St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff

White flag. Nick Hoffman with a near two-second lead. And suddenly, the car shut off. The four-time and defending champion appeared to be on his way to a dominating eighth DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals victory of the season Saturday night when his NOS Energy Drink #2 lost power going down the backstretch coming to the checkers and brought out caution. Under yellow, now coasted past the start/finish line, his lifeless car was pushed back to the pit area, surrendering the lead to second-place Lucas Lee before a green-white-checkered restart to settle the race. Hoffman sitting on the frontstretch, waiting for a push back to the pits (Jacy Norgaard Photo) Lee took off at the drop of the green and brought it home for his fifth career Summit Modified victory in the St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff finale at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55. “When he slowed down, I thought he thought the checkered flag came out, and I thought, ‘Dude, we’ve got another lap,’” Lee said. “I hate to win like that, but I was the next-fastest car.” Back in the pits, a broken camshaft was the diagnosis from the Hoffman crew. “I’ve had one break before, but I wasn’t racing; I was under caution, and it just shuts off,” Hoffman said. “First thing that went to my mind, it just shut off. It didn’t shake, it...