LEWISTOWN, Ill. — Ryan Unzicker prevailed in a wild three-car battle for the lead to win Thursday’s DIRTcar Summer Nationals late model feature at Spoon River Speedway.
Tyler Erb was four laps from the checkered flag until as Unzicker put it, “(Jason) Feger came out of nowhere.”
Twenty-seven laps into Thursday’s main event, Erb was riding the high banks around the three-eighths-mile oval, having led every lap up to that point with Unzicker and Feger following close behind.
Feeling the pressure from Unzicker with only four laps left, Erb switched to the bottom lane heading into turn one to keep Unzicker at bay behind him while Feger rode the cushion around the top.
Heading out of turn two and down the backstretch, Feger shot the gap between Unzicker and Erb. Feger then dove low in turn three in a slide job attempt, slid up the track in front of Erb in turn four and the two made contact, ending with Erb facing the wrong way and bringing out the caution.
“I just had a hell of a run down the backstretch that was for the lead, and it looked like it was a good opportunity to take it,” Feger said. “I don’t think [Erb] was expecting it. I don’t even know if he knew I was there because he was racing with Ryan, and he probably wasn’t expecting me to be there.
“I thought I had him cleared. This place is pretty tricky coming off turn four. He probably thought I was going to leave him a lane or something there and it closed last minute. It’s hard racing.”
With Erb restarting from the tail of the field, Unzicker inherited the lead with four laps left and Feger lined up behind him.
On the restart, Unzicker got the jump and led the final four circuits to collect his 14th career Hell Tour win.
“I didn’t actually see the contact,” Unzicker said of his point-of-view on the Erb-Feger incident. “We were coming out of [turn two], I was a little bit underneath Erb. Jason came out of nowhere to me and had a good run off the top of two and shot between [Erb] and I going into [turn] three and I didn’t see it.
“I don’t know if I would’ve won without that. I’m not sure but at the end of the day my name is on the check I guess. But all I will say is we was battling Erb and had a good car.”
After the event’s conclusion, Erb was unavailable for comment.
Earlier in the race, Unzicker chased Erb while battling with Feger for the second spot. At one point early on, they were battling three-wide – Feger on the bottom, Unzicker in the middle and Erb on the top. As the race reached the halfway point, Unzicker was racing side-by-side with Erb and had inched ahead of him in turns one and two on the bottom multiple times but was unable to clear him before the incident in the final laps.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 24-Ryan Unzicker[2]; 2. 25F-Jason Feger[3]; 3. 96-Tanner English[5]; 4. 33-Kye Blight[10]; 5. 10-Garrett Smith[6]; 6. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[11]; 7. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[8]; 8. 27M-Rodney Melvin[4]; 9. 58-Tyler Clem[21]; 10. 8-Dillon McCowan[12]; 11. 25W-Allen Weisser[16]; 12. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[15]; 13. 22R-Will Roland[17]; 14. 15-Clayton Stuckey[9]; 15. 1-Tyler Erb[1]; 16. 99-Dylan Thompson[18]; 17. 30-Mark Voigt[19]; 18. 26M-Bob Gardner[14]; 19. 75-Daniel Adam[7]; 20. 38-Thomas Hunziker[22]; 21. 17A-Austin Howes[13]; 22. 10K-Daryn Klein[20]