Jason Feger Passes Ryan Unzicker Late to Win at Farmer City
When Jason Feger and Ryan Unzicker square-off in a battle for supremacy on the tight bullrings of Illinois, the excitement level is sure to reach fever pitch.
Fans in attendance at Farmer City Raceway were treated to a generous helping of exactly that Friday night as the two DIRTcar Late Model national champions engaged in a relentless battle for the win around the 1/4-mile oval.
In the end, Feger emerged victorious after capitalizing on a wild incident in lapped traffic in the final laps to collect his 38th career DIRTcar Summer Nationals Feature win.
Early on, Feger was in control of the 40-lap main event, utilizing his pole starting position to lead the opening 23 laps of the race.
A restart on Lap 24 is where things changed in a hurry as Unzicker threw a slide job exiting turn four on Feger and led Lap 24 before a caution bunched the field up again. But this time, Unzicker led the field back to green.
“I was more frustrated the handling of the car went away,” Feger said. “We were really good early in the race, and then the rain just kind of had the track a little different tonight. We ran a [NLMT-4 tire] tonight, and I really thought the three was the right tire, and it ended up would’ve been the right tire. Once our edges were gone, we were no good.”
Unzicker continued to lead until heavy lap traffic became a factor on Lap 38 and allowed Feger’s No. 25 to close the gap quickly.
With just two laps-to-go, Unzicker made contact with the lapped car Mitch McGrath out of turn four and nearly spun around on the front stretch. Unzicker was able to get going straight again, but Feger had closed in on the rear deck of Unzicker’s No. 24 as they charged into turns one and two.
Feger ripped the top, found the momentum off turn two, and drove deep down low underneath Unzicker into turn three. They touched wheels before the apex of the corner, and as Unzicker slid up the track and into the side of McGrath’s No. 74, Feger was able to capitalize, slipping underneath both cars to retake the lead as he crossed under the white flag.
Feger came back around to take the checkered flag and career win No. 38 with Hell Tour, bringing him within one win of tying 2004 Summer Nationals champion Don O’Neal for fourth on the all-time wins list at 39.
“It’s just really a tough deal. So maybe if I’m leading, I do pick the bottom and I get by the lap cars no problem, but I very easily could’ve made the same choice as Ryan did, just chose the wrong lane,” Feger said. “Me seeing him pick that line made it a lot easier knowing where I had to go. The car’s been good all summer and you’ve got to have some luck or be good, and right now, we are good. You always lose more that way than you’re ever going to win.”
“Any time you lose, it’s a bummer, right?” Unzicker said in his DIRTVision post-race interview. “I don’t know, some of the lappers just need to chill the heck out and just stay in one lane, and unfortunately, they can’t figure that out yet. But the car was good and that’s all I can ask for being on the podium.”
Unzicker hung on to finish second, Clay Stuckey finished third, Tanner English charged from 15th to finish fourth, and Kyle Hammer rounded out the top five.
UP NEXT
The DIRTcar Summer Nationals returns to action at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park in Pevely, MO, on Saturday, June 20.
How can you watch the DIRTcar Summer Nationals? Every race is live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 25-Jason Feger[1]; 2. 24-Ryan Unzicker[3]; 3. 15-Clay Stuckey[5]; 4. 96-Tanner English[15]; 5. 45-Kyle Hammer[7]; 6. 38J-Jake Little[11]; 7. 18-Shannon Babb[12]; 8. 31M-Tyler Millwood[16]; 9. 75-Daniel Adam[8]; 10. 97-Cade Dillard[4]; 11. 42W-Mckay Wenger[6]; 12. 09-Michael Leach[2]; 13. 122-Timmy Dick[21]; 14. ZT1-Zach Taylor[17]; 15. 1W-Donny Walden[10]; 16. 17SR-Brody Smith[14]; 17. 33H-Roben Huffman[13]; 18. 74-Mitch McGrath[9]; 19. 4D-Doug Tye[22]; 20. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[23]; 21. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[18]; 22. 30-Mark Voigt[20]; 23. 87-Jake Rainey[19]
