PEVELY, Mo. — After getting out to a sizable lead in traffic on the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals field, it appeared to be in the bag for six-time champion Mike Harrison. But the race was far from over.
With only six laps remaining, Harrison had a lead of almost two seconds built up on fellow Summit Modified champion Kenny Wallace when he suddenly ended up in the turn-two wall, allowing Wallace to close the gap.
“The car just took off in a bad push and I couldn’t steer out of it,” Harrison said. “Finally, by the time I did gas/brake and got it to steer out of it, I was in the wall.
Wallace, powering around the lowest lane on the track, took the lead with two-to-go and did his best to defend on the bottom, but was unable to hold back the No. 24h. Harrison wound it up on the top side of the track and carried enough momentum to get back by Wallace for the lead coming to the white flag.
“Kenny was underneath me and I just had to go into full-send mode, otherwise I was gonna lose,” Harrison said.
Harrison drove it back around to the checkers ahead of Wallace by less than a car length to score his 59th career Summit Modified Feature win.
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 24H-Mike Harrison[1]; 2. 36-Kenny Wallace[3]; 3. 18L-Michael Long[6]; 4. 8-Kyle Steffens[4]; 5. 1D-Dean Hoffman[7]; 6. 14C-Rick Conoyer[5]; 7. 12L-Lucas Lee[11]; 8. 25-Tyler Nicely[13]; 9. 66-Cole Falloway[16]; 10. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[9]; 11. 10X-Jim Black[2]; 12. 00S-Chris Spalding[10]; 13. 00Z-Steve Picou[8]; 14. J82-Treb Jacoby[18]; 15. 13-Charlie Mefford[17]; 16. 9-Chad Cornett[21]; 17. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[15]; 18. 58R-Ryan Hamilton[12]; 19. 77D-Drake Stevenson[14]; 20. 51M-Joe Mercurio[19]; 21. 66W-Tyler Worley[20]; 22. 82-Dalton Lane[22]