Zack Mitchell Picks Up Second Summer Nationals Win in Fourth Career Start at Crystal Motor Speedway
Photo by Tyler Carr
CRYSTAL, Mich.—Through Zack Mitchell’s first four starts in the DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models, he has shown his presence in the final week of 2025.
After going fastest in his Qualifying group and winning his Heat race, the Enoree, SC native had to fend off 2025 Hell Tour title contender Tyler Erb to lead every lap for his second career tour win on Friday night at Crystal Motor Speedway.
Commencing the 40-lap Feature from the Pole Position, Mitchell led the opening portion of the Feature on the bottom, with Tyler Erb and Mark Whitener following behind the No. 57 Coltman Farms Racing Longhorn Chassis.
As Mitchell approached the lap traffic, Whitener began to attempt different lines around Erb, while Mitchell placed lapped cars between them to hold the lead position.
On Lap 34, the caution waved as Mitchell held a two-second gap over the Best Performance Motorsports No. 1. The upcoming restart set up a six-lap duel between the two drivers for the stop to Victory Lane.
Erb tried to get the jump on the gas pedal, but it was Mitchell who outdrove Erb into Turn 1 and kept him away from taking the lead as he drove away to a 1.7-second lead for the triumph in the Hell Tour’s final Michigan race of the year.
“Man, this thing was on a rail tonight,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t want to see that last caution ‘cause I thought I had a pretty decent lead, and I felt like I could pace myself around there. We fired off pretty good and everything clicked. It was just our night.”
Overall points leader Jason Feger had a hard-charging night at the 3/8-mile, working his way up to sixth at the finish from a 19th-place starting spot. The Bloomington, IL driver’s recovery keeps him in front of Erb by 56 points as the final two races of the season await. In the Week 5 campaign, Trey Mills leads Mitchell by 16 markers.
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals enter the last two races of Week 5 with a trip to the Buckeye State's Birthday Race at Oakshade Speedway on Saturday, July 12.
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 (40 Laps): 1. 57-Zack Mitchell[1]; 2. 1-Tyler Erb[2]; 3. 75-Dillon McCowan[9]; 4. 27-Eric Spangler[10]; 5. 5-Mark Whitener[3]; 6. 25F-Jason Feger[19]; 7. 14JR-Trey Mills[4]; 8. 6M-Dona Marcoullier[7]; 9. 51-Devin Shiels[8]; 10. M14-Brandon Thirlby[12]; 11. 16-Garrett Wiles[15]; 12. 29-Christian Hanger[22]; 13. 1E-Jeffrey Erickson[17]; 14. 31M-Tyler Millwood[14]; 15. 91-Rusty Schlenk[5]; 16. 18-Jacob Stuhr[11]; 17. 42-Chad Finley[20]; 18. 19X-Cody Bauer[13]; 19. 4-Travis Stemler[6]; 20. 41-Mike Vandermark Jr[21]; 21. 55W-Brenten Deyoung[18]; 22. 21N-Logan Nickerson[16]
Last Chance Showdown (B-Main) (10 Laps): 1. 1E-Jeffrey Erickson[1]; 2. 55W-Brenten Deyoung[4]; 3. 15-Dave Baker[3]; 4. 55-Eli Johnson[7]; 5. 17SR-Brody Smith[8]; 6. LIL91-Carter Schlenk[6]; 7. 17SS-Brenden Smith[14]; 8. 41-Mike Vandermark Jr[13]; 9. 94-Bill Bray[12]; 10. 28S-Zack Swarts[15]; 11. 51B-Brayden Shiels[11]; 12. 71R-Rod Conley[10]; 13. 18B-Chase Burda[5]; 14. 26-Dillon Kohn[16]; 15. 42-Chad Finley[2]; 16. (DNS) 25F-Jason Feger
Consolation Race (C-Main) (8 Laps): 1. 41-Mike Vandermark Jr[1]; 2. 17SS-Brenden Smith[2]; 3. 28S-Zack Swarts[3]; 4. 26-Dillon Kohn[8]; 5. 5B-Riley Bowen[4]; 6. 64-Lukus Anstett[7]; 7. 38-Thomas Hunziker[9]; 8. 42*-Bob Mayer[10]; 9. (DNS) 29-Christian Hanger; 10. (DNS) 32XXX-John Adams II
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 14JR-Trey Mills[1]; 2. 91-Rusty Schlenk[7]; 3. 75-Dillon McCowan[3]; 4. 19X-Cody Bauer[9]; 5. 1E-Jeffrey Erickson[2]; 6. 18B-Chase Burda[8]; 7. 25F-Jason Feger[4]; 8. 41-Mike Vandermark Jr[5]; 9. 29-Christian Hanger[6]; 10. 38-Thomas Hunziker[10]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Mark Whitener[2]; 2. 6M-Dona Marcoullier[3]; 3. 18-Jacob Stuhr[1]; 4. 16-Garrett Wiles[4]; 5. 15-Dave Baker[5]; 6. 55-Eli Johnson[6]; 7. 51B-Brayden Shiels[7]; 8. 17SS-Brenden Smith[9]; 9. 32XXX-John Adams II[8]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 57-Zack Mitchell[1]; 2. 4-Travis Stemler[2]; 3. 27-Eric Spangler[3]; 4. 31M-Tyler Millwood[5]; 5. 42-Chad Finley[4]; 6. LIL91-Carter Schlenk[8]; 7. 71R-Rod Conley[7]; 8. 28S-Zack Swarts[6]; 9. 64-Lukus Anstett[9]; 10. 42*-Bob Mayer[10]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Tyler Erb[4]; 2. 51-Devin Shiels[2]; 3. M14-Brandon Thirlby[6]; 4. 21N-Logan Nickerson[7]; 5. 55W-Brenten Deyoung[1]; 6. 17SR-Brody Smith[8]; 7. 94-Bill Bray[9]; 8. 5B-Riley Bowen[5]; 9. 26-Dillon Kohn[3]
Qualifying A (2 Laps): 1. 14JR-Trey Mills, 00:14.993[16]; 2. 18-Jacob Stuhr, 00:15.272[2]; 3. 1E-Jeffrey Erickson, 00:15.413[1]; 4. 5-Mark Whitener, 00:15.441[6]; 5. 75-Dillon McCowan, 00:15.537[5]; 6. 6M-Dona Marcoullier, 00:15.624[18]; 7. 25F-Jason Feger, 00:15.706[8]; 8. 16-Garrett Wiles, 00:15.710[14]; 9. 41-Mike Vandermark Jr, 00:15.725[13]; 10. 15-Dave Baker, 00:15.726[17]; 11. 29-Christian Hanger, 00:15.733[10]; 12. 55-Eli Johnson, 00:15.752[4]; 13. 91-Rusty Schlenk, 00:15.779[9]; 14. 51B-Brayden Shiels, 00:15.993[15]; 15. 18B-Chase Burda, 00:15.999[3]; 16. 32XXX-John Adams II, 00:16.003[11]; 17. 19X-Cody Bauer, 00:16.079[12]; 18. 17SS-Brenden Smith, 00:16.142[7]; 19. 38-Thomas Hunziker, 00:16.260[19]
Qualifying B (2 Laps): 1. 57-Zack Mitchell, 00:15.457[5]; 2. 55W-Brenten Deyoung, 00:15.794[17]; 3. 4-Travis Stemler, 00:15.844[1]; 4. 51-Devin Shiels, 00:15.898[3]; 5. 27-Eric Spangler, 00:15.910[9]; 6. 26-Dillon Kohn, 00:15.961[4]; 7. 42-Chad Finley, 00:15.966[7]; 8. 1-Tyler Erb, 00:16.016[12]; 9. 31M-Tyler Millwood, 00:16.039[15]; 10. 5B-Riley Bowen, 00:16.050[14]; 11. 28S-Zack Swarts, 00:16.074[19]; 12. M14-Brandon Thirlby, 00:16.107[18]; 13. 71R-Rod Conley, 00:16.115[8]; 14. 21N-Logan Nickerson, 00:16.147[11]; 15. LIL91-Carter Schlenk, 00:16.223[6]; 16. 17SR-Brody Smith, 00:16.253[13]; 17. 64-Lukus Anstett, 00:16.321[2]; 18. 94-Bill Bray, 00:16.328[10]; 19. 42*-Bob Mayer, 00:16.661[16]
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TYLER NICELY SCORES 18th CAREER SUMMIT NATIONALS TROPHY IN MICHIGAN FIANLE AT CRYSTAL
Tyler Nicely is within striking distance of his second career DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals championship.
On Friday night at Crystal Motor Speedway, the Owensboro, KY native bagged a pivotal sixth win of the season after taking risks for the lead with differing strategies.
Nicely rolled off from the outside of the front row, with polesitter Dillon Nusbaum taking the lead off the bottom of the track through Turns 1-2 on the opening circuit.
Though the Warsaw, IN driver led through the first half of the 25-lap Feature with his No. 17N UMP Modified, Nicely kept his car close to the back bumper of Nusbaum.
When lapped traffic began to affect Nusbaum’s pace around the bottom lane, Nicely took his chance for the lead by shifting his No. 5 Elite Chassis to the middle line while Nusbaum attempted to block Nicely’s charge by running towards the top down the back straightaway.
Nicely continued to push the issue as he created momentum around the middle lane, passing Nusbaum with a run around the top of the backstretch on Lap 17 to take over the Feature’s lead.
With the 2023 champion cementing his spot at the top on Friday night, Nicely drove to over two seconds on the field as he parked in Summit Modified Nationals Victory Lane for the 17th time in his career. The win places him 16 points away from Trevor Neville for the points lead entering the Ohio swing.
“I really didn’t know what to expect,” Nicely said. “We just went to work a little bit there, and it just took off. Once we got to lap traffic, I knew I needed to make a move, and I got a heck of a run off (Turn 2), and was able to get it done.”
Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals enter the last two races of Week 5 with a trip to the Buckeye State's Birthday Race at Oakshade Speedway on Saturday, July 12.
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. 25-Tyler Nicely[4]; 2. 4-Michael Ledford[2]; 3. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[1]; 4. 777-Trevor Neville[3]; 5. 75-Daniel Adam[6]; 6. 74M-Manix Furqueron[5]; 7. 65-Todd Sherman[7]; 8. 60-Shannon Fisk[10]; 9. 43-Mark Anderson[12]; 10. 9R-Garrett Rons[11]; 11. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[9]; 12. 12M-John McClure[8]; 13. 14T-Mario Toniolo[13]; 14. 09-Dan Price[15]; 15. 65X-Aaron Orr[14]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[1]; 2. 777-Trevor Neville[3]; 3. 74M-Manix Furqueron[4]; 4. 65-Todd Sherman[2]; 5. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[5]; 6. 9R-Garrett Rons[8]; 7. 14T-Mario Toniolo[6]; 8. 09-Dan Price[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Michael Ledford[1]; 2. 25-Tyler Nicely[2]; 3. 75-Daniel Adam[3]; 4. 12M-John McClure[4]; 5. 60-Shannon Fisk[6]; 6. 43-Mark Anderson[7]; 7. 65X-Aaron Orr[5]
Qualifying 1: 1. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum, 00:15.586[7]; 2. 65-Todd Sherman, 00:15.698[3]; 3. 777-Trevor Neville, 00:15.738[1]; 4. 74M-Manix Furqueron, 00:15.845[2]; 5. 23B-Ethan Boomsma, 00:16.118[4]; 6. (DQ) 14T-Mario Toniolo, 00:15.993[5]; 7. (DQ) 09-Dan Price, 00:18.495[6]
Qualifying 2: 1. 4-Michael Ledford, 00:15.734[3]; 2. 25-Tyler Nicely, 00:15.887[2]; 3. 75-Daniel Adam, 00:15.979[5]; 4. 12M-John McClure, 00:16.086[4]; 5. 65X-Aaron Orr, 00:16.109[8]; 6. 60-Shannon Fisk, 00:16.159[7]; 7. 43-Mark Anderson, 00:16.424[6]; 8. 9R-Garrett Rons, 00:16.431[1]
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