PONTOON BEACH, Ill. — Tyler Erb has gone back-to-back with the DIRTcar Summer Nationals, collecting his sixth career Hell Tour Feature win Friday night at Tri-City Speedway.
Erb, 27, has dominated the Summer Nationals so far, leading all 30 laps in the main event Wednesday at Peoria Speedway and 26 of the 40 at Tri-City.
When he planned to take on Week 1 of the Summer Nationals, did he envision being this successful this early?
“Yeah, I mean that’s the goal everywhere you go,” Erb said. “It’s hard to win one, let alone two so it’s best-case scenario right now. Just got to ride the wave and if it keeps clicking like it is, everybody is happy.”
From fourth on the starting grid, Erb moved his way up to second on the opening lap with a pass on the high side around polesitter Frank Heckenast Jr. and then set his sights on race leader Kye Blight. With each lap, Erb reeled-in Blight as they dipped into lapped traffic.
On lap 14, Erb reached Blight’s rear bumper and executed a slide job in turns one and two. Blight turned it back underneath Erb and drag-raced him down the backstretch, but Erb had the advantage as he sailed around the high side of turn three and sealed the pass out of turn four.
“[Blight] got into the wall in one and two and allowed me to get close and followed him for like two laps,” Erb said. “Made a really good corner in three and four, kind of pushed him down the front straightaway. I knew that I needed to at least get ahead of him and try to make him make a mistake and was able to do that.”
After taking the lead from Blight, Erb was forced through two restarts but got the advantage each time and led the rest of the way unchallenged to collect the first $10,000 check of the Summer Nationals season.
“Set sail from there, set my own pace and not run too hard in the rubber and finished the race with enough tire to win.”
Before his win in the season opener Wednesday night, Erb had only made two combined starts with the Summer Nationals the past two seasons. He recently announced his departure from the national late model scene and is now free to choose where he wants to race. He said the Summer Nationals has been a perfect place for him.
“I like the tracks and my guys are happy,” Erb said. “I just like the style of racing in Ilinois in general … it’s just fun, it creates a lot of options to race and that’s what I like.”
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 1-Tyler Erb[4]; 2. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[1]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[8]; 4. 44-Blaze Burwell[6]; 5. 22R-Will Roland[3]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[9]; 7. 97-Cody Overton[14]; 8. 25F-Jason Feger[18]; 9. 14JR-Trey Mills[5]; 10. 24H-Mike Harrison[10]; 11. 10-Joseph Joiner[11]; 12. 8-Dillon McCowan[17]; 13. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[13]; 14. 4G-Bob Gardner[20]; 15. 96V-Tanner English[7]; 16. 10K-Daryn Klein[12]; 17. 388-Jackson Hise[16]; 18. 33-Kye Blight[2]; 19. 50K-Kayden Clatt[15]; 20. 11-Gordy Gundaker[21]; 21. 27M-Rodney Melvin[19]; 22. 82-Billy Laycock[23]; 23. 25W-Allen Weisser[22]