QUINCY, Ill. — Four DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals races run so far in 2024 and Michael Long has won half of them with his victory Wednesday at Adams County Speedway.
Long collected his ninth career Hell Tour win — three of which have now come at Adams County. It’s Long’s home track, which he said his familiarity with the confines helped secure the victory.
“I just grew up racing here. This is where I started racing,” Long said. “I lived like five miles from here and just got a lot of laps around here.”
From fourth on the grid, Long jumped to second on lap two, riding the outside and then looked to chase down outside polesitter Kenny Wallace.
Wallace held onto the lead for the next few circuits but Long was right behind him, waiting for his chance to steal the top spot. Side-by-side into turn three with Wallace went Long on lap six, and as they rounded turn four, Long sealed the pass on the inside.
“Me and Kenny both started on the outside and he took the lead and was able to follow him,” Long said. “I was able to hug the bottom and he started to skate up a little bit and was able to get by him.”
Though Long now gazed at a clear track in front of him, 2023 Summit Modified champion Tyler Nicely was closing the gap behind him. On lap 12, Nicely had nearly pulled even with the leader before the caution flag was thrown.
On the restart, Long got the jump he needed and set a sizable distance between himself and Nicely to lead the field back around to the checkered flag to secure the win.
“Nicely is really good on tracks like that,” Long said. “I had to keep my momentum up and keep going and was able to stay a car length or two in front of him the whole race.”
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 18L-Michael Long[4]; 2. 25N-Tyler Nicely[3]; 3. 777-Trevor Neville[1]; 4. 99-Hunt Gossum[5]; 5. 36-Kenny Wallace[2]; 6. 22-Austen Becerra[8]; 7. 14C-Rick Conoyer[9]; 8. 59R-Jacob Rexing[12]; 9. 12L-Lucas Lee[6]; 10. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[14]; 11. 67-Austin Seets[10]; 12. 17V-Mike Vanderiet Jr[11]; 13. 27-Michael Turner[13]; 14. 77D-Drake Stevenson[7]; 15. 76-Shawn Knuckles[15]; 16. 54-Zachary Hawk[17]; 17. 14-Dalton Lane[18]; 18. 16-Shawn Deering[20]; 19. 28D-Matt Diaz[21]; 20. 05-Dave Wietholder[22]; 21. (DNS) 72-Todd Neiheiser; 22. (DNS) 25-Greg Belyea