Troutman Breaks Through for First World of Outlaws Victory at I-55
Photo by Emily Schwanke
PEVELY, Mo.—It was only a matter of time until Drake Troutman became a winner with the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision.
As it turned out, his time came on Saturday night at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park in the final night of the St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff.
The triumph was the latest chapter in a career-changing month for the 20-year-old rising star. Three weeks ago at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Troutman bagged the richest win of his life in the $100,000-to-win Modified World Championship. He then turned his attention to the DIRTcar Summer Nationals, and wasted little time delivering Team22 Motorsports a win for the first time on the third night of the tour at Peoria Speedway.
But the ultimate goal was always to win World of Outlaws, and Troutman finally reached the mountaintop on Saturday night.
“Winning, you just get in a routine I guess, and the morale of everything’s up when you’re winning races, or whenever you get your first win,” Troutman said. “All of us racers are just a bunch of head cases. If we sucked the night before, our confidence is down and it’s just tough. If you win the night before, you go into the next night like ‘this car is good, we feel good, everyone’s happy and in good spirits.’ It’s all performance driven.”
Troutman started the race on the outside of Row 2 behind two other drivers searching for their first World of Outlaws victory in Mike Harrison and Jake Timm. Harrison jumped out to the early advantage and kept the loaded field at bay. Behind him, Troutman edged out Timm to slide into third on Lap 10 in the battle of former Modified standouts turned MD3 Rookie of the Year contenders.
That left Brian Shirley as the only driver sitting between Troutman and the leader, but a bicycle in Turn 1 was all Troutman needed to get by on the bottom. Shirley pulled a slider into Turn 3 to briefly reclaim the spot, but Troutman crossed him back over to pull back ahead. The pair continued swapping spots a lap later, but a strong drive off Turn 2 allowed Troutman to get far enough ahead to hold on for good.
At that point, 1.2 seconds and a handful of lap cars separated Harrison and Troutman, but it didn’t stay that way for long. Troutman was all over the back of the No. 33 at the halfway mark, and when Harrison’s slip up on the cushion in Turn 4 opened the door, Troutman didn’t hesitate to walk through.
Troutman got to spend the final 18 laps doing something he has grown increasingly comfortable with over the past few weeks – controlling a race from the lead. On a treacherous racetrack with an endless stream of traffic in front of him, Troutman didn’t let anyone get within striking distance on his way to the checkered flag.
“My biggest thing is obviously still, I’m not going to try to go out there and run over anyone by any means,” Troutman said. “But just getting more aggressive, you know. I’ve always been the type that, I wasn’t going to take a lane if I didn’t know if I could for sure clear it. I’m still like that, but I just feel like I’m getting a little bit more aggressiveness out of the car, which is helping me out.”
While Harrison came up one spot short of a storybook ending at one of his home tracks, the Highland, IL driver maintained second to ensure the St. Louis crowd had one of their own standing on the podium.
“I’ve got to give it to [Troutman], he’s a hell of a young racer and he’s got a very bright future ahead of him,” Harrison said. “That’s part of being out in front and dealing with lap cars, not being able to take advantage of the leader when you’re running second or third. Just the nature of racing and there ain’t nothing you can do about it, it’s just part of it.”
Coming home third was Shirley, who bounced back from a DNF on Friday with his first World of Outlaws podium since Raceway 7 four races ago.
“I feel like I probably drove a little soft, should have probably got up there and raced a little bit harder,” Shirley said. “I was trying to just be as smooth as I could without tearing anything up, because we were definitely bouncing around. All in all it was a good night.”
Tyler Erb and Bobby Pierce completed the top five.
RACE NOTES:
Tyler Erb set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.
Cade Dillard won the Simpson Quick Time Award.
Bobby Pierce won Real American Beer Heat 1.
Aaron Marrant won STAKT Products Heat 2.
Brian Shirley won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.
Mike Harrison won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.
Jake Timm won Real American Beer Heat 5.
Drake Troutman won Real American Beer Heat 6.
Brenden Smith and Kayden Clatt won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.
Mike Harrison won the Bilstein Pole Award.
Tyler Erb won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.
Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.
Mike Harrison won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.
Tyler Erb was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.
Bobby Pierce was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.
Ryan Gustin was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.
Frank Heckenast Jr. was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.
Jake Timm was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.
Tanner English was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.
Nick Hoffman was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision is back in action with Monday Madness at Independence Motor Speedway on Monday, June 23. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.
If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
DIRTCAR SUPER LATE MODEL RESULTS
WoO Late Model Feature (40 Laps): 1. 22*-Drake Troutman[4]; 2. 33-Mike Harrison[1]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 4. 1-Tyler Erb[21]; 5. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin[7]; 7. 12-Ashton Winger[17]; 8. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[10]; 9. 49-Jake Timm[2]; 10. 96-Tanner English[8]; 11. 24-Ryan Unzicker[12]; 12. 9-Nick Hoffman[11]; 13. 75-Dillon McCowan[9]; 14. 17SS-Brenden Smith[19]; 15. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[28]; 16. 09-Michael Leach[15]; 17. 31-Tyler Millwood[22]; 18. 5-Mark Whitener[16]; 19. 74X-Ethan Dotson[24]; 20. 19-Dustin Sorensen[27]; 21. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[13]; 22. 1X-Aaron Marrant[5]; 23. 40B-Kyle Bronson[26]; 24. 50-Kayden Clatt[20]; 25. 9M-Tim McCreadie[23]; 26. 25-Jason Feger[25]; 27. 97-Cade Dillard[14]; 28. 2-Cody Overton[18]
Landa Pressure Washers LCS 1 (10 Laps): 1. 17SS-Brenden Smith[5]; 2. 1-Tyler Erb[3]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson[1]; 4. 29-Christian Hanger[7]; 5. 19-Dustin Sorensen[12]; 6. 17A-Austin Howes[13]; 7. 15-Clay Stuckey[8]; 8. 8-Matthew Larson[16]; 9. 31B-Easton Bollinger[17]; 10. 46-Mark Pflueger[18]; 11. 14-Haiden Cowan[6]; 12. 388-Jackson Hise[4]; 13. 38-Thomas Hunziker[14]; 14. 15W-Brian Woodard[15]; 15. 11-Jeff Herzog[10]; 16. 28M-Sam Mars[2]; 17. 18-Shannon Babb[9]; 18. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[11]
Landa Pressure Washers LCS 2 (10 Laps): 1. 50-Kayden Clatt[2]; 2. 31-Tyler Millwood[5]; 3. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[6]; 4. 74X-Ethan Dotson[7]; 5. 28B-Carson Brown[9]; 6. 16-Rusty Griffaw[8]; 7. 8K-Tyler Kuykendall[12]; 8. B1-Brent Larson[13]; 9. 9M-Tim McCreadie[3]; 10. 14R-Reid Millard[16]; 11. 17SR-Brody Smith[15]; 12. 14JR-Trey Mills[1]; 13. 25-Jason Feger[4]; 14. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[17]; 15. 4D-Doug Tye[11]; 16. 10-Daryn Klein[10]; 17. 16W-Tony Wolf[14]
Real American Beer Heat Race 1 (8 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[3]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 5. 388-Jackson Hise[6]; 6. 29-Christian Hanger[5]; 7. 11-Jeff Herzog[8]; 8. 17A-Austin Howes[7]; 9. 8-Matthew Larson[9]
STAKT Products Heat Race 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1X-Aaron Marrant[1]; 2. 75-Dillon McCowan[3]; 3. 09-Michael Leach[5]; 4. 28M-Sam Mars[2]; 5. 17SS-Brenden Smith[4]; 6. 15-Clay Stuckey[7]; 7. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[6]; 8. 38-Thomas Hunziker[8]; 9. 31B-Easton Bollinger[9]
Keyser Mfg Heat Race 3 (8 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman[2]; 3. 12-Ashton Winger[4]; 4. 1-Tyler Erb[7]; 5. 14-Haiden Cowan[5]; 6. 18-Shannon Babb[6]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen[3]; 8. 15W-Brian Woodard[8]; 9. 46-Mark Pflueger[9]
Jarrett Rifles Heat Race 4 (8 Laps): 1. 33-Mike Harrison[4]; 2. 96-Tanner English[6]; 3. 97-Cade Dillard[1]; 4. 14JR-Trey Mills[8]; 5. 25-Jason Feger[3]; 6. 74X-Ethan Dotson[5]; 7. 10-Daryn Klein[2]; 8. B1-Brent Larson[7]; 9. 14R-Reid Millard[9]
Real American Beer Heat Race 5 (8 Laps): 1. 49-Jake Timm[1]; 2. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[2]; 3. 5-Mark Whitener[4]; 4. 50-Kayden Clatt[5]; 5. 31-Tyler Millwood[3]; 6. 16-Rusty Griffaw[7]; 7. 4D-Doug Tye[8]; 8. 16W-Tony Wolf[9]; 9. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[6]
Real American Beer Heat Race 6 (8 Laps): 1. 22*-Drake Troutman[1]; 2. 24-Ryan Unzicker[5]; 3. 2-Cody Overton[2]; 4. 9M-Tim McCreadie[3]; 5. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[6]; 6. 28B-Carson Brown[4]; 7. 8K-Tyler Kuykendall[7]; 8. 17SR-Brody Smith[8]
Real American Beer LM Qual A (2 Laps): 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:12.959[19]; 2. 1X-Aaron Marrant, 00:13.030[16]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:13.033[7]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:13.100[15]; 5. 28M-Sam Mars, 00:13.107[22]; 6. 9-Nick Hoffman, 00:13.142[8]; 7. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:13.155[2]; 8. 75-Dillon McCowan, 00:13.195[26]; 9. 19-Dustin Sorensen, 00:13.207[25]; 10. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 00:13.224[20]; 11. 17SS-Brenden Smith, 00:13.283[3]; 12. 12-Ashton Winger, 00:13.296[23]; 13. 29-Christian Hanger, 00:13.297[24]; 14. 09-Michael Leach, 00:13.300[1]; 15. 14-Haiden Cowan, 00:13.355[4]; 16. 388-Jackson Hise, 00:13.365[17]; 17. 11G-Gordy Gundaker, 00:13.392[21]; 18. 18-Shannon Babb, 00:13.416[14]; 19. 17A-Austin Howes, 00:13.437[9]; 20. 15-Clay Stuckey, 00:13.457[27]; 21. 1-Tyler Erb, 00:13.485[12]; 22. 11-Jeff Herzog, 00:13.487[10]; 23. 38-Thomas Hunziker, 00:13.716[18]; 24. 15W-Brian Woodard, 00:13.934[13]; 25. 8-Matthew Larson, 00:14.228[6]; 26. 31B-Easton Bollinger, 00:14.279[5]; 27. 46-Mark Pflueger, 00:14.747[11]
Real American Beer LM Qual B (2 Laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:12.906[17]; 2. 49-Jake Timm, 00:13.001[15]; 3. 22*-Drake Troutman, 00:13.012[19]; 4. 10-Daryn Klein, 00:13.093[8]; 5. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr, 00:13.110[14]; 6. 2-Cody Overton, 00:13.110[26]; 7. 25-Jason Feger, 00:13.116[10]; 8. 31-Tyler Millwood, 00:13.201[5]; 9. 9M-Tim McCreadie, 00:13.215[3]; 10. 33-Mike Harrison, 00:13.234[6]; 11. 5-Mark Whitener, 00:13.293[18]; 12. 28B-Carson Brown, 00:13.320[24]; 13. 74X-Ethan Dotson, 00:13.324[13]; 14. 50-Kayden Clatt, 00:13.346[9]; 15. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 00:13.349[23]; 16. 96-Tanner English, 00:13.379[22]; 17. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain, 00:13.545[20]; 18. 11T-Trevor Gundaker, 00:13.562[25]; 19. B1-Brent Larson, 00:13.621[21]; 20. 16-Rusty Griffaw, 00:13.793[11]; 21. 8K-Tyler Kuykendall, 00:13.907[12]; 22. 14JR-Trey Mills, 00:13.953[4]; 23. 4D-Doug Tye, 00:14.047[1]; 24. 17SR-Brody Smith, 00:14.319[16]; 25. 14R-Reid Millard, 00:14.582[2]; 26. 16W-Tony Wolf, 00:14.751[7]
CURRENT WORLD OF OUTLAWS LATE MODEL SERIES STANDINGS
Points Updated: June 20, 2025
Pos. No. Driver Hometown Points Gap Starts Wins Top 5s Top 10s
1 32 Bobby Pierce Oakwood, IL 2474 17 5 12 15
2 9 Nick Hoffman Mooresville, NC 2372 -102 17 1 7 15
3 19R Ryan Gustin Marshalltown, IA 2334 -140 17 2 7 11
4 22* Drake Troutman Hyndman, PA 2256 -218 17 0 5 8
5 9M Tim McCreadie Watertown, NY 2250 -224 16 2 6 8
6 3S Brian Shirley Chatham, IL 2192 -282 17 0 5 7
7 2 Cody Overton Thomson, GA 2186 -288 17 0 1 6
8 28 Dennis Erb Carpentersville, IL 2178 -296 16 0 0 5
9 74X Ethan Dotson Bakersfield, CA 2164 -310 17 1 4 7
10 12 Ashton Winger Hampton, GA 2122 -352 12 0 4 6
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TRENT JACOBY SWEEPS ST. LOUIS FIRECRACKER FACEOFF AT I-55 WITH SUMMIT MODIFIEDS
PEVELY, MO – Treb Jacoby joked he was closing in on Nick Hoffman’s nearly 70-win record with the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals after scoring his second Hell Tour win Friday night. Twenty-four hours later, he took another step closer.
“That was fun!” Jacoby belted out after parking his car in Victory Lane at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park for the second straight night during the World of Outlaws St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff.
He went toe-to-toe with World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision star Ethan Dotson and outdueled the likes of Kenny Wallace and Chase Holland to pick up his third Hell Tour win in seven and another win at his home track.
The O’fallon, MO driver started third in the 25-lap Feature but didn’t stay there long. Ethan Dotson ran away with the lead on the opening lap and brought Jacoby with him.
While Dotson cruised around the bottom, Jacoby navigated the aggressive character of the top lane and kept Dotson within reach. By Lap 5, he was close enough to push Dotson down the backstretch and used that proximity to dive under him going into Turn 1.
The two crossed lanes in the middle of the corner, with Jacoby drifting to the top while Dotson cranked his car back down the track to build momentum off Turn 2 and drive away from Jacoby down the backstretch.
Seeing the benefits the top lane provided for Jacoby, Dotson made that his new course around the top of the 1/3-mile dirt track. He used it to his advantage, pulling ahead by over a second.
However, Dotson’s hopes of a victory were dashed when he hit a rut going into Turn 1, causing the rear of his car to bounce violently multiple times. When his car finally came to a rest, it had suffered too much suspension damage from the bounces to continue.
That put Jacoby in the lead with 16 laps remaining.
A couple of cautions brought the field back to Jacoby’s rear bumper, placing Wallace and Holland as his new challengers. But neither could keep up with him on the restarts as Jacoby ended the race with a more than 2.5-second lead over Wallace.
“I had an idea; I think I showed Ethan Dotson a little too early my cards. He stepped it up a notch, and I’m not going to lie, I said in my car, ‘Let’s get after it, Ethan, let’s race!” Jacoby said. “He got a little high over there, and it took him out. I was looking forward to [racing him]. I was going to drop my balls down a little lower every lap to run with him.
“But we finally found a line that was smooth under yellow. They had us navigating the tow truck and we were packing the racetrack in in the line I chose to run. So, I was kind of being defensive at the same time, trying to keep anybody from sliding me. I’m wore out. I don’t know what to say. I’m speechless. We finally won a Hell Tour race from outside of the front row.”
He's only got 66 more Summit Modified Nationals victories to go to catch Hoffman.
UP NEXT: The DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals continue their Hell Tour journey with the DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models at Lincoln (IL) Speedway on Sunday, June 22. Tickets will be available at the gate.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every Hell Tour race live on DIRTVision.
BNM Auto Body DIRTcar UMP Modifieds
Feature (25 Laps): 1. J82-Treb Jacoby[3]; 2. 36-Kenny Wallace[4]; 3. 51-Timmy Hill[7]; 4. 22-Josh Harris[9]; 5. 13-Charlie Mefford[8]; 6. 66-Cole Falloway[12]; 7.
28-Tom Smallwood[17]; 8. 98-Joshua Hawkins[11]; 9. 70-Josh Russell[24]; 10. 8A-Austin Holcombe[10]; 11. 10X-Jim Black[18]; 12. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[22]; 13. 75-Daniel Adam[13]; 14. 24S-Jacob Steinkoenig[15]; 15. 66W-Adam Wright[14]; 16. 94-Austin Rettig[26]; 17. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[19]; 18. 45S-Chandler Smith[23]; 19. 45H-Chase Holland[6]; 20. (DNF) 777-Trevor Neville[5]; 21. (DNF) 4G-Paul Schrempf Jr[21]; 22. (DNF) 5-Ethan Dotson[1]; 23. (DNF) 21-Randy Dickman[27]; 24. (DNF) 5S-Owen Steinkoenig[16]; 25. (DNF) 14-CJ Springer[20]; 26. (DNF) 14C-Rick Conoyer[2]; 27. (DNS) 24H-Mike Harrison; 28. (DNS) 4T-Jake Trebilcock
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Ethan Dotson[1]; 2. 36-Kenny Wallace[3]; 3. 51-Timmy Hill[4]; 4. 8A-Austin Holcombe[2]; 5. 75-Daniel Adam[7]; 6. 5S-Owen Steinkoenig[8]; 7. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[9]; 8. (DNF) 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[6]; 9. (DNF) 24H-Mike Harrison[5]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. J82-Treb Jacoby[2]; 2. 777-Trevor Neville[1]; 3. 13-Charlie Mefford[3]; 4. 98-Joshua Hawkins[4]; 5. 66W-Adam Wright[7]; 6. 28-Tom Smallwood[6]; 7. 14-CJ Springer[5]; 8. 45S-Chandler Smith[9]; 9. 94-Austin Rettig[8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 14C-Rick Conoyer[2]; 2. 45H-Chase Holland[3]; 3. 22-Josh Harris[4]; 4. 66-Cole Falloway[1]; 5. 24S-Jacob Steinkoenig[5]; 6. 10X-Jim Black[7]; 7. 4G-Paul Schrempf Jr[8]; 8. 70-Josh Russell[10]; 9. 21-Randy Dickman[9]; 10. (DNS) 4T-Jake Trebilcock
Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. 5-Ethan Dotson, 00:14.541[3]; 2. 8A-Austin Holcombe, 00:14.678[6]; 3. 36-Kenny Wallace, 00:14.742[5]; 4. 51-Timmy Hill, 00:14.804[7]; 5. 24H-Mike Harrison, 00:14.812[1]; 6. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr, 00:15.235[8]; 7. 75-Daniel Adam, 00:15.303[4]; 8. 5S-Owen Steinkoenig, 00:15.440[9]; 9. 23B-Ethan Boomsma, 00:15.548[2]
Qualifying 2 (3 Laps): 1. 777-Trevor Neville, 00:14.516[4]; 2. J82-Treb Jacoby, 00:14.642[2]; 3. 13-Charlie Mefford, 00:14.698[5]; 4. 98-Joshua Hawkins, 00:15.092[8]; 5. 14-CJ Springer, 00:15.367[7]; 6. 28-Tom Smallwood, 00:15.424[1]; 7. 66W-Adam Wright, 00:15.491[6]; 8. 94-Austin Rettig, 00:15.711[9]; 9. 45S-Chandler Smith, 00:16.279[3]
Qualifying 3 (3 Laps): 1. 66-Cole Falloway, 00:14.432[1]; 2. 14C-Rick Conoyer, 00:14.526[10]; 3. 45H-Chase Holland, 00:14.622[2]; 4. 22-Josh Harris, 00:14.823[5]; 5. 24S-Jacob Steinkoenig, 00:15.221[8]; 6. 4T-Jake Trebilcock, 00:15.280[6]; 7. 10X-Jim Black, 00:15.304[4]; 8. 4G-Paul Schrempf Jr, 00:15.409[9]; 9. 21-Randy Dickman, 00:15.948[7]; 10. 70-Josh Russell, 00:16.058[3]
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