK CHAMP: While Michael Ledford, of Pontiac, IL, has yet to claim a Prairie Dirt Classic crown, he enters the year’s biggest event as one of Fairbury’s best.
Ledford is the three-time and defending track champion at Fairbury Speedway and has already picked up a win at the track in May.
He won his first Showdown Feature last year and then went on to claim his best PDC finish of 10th in Saturday’s finale.
HOME ADVANTAGE: Fairbury’s own Austin Friedman joins the stout field of drivers again this year looking to make his first appearance in Saturday’s $5,000-to-win finale.
Friedman is the current track points leader at Fairbury Speedway – going for his first track title – and has two wins at the dirt track this year.
He has a career-best finish of sixth with the Summit Modifieds, which came at Fairbury in his debut race with the Series in 2022.
PREVIOUS PDC MODIFIED WINNERS:
2023 – Mike Harrison
2022 – Mike McKinney
2021 – Nick Hoffman
2019 – Nick Hoffman
2018 – Mike Harrison
2017 – Mike Harrison
2016 – Levi Kissinger
2015 – Tyler Nicely
FULL ENTRY LIST:
