Mark Whitener Breaks Through to First Career Summer Nationals Feature Win at Butler Motor Speedway
Photo by Tyler Carr
QUINCY, Mich.—Throughout the 2025 DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models season, Mark Whitener has been in the fight for a win late in several Features that saw him come up short of the win.
On Thursday night, the Middleburg, FL driver did not have to wait any longer for his moment to come with a career night at Michigan’s Butler Motor Speedway by setting the new track record, the Heat 1 win, and led 29 of 30 laps in the Feature for his first career Hell Tour win.
Whitener began the race from the Pole Position, with Week 2 champion Ryan Gustin and Thursday’s winner Cody Overton going to an early battle for the lead. Gustin ran the bottom lane while Overton used the top side to follow Whitener. While Gustin led the opening lap, Whitener bested him on Lap 2 by running the cushion through Turns 1-2 to secure the spot.
Whitener and Overton’s running of the cushion proved to outmatch the Todd Cooney Motorsports No. 19R as the Tri-Star Motorsports No. 2 took over second place, while the three drivers maintained the top three spots through the first 10 laps.
The Thomson, GA driver found momentum at the top and chased down Whitener while Trey Mills passed Gustin for third place through a crossover move from running to the top and sliding under Gustin to take the spot.
Whitener’s lead began to widen as Overton lost momentum off of Turn 4, which gave way for the Jacksonville, FL driver to pull up alongside his border-state rival for second place.
As Mills and Overton continued to battle behind the No. 5 Longhorn Chassis, the “Magic Man” became the 120th different Summer Nationals winner in history after completing a dominant track at a new track for him.
“S***, it means a lot,” Whitener said. “This first one’s hard to get. Hopefully, they come easier. Listen, it was tough. We gave it everything we had, we didn’t give up, and we’re in Victory Lane.
“Down at home, the tracks are kinda dirty. The clay is like sandy, so it’s familiar with this Michigan clay, really a little bit of Indiana clay, too. It’s dirty, crummy, and I’m kinda familiar with it. So it kind of fits me as it fits my car’s setup. I ain’t took a shock off my car all night. We’ve been pretty good since we unloaded it, so we left it alone.”
With three races to decide the newest champion of the Summer Nationals, Bloomington, IL’s Jason Feger leads by 76 points over New Waverly, TX native Tyler Erb. In the Week 5 chase, the two Sunshine State drivers of Mills and Whitener hold the top two positions, with Mills ahead by 32 markers.
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals finish the Michigan swing with Crystal Motor Speedway on Friday night, July 11.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.
DIRTCAR LATE MODEL RESULTS
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 5-Mark Whitener[1]; 2. 2-Cody Overton[4]; 3. 14JR-Trey Mills[3]; 4. 75-Dillon McCowan[9]; 5. 57-Zack Mitchell[6]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin[2]; 7. 1-Tyler Erb[12]; 8. 71R-Rod Conley[5]; 9. 25F-Jason Feger[10]; 10. 42-Chad Finley[8]; 11. 91-Rusty Schlenk[16]; 12. 31M-Tyler Millwood[19]; 13. 17SS-Brenden Smith[13]; 14. 46-Colin Shipley[11]; 15. 4-Travis Stemler[21]; 16. 38-Thomas Hunziker[20]; 17. (DNF) 29-Christian Hanger[22]; 18. (DNF) 41-Mike Vandermark Jr[18]; 19. (DNF) 51-Devin Shiels[15]; 20. (DNF) 07-Rylee Knoll[7]; 21. (DNF) 27-Eric Spangler[17]; 22. (DNF) 21N-Logan Nickerson[14]
Last Chance Showdown (B-Main) (10 Laps): 1. 27-Eric Spangler[2]; 2. 41-Mike Vandermark Jr[5]; 3. 4-Travis Stemler[3]; 4. LIL91-Carter Schlenk[8]; 5. 55-Eli Johnson[4]; 6. 75D-Dusty Moore[11]; 7. 17SR-Brody Smith[10]; 8. 57K-Steve Kester[9]; 9. 34-Herb Reich[12]; 10. 27H-Ken Hahn[14]; 11. 51B-Brayden Shiels[17]; 12. 18-Jacob Stuhr[13]; 13. 38-Thomas Hunziker[16]; 14. 45-Jamie Grochowski[19]; 15. (DNF) 36-Joel Morton[18]; 16. (DNF) 42*-Bob Mayer[15]; 17. (DNF) 06-Jake Rendel[1]; 18. (DNS) 31M-Tyler Millwood; 19. (DNS) 29-Christian Hanger
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Mark Whitener[1]; 2. 71R-Rod Conley[2]; 3. 75-Dillon McCowan[3]; 4. 17SS-Brenden Smith[5]; 5. 06-Jake Rendel[8]; 6. 41-Mike Vandermark Jr[6]; 7. 57K-Steve Kester[7]; 8. 18-Jacob Stuhr[4]; 9. 51B-Brayden Shiels[9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 14JR-Trey Mills[1]; 2. 07-Rylee Knoll[2]; 3. 46-Colin Shipley[3]; 4. 51-Devin Shiels[5]; 5. 4-Travis Stemler[6]; 6. 29-Christian Hanger[4]; 7. 75D-Dusty Moore[7]; 8. (DNF) 42*-Bob Mayer[9]; 9. (DNF) 45-Jamie Grochowski[8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Cody Overton[1]; 2. 57-Zack Mitchell[2]; 3. 25F-Jason Feger[4]; 4. 21N-Logan Nickerson[3]; 5. 27-Eric Spangler[7]; 6. 31M-Tyler Millwood[5]; 7. 17SR-Brody Smith[6]; 8. 27H-Ken Hahn[9]; 9. 36-Joel Morton[8]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin[2]; 2. 42-Chad Finley[1]; 3. 1-Tyler Erb[3]; 4. 91-Rusty Schlenk[4]; 5. 55-Eli Johnson[6]; 6. LIL91-Carter Schlenk[8]; 7. 34-Herb Reich[5]; 8. 38-Thomas Hunziker[7]
Qualifying A (2 Laps): 1. 5-Mark Whitener, 00:14.888[13]; 2. 14JR-Trey Mills, 00:15.617[12]; 3. 71R-Rod Conley, 00:15.827[10]; 4. 07-Rylee Knoll, 00:15.903[14]; 5. 75-Dillon McCowan, 00:15.984[16]; 6. 46-Colin Shipley, 00:15.996[15]; 7. 18-Jacob Stuhr, 00:16.010[18]; 8. 29-Christian Hanger, 00:16.038[8]; 9. 17SS-Brenden Smith, 00:16.082[11]; 10. 51-Devin Shiels, 00:16.155[2]; 11. 41-Mike Vandermark Jr, 00:16.368[5]; 12. 4-Travis Stemler, 00:16.428[6]; 13. 57K-Steve Kester, 00:16.636[3]; 14. 75D-Dusty Moore, 00:17.125[9]; 15. 06-Jake Rendel, 00:17.169[1]; 16. 45-Jamie Grochowski, 00:17.401[17]; 17. 51B-Brayden Shiels, 00:17.427[7]; 18. 42*-Bob Mayer, 00:17.433[4]
Qualifying B (2 Laps): 1. 2-Cody Overton, 00:15.167[5]; 2. 42-Chad Finley, 00:15.271[15]; 3. 57-Zack Mitchell, 00:15.355[17]; 4. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:15.373[8]; 5. 21N-Logan Nickerson, 00:15.618[6]; 6. 1-Tyler Erb, 00:15.678[10]; 7. 25F-Jason Feger, 00:15.750[16]; 8. 91-Rusty Schlenk, 00:16.392[13]; 9. 31M-Tyler Millwood, 00:16.426[7]; 10. 34-Herb Reich, 00:16.469[2]; 11. 17SR-Brody Smith, 00:16.695[1]; 12. 55-Eli Johnson, 00:16.724[14]; 13. 27-Eric Spangler, 00:16.744[11]; 14. 38-Thomas Hunziker, 00:16.784[3]; 15. 36-Joel Morton, 00:16.796[4]; 16. LIL91-Carter Schlenk, 00:16.919[9]; 17. 27H-Ken Hahn, 00:17.464[12]
DIRTCAR SUMMER NATIONALS OVERALL DRIVER STANDINGS
Points Updated: July 8, 2025
Pos # Driver Hometown Points Gap Wins Top 5 Top 10 Features
1 #25F Jason Feger Bloomington, IL 1387 -0 5 12 18 23 WEEK 1 AND WEEK 4 CHAMP
2 #1 Tyler Erb New Waverly, TX 1322 -65 6 12 17 23
3 #75 Dillon McCowan Urbana, MO 1128 -259 0 5 14 23
4 #5 Mark Whitener Middleburg, FL 1096 -291 0 6 12 21
5 #14JR Trey Mills St. Augustine, FL 1016 -371 1 4 8 19
6 #31M Tyler Millwood Kingston, GA 972 -415 1 3 7 17
7 #29 Christian Hanger Winchester, TN 895 -492 0 1 6 20
8 #15 Clay Stuckey Shreveport, LA 840 -547 0 1 2 19
9 #17SS Brenden Smith Dade City, FL 820 -567 0 0 2 14
10 #40B Kyle Bronson Brandon, FL 769 -618 0 2 8 17
19 #B5 Brandon Sheppard New Berlin, IL 510 -877 1 6 7 7 WEEK 3 CHAMP
29 #19R Ryan Gustin Marshalltown, IA 339 -1048 1 4 6 6 WEEK 2 CHAMP
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MICAEL LEDFORD DOMINATES BUTLER MOTOR SPEEDWAY FOR SECOND SUMMIT MODIFIED TRIUMPH OF 2025
QUINCY, Mich. -- In his first trip to Butler Motor Speedway, Michael Ledford battled through unfamiliarity to leave the track as a winner.
In the Thursday night battle around the 3/8-mile high banks, the Pontiac, IL driver took home his third career DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals win after leading flag-to-flag through the 25-lap Feature.
Todd Neiheiser led the field to the green flag as Michael Ledford used the middle lane to stay beside the No. 72 UMP Modified. In Turns 3-4, Neiheiser lost his footing on the bottom and gave way for David Stremme and Tyler Nicely to take second and third, respectively.
Ledford made hay around the Michigan facility by running the middle as Stremme used every inch of the bottom lane to keep Ledford within his sights.
When Ledford approached lap traffic, Stremme chopped the gap by running down to the bottom lane while Ledford had to mix around the top, middle, and the bottom to create obstacles in Stremme’s way.
While Stremme’s No. 35 Lethal Chassis closed the distance to Ledford in the final five laps of the Feature, he was too far back to attempt a pass for the lead as the No. 4 Royal Racecars pilot captured his second win of the 2025 tour.
“I started running what I ran in the Heat race through the middle,” Ledford said. “It seemed like it was the smoothest part, but then once a lot of that blowed off, you had to go down to the bottom. Luckily, I’ve raced long enough to know when to make that switch, but I had a good car.”
Entering the final five races of the Summit Modifieds Nationals season, Tyler Nicely’s fourth-place finish helped him pass Chase Holland for second place in the standings while sitting 91 points back from Trevor Neville, who finished in third.
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals finish the Michigan swing with Crystal Motor Speedway on Friday night, July 11.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.
DIRTCAR UMP MODIFIED RESULTS
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 4-Michael Ledford[2]; 2. 35-David Stremme[3]; 3. 777-Trevor Neville[5]; 4. 25-Tyler Nicely[4]; 5. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[13]; 6. 45H-Chase Holland[6]; 7. 24-Zeke McKenzie[9]; 8. 74M-Manix Furqueron[14]; 9. 96S-Terry Sroufe[7]; 10. 14-Dalton Lane[22]; 11. 75-Daniel Adam[8]; 12. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[19]; 13. 21B-Hunter Breland[16]; 14. 9R-Garrett Rons[18]; 15. (DNF) 5CS-Curt Spalding[10]; 16. (DNF) 65-Todd Sherman[12]; 17. (DNF) 23Z-Austin Self[21]; 18. (DNF) 72-Todd Neiheiser[1]; 19. (DNF) 7-Brad Deyoung[17]; 20. (DNF) 463-Daniel Sanchez[15]; 21. (DNF) 117-Kevin Reeve[11]; 22. (DNF) 8C-Corey Bevard[20]
Last Chance Showdown 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Brad Deyoung[5]; 2. 5D-David VanGuilder[2]; 3. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[7]; 4. 27-Sean Gillis[3]; 5. 21-Roger South[8]; 6. 09-Dan Price[10]; 7. 50B-BRODY WALLENWINE[11]; 8. 74D-Craig Dippman[6]; 9. 84-Brandon Beeching[1]; 10. 25S-Jake Straka[4]; 11. (DNS) 25B-Greg Belyea; 12. (DNS) 32-Scott Boyd Jr; 13. (DNS) 1TS-Tyler Spalding; 14. (DNS) 99-Hunt Gossum
Last Chance Showdown 2 (8 Laps): 1. 9R-Garrett Rons[1]; 2. 14-Dalton Lane[2]; 3. 23Z-Austin Self[8]; 4. 25L-Josh Lolmaugh[3]; 5. 8C-Corey Bevard[6]; 6. 14T-Mario Toniolo[5]; 7. 98-Timothy Meine[9]; 8. 31-Matthew Lambrecht[12]; 9. 1A-Andrew Hollister[13]; 10. 64M-Tim McCafferty[11]; 11. 5D5-Casey Keyosky[10]; 12. (DNS) 28-Mason Lobb; 13. (DNS) 24C-Tyler Morehouse
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 35-David Stremme[1]; 2. 777-Trevor Neville[2]; 3. 24-Zeke McKenzie[4]; 4. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[3]; 5. 84-Brandon Beeching[5]; 6. 27-Sean Gillis[6]; 7. 7-Brad Deyoung[7]; 8. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[8]; 9. 25B-Greg Belyea[10]; 10. 50B-BRODY WALLENWINE[11]; 11. 1TS-Tyler Spalding[9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 72-Todd Neiheiser[2]; 2. 96S-Terry Sroufe[1]; 3. 117-Kevin Reeve[3]; 4. 463-Daniel Sanchez[5]; 5. 5D-David VanGuilder[8]; 6. 25S-Jake Straka[6]; 7. 74D-Craig Dippman[9]; 8. 21-Roger South[10]; 9. 09-Dan Price[11]; 10. 32-Scott Boyd Jr[7]; 11. (DNS) 99-Hunt Gossum
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Tyler Nicely[3]; 2. 45H-Chase Holland[1]; 3. 5CS-Curt Spalding[2]; 4. 74M-Manix Furqueron[4]; 5. 9R-Garrett Rons[5]; 6. 25L-Josh Lolmaugh[9]; 7. 14T-Mario Toniolo[7]; 8. 24C-Tyler Morehouse[8]; 9. 98-Timothy Meine[6]; 10. 64M-Tim McCafferty[10]; 11. 1A-Andrew Hollister[11]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Michael Ledford[2]; 2. 75-Daniel Adam[3]; 3. 65-Todd Sherman[4]; 4. 21B-Hunter Breland[5]; 5. 14-Dalton Lane[9]; 6. 28-Mason Lobb[1]; 7. 8C-Corey Bevard[8]; 8. 23Z-Austin Self[10]; 9. 5D5-Casey Keyosky[7]; 10. 31-Matthew Lambrecht[6]
Qualifying A (3 Laps): 1. 35-David Stremme, 00:16.421[15]; 2. 96S-Terry Sroufe, 00:16.651[4]; 3. 777-Trevor Neville, 00:16.653[1]; 4. 72-Todd Neiheiser, 00:16.672[12]; 5. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum, 00:16.826[19]; 6. 117-Kevin Reeve, 00:16.847[10]; 7. 24-Zeke McKenzie, 00:16.864[16]; 8. 99-Hunt Gossum, 00:16.900[18]; 9. 84-Brandon Beeching, 00:17.011[20]; 10. 463-Daniel Sanchez, 00:17.144[3]; 11. 27-Sean Gillis, 00:17.319[14]; 12. 25S-Jake Straka, 00:17.327[7]; 13. 7-Brad Deyoung, 00:17.394[17]; 14. 32-Scott Boyd Jr, 00:17.477[11]; 15. 23B-Ethan Boomsma, 00:17.524[9]; 16. 5D-David VanGuilder, 00:17.546[2]; 17. 1TS-Tyler Spalding, 00:17.562[5]; 18. 74D-Craig Dippman, 00:17.937[8]; 19. 25B-Greg Belyea, 00:18.029[13]; 20. 21-Roger South, 00:18.126[6]; 21. 50B-BRODY WALLENWINE, 00:18.272[22]; 22. 09-Dan Price, 00:20.397[21]
Qualifying B (3 Laps): 1. 45H-Chase Holland, 00:16.698[7]; 2. 28-Mason Lobb, 00:16.982[5]; 3. 5CS-Curt Spalding, 00:17.044[10]; 4. 4-Michael Ledford, 00:17.055[13]; 5. 25-Tyler Nicely, 00:17.078[4]; 6. 75-Daniel Adam, 00:17.093[15]; 7. 74M-Manix Furqueron, 00:17.329[18]; 8. 65-Todd Sherman, 00:17.367[8]; 9. 9R-Garrett Rons, 00:17.413[9]; 10. 21B-Hunter Breland, 00:17.533[19]; 11. 98-Timothy Meine, 00:17.570[12]; 12. 31-Matthew Lambrecht, 00:17.678[14]; 13. 14T-Mario Toniolo, 00:17.692[1]; 14. 5D5-Casey Keyosky, 00:17.742[3]; 15. 24C-Tyler Morehouse, 00:17.744[21]; 16. 8C-Corey Bevard, 00:17.746[6]; 17. 25L-Josh Lolmaugh, 00:17.748[11]; 18. 14-Dalton Lane, 00:17.758[2]; 19. 64M-Tim McCafferty, 00:18.148[20]; 20. 23Z-Austin Self, 00:18.179[16]; 21. 1A-Andrew Hollister, 00:19.752[17]
DIRTCAR SUMMIT NATIONALS DRIVER STANDINGS
Points Updated: July 9, 2025
Pos # Driver Hometown Points Gap Wins Top 5 Top 10 Features
1 #777 Trevor Neville Mackinaw, IL 807 -0 1 11 12 16
2 #45H Chase Holland Success, MS 710 -97 1 8 13 19
3 #25 Tyler Nicely Owensboro, KY 666 -141 5 8 8 9
4 #75 Daniel Adam Peru, IL 565 -242 0 2 9 16
5 #37 Michael Ledford Pontiac, IL 549 -258 2 5 8 9
6 #66 Cole Falloway Owensboro, KY 467 -340 0 4 8 9
7 #23B Ethan Boomsma Wheatfield, IN 453 -354 0 0 1 13
8 #1A Steve Meyer Caseyville, IL 443 -364 0 1 5 11
9 #77 Ray Bollinger Kewanee, IL 369 -438 0 4 6 6
10 #99 Hunt Gossum Mayfield, KY 329 -478 1 3 4 5
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