HARTFORD, Ohio — Anthony Perrego has struggled throughout 2025. But on Monday night at Sharon Speedway, he finally had momentum go his way.
The Montgomery, N.Y., driver led every lap to win the Steel Valley 75, earning his first Super DIRTcar Series win of the season and a guaranteed starting spot in the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 at Super DIRT Week 53.
His win was also his first points-paying top five of the year, a finish Perrego said his team desperately needed.
“Anything that’s gone wrong has gone wrong,” Perrego said. “Hopefully, this will turn our year around. Obviously, we needed that big. We’ve had a few hit or miss good runs, but this week we changed a lot of crap to come here.
“This place is kind of just like [Orange County]. It’s flat. It’s slippery. I felt right at home.”
Perrego led the field to the green in the series’ triumphant return to the Ohio oval, driving Mike Mahaney to lead the race’s opening lap.
While the “Ant-Man” led out front, it wasn’t long before 10-time series champion Matt Sheppard started moving forward from fifth. After getting by Garrett Krummert for fourth, Perego rolled the bottom of the race track to pass Mahaney and Will Thomas to move into second.
That’s when Sheppard started chasing Perrego down, just as the No. 4 reached traffic on Lap 20. While trying to pass Justin Stone, a lap car, on Lap 21, Perrego went to the outside lane in Turns 1 and 2, opening the door for Sheppard on the inside.
As they exited Turn 2, Sheppard nosed ahead of Perrego, but Perrgo’s momentum down the backstretch was too strong as he held onto the lead entering Turn 3.
After seeing Sheppard’s nose, Perrego pulled away from Sheppard and cruised for the next 40 laps. Just before the race was over, though, Sheppard found himself on Perrego’s back bumper, in position to strike if Perrego made a mistake.
However, that’s as close as Sheppard got, as Perrego held on for the $10,000 victory and sixth career Super DIRTcar Series triumph.
“In the first few laps, I thought it was Will Thomas, but it was obviously Matt,” Perrego said. “I seen him peek under me there when we got to lap cars. Then, the track was still kind of racy. I kind of got behind the lap cars and slowed my pace up so much that I just kept pushing across the track.
“Fortunately, I moved up. Got by a couple, and that obviously gave us a pretty good lead because he didn’t get by us.”
Sheppard settled for second, earning his fifth straight Super DIRTcar Series podium finish.
“I was able to hook that bottom real good early, and got to second,” Sheppard said. “I wasn’t really gaining any ground on Anthony, and we got into lapped traffic and got racing there. It kind of felt like the bottom was trying to latch a bit, and I was hoping I could sneak by him. I got up next to him in (Turns) 1 and 2 and just couldn’t pull the pass off. Then, we just kind of tucked in line and rode it out.”
Dalton Slack finished third, grabbing his second Super DIRTcar series podium of 2025.
“We passed a bunch of cars in the first five laps,” Slack said. “I kind of got going good in the middle, like in the Lou Blaney [Memorial], and I was like, alright. I saw those two on the bottom, and I was like, well, if I can get my chance, I’ll try to roll them.
“But they’re more experienced than I am, and they knew it was going to rubber quicker than I did. I screwed around in the middle a little too long.”
Alex Payne finished fourth and Mahaney rounded out the top five.
Points leader Mat Williamson finished seventh, extending his points lead to 32 points over Alex Yankowski, who finished 15th.
Brandon Spithaler won the companion sprint car race.
The finish:
Feature (75 Laps): 1. 4-Anthony Perrego[1]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard[5]; 3. 3RS-Dalton Slack[11]; 4. 70A-Alex Payne[9]; 5. 35-Mike Mahaney[2]; 6. 25-Erick Rudolph[13]; 7. 88-Mat Williamson[8]; 8. 2-Jack Lehner[6]; 9. 29-Garrett Krummert[4]; 10. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[12]; 11. 27-Tanner Van Doren[17]; 12. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[10]; 13. 91-Felix Roy[18]; 14. 12-Darren Smith[15]; 15. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[14]; 16. 21A-Peter Britten[23]; 17. 5H-Amy Holland[21]; 18. 15X-Justin Stone[25]; 19. 5C-Ayden Cipriano[16]; 20. 14S-Justin Shea[20]; 21. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[22]; 22. 9-Will Thomas[3]; 23. 6S-Brian Swartzlander[24]; 24. (DNF) 165-Rex King Jr[7]; 25. (DNF) 6-Matt Stangle[19]; 26. (DNS) 17-Marcus Dinkins
