LAKE CITY, Mich. – On the strength of seven victories, Brian Shirley took down his fourth DIRTcar Summer Nationals championship Saturday night at Merritt Speedway.
“I’m just proud of my team, proud of everybody that’s a part of this deal. I just can’t thank those guys enough for the support we get. We’ll just keep going until we can’t go anymore,” Shirley told Summer Nationals announcer Ruben Mireles in victory lane.
Shirley and the Bob Cullen Racing team came into the Racing Electronics Champions Week finale at Merritt with a 130-point advantage over the rest of the field.
They maintained it with a seventh-place finish in the feature, won by Jason Feger.
Feger’s second Hell Tour victory of the season came five weeks after his first win of the season back on July 18 at Highland Speedway, where he also collected $10,000 for his 20th career Summer Nationals triumph.
“I sure wanted a lot more than two of these, but at least we won two $10,000’s,” Feger said after the win in Merritt victory lane. “I’ve had a lot of good runs here. Never won here, but a lot of good runs. I like coming here, though we don’t get up here very often. Lots of great fans, it’s a pretty fun little place.”
Hosting the championship night for the first time in track history, Merritt Speedway played host to Feger’s dominant victory in the 50-lap event, as he led every lap from start to finish to score the win over Ryan Gustin and Friday night’s Feature winner Dona Marcoullier.
Gustin, who finished on the podium in every feature this week except one, picked up the $2,000 bonus as the Racing Electronics Champions Week No. 5 points champion.
His average finish through the week was 3.8 – a far cry from his first three finishes in the opening tour races of 18th, ninth and 19th – but somehow he was unable to score a win.
Shirley now joins fellow Illinois natives Dennis Erb Jr. and Bobby Pierce as the only drivers in tour history to win the overall points championship three times in a row. Shirley’s first title came in 2012, on the back of five feature wins and a 70-point gap over the runner-up.
After clinching the points title in each of the last three years, Shirley was asked about the biggest things he’s learned from racing the tour night-in and night-out, and his advice for the up-and-coming class of dirt track racing drivers aspiring to be just like him.
“You’ve just got to get up every day and work as hard as you can, do your best, and when things don’t go your way, don’t give up,” he said.
The finish:
Feature (50 laps): 1. 25-Jason Feger [2][]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin [5][]; 3. 6M-Dona Marcoullier [4][]; 4. 50-Greg Gokey [3][]; 5. 87-David Mielke [6][]; 6. 4-Travis Stemler [1][]; 7. 3S-Brian Shirley [9][]; 8. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr. [15][]; 9. 19X-Cody Bauer [16][]; 10. M14-Brandon Thirlby [12][]; 11. 21N-Logan Nickerson [11][]; 12. 21D-David Hilliker [17][]; 13. 27-Eric Spangler [19][]; 14. 16S-Mike Staszak [20][]; 15. 42JR-Mike Nelson [21][]; 16. 11X-Ryan Lanphierd [22][]; 17. 52-Brad Harden [10][]; 18. 42-Chad Finley [14][]; 19. 4G-Bob Gardner [8][]; 20. 4T-Andrew Terrill [13][]; 21. 91-Rusty Schlenk [7][]; 22. 7-Drake Troutman [18][]
Hard Charger: 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr. [+7]