QUINCY, Mich. — Another DIRTcar Summer Nationals race, another win for Tyler Erb.
Erb, 27, claimed his ninth win of the Hell Tour Thursday night at Butler Motor Speedway, but not without putting his aggressive driving style on display throughout the 30-lap main event.
After he and new Big Frog Motorsports driver Wil Herrington came together racing for the lead late in the race, Herrington and Michigan racer Chad Finley made contact of their own and brought out a caution in the final laps while Erb sped off on the restart to another $5,000 payday.
“I had to fix my nose so it’s only fair,” Erb said of the contact between he and Herrington in the battle for the lead. “It was kind of a bonehead move so I made a bonehead move back and ensured we’d both have to work on a little bit of something. Nothing [vengeful] or nothing.
“Fair is fair. I passed him, he slid the lapped car, the lapped car hit me. Like, it was going to wreck me by him hitting the lapped car, so there was no lapped car for me to hit, so I just hit him.”
The overall Summer Nationals points leader started on the pole but lost the early lead to Finley and Herrington as they both moved past him on lap three.
Finley crossed only .088 seconds ahead of Erb to take lead at the line before Herrington drove the bottom lane through turns one and two to take second from Erb and then set his sights on Finley.
The next time around, Herrington got a great drive off turn two on the bottom and moved past Finley into the lead heading into turn three.
Once Herrington got the lead, he started to set the pace around the three-eighths-mile oval and was over a second ahead of second-place Finley with 10 laps left.
However, Herrington soon caught lapped traffic and got stuck behind Carter Schlenk, allowing Erb to reel him in.
As Erb continued to rip the high side, he took the runner-up spot on lap 21 and on lap 25 pulled even with Herrington down the backstretch. With Herrington still struggling to make it by Schlenk, Erb edged in front before Herrington finally got by Schlenk and dove to the bottom of turn three.
“I tried not to blow the tires off this thing,” Erb said. “Once we caught lapped traffic, I started picking the pace up and [Herrington and Finley] were hung up behind lapped traffic for sure.
“I kind of maneuvered my way through there and raced [Finley] hard and was able to get by him. And on the back straightaway there I passed Wil and two lapped cars and really thought that was going to be the move to win the race.”
Once Herrington got by Schlenk, the slower car of Brad Harden was riding the middle groove while Herrington was coming through and the two made contact, causing Harden to wash up the track right into the nose of Erb.
As Harden spun off Erb’s nose and off the top side of turn four, Erb kept his wheels rolling, lining him up behind Herrington for the restart.
On the restart, Herrington led the first circuit with Erb close behind, still riding the high banking. The next time around, Erb dove underneath Herrington going into turn three and as he slid in front of Herrington in turn four, he made contact, slowing Herrington and allowing Erb to take the lead.
On lap 27, Herrington and Finley came together in turn three in the battle for second, causing both to spin out and retire early. The caution forced Erb to restart with Rusty Schlenk and Dillon McCowan behind him, but Erb had no problem on the restart as he crossed under the checkered flag over a second ahead of Rusty Schlenk.
“It all worked out,” Erb said. “On the restart, I knew that I was either going to drive off the top of [turns] one and two or get something and make something happen. Once I started driving harder into one and two, I honestly got faster and was just able to make a move and take the lead and kind of do whatever I wanted from there.”
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 1-Tyler Erb[1]; 2. 91-Rusty Schlenk[8]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[3]; 4. 14JR-Trey Mills[9]; 5. 15-Clayton Stuckey[10]; 6. 27-Eric Spangler[5]; 7. 19M-Carter Murday[13]; 8. 12-Ashton Winger[4]; 9. 55-Michael Archer[12]; 10. 388-Jackson Hise[15]; 11. 06-Jake Rendel[11]; 12. 30-Mark Voigt[19]; 13. 38-Thomas Hunziker[22]; 14. LIL91-Carter Schlenk[21]; 15. 42-Chad Finley[2]; 16. 58-Wil Herrington[6]; 17. 07-Rylee Knoll[17]; 18. 51-Devin Shiels[18]; 19. 52-Brad Harden[20]; 20. 41-Mike Vandermark Jr[16]; 21. 71-Rusty Smith[7]; 22. 4-Travis Stemler[14]