BARBERVILLE, Fla. — A trio of Gator trophies were on offer to DIRTcar Late Model competitors in the Wednesday portion of Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals in three split-field, 20-lap main events.
Michael Leach, Nick Hoffman and Tyler Erb each made their way to Victory Lane at Volusia Speedway Park, bringing themselves one step closer to a Big Gator as the week reached its halfway point.
The remaining three nights will be sanctioned by the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision, with $12,000 going to the winner on Thursday and Friday before the event concludes with a $20,000-to-win feature on Saturday.
Feature No. 1
Michael Leach admitted that finding out he was starting on the pole for the first DIRTcar Late Model Feature Wednesday night shook him a little bit. About 30 minutes later, he was shaking a new golden Gator trophy in victory lane at Volusia Speedway Park.
It was his first super late model win in his second year racing full-time in the division after moving from Montana to the Longhorn Chassis headquarters in North Carolina.
The 20-lap feature started with outside polesitter Ryan Gustin stealing the lead from Leach on the first lap. But Leach wasn’t interested in letting “The Reaper” hold it for long. Staying on the tail of the No. 19r, Leach built a run around the bottom and dove into Turns 1-2 on the second lap to reclaim the lead.
From there, the Montana driver tried to make himself untouchable. He drove away from Gustin and maintained that distance for most of the feature.
However, Gustin tried to give him a scare in the closing laps. Leach’s lead went from over half a second to a few tenths of a second with three laps to go. Then, the third and final caution of the Feature became Leach’s savior.
When the green flag was shown again, Leach rocketed away from the field, while Gustin came under fire from third-place Daulton Wilson. The black No. 58v passed Gustin with two laps to go and began reeling in Leach.
Closing corner after corner, the No. 09 grew bigger in Wilson’s visor. But time ran out for Wilson, and was on time for Leach. The Gator trophy is his second, as he earned his first little Gator trophy in 2024 in a DIRTcar UMP Modified.
“This is everything,” Leach said. “I mean, we’ve had such a bad start to the year, and we’ve been busting our asses day in, day out, you know? We’re like, ‘Oh, there’s always another day, and there’s always another day.’ Well, today’s another day. I’m just so happy.
“Honestly, I didn’t know they inverted the top four, and usually I’m pretty calm, cool, and collected, but I was putting tearoffs on after I figured out we were starting on the pole, and I was kind of shaking a little bit… This is awesome.”
The finish:
Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 09-Michael Leach[1]; 2. 58V-Daulton Wilson[4]; 3. 19R-Ryan Gustin[2]; 4. 14-Trey Mills[6]; 5. 60-Dan Ebert[3]; 6. 97D-Cade Dillard[9]; 7. 18-Chase Junghans[11]; 8. 74X-Ethan Dotson[16]; 9. 19M-Brenden Smith[7]; 10. 0-Glenn Styres[17]; 11. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[5]; 12. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[8]; 13. 9M-Tim McCreadie[14]; 14. 49M-Luke Morey[15]; 15. 40B-Kyle Bronson[10]; 16. 32-Bobby Pierce[13]; 17. 28-Dennis ErbJr[12]; 18. 17-Austin Howes[20]; 19. B1-Brent Larson[18]; 20. 14R-Reid Millard[19]
Feature No. 2
Nick Hoffman keeps expanding his personal swamp of DIRTcar Nationals gators.
The Mooresville, N.C., driver scored his third career event win aboard the NOS Energy Drink No. 9 late model by charging to the front of the field in 20 laps around Volusia Speedway Park.
Austin Smith took command from the drop of the green flag by stretching the distance from Brandon Overton and Nick Hoffman to a one-second lead by Lap 7.
When lapped traffic invaded Smith’s driving line, it helped Overton’s Budweiser No. 76 chop the gap to a car-length’s width from the No. 11. Hoffman struggled to match the pace of the two leaders and had to keep Max Blair at bay from taking his podium position until the caution flew on Lap 13.
Rolling to the restart from the high side, Hoffman got the jump on Overton for second place through Turns 1-2, then kept the Longhorn Chassis at the top of Turns 3-4 in swinging away the lead from Smith.
While Overton retook the runner-up spot from Smith on Lap 15, he was unable to catch Hoffman in the final stretch for the Wednesday night triumph.
With the Gator earned, “The Thrill from Mooresville” has won 25 career event features between the DIRTcar UMP Modifieds and Late Models, along with victories in 14 out of the last 15 years.
“It’s awesome,” Hoffman said. “I knew the race track was gonna be totally different from what we seen last night, and it was. Our car’s good in every condition, so on the restart there, Overton chose the bottom and left me the outside lane. The outside’s been able to roll pretty fast, so I just hammered the cushion off of (Turn 4) and got that run on Austin.”
The finish:
Feature 2 (20 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[3]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton[4]; 3. 71-Hudson O’Neal[7]; 4. 11-Austin Smith[1]; 5. 111-Max Blair[5]; 6. 22*-Drake Troutman[13]; 7. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[6]; 8. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[2]; 9. 8S-Kyle Strickler[9]; 10. 24-Tyler Wyant[15]; 11. 7-Ross Robinson[12]; 12. 114K-Evan Koehler[14]; 13. 49-Jake Timm[17]; 14. 13-Dallon Murty[10]; 15. 23-Beckham Malone[18]; 16. 1Z-Logan Zarin[8]; 17. 8-Matthew Larson[11]; 18. T1-Todd Morrow[16]; 19. J4-John Garvin Jr[19]; 20. 5-Mark Whitener[20]
Feature No. 3
Tyler Erb has spent the last decade chasing his first Gator, and he finally got it on Wednesday night.
“Terbo” made his DIRTcar Nationals debut in 2016 and has only missed two editions of the event in the years since. He’s come agonizingly close multiple times, including three podium finishes in 2017, 2024 and 2025. But 2026 turned out to be Erb’s year, as he ran away with the third and final feature of the night to claim his first golden reptile.
“All in all, it was really good,” Erb said. “I’ve had a lot of speed this year and last year some, just haven’t been able to win one. Being in clean air is huge. Had one little scare with a lap car there, I don’t know, six or seven laps in, but it was a lot of fun.”
The New Waverly, Texas, native led the field to green, but lost the top spot through Turns 1 and 2 when Overton went ripping around his outside. But a quick caution gave Erb another chance, and he made the most of it by powering ahead of Overton through the middle to take command. From then on, Erb never looked back, crossing the line 1.8 seconds ahead of Chris Madden in second.
“I’m glad we got that first restart back because I wasn’t sure what to do in [Turns] 3 and 4,” Erb said. “I saw Cody blaze around me, and I was like, ‘Well, just run the cushion until something happens otherwise.’ Getting into [Turn] 1 was definitely a little sketchy, I would enter high and dive it down and a couple times just bomb it across there. This thing would get to hucking and bucking.”
Not only was it Erb’s first win at Volusia, it was also his first of 2026 after collecting four top fives in his first 11 starts of the year.
Despite his less-than-desirable start to DIRTcar Nationals with finishes of ninth on Monday and 16th on Tuesday, the win vaulted Erb up to seventh in the Big Gator standings, 51 points behind leader Overton with three nights to go.
The finish:
Feature 3 (20 Laps): 1. 1-Tyler Erb[1]; 2. 44-Chris Madden[4]; 3. 97-Cody Overton[2]; 4. 11R-Josh Rice[3]; 5. 58-Garrett Alberson[5]; 6. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[7]; 7. 99-Devin Moran[12]; 8. 16-Tyler Bruening[11]; 9. 19-Dustin Sorensen[8]; 10. 99B-Boom Briggs[14]; 11. 16S-Sam Seawright[9]; 12. 114-Jordan Koehler[6]; 13. 81-Jason Riggs[18]; 14. 388-Jackson Hise[16]; 15. 77-Preston Luckman[19]; 16. 55E-Eli Johnson[13]; 17. 31-Tyler Millwood[15]; 18. 93-Carson Ferguson[10]; 19. 11B-Stacy Boles[17]
