Drivers never forget their first time in Victory Lane. UMP Modified rookie Brandon Bollinger made his first trip a memorable one Saturday night, putting on a stellar show in the final laps with Will Krup to score his first career DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals victory.
“It feels good to be able to run with Will Krup and Mike Harrison and my buddy Hunt Gossum all up there,” Bollinger said. “I’m still speechless from it.”
As were most of the fans in the grandstands at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55, who watched Bollinger make a stellar move for the lead on a restart in the closing laps.
After Mike Harrison brought out the caution with just four laps remaining for a flat RF tire while running second, the field was restacked, and Bollinger assumed second from the pitside-Harrison. He mashed the gas on the bumper of Krup as the green dropped and went right for the high side.
“I came down the front stretch and my [crew guy] Dakota just told me to hammer the high side,” Bollinger said. “He just said go up there and hit it. I had to do it right then and be able to hit my marks up there and I knew I’d be able to do it.”
With some nice momentum out of Turn 2, Bollinger threw his #242 hard down low in Turn 3 and slid right up in front of Krup to grab the lead. But Krup didn’t just lie down, he came back at Bollinger on the low side with some solid speed around the third-mile oval.
“I didn’t know if I was going to be able to clear him or not, but then I saw him get on the brakes just a little too hard, and [Krup] looked like he was about to push,” Bollinger said. “I knew if I could just send it in there good, I knew I could get it right then.”
But in the end, it just wasn’t enough to catch the #242. Bollinger crossed the stripe and completed the upset against the Modified veterans of Krup, Harrison, Kyle Steffens and more.
A graduate of the DIRTcar Pro Modified ranks, 2021 is only Bollinger’s first year in a full-size DIRTcar UMP Modified. Saturday night was his ninth start of the season with the tour, notching only one other top-5 finish before Saturday night.
UP NEXT
The Summit Modifieds now get three days off before kicking off Championship Week on Wednesday, Aug. 18, at Butler Motor Speedway. Catch all the action live on DIRTVision.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)
Feature (25 Laps) 1. 242-Brandon Bollinger[5]; 2. K19-Will Krup[1]; 3. 327-Chuck Goodman[8]; 4. 8-Kyle Steffens[2]; 5. 14C-Rick Conoyer[13]; 6. 13-Charlie Mefford[6]; 7. J82-Treb Jacoby[14]; 8. 82Q-Cole Queathem[15]; 9. 9H-John Demoss[12]; 10. 99- Hunt Gossum[4]; 11. 87Z-Zeb Moake[11]; 12. 59R-Jacob Rexing[19]; 13. 4G-Paul Schrempf Jr[22]; 14. 4T-Jake Trebilcock[17]; 15. 21-Randy Dickman[20]; 16. 44R-Anthony Reams[21]; 17. 1D-Dean Hoffman[9]; 18. 24H-Mike Harrison[7]; 19. 11X-Don Grimm[18]; 20. 4UW-Bobby Regot[16]; 21. 25-Tyler Nicely[3]; 22. 77-Rick Steveson[10]
