HARRISBURG, Ark. — Tanner English was banging on the door for his first DIRTcar Summer Nationals win of the season and finally kicked it down Tuesday night at Old No.1 Speedway.
Coming into the event, English had recorded seven-straight top-five finishes on the Hell Tour 24. In the tour’s first visit to Arkansas, English’s eighth-straight top-five resulted in a trip to Summer Nationals victory lane for the first time since 2022.
“At first it was rewarding because we were struggling pretty bad so about after the first three top fives I was like ‘Alright, I’m ready to win one,’” English said. “We were trying to find the balance with our car and finally found it and I just felt like every night leading up to now we made the wrong decision. Finally, it all came together.”
It wasn’t just English’s first win of the 2024 Hell Tour; it was his first win with Coltman Farms Racing — the Georgia-based team he joined earlier this year.
“Definitely relief mainly just to get my first win with Coltman Farms,” English said. “I want to make them proud. They give me everything I need to make this deal happen and it’s kind of been on me to make it happen.”
To earn his first win with his new team, English started on the outside pole and took the lead on lap one from polesitter Chandler Petty using the banking of the quarter-mile oval. Once English got by Petty he started to set the pace around the track.
Then from fourth on the grid, Ashton Winger made his way up to runner-up spot on the second lap and began to chase down English with each lap. On lap 11, Winger got close enough to attempt his first slider on English, but English powered around the top lane and denied it to hold onto the lead.
Winger tried again on laps 23 and 24, diving down low in turn one and sliding up in turn two, but again English was strong on the top and denied the pass both times. Winger tried once more on lap 28, sliding up in front of English coming out of turn two, but English this time crossed Winger over to maintain the lead.
“I kind of predicted what [Winger] was going to do,” English said. “I knew he was going to slide me, so I cut underneath him. The first one I got to the outside of him and squeezed him to the wall.
[Winger] is going to race you hard but it’s usually clean. You just got to predict what he’s going to do basically.”
A caution on lap 34 cooled off the battle between English and Winger and on the restart, Winger stumbled and fell back in the field while English led the field back around to the checkered flag unchallenged to claim the $10,000 grand prize.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 96-Tanner English[2]; 2. 27M-Rodney Melvin[4]; 3. 74X-Ethan Dotson[10]; 4. 12-Ashton Winger[3]; 5. 8-Dillon McCowan[8]; 6. 29-Christian Hanger[5]; 7. 18C-Matt Cooper[16]; 8. 7JR-Shane Stephens[9]; 9. 31AUS-Joe Chalmers[11]; 10. 15-Clayton Stuckey[13]; 11. 75-Daniel Adam[7]; 12. 28B-Carson Brown[23]; 13. 33C-Steven Crocker[21]; 14. 86-Kyle Beard[20]; 15. 30-Mark Voigt[19]; 16. 5M-Jon Mitchell[24]; 17. 2-Charlie Cole[15]; 18. 51-Logan Seavey[6]; 19. 38-Thomas Hunziker[22]; 20. 12C-Scott Crigler[12]; 21. 14M-Morgan Bagley[17]; 22. 47-Chandler Petty[1]; 23. 91-Chris Jones[18]; 24. 58-Tyler Clem[14]