SUMNER, Ill. — It’s been nearly six years since Frank Heckenast Jr. tasted victory with the DIRTcar Summer Nationals. Friday night at Red Hill Raceway, the drought ended.
Heckenast took the lead on Lap 12 and never looked back, winning by more than five seconds at the big, four-tenths-mile oval for career win No. 6 during the 40th anniversary season of the Hell Tour.
“Six years, sixth win — that’s a long time,” Heckenast said. “I’ve had a lot of seconds and a lot of thirds; these are just hard to win. People think if they just show up, they’re gonna win one because they’re out on the road or something. It’s not that easy.”
Heckenast took the green flag from the pole with two-time series champion Jason Feger starting to his outside. Feger got the jump on the initial start of the race but a caution for two cars tangling brought a complete restart with no laps completed.
Feger got another good launch on the second try at the start and looked to be in control until things got dicey in lap traffic on Lap 11.
Series points leader Tanner English, had worked his way into second and was challenging for the lead before a caution slowed that charge.
While Feger maintained the lead on the Lap 11 restart, Heckenast made the move on English for second down the backstretch. As the top three crossed the start/finish line to complete Lap 12, Feger slowed dramatically, revealing a flat right-rear tire as the caution was thrown once again.
With Feger in the pits for repairs, Heckenast inherited the lead for the restart with 26 laps left. What came next was domination from the No. 99JR, leading the rest of the distance unchallenged for his first Summer Nationals win since August 2020.
“I got into a little argument with my dad because I thought we needed two or three tenths in the heat there because Babb and Feger showed three more tenths than we did,” Heckenast said. “But the car felt good, steered good. Not sure what tires everyone put on; we didn’t even look. It was one of those nights where we had the phones down and the heads down and went with the feel of our ass and it worked out.”
English finished second, ahead of Sam Seawright, Kyle Hardy and Clay Stuckey. Feger rebounded from the flat tire to finish sixth.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[1]; 2. 96-Tanner English[4]; 3. 16S-Sam Seawright[9]; 4. 99-Kyle Hardy[8]; 5. 15-Clay Stuckey[5]; 6. 25-Jason Feger[2]; 7. 51B-Brandon Carpenter[10]; 8. 74-Mitch McGrath[13]; 9. 31M-Tyler Millwood[6]; 10. 17SR-Brody Smith[18]; 11. 82B-Jason Milam[16]; 12. (DNF) 49-Luke Morey[15]; 13. (DNF) K67-Braiden Keller[12]; 14. (DNF) 17W-Lee Williams[11]; 15. (DNF) 81-Logan Mounce[20]; 16. (DNF) 51-Dean Carpenter[7]; 17. (DNF) 17-Jarrett Jones[14]; 18. (DNF) 80-Tucker Chastain[19]; 19. (DNF) 18-Shannon Babb[3]; 20. (DNF) 67-Gregory Carrico[23]; 21. (DNF) LIL91-Carter Schlenk[22]; 22. (DNF) 91-Rusty Schlenk[17]; 23. (DNF) 30-Mark Voigt[21]
