Trey Mills has arrived.
In his first run for the DIRTcar Summer Nationals title, the 17-year-old driver had to defend his position against several of the best drivers in dirt Late Model racing to score his first win in the Herald & Review 100.
“It’s just super awesome,” Mills said. “I’ve had a great car this whole time, I was just making too many mistakes. Tonight, I just got a whole night together, qualified on pole, won the Heat race, started up front, and maintained the first half of the race, and then finally gave it all I had at the end.”
Mills began the 100-lap Feature on the bottom of the second row as polesitter Tyler Erb took early control of the race.
While the Jacksonville, FL driver bided his time by running in fifth place through the early stages, “Terbo” controlled the pace as he dealt with the challenge of Ryan Unzicker and Kyle Bronson on his back bumper.
Mills began to make ground as several cautions interrupted the first quarter of the Feature, with new attempts on each restart to try and pass the heavy hitters in front of him.
On Lap 30, Bronson made a costly mistake by entering the corner loose, and Mills capitalized by driving to the cushion into Turn 1, then slicing down the track exiting Turn 2 to gain a run on the No. 40B to take third place.
Mills discovered his new strategy with the move, and quickly passed Unzicker on Lap 36 for second place while he perfected his driving line.
“Terbo” and “The Future” then went to battle as the No. 14JR made hay through Turns 1-2, and performed slide jobs through Turns 3-4 while the No. 1 crossed down to the bottom to retain the lead. The two drivers continued the cycle until Mills got fully clear of Erb on Lap 46.
“Honestly, really what made me do that kind of cut down line in Turn 1 was (Kyle) Bronson,” Mills said. “I restarted behind him, and he got bobbled up entering in behind ‘Terbo’ and come down, and I actually got a pretty good run so I started doing that.
“Once I had seen ‘Terbo’ sliding out coming off of Turn 2, I figured that was my best way to make ground on him, ‘cause everyone was pretty even through (Turns) 3 and 4. But (Turns) 1 and 2 was really were I was figuring out keeping my car straight, work on my break and gas, and trying to make sure I kept the posture right.”
While Erb and Bronson fell out of contention for the win in the second half of the race, it opened the door for New Berlin, IL’s Brandon Sheppard to enter the battle for the win.
Sheppard, who started the race in last place, grinded his way up the field towards second place on Lap 73 in his first Herald & Review 100 appearance since his first event win in 2020.
As Mills moved towards the middle of the bottom line, Sheppard kept his No. B5 on the tail of Mills in the final 15 laps, then made his move for the lead on Lap 92 by moving Mills out of the bottom lane and got clear with the lead.
Mills responded to Sheppard’s move with six laps to go by performing the same move, then created a 0.7-second distance before the “Rocket Shepp” sent a Hail Mary dive on the final lap for the win.
Between a 0.118-second margin, Mills snagged his first career Hell Tour win on its biggest stage and became the 115th different winner on the tour.
“I’d seen (Sheppard) start pulling to my inside with about 10 to go,” Mills said. “When he finally got by me, I thought I threw it away. But, I got a run on him, turned under him, and leaned on him just a little bit. But when you’re racing for a win like that, it is what it is. He gets a lot more (wins) than I do, so I feel like it was the right move.”
Leaving the Hell Tour‘s crown jewel race, Erb has a slim two-point lead over Feger in the overall championship, while Sheppard leads the Week 3 standings by 16 points over Erb.
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals continue the Week 3 journey with a visit to Farmer City Raceway on Friday, June 27.
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 (100 Laps): 1. 14JR-Trey Mills[3]; 2. B5-Brandon Sheppard[23]; 3. 24-Ryan Unzicker[8]; 4. 31M-Tyler Millwood[12]; 5. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 6. 29-Christian Hanger[22]; 7. 25F-Jason Feger[13]; 8. 17SS-Brenden Smith[7]; 9. 1-Tyler Erb[1]; 10. 75-Dillon McCowan[19]; 11. 01A-Drew Armstrong[17]; 12. 14-Haiden Cowan[10]; 13. 44-Blaze Burwell[20]; 14. 15-Clay Stuckey[15]; 15. 17A-Austin Howes[9]; 16. 5-Mark Whitener[5]; 17. 388-Jackson Hise[14]; 18. 25E-Dakota Ewing[21]; 19. 9Z-Jayme Zidar[6]; 20. 55-Eli Johnson[11]; 21. 38J-Jake Little[2]; 22. 16-Rusty Griffaw[16]; 23. 55B-Rockett Bennett[18]
