FAIRBURY, Ill. — The DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals closed the book on its season by crowning two new champions at Fairbury Speedway Saturday night – both Illinois natives.
Michael Long conquered the Prairie Dirt Classic for the first time, while Mike McKinney was officially named the 2024 Summit Modified Nationals champion.
McKinney clinched the title Friday night after winning his Showdown feature and made it official on Saturday, ending the 2024 season with eight wins, 12 top-five finishes and 16 top 10s.
“It’s pretty cool,” McKinney said with a sense of relief about winning the title. “The series has been around for a long time. It’s really a short list of the guys that have won it. A lot of good guys. It’s awesome to have my name on that list. 2018, I led all summer and lost it at [the Prairie Dirt Classic]. This year, I was down all summer, and had to claw back and come back to win. It’s awesome. Growing up as an Illinois kid, the Summer Nationals is a staple.”
The Prairie Dirt Classic seemed to favor first timers this year as the Redraw resulted with the first six starters looking for their first “PDC” win. Up front, Ray Bollinger started on the pole with Long to his outside.
When the race took motion, Long used the tacky cushion to his advantage and drove around the outside of Bollinger to take the lead on the first lap. From there, he entered his own league, leaving the rest of the field to battle for a best finish of second for 40 laps.
“We’ve just been on a roll all year,” Long said. “The car has been consistent all year. We haven’t had to do anything to it. We do a few little changes from heats to feature and just go with it. We just had a good year going on. We’ve been really good here at Fairbury.”
The first half of the race saw Bollinger, Trent Young and Frank Marshall stand as prime contenders for the runner-up spot. Each took their turn in the position, but Marshall fell out of the picture after a poor lap on the Lap 14 restart that dropped him out of the top five.
By the halfway, Josh Harris entered the picture, finding speed around the bottom of the track. He and Bollinger battled side by side for four laps before Harris edged ahead of the yellow No. 77 with 12 laps to go.
At the same time, the 2024 series champion started to enter the picture. Having to work his way forward from the seventh starting position, McKinney broke into the top five with less than 10 laps to go.
However, his hopes of sweeping both titles this weekend unraveled after a lap 33 caution. He fumbled on the restart, falling out of the top five and a few laps later found himself out of the race. His championship competitor Trevor Neville jumped the cushion, nearly flipping on his side, and landed into oncoming traffic. The multi-car accident resulted in McKinney and Neville being towed off track to finishes of 18th and 16th, respectively.
With two laps to go once the race resumed, Harris tried to give Long a scare, staying within a car length the first lap. But once Long found his rhythm up top again, he drove away to a 1.1 second lead and win.
“We won some big Mod races at other tracks, we won the Labor Day MARS deal here last year, but just the hype of the Prairie Dirt Classic and all the fans here, it’s just definitely one there at the top of my list,” Long said. “We’ve been trying the past four or five years to get it… Thankful to get it.”
Harris, who said he felt like he could have been fast around the center, but was stuck defending the bottom, had to settle for second. Kyle Hammer finished third after starting 11th, Bollinger fell to fourth and Zeke McKenzie had the drive of the race, charging from 20th to finish fifth.
Long’s win was his fifth DIRTcar Summer Nationals victory of the 2024 season – the most he’s ever won in a year with the series.
McKinney concluded the year with a 21-point advantage over Trevor Neville, who still had a career year with four series wins.
Feature Finish (40 Laps)
1. 18L-Michael Long[2]; 2. 22-Josh Harris[3]; 3. 45-Kyle Hammer[11]; 4. 77-Ray Bollinger[1]; 5. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[20]; 6. 10Y-Trent Young[4]; 7. 99-Hunt Gossum[15]; 8. 21A-Nick Allen[14]; 9. 8A-Austin Holcombe[9]; 10. 89-Austin Friedman[18]; 11. 28M-Frank Marshall[6]; 12. 14L-Dalton Lane[21]; 13. 5-Steven Brooks[22]; 14. 5S-Owen Steinkoenig[12]; 15. 54-Zachary Hawk[24]; 16. 777-Trevor Neville[5]; 17. C40-Mike Chasteen Jr[16]; 18. 96M-Mike McKinney[7]; 19. 1D-Dean Hoffman[8]; 20. 37-Michael Ledford[17]; 21. 67-Austin Seets[13]; 22. 18S-Jarrett Stryker[19]; 23. 24H-Mike Harrison[10]; 24. 32-Mason Duncan[23]