Koehler Motorsports Sweep, Former DIRTcar Champions Headline Halfway Point of DIRTcar Nationals
Photo by Emily Schwanke
BARBERVILLE, Fla.—The DIRTcar UMP Modifieds are inching closer towards determining the newest Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals Big Gator champion.
Wednesday night at Volusia Speedway Park brought six Features for the division to contest, with each winner making their bid for the overall championship by adding to the collection.
Here is how each Feature played out:
Feature #1
Ricky Thornton Jr. entered the 55th Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals having never won at Volusia Speedway Park in a DIRTcar UMP Modified. After Wednesday night, his collection of Modified gator trophies is already up to three.
Fellow Late Model competitor and DIRTcar Nationals winner, Tristan Chamberlain, led the first two laps of Feature #1 before watching Zeke McKenzie drive around the outside of him through Turns 1-2. Once passed, Chamberlain continued to fall, losing second to Charlie Mefford and third to Thornton.
The top three remained in that order until a caution on Lap 9 packed them back together. When the race resumed, Thornton and Mefford got the jump on McKenzie. Thornton passed the No. 13 and No. 24 around the outside to take the lead, while Mefford followed him by McKenzie for second.
Like the previous two races Thornton won, once he put his Koehler Motorsports No. 20RT in clean air, it became untouchable. He beat Mefford to the finish by over four seconds.
“I feel like our stuff has been really good,” Thornton said. “I felt like coming here, our stuff should run well. Obviously, being in an Elite Chassis, Nick (Hoffman) knows his stuff, and with Koehler Motorsports giving me everything.”
RESULTS: Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 2. 13-Charlie Mefford[5]; 3. 72H-Tristan Chamberlain[1]; 4. 7J-Justin Allgaier[7]; 5. 24-Zeke McKenzie[2]; 6. 90-Jason Beaulieu[9]; 7. 99H-Justin Haley[12]; 8. 70B-Ty Norder[13]; 9. 31G-Stephen Pedulla[11]; 10. 0K-Damian Kiefer[14]; 11. 57-Charlie Sandercock[6]; 12. 00B-Buzzie Reutimann[15]; 13. T23-Keith Tincher[17]; 14. 21C-Drew Charlson[8]; 15. 10X-Billy Uptegraff[16]; 16. (DNS) 5CS-Curt Spalding; 17. (DNS) 52-Mikey Kopka
Feature #2
Twenty-four hours after watching his brother earn his first little gator trophy, Evan Koehler decided it was his turn Wednesday night.
Chris Wilson led the field to the green with Tyler Spalding hot on his tail. After getting a couple laps underneath him, Wilson was able to pull away from Spalding, leaving him to battle Koehler in third.
The two young drivers in second and third had an aggressive battle for the runner-up spot, occasionally leaning on each other and rubbing fenders. Koehler won the battle, getting by Spalding on Lap 7.
Once the 20-lap Feature hit the halfway point, Wilson began to struggle to get off the corners, especially Turn 4, rarely facing straight by the time he saw the front stretch. That allowed Koehler and Spalding to close in lap after lap.
With Koehler feet away on Lap 11, Wilson again couldn’t get traction off Turn 4, and allowed the No. 114K to sneak under him. Koehler had the lead before they entered Turn 1, and like his teammate, Ricky Thornton Jr., in the first Feature, he took off.
Spalding got by Wilson for second, but had nothing for Koehler, who beat him to the line by over four seconds.
With Koehler’s win, all three Koehler Motorsports cars have earned a little gator trophy in the last five days of DIRTcar Nationals.
“It took us a couple races to finally get dialed in,” Koehler said. “We had a bit of miscommunication between me and my dad last night. You know, it was on me. The night before last, me and my brother, I took him out of the race. We both had a really good run, you know? I hate it for him, and you know, it sucked for us, but took me a couple races, and we finally got this thing right.”
RESULTS: Feature 2 (20 Laps): 1. 114K-Evan Koehler[4]; 2. 1TS-Tyler Spalding[2]; 3. 7D-Brad DeYoung[6]; 4. 17-Chris Wilson[1]; 5. 2K-Taylor Kuehl[17]; 6. 99W-Wade Olmsted[13]; 7. 97-Mitch Thomas[9]; 8. 51-Dalton Lanich[12]; 9. 8-Jimmy Lennex Jr[11]; 10. 1-Eric Kinney II[8]; 11. 5B-Bobby Bagley[7]; 12. 7-Evan Taylor[5]; 13. 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt[14]; 14. 25B-Greg Belyea[16]; 15. T9-Zack Tate[15]; 16. 35-David Stremme[3]; 17. 77B-Ray Bollinger[10]
Feature #3
Few drivers have mastered Volusia in a UMP Modified like Kyle Strickler, and he showed exactly why for the 18th time in his DIRTcar Nationals career Wednesday night.
Strickler, 42, of Mooresville, NC, punched through to Victory Lane for the first time this week after starting fifth on the grid. After getting up to third on the opening lap, he made the move on Ray Kable for second with a big dive into Turn 1 on Lap 3.
On a Lap 10 restart, defending national DIRTcar UMP Modified points champion Cole Falloway had made his way up to third from 10th on the starting grid and got a great run through Turns 1 and 2 on the restart, driving by Strickler and into the runner-up spot. When the caution flag flew again four laps later, Strickler knew it was his chance to get the spots back.
“I screwed up that first restart pretty bad, and I wasn’t gonna do it twice,” he said.
The green flag dropped and Strickler sped off Turn 4 past Falloway on the top, then drove deep into Turn 1 with a burst of speed and slid up in front of Wilson to take the lead away. From there, it was all “The Highside Tickler” as he opened up a gap on the field and led them back around to collect his 18th career gator trophy.
“I’m just tired of being mister nice guy,” Strickler said. “Tired of spinning myself out, wrecking myself and trying to stay off everybody because they’re gonna whine and cry and say I run over everybody whether I do it or not.
“Back to the old ‘Tickler’ I guess.”
RESULTS: Feature 3 (20 Laps): 1. 8S-Kyle Strickler[5]; 2. 56-Chris Wilson[1]; 3. 66F-Cole Falloway[10]; 4. 71-Pierce McCarter[7]; 5. 99K-Ray Kable[3]; 6. 17X-Richard Michael Jr[12]; 7. 3S-Josh Sanford[4]; 8. 26-Adam Ogle[13]; 9. 21B-Hunter Breland[8]; 10. 11D-Brian Diveley[11]; 11. 3G-Bryce Graber[15]; 12. 14-Dalton Lane[14]; 13. 60F-Shannon Fisk[6]; 14. 17T-Tyler Evans[2]; 15. 54-Zachary Hawk[9]; 16. (DNS) 77-Jim Shipman; 17. (DNS) 81K-Kyle Cole
Feature #4
In one of the most dominant performances of the week thus far, Tyler Nicely dominated Feature #5 Wednesday night for his second gator trophy of the week and 13th of his career.
The 30-year-old native of Owensboro, KY, took the lead from the pole on the opening lap and drove away from the field instantly, amassing a gap that no driver was able to cut into over the 20-lap affair. With a 2.5 second lead, the 2024 national DIRTcar UMP Modified points champion crossed the finish line unchallenged and added yet another piece of Volusia history to his trophy cabinet.
“We had a big hole to dig out of after the first night, but my racecar’s good,” Nicely said. “We’ll just have to keep everything together, and I think we’ll have a good shot.”
RESULTS: Feature 4 (20 Laps): 1. 25-Tyler Nicely[1]; 2. K9-Will Krup[5]; 3. 10Y-Trent Young[6]; 4. 777-Trevor Neville[3]; 5. 45H-Kyle Hammer[10]; 6. 9-Ken Schrader[2]; 7. 46-Matt Crafton[14]; 8. 99-Cole Hilton[8]; 9. 15X-Justin Stone[7]; 10. 43A-Mark Anderson[12]; 11. 55-Blaze Melton[16]; 12. 28B-Jason Brookover[4]; 13. 3F-Rob Fuqua[13]; 14. (DNF) 49-Brian Ruhlman[9]; 15. (DNS) 155-Peyton Harlow; 16. (DNS) 21J-Clay Harris
Feature #5
With two Koehler Motorsports machines earning a little gator trophy on Wednesday, the final driver to complete the team’s sweep was Jordan Koehler.
Koehler began the Feature in the second row as polesitter Aidan Hinds led the field to the green flag. The UNOH Motorsports driver blocked both lanes, preventing front-row starter Jonathan Taylor and Koehler from gathering up momentum for a pass.
With Taylor driving through the middle lane and Koehler keeping the No. 114 Modified on the bottom, they were gridlocked behind Hinds until the sole caution of the Feature flew on Lap 4.
On the restart, Hinds built an early gap over Koehler and Taylor as Treb Jacoby flew around the top of the cushion in Turns 1-2 to push Koehler and Taylor three-wide entering Turn 3. Jacoby took over second place on Lap 5, then Koehler retook the spot on Lap 6.
On Lap 8, Koehler created speed on the exit of Turn 2 to reach the inside of Hinds across the backstretch, then secured the high point through Turns 3-4 by powering his Elite Chassis on the bottom lane.
The 24-year-old North Carolinian jetted away from the lead pack through the final 12 laps by reaching a 7.3-second lead for his second Golden Gator of 2025 and completing the Koehler Motorsports sweep of wins on Wednesday.
“We’ve been really good,” Koehler said. “I just didn’t want to be the only one left out, so I had to make sure I’ve done it. I really gotta thank my mom and dad, I definitely wouldn’t be able to do this without them.”
RESULTS: Feature 5 (20 Laps): 1. 114-Jordan Koehler[4]; 2. 01-Aidan Hinds[3]; 3. 35H-Michael Altobelli[6]; 4. 114B-Clayton Bryant[11]; 5. J82-Treb Jacoby[8]; 6. 5T-Jonathan Taylor[2]; 7. 17W-Mikey Wilson[9]; 8. 11-Dylan Drake[12]; 9. 66-Adam Wright[10]; 10. 29C-Joey Cotterman[15]; 11. 84-Ryan Toole[14]; 12. 81C-Christopher Cole[16]; 13. 17C-Coleman Evans[7]; 14. (DNF) 43J-Jacob Hall[13]; 15. (DNS) 72-Todd Neiheiser; 16. (DNS) 712-Drake Troutman
Feature #6
Mike McKinney is looking to create his own DIRTcar Nationals trophy section with his growing number of Golden Gators.
2025 Volusia track champion Jason Garver led the field of 15 UMP Modifieds to the green flag, but St. Louis, MO native Kenny Wallace had other plans. Garver was unable to keep Wallace from reaching the bottom of Turns 1-2 as he powered around the No. 27 on the backstretch.
As Wallace flew to a two-second lead by Lap 4, McKinney and Garver raced side-by-side for the runner-up spot until the 2024 Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals champion mimicked Wallace’s pass on Garver, reaching his inside and darting away from the Starke, FL racer across the back straightaway.
The “Herminator” kept his No. 36 Elite Chassis to the bottom lane as McKinney worked to a 1.5-second gap over Wallace through the first half of the final Wednesday Feature.
Coming to Lap 11, Wallace dropped a left rear shock shaft on the track – instantly ending his chances for a second Feature win in 2026 and hurting his Big Gator points lead.
McKinney inherited the lead on the restart as Michael Ledford and Lucas Lee took over the podium. The “Magic Man” cruised to a 4.7-second lead as he caught the final little gator available on Wednesday.
“In this deal, there’s a lot of good cars out here, and you take them any way you can get them,” McKinney said. “Honestly, Kenny was really good, and I was content with running second. When he broke there, I was able to take advantage of it, get out in clean air, and keep testing this Elite racecar.
“Two in a week here is awesome. I might ask Hoffman for that blueprint of the Gator Pond and maybe build my own.”
RESULTS: Feature 6 (20 Laps): 1. 96M-Mike McKinney[3]; 2. 09-Michael Ledford[9]; 3. 12L-Lucas Lee[13]; 4. 05-Dave Wietholder[10]; 5. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[6]; 6. 27-Jason Garver[1]; 7. 1H-Ben Harmon[11]; 8. 28-Mason Lobb[7]; 9. 77D-George Dixon[5]; 10. 60-Jim Manka[14]; 11. 0-Glenn Styres[8]; 12. X-Wyatt Scott[2]; 13. 11N-Gene Nicholas[15]; 14. 36-Kenny Wallace[4]; 15. 88-Cody Thornhill[16]; 16. (DNS) 78-Rich Pratt
Up Next: The DIRTcar UMP Modifieds will continue the hunt for the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals Big Gator championship with six Features set for Thursday, Feb. 5. Joining the “Ironmen of DIRTcar Nationals” in the program will be the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars.
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