SUMNER, Ill. — Will Krup returned to victory lane with the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals for the first time since 2021 at Illinois’ Red Hill Raceway Sunday night.
He did so in dominant fashion, leading all 25 laps and finishing over two seconds ahead of points leader Trevor Neville.
Krup is no stranger to Victory Lane at Red Hill, especially this year, as the track has hosted four UMP Modified races in 2024 and Krup has now won all four.
“To do it here at the home racetrack makes it a little bit better too,” Krup said of getting his first Hell Tour win in three years. “We haven’t really got the chance to run the Summer Nationals in the last couple of years. So, to get a win on the first race is pretty big.”
From fourth on the grid, Krup took the lead on lap one after making a gusty move to get by Hunt Gossum and Ken Schrader. At the drop of the green flag, Krup found a gap between Gossum and Schrader and went three-wide going into turn one with Gossum on the inside, Krup in the middle and Schrader up high.
Coming out of turn two, Krup shot ahead of Gossum and Schrader to take the lead and never looked back as he set a torrid pace around the three-eighths-mile oval and took the checkered flag unchallenged.
“They kind of separated there, Hunt went to the bottom and Schrader kind of stayed around the top and just left that middle open,” Krup said. “I went ahead and committed and shot the gap there and just got the lead early which is kind of big here to just get out front where you don’t have to race anybody and just set your own pace.”
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. K9-Will Krup[4]; 2. 777-Trevor Neville[3]; 3. 99-Hunt Gossum[1]; 4. 97-Mitch Thomas[5]; 5. 95-Ed Roley[12]; 6. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[7]; 7. 9-Ken Schrader[2]; 8. 87S-David Shain[10]; 9. 95K-Levi Kissinger[6]; 10. 50-Tyler Weiss[8]; 11. 54-Zachary Hawk[9]; 12. 55M-Blaze Melton[13]; 13. 55-Justin Jones[20]; 14. 29-Rob Fuqua[18]; 15. 69L-Josh Lemke[16]; 16. 41-Steve Haefke[22]; 17. 130-Chase Allen[11]; 18. 91K-Cody Kibby[21]; 19. 14-Dalton Lane[19]; 20. 37-Everett Bradham[17]; 21. 67-Chris Moore[15]; 22. 16C-John Clippinger[14]