Nick Hoffman ends up in 4th of July victory lane at Deer Creek
Photo by Emily Schwanke
SPRING VALLEY, Minn.—Independence Day wasn’t the only “fourth” that Nick Hoffman got to celebrate on Friday night at Deer Creek Speedway.
The Mooresville, NC driver cruised to his fourth World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision victory of the season and the 10th of his career in the Friday portion of the NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50.
After starting the Feature on the outside of the front row alongside Bilstein Pole Award winner Tyler Bruening, Hoffman settled into second while Bruening led until Chris Simpson blew an engine to bring out the first caution on Lap 3.
When the race resumed, Hoffman wasn’t going to let Bruening get away as easily. The No. 9 stayed side-by-side with Bruening on the bottom down the backstretch, dove to the bottom entering Turn 3 and slid up into the top spot. That move got Bruening out of shape, and the No. 16 got sideways, slid down the track and in front of the field to kickstart a massive pileup.
“Big slider there, I felt like it was a pretty late slider,” Hoffman said. “Felt like [Bruening] could have lifted. Just one of those deals, he was turned down the hill to probably try and cross me. As soon as he got underneath me, it turns you around like that in front of everybody. It sucks.”
The wreck knocked five cars out of the race, including Series points leader Bobby Pierce, who got upside down. When the carnage was cleaned up, Hoffman powered away to the lead while Jake Timm and Brian Shirley raced for second. The Winona, MN native put his local knowledge of Deer Creek to good use in the battle, but it wasn’t enough to hold off Shirley.
Once he got clear of Timm, Shirley began hunting down Hoffman as the leaders made their way through slower traffic. But with seven to go, Shirley made contact with Tristan Chamberlain entering Turn 3 and went around.
Before the caution came out, Ryan Gustin had made his way up to second to be the next in line to challenge Hoffman on the final run to the checkers. The “Reaper” had nothing for Hoffman’s speed on the cushion though, as Hoffman drove a perfect final eight laps on his way to the checkered flag.
The victory combined with Pierce’s DNF cut Hoffman’s deficit in the standings down to 50 points, although it wasn’t the way Hoffman intended on closing the gap.
“You don’t want to win them this way, this is probably the worst way to win them,” Hoffman said. “Our race car was good, probably should have been a little more patient obviously. Bobby goes from sixth to third there right away, lined up beside him, felt like I got a good restart and just had to throw a pretty big bomb there. It can go both ways.”
Gustin’s second-place run was a remarkable showing considering he needed a provisional to start the Feature, extending his World of Outlaws top-five streak at Deer Creek to six in a row.
“Felt like we had a really good car there, we just weren’t as fast as Nick there at the end,” Gustin said. “He could leave a lot better than I could coming off two there through the middle, but I felt like that’s the best I’ve been through the middle in a long time. Definitely learned something for the notebook.”
Dennis Erb Jr. rounded out the podium in third to establish a new career best at Deer Creek and close within 24 points of Tim McCreadie as they race for a spot in the top five.
“Things have been rolling pretty good for us,” Erb said. “We were a little bit behind the eight-ball tonight, qualified bad but got away through the Heat Race and then was able to get up through there. That deal that happened earlier was a bad deal for everybody, hate to see that, but we were able to finish it off here and come home third.”
Tanner English continued his resurgence with his second fourth-place run of the weekend, while Drake Troutman rounded out the top five after charging forward from 24th.
RACE NOTES:
Boom Briggs set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.
Tyler Bruening won the Simpson Quick Time Award.
Tyler Bruening won Real American Beer Heat 1.
Nick Hoffman won STAKT Products Heat 2.
Chris Simpson won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.
Tim McCreadie won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.
Tyler Bruening won the Bilstein Pole Award.
Ryan Gustin won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.
Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.
Ryan Gustin won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.
Tanner English was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.
Drake Troutman was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.
Jake Timm was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.
Jake O’Neil was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.
Michael Leach was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.
Derrick Stewart was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.
Boom Briggs was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision will wrap up the 2025 running of the NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50 with the $50,000-to-win finale on Saturday, July 5. Tickets will be available at the gate.
If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
RESULTS
WoO Late Model Feature (30 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[2]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin[23]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[16]; 4. 96-Tanner English[20]; 5. 22*-Drake Troutman[24]; 6. 49-Jake Timm[11]; 7. 3S-Brian Shirley[14]; 8. 0-Jake O'Neil[7]; 9. 09-Michael Leach[22]; 10. 43-Derrick Stewart[18]; 11. 2-Cody Overton[15]; 12. 99B-Boom Briggs[17]; 13. B1-Brent Larson[13]; 14. 40B-Kyle Bronson[21]; 15. 76-Blair Nothdurft[19]; 16. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[12]; 17. 1X-Aaron Marrant[9]; 18. 19-Dustin Sorensen[5]; 19. 16-Tyler Bruening[1]; 20. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 21. 9M-Tim McCreadie[3]; 22. 25-Chad Simpson[8]; 23. 74X-Ethan Dotson[10]; 24. 32S-Chris Simpson[4]
Landa Pressure Washers LCS 1 (10 Laps): 1. 99B-Boom Briggs[2]; 2. 76-Blair Nothdurft[1]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 4. 19R-Ryan Gustin[3]; 5. 18-Chase Junghans[6]; 6. 22*-Drake Troutman[5]; 7. 22-Nick Panitzke[8]; 8. 90-Lance Matthees[7]; 9. 35-Parker Foster[9]
Landa Pressure Washers LCS 2 (10 Laps): 1. 43-Derrick Stewart[2]; 2. 96-Tanner English[3]; 3. 09-Michael Leach[1]; 4. 9T-Tim Isenberg[4]; 5. 8-Matthew Larson[6]; 6. 51W-JT Wasmund[5]; 7. 35D-Dylan Sillman[7]; 8. 78S-Steve Stultz[8]; 9. 19J-Justin Green[9]
Real American Beer Heat Race 1 (8 Laps): 1. 16-Tyler Bruening[1]; 2. 19-Dustin Sorensen[4]; 3. 1X-Aaron Marrant[3]; 4. B1-Brent Larson[5]; 5. 76-Blair Nothdurft[2]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin[6]; 7. 22*-Drake Troutman[7]; 8. 90-Lance Matthees[9]; 9. 35-Parker Foster[8]
STAKT Products Heat Race 2 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[1]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[2]; 3. 49-Jake Timm[3]; 4. 2-Cody Overton[6]; 5. 99B-Boom Briggs[4]; 6. 40B-Kyle Bronson[5]; 7. 18-Chase Junghans[7]; 8. 22-Nick Panitzke[8]
Keyser Mfg Heat Race 3 (8 Laps): 1. 32S-Chris Simpson[2]; 2. 0-Jake O'Neil[1]; 3. 74X-Ethan Dotson[4]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley[6]; 5. 09-Michael Leach[3]; 6. 96-Tanner English[5]; 7. 51W-JT Wasmund[8]; 8. 35D-Dylan Sillman[7]; 9. 19J-Justin Green[9]
Jarrett Rifles Heat Race 4 (8 Laps): 1. 9M-Tim McCreadie[1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 3. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[5]; 4. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[8]; 5. 43-Derrick Stewart[7]; 6. 9T-Tim Isenberg[2]; 7. 8-Matthew Larson[4]; 8. 78S-Steve Stultz[6]
Real American Beer LM Qual A (2 Laps): 1. 16-Tyler Bruening, 00:14.877[7]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman, 00:15.047[5]; 3. 76-Blair Nothdurft, 00:15.179[11]; 4. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:15.243[4]; 5. 1X-Aaron Marrant, 00:15.259[2]; 6. 49-Jake Timm, 00:15.287[13]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen, 00:15.364[9]; 8. 99B-Boom Briggs, 00:15.428[17]; 9. B1-Brent Larson, 00:15.455[10]; 10. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 00:15.457[3]; 11. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:15.492[14]; 12. 2-Cody Overton, 00:15.562[15]; 13. 22*-Drake Troutman, 00:15.605[8]; 14. 18-Chase Junghans, 00:15.735[16]; 15. 35-Parker Foster, 00:15.891[1]; 16. 22-Nick Panitzke, 00:15.940[6]; 17. 90-Lance Matthees, 00:16.213[12]
Real American Beer LM Qual B (2 Laps): 1. 0-Jake O'Neil, 00:15.612[1]; 2. 9M-Tim McCreadie, 00:15.623[10]; 3. 32S-Chris Simpson, 00:15.685[3]; 4. 9T-Tim Isenberg, 00:15.950[5]; 5. 09-Michael Leach, 00:15.980[7]; 6. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:15.987[9]; 7. 74X-Ethan Dotson, 00:16.006[8]; 8. 8-Matthew Larson, 00:16.146[11]; 9. 96-Tanner English, 00:16.156[13]; 10. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain, 00:16.173[4]; 11. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:16.177[15]; 12. 78S-Steve Stultz, 00:16.197[2]; 13. 35D-Dylan Sillman, 00:16.212[6]; 14. 43-Derrick Stewart, 00:16.260[17]; 15. 51W-JT Wasmund, 00:16.270[12]; 16. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:16.375[16]; 17. 19J-Justin Green, 00:16.622[14]
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BRANDON DAVIS TOPS NORTHERN LIGHTS MODIFIED SERIES AT DEER CREEK
By NLMS PR
SPRING VELLY, Minn. -- Brandon Davis remains at the helm of NLMS Point Standings after blazing a trail to Victory Lane on night one of the Gopher 50 at Deer Creek Speedway. Davis started the 25 Lap Wehrs Machine & Racing Products feature from the 12th spot and climbed his way to the top. Davis has picked up three feature wins at Deer Creek Speedway so far in 2025.
The Gopher 50 at Deer Creek Speedway brought out an incredible field of modifieds to kick of the three night event. Alex Williamson started 10th and worked his way through the field to finish second. Zach Brom was third, Dustin Sorensen was fourth and Jacob Bleess rounded out the Top 5.
Action continues tonight from Deer Creek Speedway with the NLMS and the World of Outlaws Late Models. Tonight’s Modified winner will pocket $2,000 tonight and $3,000 on Saturday.
USRA MODIFIED RESULTS
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 50III-Brandon Davis[1]; 2. 24C-Jim Chisholm[2]; 3. 20-Rodney Sanders[3]; 4. 19-Dustin Sorensen[6]; 5. 99-Josh Angst[4]; 6. 69-Lucas Schott[8]; 7. 43-Zach Brom[12]; 8. 15W-Alex Williamson[21]; 9. 95-Keith Foss[5]; 10. 21B-Jacob Bleess[14]; 11. 28-Parker Hale[13]; 12. 12-Nick Murgic[7]; 13. 87H-Harley Dais[9]; 14. 77T-Tripp Gaylord[24]; 15. 55H-AJ Hoff[20]; 16. 29H-Joe Horgdal[15]; 17. 98-Kevin Stoa[19]; 18. 97JR-Landon Volkman[22]; 19. 21-Ben Nading[18]; 20. (DNF) 83-Kylie Kath[11]; 21. (DNF) 27-Don Gerritsen Jr[23]; 22. (DNF) 0-Brandon Duellman[10]; 23. (DNF) 25-Joe Chisholm[17]; 24. (DNF) 95X-Shaun Walski[16]
B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 25-Joe Chisholm[3]; 2. 98-Kevin Stoa[4]; 3. 15W-Alex Williamson[7]; 4. 27-Don Gerritsen Jr[1]; 5. 90-Ryan Wetzstein[2]; 6. 18M-Mason McEvers[5]; 7. 4A-Joel Alberts[6]; 8. 23-Darwin Karau[8]; 9. 16-Dave Schoenberger[9]; 10. (DNF) 99L-Steve Lavasseur[10]; 11. (DNF) 75-James Parker[11]
B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 21-Ben Nading[1]; 2. 55H-AJ Hoff[2]; 3. 97JR-Landon Volkman[3]; 4. 77T-Tripp Gaylord[5]; 5. 1-Blake Arndt[4]; 6. 33-Joe Ludemann[7]; 7. 32-Derek Green[10]; 8. 2C-Cole Bennerotte[8]; 9. 24-Charlie Steinberg[11]; 10. 5D-Devon Havlik[9]; 11. (DNF) 4S-Gavin Shaw[6]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 69-Lucas Schott[1]; 2. 24C-Jim Chisholm[8]; 3. 95-Keith Foss[6]; 4. 29H-Joe Horgdal[3]; 5. 21-Ben Nading[7]; 6. 55H-AJ Hoff[10]; 7. 18M-Mason McEvers[4]; 8. 15W-Alex Williamson[5]; 9. 16-Dave Schoenberger[2]; 10. 32-Derek Green[9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 50III-Brandon Davis[1]; 2. 0-Brandon Duellman[2]; 3. 43-Zach Brom[5]; 4. 95X-Shaun Walski[3]; 5. 97JR-Landon Volkman[4]; 6. 25-Joe Chisholm[9]; 7. 4A-Joel Alberts[6]; 8. 33-Joe Ludemann[7]; 9. 5D-Devon Havlik[8]; 10. 75-James Parker[10]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Rodney Sanders[1]; 2. 99-Josh Angst[3]; 3. 19-Dustin Sorensen[6]; 4. 21B-Jacob Bleess[2]; 5. 90-Ryan Wetzstein[7]; 6. 98-Kevin Stoa[4]; 7. 77T-Tripp Gaylord[5]; 8. 23-Darwin Karau[8]; 9. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[9]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 12-Nick Murgic[1]; 2. 83-Kylie Kath[2]; 3. 87H-Harley Dais[6]; 4. 27-Don Gerritsen Jr[3]; 5. 28-Parker Hale[9]; 6. 1-Blake Arndt[4]; 7. 4S-Gavin Shaw[7]; 8. 2C-Cole Bennerotte[8]; 9. (DNF) 24-Charlie Steinberg[5]
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