MAPLE PARK, Ill. — After a Saturday night marred by misfortune and a bit of destruction, Brian Shirley was looking for an opportunity to bounce back.
Sunday night at Sycamore Speedway, he got exactly what he came for — his third Feature win of the week and an extra $10,000 check as Week 1 champion of the 38th annual DIRTcar Summer Nationals.
Shirley, the four-time Hell Tour champion, endured a rough go of things Saturday at Fairbury Speedway – blowing a tire while running in a transfer spot in his Heat Race, then getting into a wreck early in the Feature, leaving him with a 14th-place finish as he watched one of his Illinois rivals drive off with another big payday.
“Last night, Bobby [Pierce] did what he does at Fairbury, and for us it was just a rough night,” Shirley said. “It knocked the wind out of my sails, I’m not gonna lie. I was definitely a little bummed today, but as I’ve always said, you just can’t stop fate.”
He and the Bob Cullen Racing team shook it off and regrouped in the short, overnight period they had Sunday and turned things around, readying a racecar that led all 40 laps and collected their third $5,000 grand prize for the third time this week.
“All in all, I’m just proud of everybody that’s affiliated with my team,” Shirley said.
He ran into the wrath of a couple fellow Summer Nationals champions en route to the finish, starting with Dennis Erb Jr. just past the halfway point when he got a great restart and settled in behind Shirley.
Erb soon showed a wheel to the inside of Shirley and kept digging at it, nearly nosing ahead of him for the lead as the caution flag flew on lap 26.
“Dennis definitely had me at that point coming down the straightaway,” Shirley said. “I started changing my line a little bit because I could hear Dennis.
“I know Dennis – anytime it comes to being around the bottom, that guy is really good.”
Shirley was able to shake Erb on the ensuing restart, but soon after encountered another of his rivals in Jason Feger – who slipped by Erb with a quick crossover move in turns three and four on the same restart.
“I knew I had a pretty good pull there down the backstretch, and I kept trying to set that move up,” Feger said. “But, if I was too close to [Erb] getting into Turn 3, I couldn’t get the run I needed, so it just kinda timed out right, and I think he over-shot Turn 3 a little bit.
“He got a little bit of a push, so once I saw that, I knew that was my chance. I just turned down and stood on it.”
Feger came in hot pursuit of the leader in the closing laps but was unable to close the gap in time as Shirley crossed the stripe for his 41st career Summer Nationals victory.
“I don’t know what he had left in the tank, but I knew our car was probably every bit as good,” Feger said. “We were probably gonna need some lapped traffic to set up a pick or make us move around out of our preferred groove and make something happen.”
Chad Finley rounded out the podium and earned the night’s Hard Charger honors, driving all the way from 16th on the starting grid to finish third.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 2. 25-Jason Feger[10]; 3. 42-Chad Finley[16]; 4. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[2]; 5. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 6. 4G-Bob Gardner[7]; 7. 12-Ashton Winger[3]; 8. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[8]; 9. 21B-Rich Bell[11]; 10. 89-Mike Spatola[14]; 11. 58-Tyler Clem[12]; 12. 174-Ethan Dotson[4]; 13. 31AUS-Kye Blight[15]; 14. 130-Chase Osterhoff[18]; 15. 30-Mark Voigt[20]; 16. 19X-Cody Bauer[13]; 17. 76-Titus Sneed[21]; 18. 4D-Doug Tye[22]; 19. 101-Forrest Trent[19]; 20. 7-Drake Troutman[6]; 21. 3-Dale Markham[9]; 22. (DNS) T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr.