BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Hayden Cardwell won for the second consecutive night, while Trent Ivey and Wyatt Coffey also claimed 602 Late Model victories on the second night of the Sunshine Nationals Friday at Volusia Speedway Park.
Twenty drivers locked into Saturday night’s feature. They are Coffey, Cardwell, Chase Blackwell, Ivey, Dawson Lowe, Jordan Lockhart, Matthew Kade, Luke Clements, Koulten Herbert, Richard Stephens, Wiley McDaniel, John Marshall Pursley, Mario Gresham, Ben Lanford, Matt Herlong, Mack McCarter, Grayson Ott, Brodie Thompson, Griffin Jones and Logan Bradford.
602 Late Model Feature No. 1
Hayden Cardwell can’t be beat. At least not yet.
After running away with a preliminary Feature win with the 602 Late Models on the opening night of DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals, and winning the World of Outlaws iRacing Pro Series race on Monday, Cardwell picked up another trophy Friday night at Volusia Speedway Park.
The Knoxville, Tenn., driver started third in the first 602 Late Model prelim feature of the night but wasn’t interested in staying there long.
A caution on Lap 1 halted a clean start. But when the race resumed, Cardwell split the two leaders going into Turn 1, racing three-wide in the middle with Jordan Lockhart to his outside and John Marshall to his inside. That led to a side-by-side battle down the backstretch with Lockhart, which Cardwell ended by the time they reached Turn 3.
“I think that he knew that I was restarting on the outside, so I think that he went ahead and protected that and just kind of opened the door for me on the bottom and just was able to hit it and stick it pretty good.”
He darted ahead to the lead and never looked back. Lockhart faded, moving Kade up to second, but the No. 7k had nothing to match Cardwell’s speed.
“First off, I want to give a big shoutout to Volusia, man, this track is on kill right now,” Cardwell said. “I struggled a little bit earlier… But I feel like we have a good piece for the longer race tomorrow. We still have a little bit of work to do, but I’m really pleased with it.”
The finish:
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 17C-Hayden Cardwell[3]; 2. 7K-Matthew Kade[6]; 3. 9-John Marshall Pursley[1]; 4. T9-Brodie Thompson[11]; 5. 17J-Griffin Jones[5]; 6. 51C-Luke Clements[4]; 7. 3-Grayson Ott[7]; 8. 7L-Jordan Lockhart[2]; 9. 111-Brennen Shirley[8]; 10. 10-Karli Bennett[12]; 11. 11S-Brad Kinchen[10]; 12. 25-Brandon Lunsford[13]; 13. 5-Curtis Thomas[9]; 14. 20-Kody Cook[15]; 15. C4-Devin Whatley[14]; 16. 51H-Tim Holston[16]; 17. B17-Braxton Faucett[18]; 18. 48-Brody Yarbrough[17]; 19. (DNF) 44K-Troy Kidd[19]
602 Late Model Feature No. 2
Trent Ivey came up short of getting his first DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals win last night, but made sure to capitalize on Friday.
When the 15-lap prelim Feature commenced, Chase Blackwell pulled ahead of the pack, while there was a three-wide battle for second behind. Ivey won the battle, crawling around the bottom of the half-mile track to pull ahead of his contenders and then set his sights on Blackwell.
By Lap 5, Ivey was on Blackwell’s rear bumper coming off Turn 4 and crossed underneath him to dive to the lead into Turn 1. The South Carolina driver pulled ahead by a car length and grew the distance each lap.
A caution on Lap 10 brought the field back together, but Ivey continued on to the win when the race went green again.
“I knew how good our race car was, and, man, I wasn’t going to let nobody take that one from me,” Ivey said. “I came down here to get a (Sunshine Nationals straw) hat, and I’m leaving with one.”
The finish:
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 28I-Trent Ivey[3]; 2. 67-Logan Bradford[5]; 3. 21-Mario Gresham[7]; 4. 6-Chase Blackwell[1]; 5. 51-Mack McCarter[4]; 6. 32-Jack Mills[12]; 7. 17B-Timmy Blackwell[10]; 8. 611-Koulten Herbert[6]; 9. 1M-Morghan Johnson[9]; 10. 00-Richard Stephens[8]; 11. 27-Tim Ryan[19]; 12. F17-Johnny Faucett[14]; 13. 11-Bart Studdard[11]; 14. (DNF) 11R-Hunter Robbins[2]; 15. (DNF) 28-Austin Leamon[15]; 16. (DNF) 71C-Davy Cline[13]; 17. (DNF) 1J-Jason Papp[16]; 18. (DNF) 37-Layne Smith[17]; 19. (DNF) 14T-Tristen Kinchen[18]
602 Late Model Feature No. 3
The final 602 Late Model prelim feature of the night ended the theme of the third-place starter winning the race, and instead traded it for a duel of the top two.
Twelve-year-old Wyatt Coffey, of Waynesboro, Va., started on the pole with Dawson Lowe to his outside. When the two drivers drag raced into Turn 1, Lowe outpowered Coffey through the corner, getting the better run around the outside, and took the lead.
Coffey never let Lowe get away, though. Methodically running consistent laps, Coffey crept his way closer and closer to Lowe each lap until he was able to pull the trigger.
On Lap 10, Coffey mastered the top lane and pulled the same move Lowe pulled on him, firing his car around the outside of the leader to take the top spot.
Lowe tried to stay within striking distance of Coffey, but couldn’t match his pace for the remainder of the race.
“I definitely can’t thank my guys enough for getting me in the position I am today,” Coffey said. “I watched Trent the race before, and I saw he was getting around the top pretty good, so I was just able to move around and get around him then.”
The finish:
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 2-Wyatt Coffey[1]; 2. 16-Dawson Lowe[2]; 3. 01-Ben Lanford[3]; 4. 25W-Wiley McDaniel[4]; 5. 53-Brandon Yates[7]; 6. 131-Matt Herlong[6]; 7. 1A-David Showers Jr[13]; 8. 88-Dustin Rollins[5]; 9. 28B-Jeff Queen[10]; 10. KO-Caylan Kettle[9]; 11. 8-Zack Owens[14]; 12. 23H-Kade Hunkapiller[8]; 13. 86-Kody Jett[11]; 14. 21M-Mayson Mossow[15]; 15. 13-Devin Rooks[12]; 16. (DNS) 1-Hania Humphries; 17. (DNS) KB-Kerry King; 18. (DNS) 19-Sam Oakley; 19. (DNS) 149-Seth Speed
