LASALLE, Ill. – He’s the two-time and defending tour champion, and now a three-time-straight feature winner with the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modifieds.
Needless to say, Nick Hoffman is on a roll.
After sweeping the modified action in Clarksville last weekend, Hoffman wasted zero time in getting right back to his ways with another flag-to-flag victory Wednesday night at LaSalle Speedway.
The opening laps saw two of Hoffman’s biggest competitors retire early with issues right at the drop of the green. Will Krup brought out the caution on lap two after breaking going through turns one and two, and Mike McKinney brought it back out on the restart as he spun in front of the field in the same corners. Both retired with just a single lap completed.
Back out front, it was all Hoffman’s race to lose, until a caution with less than five laps remaining restacked the field and put the six-time Summit Modifieds champion Mike Harrison right on Hoffman’s rear bumper.
Harrison showed Hoffman a wheel down low at first and then pulled-up alongside his Elite Chassis No. 7 but couldn’t make it stick. Hoffman shut the door on the inside after taking the white flag to seal the 30th Summit Modified race win of his career.
“I just had to get up on the wheel and try and get it done,” Hoffman said in Victory Lane. “I know Mike [Harrison] probably could’ve took me out on that last lap blocking him, but I appreciate him running me clean there.’
Picking up the race’s honor charger honors was 15-year-old Hunt Gossum, as he came all the way from 18th to finish fifth.
The finish:
1. 7-Nick Hoffman [1][]; 2. 24H-Mike Harrison [4][]; 3. 77-Ray Bollinger [5][]; 4. 25W-Allen Weisser [8][]; 5. 99-Hunt Gossum [18][]; 6. 45-Kyle Hammer [7][]; 7. 59-Travis Thresher [13][]; 8. 1-Nash Hilmes [16][]; 9. 1L-Dave Lilja [10][]; 10. 12-Richard Craven [12][]; 11. 3C-Dan Hahn [15][]; 12. 24-Zeke McKenzie [20][]; 13. 57-Tim Hamburg [9][]; 14. 5-Steven Brooks [11][]; 15. 1W-Bob Pohlman [6][]; 16. 17T-James Thompson [19][]; 17. 96M-Mike McKinney [2][]; 18. K19-Will Krup [3][]; 19. O-Travis Kohler [14][]; 20. 48-Casey Lappin [17][]