DODGE CITY, Kan. — Taylor Velasquez added another milestone victory to his growing résumé Saturday night, winning the Rick Salem Memorial at Dodge City Raceway Park after an intense late-race battle with Jeremy Huish during United Rebel Sprint Series competition.
The victory marked Velasquez’s 11th career win at Dodge City Raceway Park and the 17th United Rebel Sprint Series triumph of his career.
A strong field of 28 sprint cars signed into the pit area for the special event honoring URSS founder Rick Salem, and the 25-lap A Feature delivered one of the most exciting races of the season.
Coming into the night as the URSS championship point leader, Velasquez continued his remarkable consistency by recording his first victory of the 2026 season while extending his advantage atop the standings. The Liberal, Kansas driver has now opened the year with five consecutive top-five finishes.
Starting from the pole position, Velasquez immediately found himself locked in a race-long battle with front row starter Jeremy Huish. The pair traded momentum throughout the feature while slicing through traffic around the three-eighths-mile oval.
Huish appeared poised to pull off the victory late in the race and held the lead when the caution flag waved on lap 22, setting up a dramatic sprint to the finish.
On the restart, Velasquez returned to the cushion and found momentum around the outside groove. Charging hard through turns three and four, the 21x reeled Huish back in and completed the winning move in the closing laps to secure the emotional Rick Salem Memorial victory.
Zach Blurton turned in one of the drives of the night, advancing from the 14th starting position to finish second and earning the Martens Machine Shop | E3 Spark Plugs Hard Charger Award.
Huish settled for third after leading late, while Koby Walters advanced from 11th to fourth. Steven Richardson rounded out the top five and now sits just 16 points behind Velasquez in the championship standings despite competing in one fewer event.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 21X-Taylor Velasquez[1]; 2. 2J-Zach Blurton[14]; 3. 88J-Jeremy Huish[2]; 4. 33-Koby Walters[11]; 5. 20-Steven Richardson[5]; 6. 88K-Kelby Fetters[8]; 7. 51-Jeremy Campbell[13]; 8. 88-Jordan Knight[9]; 9. 72-Ray Seemann[3]; 10. 81-Jon Freeman[4]; 11. 17X-Conner Thomas[12]; 12. 97-Brian Herbert[17]; 13. 37-Jack Hall[6]; 14. 24B-Johnny Boos[18]; 15. 11K-Tyler Knight[7]; 16. 65-Kohl Ricke[16]; 17. 29-Dalton Webb[10]; 18. 9-Zac Zeller[15]; 19. (DNF) 44-Ryan Rader[19]; 20. (DNF) 112-Brayton Dewell[20]
