Tanner English, Nick Hoffman Win Summer Nationals at Highland Speedway

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Contact: Jordan DeLucia, DIRTcar Racing PR Coordinator

Credit: DIRTcar Racing  DIRTcarSummerNationals.com or ModifiedNationals.com

DO IT AGAIN: English Bags Second Summer Nationals Win of Season at Highland

Local favorite Jordan Bauer leads 33 laps from outside pole

HIGHLAND, IL – July 9, 2022 ��� For the second time in three weeks, Tanner English is a DIRTcar Summer Nationals Feature winner.

It’s a great achievement for the Riggs Motorsports driver originally from Benton, KY – nearly one year past his most recent season as a full-timer on the Hell Tour, in which he won once in 29 starts. This year, he’s won twice in only 11 starts on tour, while also chasing Rookie of the Year honors aboard the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series.

A trip slightly over 90 minutes from his residence in Benton, IL, English chose to head to Highland Speedway Saturday night, and it paid off, winning $10,000 against a stout field of St. Louis-area and Summer Nationals regulars.

Outside polesitter Jordan Bauer turned heads early as the local favorite from nearby St. Jacob, leading the first 33 laps of the race before English made the move on him after a restart.

“Jordan was doing a heck of a job up top, really setting the pace, he was fast,” English said. “I had to make sure I hit the bottom on that restart and just try to get a run off them tires. I knew there was traction there, I just didn’t know how good my car was because I hadn’t gotten down there yet.”

Starting fourth on the grid, it looked as though English was going to have to run down Bauer and polesitter Bobby Pierce in traffic for a chance to pass them with the longest green flag stretch from Lap 3 to Lap 20. It was in that period when he knew he had a serious chance for the lead.

“When they got to lapped traffic and I caught back up to them and I knew I wasn’t going very hard, I knew,” English said. “It looked like they were using their stuff up pretty hard. I just knew if I held by own and bided my time, I could pick them off if they kept up top there.”

Once he made the pass for the lead, multiple caution flags in the final 15 laps forced English to play smart defense out front with drivers like Pierce, Shannon Babb and Jason Feger right behind him – all of whom are previous Highland Summer Nationals victors.

“I didn’t know if I needed to go to the bottom there on that first lap [after the restart] or not,” English said. “I knew Bobby [Pierce] was starting on the outside and he was going to have a run going.

“But then again, I passed him on the bottom, so I knew the bottom was fast.”

Though Babb slipped past Pierce for second in the final laps and gave it his all to cut into the two-second gap ahead of him, he could not close enough on English, who zoomed across the line for his fourth career Summer Nationals victory.

Babb crossed in second with Feger in third, while Pierce slipped back to fourth. Rusty Schlenk recovered from a blown engine while racing Friday night in Ohio, making the six-plus-hour trip out to Highland to come and round-out the top-five.

UP NEXT

The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models are back in action to cap-off Illinois-Indiana Week Sunday night, July 10, at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, IN. If you can’t be at the track, watch every lap live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)

Feature 50 Laps | 00:23:33.646

1. 81E-Tanner English[4]; 2. 18-Shannon Babb[3]; 3. 25-Jason Feger[13]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 5. 91-Rusty Schlenk[8]; 6. 52-Matt Bailey[5]; 7. 3S-Brian Shirley[9]; 8. 19X-Cody Bauer[6]; 9. 16-Rusty Griffaw[10]; 10. F1-Payton Freeman[18]; 11. 30-Mark Voigt[22]; 12. 14G-Joe Godsey[19]; 13. 17-Todd Rehg[17]; 14. 10J-Jordan Bauer[2]; 15. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[12]; 16. 6K-Michael Kloos[7]; 17. 26M-Brent McKinnon[20]; 18. 4-Jason Suhre[14]; 19. 44-Blaze Burwell[16]; 20. 5-Brian Wolfmeier[21]; 21. 87-Jason Zobrist[11]; 22. 4D-Doug Tye[15]

NO SPRING, NO PROBLEM: Hoffman Wins Highland with Broken Suspension

Break one of his shocks, throw away a spring, even put a national champion right on his tail for the entire race. But it seems not even that kind of pressure combined can crack Nick Hoffman.

The four-time and defending DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals champion was thrown into one of his biggest predicaments of the season Saturday night at Highland Speedway when his left-rear shock broke while leading, sending the spring flying onto the track, leaving him to race the final 14 laps of the Feature without the essential suspension components.

Much to the surprise of his doubters and jubilation of his supporters packing the Highland grandstands, Hoffman pulled through, holding off six-time Summit Modified champ Mike Harrison at his home track to score his 11th tour victory of the season.

In Victory Lane, Hoffman emerged from his NOS Energy Drink / Elite Chassis #2 to a shower of mixed cheers and boos – an indication of the energetic crowd gathered at the weekly venue for one of their biggest races of the season.

“When I got out of the car, I think that’s definitely the loudest crowd I’ve ever had in any type of racing, for sure,” Hoffman said. “It’s pretty badass.

“Didn’t really expect that many cheers, but we’ll take it.”

Taking the green from the outside pole, Hoffman jumped out to a sizable advantage over Harrison in the opening laps but quickly felt something had gone amiss going down the straightaways.

“It was like you were running down the straightaways sitting on a ladder, and somebody would just kick the ladder out from under you when you got to the corner,” Hoffman said. “It would slam down so hard and make it so hard to drive on entry.

“I could feel the shock actually dragging on the ground. You could hear it clicking back-and-forth back there, and I knew that was whatever was left of the shock shaft still hitting the ground.”

An extended caution period brought the field to a temporary halt on Lap 12 while the track crew cleaned-up an incident in Turn 2. Shortly thereafter, the entire left-rear corner of Hoffman’s car hiked-up and refused to settle for the duration of the race.

“Finally, I got lucky enough that it actually canned the birdcage over and hung the rods where it couldn’t sit back down,” Hoffman said. “Once it did that, it didn’t have near as much grip that way, like it was just so bound-up, but at least it didn’t slam back down.”

With of his mechanical issues, 14 laps still remained on the scoreboard. But those problems didn’t seem to matter. Hoffman never once seemed to falter, driving away from Harrison and the rest of the field slightly en route to his 68th career Summit Modified victory.

UP NEXT

The Summit Modifieds are back in action to cap-off Illinois-Indiana Week Sunday night, July 10, at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, IN. If you can’t be at the track, watch every lap live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)

Feature 25 Laps | 00:25:27.615

1. 2-Nick Hoffman[2]; 2. 24H-Mike Harrison[4]; 3. 14C-Rick Conoyer[3]; 4. 21M-Willy Myers[1]; 5. 15-Chris Smith[13]; 6. 63- Bret Eilerman[10]; 7. 87Z-Zeb Moake[7]; 8. 8T-TJ Eilers[8]; 9. 51M-Joe Mercurio[17]; 10. 6-Mark Clary[22]; 11. 63V-Cody Ventimiglia[20]; 12. 18M-Matt Dickerman[16]; 13. 5T-Rob Timmons[12]; 14. 22-Tim Hancock Jr[21]; 15. 52-Billy Knebel[14]; 16. J82-Treb Jacoby[9]; 17. 70-Brian Bielong[5]; 18. 88-Chris Bolyard[11]; 19. 9-Chad Cornett[15]; 20. 21T-Talen Beard[23]; 21. E55-Chad Sellers[6]; 22. 19-Jimmy Cummins[19]; 23. 12T-Dave Thornton[18]