Ryan Gustin Tops Wilmot to Return to World of Outlaws Victory Lane
Photo by Emily Schwanke
WILMOT, Wisc.—For the first time in four months, Ryan Gustin is a winner with the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision.
The Todd Cooney Motorsports No. 19R had been solid since their previous triumph at Swainsboro Raceway in March, but a victory eluded them. Gustin was on an 11-race top-10 streak until he finished 18th in the Prairie Dirt Classic, but there’s no better way to restart a new one than with a trophy.
“I definitely feel like we’ve just got to keep working,” Gustin said in Wilmot Raceway Victory Lane. “I guarantee you nobody outworked us yesterday. We changed motors, put a deck in, body, spent a lot of hours on this thing. I’m just glad to see it paid off.”
Gustin finished second in his Heat Race to give himself a chance at the pole, and luck was on his side in the Redraw when he pulled the one out of the can for the Bilstein Pole Award. He took advantage of the good fortune by jumping out to the lead early on with Tanner English and Boom Briggs in tow.
The “Reaper” showed no signs of slowing down in the first half of the race, leading the way by a second until the first caution flew for a spinning Cody Overton with 15 laps remaining in the 40-lap contest. Gustin once again commanded the restart while English battled Bobby Pierce for second.
Brent Larson went for a ride over the Turn 1 banking to bring out another yellow with eight laps to go. When the race went back green, English gave Gustin his fiercest challenge of the night, staying to his inside off Turn 2 and down the backstretch until Gustin pinched him off entering Turn 3 and pulled away.
One lap later, Pierce ripped the top around Turns 3 and 4 to blast around English and grab second before Ethan Dotson and Nick Hoffman got together in Turn 4. Pierce tried to do the same thing to Gustin on the restart, but got a bit too high and lost some ground to the leader off Turn 4.
Pierce took one last look to Gustin’s inside in Turn 1 on the white-flag lap, but he couldn’t keep pace off the corner and could only watch as Gustin drove away to his third World of Outlaws win of the season.
The racing surface was bottom-dominant for most of the night until the high side came in late in the Feature, and Gustin credited his experience racing with the DIRTcar Summer Nationals at Wilmot in June for teaching him when the time was right to explore other lanes.
“I definitely think coming to that Hell Tour race definitely helped with that, seeing how the lines kind of changed and stuff throughout the race,” Gustin said. “That was a big help for us. Obviously, drawing the number one was pretty important there too. When you’ve got a guy like Bobby that starts in the front couple rows, you want to try and put as much distance between him and yourself as you can. All in all, it worked out, it was our night.”
Pierce brought the No. 32 home second in his first Wilmot appearance in nine years, extending his points lead to 118 over Hoffman, who finished 17th after his incident.
“You can kind of hang it out there out of Turn 4, but I feel like it got crummy there towards the end,” Pierce said. “The little bit of moisture kind of went away, so that’s why I was hanging. If it had a little more something over there, I probably could’ve made something work. We gave it our best.”
Dennis Erb Jr. has been a mainstay on the podium throughout the summer months, and he kept the momentum up with a third-place run 30 miles from his Carpentersville, IL home.
“The car was definitely trying to get a little better there,” Erb said of his drive from seventh to third in the last 15 laps. “We had no front brake, so it was pretty tricky to drive. Just to be able to maneuver and get up through there, I was real happy about that. It kind of cleaned off a little bit there at the end, was able to keep some momentum up and keep rolling. We got underneath a couple times for second, but all in all, it was a good night for us for starting back in sixth.”
Dustin Sorensen finished fourth for his best night since a third at Bedford Speedway in May, while English crossed the line fifth for his fourth top five in the last six races.
RACE NOTES:
Tanner English set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.
Dennis Erb Jr. won the Simpson Quick Time Award.
Dennis Erb Jr. won Real American Beer Heat 1.
Dustin Sorensen won STAKT Products Heat 2.
Bobby Pierce won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.
Ryan Gustin won the Bilstein Pole Award.
Ethan Dotson won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.
Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.
Bobby Pierce won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.
Dustin Sorensen was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.
Tanner English was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.
Boom Briggs was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.
Tim McCreadie was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.
Brian Shirley was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.
Cody Overton was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.
Chub Frank was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision turns its attention to the richest event on the schedule, the $100,000-to-win USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway, Thursday-Saturday, July 31-Aug. 2. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.
If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
WORLD OF OUTLAWS LATE MODEL RESULTS
WoO Late Model Feature (40 Laps): 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[5]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[6]; 4. 19-Dustin Sorensen[3]; 5. 96-Tanner English[2]; 6. 99B-Boom Briggs[4]; 7. 22*-Drake Troutman[7]; 8. 9M-Tim McCreadie[10]; 9. 3S-Brian Shirley[11]; 10. 2-Cody Overton[8]; 11. 74X-Ethan Dotson[16]; 12. 1*-Chub Frank[9]; 13. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[13]; 14. 74-Mitch McGrath[15]; 15. B1-Brent Larson[12]; 16. 49-Jake Timm[14]; 17. 9-Nick Hoffman[18]; 18. D1-Turk Letizia[19]; 19. 93-Cory Crapser[20]; 20. 10-Paul Parker[17]
Real American Beer Heat Race 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[1]; 2. 99B-Boom Briggs[2]; 3. 22*-Drake Troutman[3]; 4. 9M-Tim McCreadie[6]; 5. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[4]; 6. 74X-Ethan Dotson[5]; 7. D1-Turk Letizia[7]
STAKT Products Heat Race 2 (8 Laps): 1. 19-Dustin Sorensen[1]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 3. 2-Cody Overton[2]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 5. 49-Jake Timm[5]; 6. 10-Paul Parker[6]; 7. 93-Cory Crapser[7]
Keyser Mfg Heat Race 3 (8 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 96-Tanner English[1]; 3. 1*-Chub Frank[4]; 4. B1-Brent Larson[3]; 5. 74-Mitch McGrath[6]; 6. 9-Nick Hoffman[5]
Real American Beer LM Qual (2 Laps): 1. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:14.625[3]; 2. 19-Dustin Sorensen, 00:14.704[15]; 3. 96-Tanner English, 00:14.736[1]; 4. 99B-Boom Briggs, 00:14.759[4]; 5. 2-Cody Overton, 00:14.794[11]; 6. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:14.802[16]; 7. 22*-Drake Troutman, 00:14.812[6]; 8. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:14.869[5]; 9. B1-Brent Larson, 00:14.874[10]; 10. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain, 00:14.889[14]; 11. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:14.904[2]; 12. 1*-Chub Frank, 00:14.971[9]; 13. 74X-Ethan Dotson, 00:14.999[20]; 14. 49-Jake Timm, 00:15.033[8]; 15. 9-Nick Hoffman, 00:15.033[12]; 16. 9M-Tim McCreadie, 00:15.092[19]; 17. 10-Paul Parker, 00:15.333[7]; 18. 74-Mitch McGrath, 00:15.375[18]; 19. D1-Turk Letizia, 00:15.411[17]; 20. 93-Cory Crapser, 00:15.479[13]
CURRENT WORLD OF OUTLAWS LATE MODEL STANDINGS
Points Updated: July 28, 2025
Pos. No. Driver Hometown Points Gap Starts Wins Top 5s Top 10s
1 32 Bobby Pierce Oakwood, IL 3834 27 7 18 24
2 9 Nick Hoffman Mooresville, NC 3716 -118 27 4 13 22
3 19R Ryan Gustin Marshalltown, IA 3682 -152 27 3 12 20
4 22* Drake Troutman Hyndman, PA 3560 -274 27 1 10 16
5 9M Tim McCreadie Watertown, NY 3550 -284 26 3 9 15
6 28 Dennis Erb Carpentersville, IL 3544 -290 26 0 6 14
7 3S Brian Shirley Chatham, IL 3488 -346 27 1 10 14
8 96 Tanner English Benton, KY 3436 -398 26 0 4 9
9 2 Cody Overton Thomson, GA 3412 -422 27 0 2 9
10 74X Ethan Dotson Bakersfield, CA 3410 -424 27 1 5 12
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A Modifieds
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 33J-Joe Huenefeld[9]; 2. 68J-Dan Jung[13]; 3. 4S-Joel Seegert Sr[10]; 4. 47G-Ben Godlewski[11]; 5. 19-Mike Wittenburg[14]; 6. 04-Morgan Sheppard[7]; 7. 6M-Steve Mueller[15]; 8. 88J-Jeremy Johnson[1]; 9. 37-Scott Tubbin[6]; 10. 17B-Scott Barnharst[3]; 11. 17J-Jackson Laufer[12]; 12. 28S-Scott Crowbridge[4]; 13. (DNF) 28C-Joel Crowbridge[8]; 14. (DNF) 51J-Dustin Jackson[5]; 15. (DNS) 6W-David Wirth; 16. (DNS) 52M-Brad McGuire
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28C-Joel Crowbridge[6]; 2. 04-Morgan Sheppard[4]; 3. 6W-David Wirth[3]; 4. 28S-Scott Crowbridge[2]; 5. 88J-Jeremy Johnson[8]; 6. (DNF) 33J-Joe Huenefeld[7]; 7. (DNF) 47G-Ben Godlewski[5]; 8. (DNF) 17J-Jackson Laufer[1]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 52M-Brad McGuire[1]; 2. 17B-Scott Barnharst[2]; 3. 37-Scott Tubbin[4]; 4. 51J-Dustin Jackson[3]; 5. (DNF) 19-Mike Wittenburg[8]; 6. (DNF) 4S-Joel Seegert Sr[5]; 7. (DNF) 6M-Steve Mueller[7]; 8. (DNF) 68J-Dan Jung[6]
Street Stocks
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 12-Brandon Mertes[10]; 2. 65-Mark Baker[4]; 3. J8-James Jaime[5]; 4. 88-Eric Derks[1]; 5. 19-Mitchell Krueger[7]; 6. (DNF) 14-Benjamin Mccoy[3]; 7. (DNF) 45-Kevin Domrose[6]; 8. (DNF) 37-Caleb Castillo[2]; 9. (DNF) 5-Tristan Peyron[8]; 10. (DNS) 73-Bret Prange
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 65-Mark Baker[2]; 2. 14-Benjamin Mccoy[5]; 3. 37-Caleb Castillo[7]; 4. 88-Eric Derks[10]; 5. J8-James Jaime[9]; 6. 45-Kevin Domrose[4]; 7. 19-Mitchell Krueger[8]; 8. (DNF) 5-Tristan Peyron[3]; 9. (DNF) 73-Bret Prange[6]; 10. (DNF) 12-Brandon Mertes[1]
Hot Laps: 1. 65-Mark Baker, 00:18.463[2]; 2. 12-Brandon Mertes, 00:18.683[1]; 3. 5-Tristan Peyron, 00:18.713[3]; 4. 14-Benjamin Mccoy, 00:19.067[5]; 5. 88-Eric Derks, 00:19.156[10]; 6. 37-Caleb Castillo, 00:19.420[7]; 7. 45-Kevin Domrose, 00:19.690[4]; 8. 19-Mitchell Krueger, 00:19.943[8]; 9. 73-Bret Prange[6]; 10. (DNS) J8-James Jaime
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