MONTPELIER, Ind. — Since Tyler Nicely joined the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals campaign, he’s finished within the top two through eight of the nine features he’s started.
On Wednesday night, the Owensboro, Ky., native piloted his No. 5 Elite Chassis to the fifth win of the season at Montpelier Motor Speedway as he enters the picture toward the championship finale at the Prairie Dirt Classic.
Polesitter Brennan Sherman claimed the lead of the feature first, with Nicely using the middle lane to stay even with the No. 82.
The two stayed side-by-side as Sherman held an advantage off Turn 4 to lead the first seven laps, but Nicely’s hustle through the middle lane paid off by taking the lead on Lap 8 and getting clear of Sherman.
Dalton Smith followed Nicely’s shadow as he passed Sherman for second place as the two drivers separated from the field by over five seconds.
While Smith’s No. 05 UMP modified kept a 0.5-second gap after losing the lead, the Richmond, Ind., driver began to lose touch with Nicely as the 2023 Summit Modifieds champion drove toward a 1.9-second gap.
Though Smith shrank the interval as Nicely struggled to maneuver around the lapped traffic in the final laps, he was too late to attempt a pass as Nicely secured his 16th career win in the first visit to Montpelier for the Summit Modifieds.
Despite missing the first two weeks of Summit Modified competition after having a newborn son, Nicely moves up to third place in points, 144 markers back from points leader Trevor Neville, moving into the final six events.
“We really didn’t plan on running the whole thing,” Nicely said. “I just had a new boy back home, so that’s why we missed the first few weeks, and luckily, my wife let me come out here. We’ve had such a good week, you know we figured we’d just come out here and just keep trying to knock off some wins.”
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 25-Tyler Nicely[2]; 2. 05-Dalton Smith[7]; 3. 45H-Chase Holland[5]; 4. 35-David Stremme[16]; 5. 777-Trevor Neville[10]; 6. 3W-Dylan Woodling[11]; 7. 4-Michael Ledford[6]; 8. 82-Brennan Sherman[1]; 9. 75-Daniel Adam[19]; 10. 65-Todd Sherman[13]; 11. 1TS-Tyler Spalding[4]; 12. 45P-Brian Post[17]; 13. 21C-Drew Charlson[15]; 14. 22T-Tony Anderson[18]; 15. 9R-Garrett Rons[20]; 16. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[22]; 17. (DNF) 28-Mason Lobb[8]; 18. (DNF) 80-Cole Sink[21]; 19. (DNF) 24-Zeke McKenzie[12]; 20. (DNF) 21B-Hunter Breland[14]; 21. (DNF) 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[9]; 22. (DNF) 114-Clayton Bryant[3]
