PEORIA, Ariz. — A bumper’s length of .032 seconds was all it took to get Allen Weisser his first DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals feature win in nearly four years Wednesday night at Peoria Speedway.
Weisser, the DIRTcar UMP Modified ace from Peoria, Ill., grabbed hold of the lead on lap one with current DIRTcar national points leader Tyler Nicely behind him. The two chased each other around the quarter-mile high-banks through several waves of lapped traffic, but Nicely was unable to make a serious move for the lead.
As the laps clicked down to under five remaining, Nicely began to hit the top side of the track with greater intensity in an effort to get the speed he needed to make a move to Weisser’s outside.
“I knew [Nicely] was gonna be the car to beat,” Weisser said. “I really didn’t know where he was at, and we didn’t get any cautions, so I couldn’t tell where he had been running. I didn’t know where to go, honestly.”
The two shot down into the final two corners on the last lap; Weisser smooth on the bottom and Nicely mashing the throttle on the top.
They drag raced to the finish line, and though Nicely came close, .032 seconds was all that separated him from a win in the season opener as Weisser took the checkered flag for the fourth time in his Summit Modified Nationals career and first since July 2019.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 25W-Allen Weisser[1]; 2. 25-Tyler Nicely[2]; 3. 8-Kyle Steffens[9]; 4. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[3]; 5. 96M-Mike McKinney[4]; 6. 777-Trevor Neville[5]; 7. 77-Ray Bollinger[6]; 8. 97-Charles Hess[7]; 9. 20-Tanner Sullivan[8]; 10. 10M-Chris Morefield[16]; 11. 10J-Steve Jones[10]; 12. 69-Derek Roberts[13]; 13. 73-Mark Rhoades[14]; 14. 1-Nash Hilmes[12]; 15. 17D-Degan Dozard[11]; 16. 47-Dakota Traver[17]; 17. 2ND-Jake Leitzman[15]; 18. 99-James Carter[18]