CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Tasker Phillips had one thing left to accomplish in 2025, and that was a win with the Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders.
The Pleasantville, Iowa, native accomplished that Saturday night in a special event at the Hawkeye Downs Speedway. The pavement quarter-mile surface there was covered in dirt as part of the 100th anniversary celebration of the facility, making it a one of a kind event.
Phillips clinched his first championship with the series to add to his Knoxville Raceway 360 title. The win was worth $3,000 aboard the 3-Way Motorsports No. 1TAZ.
Tyler Lee, racing in his hometown had misfortune in staging for the 25-lap feature. He performed a 360 spin, surrendering his fifth place starting spot and going to the rear. Before a lap could be completed Grae Anderson spun to bring caution.
Once underway, Phillips led Dustin Slevage, JJ Hickle, Brett Moffitt and Terry McCarl to green. Hickle used the low side of turn two to pass Selvage for the second spot on lap two. Phillips was lapping traffic by lap five before Colton Fisher crashed hard down the front stretch.
Anderson spun on that restart, ending his night. McCarl grabbed fourth from Moffitt on the restart. Up front, Phillips and Hickle pulled away from the rest, entering lapped traffic again on the thirteenth circuit. Two laps later, Lee flipped over the turn two barriers. Luke Verardi flipped himself behind Lee, and collected McCain Richards.
Phillips led the last 10 laps to win over Hickle, Selvage, hard-charger Cody Wehrle and McCarl.
“This is pretty cool,” said Phillips. “I don’t know the last time this place saw sprint cars. I don’t know if it will see them again, but it’s pretty freaking cool to have my name on record here. I was just trying to finish the race. I’ve been in the combine for the last month. I love this series, because we hit a lot of different joints, and the fans are awesome. There’s a lot of places we go that people are standing and cheering in hot laps.
“That’s pretty cool. I just have a heck of a team around me and we’ve never once talked about points racing this year. That changes you. People change the way they race. My team is on kill, we either win a race or put on a show. We’re not here just to look good. We had a strong beginning to the year, and we put ourselves in position (for the championship). In the end, it was Terry’s misfortune that got us here.”
“I just need to thank my team,” said Hickle. “It’s a big effort to go out and race every weekend. I’m just super-proud of what we’ve built here, and hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come next year. It was a really good racetrack early, with a top and bottom. I knew Taz was going to be good on the top. That’s his wheelhouse there. I was able to fight Dustin for the bottom there, a couple of old guys trying to get to the low line. Once I got there, I just got the low line and tried to get to Taz before the rubber. It was a hell of a show, and the fans were packed.”
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 1TAZ, Tasker Phillips, Pleasantville, IA (2) 2. 63, JJ Hickle, Quilcene, WA (3) 3. 6, Dustin Selvage, Indianola, IA (1) 4. 40, Cody Wehrle, Burlington, IA (14) 5. 24, Terry McCarl, Altoona, IA (7) 6. 57, Cam Sorrels, Hallsville, MO (15) 7. 22, Riley Goodno, Knoxville, IA (7) 8. 13M, Brett Moffitt, Grimes, IA (4) 9. 63T, Jack Thomas, Bates City, MO (6) 10. 99, Kelby Watt, Adel, IA (10) 11. 88, Riley Scott, Quincy, IL (18) 12. 24x, Eric Wilke, Genesee, WI (8) 13. T4, Tyler Graves, Chariton, IA (16) 14. 7, Tyler Lee, Cedar Rapids, IA (19) 15. 28, Luke Verardi, Taylorville, IL (11) 16. 31, McCain Richards, Burlington, IA (12) 17. 1A, Grae Anderson, Des Moines, IA (17) 18. 50, Corey Timmerman, Carman, IL (13) 19. 11, Colton Fisher, Danville, IA (9).
