Scott Bloomquist, seen here from an earlier victory, scored the dirt Late Model victory in the DIRTcar Nationals Wednesday night. Photo courtesy DIRTcar Nationals Media
Scott Bloomquist rekindled his love affair with Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, FL Wednesday night.
The veteran 51-year-old racer from Mooresburg, TN mastered the half-mile oval’s tricky clay surface during Wednesday’s DIRTcar Nationals A-Main, leading all 40 laps of the caution-free race for a $10,000 DIRTcar Late Model victory.
“I love this racetrack,” said Bloomquist, who recorded his 10th career DIRTcar Nationals triumph as Volusia closed out its stretch of DIRTcar-sanctioned action ahead of three straight nights of World of Outlaws Late Model Series programs Thursday through Saturday. “It’s so demanding and has so much character. There’s nothing like it really anywhere. It’s definitely one of my top three racetracks I love coming to.”
Bloomquist, who has now claimed at least one DIRTcar Nationals victory in every season since 2011, was nearly untouchable in racing to his first win of the season. He took command from the outside pole and never looked back.
Third-starting Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, GA, briefly closed within striking distance as Bloomquist entered lapped traffic midway through the race, but Bloomquist quickly stretched his advantage once he cleared the slower cars.
“Sometimes a good car drives itself,” said Bloomquist, who steered his Durham-powered Sweet-Bloomquist Race Car to the convincing triumph. “But you got to work at this place. I love racetracks that are a challenge.”
McDowell settled for the runner-up finish, 1.923 seconds behind Bloomquist. Morgan Bagley of Longview, TX, was third with reigning WoO LMS champion Darrell Lanigan of Union, KY, fourth. Shane Clanton of Zebulon, GA, who won Monday’s DIRTcar Nationals opening round feature, was fifth.
Making his first appearance at this year’s DIRTcar Nationals, McDowell at times appeared to be able to keep pace with Bloomquist in traffic, but he was never able to mount a serious challenge. The veteran driver, who spent the first week of the DIRTcar Nationals assisting DIRTcar UMP Modified drivers Austin and Ty Dillon, fell just short of claiming his third career DIRTcar Nationals victory.
“It took me a little bit of time there to get going,” said McDowell, who hasn’t won a DIRTcar Nationals A-Main since winning in back-to-back seasons in 1998-99. “I’ve been working with modifieds this week and this was our first night out with this thing. We did good. We made some adjustments, but we’ve got some work to do for tomorrow night.
“We’ll work on this thing and see if we can’t get it closer to the front – one spot more tomorrow night.”
After dropping back to fourth form his pole starting spot, Bagley recovered to take third from Jared Landers of Batesville, AR, on lap 16 on his way to recording his first DIRTcar Nationals podium finish.
“It wasn’t a bad night,” said Bagley, whose previous best DIRTcar Nationals performance was a sixth-place finish in 2012. “We finally got qualified good and got to start up front. We just got to work on this thing and get her better so maybe we can get up there and get us a trophy.”
Landers slid back to sixth at the finish after pressuring McDowell for second early in the race. Three-time WoO LMS champion Josh Richards of Shinnston, WV, advanced from his 17th starting spot to finish seventh with Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, GA, eighth. Chub Frank of Bear Lake, PA, was ninth with fellow Keystone State driver Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mills, PA, rounding out the top 10.
In other action, Brett Hearn added to his win total with a victory in the Super DIRTcar feature.
Hearn started seventh in the feature after finishing behind Billy Pauch in his heat race. Jamie Mills led the first 20 laps of the main event before Anthony Perrego charged past and started pulling away. Hearn went to the bottom of the half-mile dirt oval and on lap 26 darted to the front and drove away to victory, the 22nd win of his career in the Sunshine State.
“You never know how these races are going to play out, I mean the track was slick right from the get go,” said Hearn. “Why one car gets better as the race goes on and one car slips away, sometimes you just don’t know. If you could do that all the time you’d never lose. Tonight we had a car that stayed underneath me and got better as the race went on, while other guys seemed like they backed up a little bit.
“The track was just unbelievably good. I mean you could drive anywhere on the track you wanted to, it was a driver’s track. And here we are. I can’t say enough about this place, it’s a blast to be here.”
The DIRTcar Nationals continue Thursday at Volusia with the first of three straight nights of $10,000-to-win World of Outlaws Late Model Series programs along with the Super DIRTcar Big-Block Modifieds. More information is available at DIRTcarNationals.com.
(DIRTCar Nationals Event PR contributed to the Super DIRTcar Series Big-Block Modified portion of this story.)
DIRTcar Nationals
Volusia Speedway Park – Barberville, FL
Race Results – Feb. 18, 2015
DIRTcar Late Models
1. (2) Scott Bloomquist/40
2. (3) Dale McDowell/40
3. (1) Morgan Bagley/40
4. (9) Darrell Lanigan/40
5. (5) Shane Clanton/40
6. (4) Jared Landers/40
7. (17) Josh Richards/40
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9. (10) Chub Frank/40
10. (7) Gregg Satterlee/40
11. (21) Dennis Erb Jr./40
12. (15) Kent Robinson/40
13. (12) Billy Moyer/40
14. (14) Brandon Sheppard/40
15. (18) Eric Wells/40
16. (22) Kenny Pettyjohn/39
17. (23) Tim McCreadie/39
18. (20) Mason Zeigler/39
19. (19) Tyler Bruening/39
20. (19) Kyle Bronson/39
21. (13) Charles LaPlant/38
22. (26) Ricky Weiss/30
23. (11) Frank Heckenast Jr./29
24. (24) Boom Briggs/26
25. (28) Terry English/19
26. (25) Casey Roberts/12
27. (8) Don O’Neal/8
28. (27) Rick Eckert/6
Super DIRTcar Series
1. 20-Brett Hearn
2. 55-Anthony Perrego
3. 30-Jamie Mills
4. 99L-Larry Wight
5. 1-Billy Pauch
6. 9H-Matt Sheppard
7. 1W-Stewart Friesen
8. 3H-Justin Haers
9. 6m-Mat Williamson
10. 27J-Danny Johnson
11. 7z-Erick Rudolph
12. 1d-Tyler Dippel
13. 7-Rick Laubach
14. 22c-Mario Clair
15. 323-Neal Williams
16. 19-Tim Fuller
17. 21a-Peter Britten
18. 5-Jimmy Horton
19. 98H-Jimmy Phelps
20. 22J-Jeremy Wilder
21. 54-Steve Bernard
22. 8-Rich Scagliotta
23. 32c-Vic Coffey
24. 1g-Darwin Greene
25. 88-Dave Allen
26. 21-Yan Bussiere
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