18 Drivers Clinch Gator Championship Spot Through Friday Features at DIRTcar Nationals
Photo by Emily Schwanke
BARBERVILLE, Fla.—Of the 100 DIRTcar UMP Modifieds that set a lap time at Volusia Speedway Park during the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals, 18 drivers have locked up a chance to fight for the title.
Friday night at the “World’s Fastest Half Mile” saw the final set of six Features run for the division, with the top three finishers from each race earning a position in Saturday’s 30-lap, $5,000-to-win Gator Championship Feature and the overall Big Gator points crown.
Appearing in the 2026 finale includes Will Krup, Tyler Nicely, Chris Wilson, Mitch Thomas, Zeke McKenzie, David Stremme, Kyle Strickler, Charlie Mefford, Justin Stone, Jordan Koehler, Cole Czarneski, Brad DeYoung, Trevor Neville, Mike McKinney, Tyler Spalding, Ricky Thornton Jr, Cole Falloway, and Trent Young.
Here’s how each Feature played out:
Feature #1
Will Krup entered the penultimate night of Modified racing during Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals as the Big Gator Championship points leader and DIRTcar UMP Modified Florida Speedweeks points leader. After, he padded that lead in both categories.
The Mount Carmel, IL native led the field to the green in the first 15-lap Feature of the night and never looked back.
He never had to either. Krup had a more than two-second lead over second-place Chris Wilson by the halfway point of the race.
While the blue No. K9 drove away Wilson found himself under fire from third-place Tyler Nicely in the closing laps of the race. Nicely used the high side to his advantage and snuck by Wilson for the runner-up spot on the final lap.
Krup beat them both to the line by nearly four seconds – his eighth DIRTcar Nationals victory and fourth podium this week.
“We found some things there, but definitely a hard way to find them, but, yeah, the car’s been pretty good,” Krup said. “Just tweaking here and there, and, you know, with the limited time that we get to be on the racetrack, you gotta really try to make your adjustments matter, and you know, these guys are very good, so you have to be on your game all the time.”
RESULTS: Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. K9-Will Krup[1]; 2. 25-Tyler Nicely[3]; 3. 17-Chris Wilson[2]; 4. J82-Treb Jacoby[4]; 5. 35H-Michael Altobelli[6]; 6. 72H-Tristan Chamberlain[5]; 7. 5T-Jonathan Taylor[7]; 8. X-Wyatt Scott[8]; 9. 8-Jimmy Lennex Jr[12]; 10. 114B-Clayton Bryant[11]; 11. 31G-Stephen Pedulla[10]; 12. 2K-Taylor Kuehl[14]; 13. 0-Glenn Styres[9]; 14. T23-Keith Tincher[17]; 15. (DNS) 155-Peyton Harlow; 16. (DNS) 78-Rich Pratt; 17. (DNS) 72-Todd Neiheiser
Feature #2
Mitch Thomas earned his fourth Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals little gator trophy Friday night but had to fight for it.
Zeke McKenzie led the field at the start with Thomas in tow. Then, on Lap 3, Thomas got out of shape and slid up the track in Turn 1, allowing Pierce McCarter and David Stremme to get by him.
Now in fourth, he had work to do. And he pulled his gloves tight and got to it.
He got by Stremme for third on Lap 5 and then passed McCarter for second two laps later.
A caution on Lap 8 brought him back to McKenzie’s rear bumper, and he didn’t let the opportunity to pounce slip away on the restart. When the green flag flew again, Thomas about drove through McKenzie’s right rear quarter panel to get to his outside before entering Turn 1.
The two dueled side by side through the corner with Thomas winning the battle for traction off the corner, pulling ahead and taking the lead into Turn 3.
Once out front, he went unchallenged for the remainder of the race, picking up another DIRTcar Nationals win.
“I really thought I gave it away there on like lap four, or five. I went way up there,” Thomas said. “I was going up there to the concession stand to get a hot dog, or something, but we got things back together, and I knew if I got that caution, I felt like we really had a good shot at winning that race.”
RESULTS: Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 97-Mitch Thomas[3]; 2. 24-Zeke McKenzie[1]; 3. 35-David Stremme[4]; 4. 45H-Kyle Hammer[5]; 5. 71-Pierce McCarter[2]; 6. 99K-Ray Kable[7]; 7. 99H-Justin Haley[6]; 8. 46-Matt Crafton[11]; 9. 11-Dylan Drake[13]; 10. 9-Ken Schrader[9]; 11. 11N-Gene Nicholas[16]; 12. 1-Eric Kinney II[12]; 13. 28-Mason Lobb[8]; 14. 25B-Greg Belyea[15]; 15. 99W-Wade Olmsted[10]; 16. (DNS) 43J-Jacob Hall; 17. (DNS) 77-Jim Shipman
Feature #3
Kyle Strickler’s mastery of Volusia Speedway Park continued Friday night with another display of domination for his 19th career UMP Modified DIRTcar Nationals Feature win.
The 42-year-old from Mooresville, NC, led all 15 laps in the third main event of the evening, fending off the challenge from runner-up Charlie Mefford to collect his second gator trophy of the week. With the win, he’s now only four DIRTcar Nationals wins away from tying seven-time Big Gator champion Nick Hoffman for most wins all-time.
With the win, Strickler has locked himself into the redraw for Saturday’s $5,000-to-win Gator Championship Feature, which he has won a record four times in his career.
“I think we’ll have a really good car,” Strickler said. “We were working on some things and kinda went back to more of a standard package that we had. The car felt a lot better than it had in previous days.”
RESULTS: Feature 3 (15 Laps): 1. 8S-Kyle Strickler[1]; 2. 13-Charlie Mefford[2]; 3. 15X-Justin Stone[7]; 4. 7J-Justin Allgaier[5]; 5. 51-Dalton Lanich[6]; 6. 01-Aidan Hinds[3]; 7. 90-Jason Beaulieu[9]; 8. 21B-Hunter Breland[8]; 9. 21C-Drew Charlson[12]; 10. 54-Zachary Hawk[10]; 11. 60F-Shannon Fisk[11]; 12. 55-Blaze Melton[14]; 13. 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt[15]; 14. 10X-Billy Uptegraff[16]; 15. 77D-George Dixon[4]; 16. 0K-Damian Kiefer[13]; 17. (DNS) 21J-Clay Harris
Feature #4
Coming into the week, Jordan Koehler had never seen Victory Lane at Volusia. After Friday’s wire-to-wire performance, he’s now visited three nights in-a-row.
The 24-year-old from Mt. Airy, NC, got his first gator trophy on Tuesday, backed it up with another on Wednesday, and led all 15 laps of the fourth Feature on Friday for his third career DIRTcar Nationals triumph.
Not once did he let any of his competition get close enough to seriously challenge for the lead, beating Cole Czarneski to the checkered flag by 1.3 seconds to secure the win and lock himself into Saturday’s redraw, which guarantees him a top-12 starting spot in the Gator Championship Feature.
“This just shows what kind of team we’ve got,” Koehler said. “We’ve done a really good here, and they’ve got us so good, I’ll I’ve got to do is halfway do my job here driving.”
RESULTS: Feature 4 (15 Laps): 1. 114-Jordan Koehler[1]; 2. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[3]; 3. 7D-Brad DeYoung[2]; 4. 1H-Ben Harmon[11]; 5. 05-Dave Wietholder[4]; 6. 12L-Lucas Lee[6]; 7. 77B-Ray Bollinger[7]; 8. 70B-Ty Norder[10]; 9. 57-Charlie Sandercock[9]; 10. 7-Evan Taylor[8]; 11. 29C-Joey Cotterman[13]; 12. 00B-Buzzie Reutimann[15]; 13. 3G-Bryce Graber[14]; 14. 60-Jim Manka[12]; 15. 66K-Joshua Kunstbeck[17]; 16. 114K-Evan Koehler[5]; 17. (DNS) 81K-Kyle Cole
Feature #5
Trevor Neville wants to keep the winning times rolling.
The Mackinaw, IL native began the Feature from Pole Position as fellow “Land of Lincoln” driver Mike McKinney started to his outside. While McKinney attempted to get a jump on Neville through the cushion of Turns 1-2, Neville withstood the challenge from the bottom lane and gained clearance through Turns 3-4 with the top spot.
While Neville stayed at the front, McKinney did not make his lead comfortable. The former Summit Modified Nationals champion kept within a one-second gap of Neville by driving across the bottom lane while the No. 777 Lethal Chassis opted for the cushion.
When Neville navigated through lap traffic that appeared with two laps remaining, he created a bubble that McKinney was unable to break in the final seconds as Neville secured his fifth career little gator trophy and fourth consecutive appearance in the Gator Championship.
“Me and Mike go up and down the road all the time,” Neville said. “Actually, last night after the races, I went over, seen him and his dad, and we talked a little crap back and forth, of course. But he beats me, I beat him every now and then. It was a little aero racing there, a little traction, and a little hope, honestly.”
RESULTS: Feature 5 (15 Laps): 1. 777-Trevor Neville[1]; 2. 96M-Mike McKinney[2]; 3. 1TS-Tyler Spalding[4]; 4. 36-Kenny Wallace[3]; 5. 17W-Mikey Wilson[7]; 6. 49-Brian Ruhlman[5]; 7. 14-Dalton Lane[9]; 8. 56-Chris Wilson[8]; 9. 5B-Bobby Bagley[12]; 10. 43A-Mark Anderson[11]; 11. 17T-Tyler Evans[10]; 12. 3S-Josh Sanford[6]; 13. 17C-Coleman Evans[13]; 14. 81C-Christopher Cole[15]; 15. 88-Cody Thornhill[14]; 16. (DNS) 712-Drake Troutman
Feature #6
Ricky Thornton Jr is one night away from etching new Volusia Speedway Park history.
Adding a fourth Golden Gator to his tenure with Koehler Motorsports in a UMP Modified on Friday, the Chandler, AZ, racer punched his ticket to a first Gator Championship appearance in a flag-to-flag triumph around the half-mile track.
While Thornton kept a one-second gap over Trent Young through the first half, third-place running Cole Falloway used the middle lane to forge a duel against Young for the runner-up position.
As Falloway and Young battled for position, Thornton faced his own obstacle with lap traffic on Lap 10. Cruising around the slower cars with ease on the bottom lane, his No. 20RT Elite Chassis built a 2.9-second gap to cap the Friday program with a seventh career Golden Gator trophy between the UMP Modified and Late Model divisions.
“I feel like our whole team is one big family,” Thornton said. “I don’t know if I consider (Jordan and Evan Koehler) my brothers or my kids because they’re a bit younger than me. But, anytime we can go race together, I feel like our heads get together, and we joke around, have a good time.
“Whenever I’m serious at the racetrack, usually that’s where there’s something wrong. Just to be able to have this opportunity with Koehler Motorsports has been phenomenal. From the get-go, it’s been everything I’ve dreamt of, so hopefully we can keep it going.”
RESULTS: Feature 6 (15 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 66F-Cole Falloway[3]; 3. 10Y-Trent Young[2]; 4. 09-Michael Ledford[5]; 5. 17X-Richard Michael Jr[7]; 6. 27-Jason Garver[4]; 7. 5CS-Curt Spalding[16]; 8. 99-Cole Hilton[10]; 9. 66-Adam Wright[8]; 10. 11D-Brian Diveley[9]; 11. 43J-Jacob Hall[17]; 12. 52-Mikey Kopka[15]; 13. 26-Adam Ogle[11]; 14. 3F-Rob Fuqua[13]; 15. T9-Zack Tate[14]; 16. 84-Ryan Toole[12]; 17. (DNS) 28B-Jason Brookover
Up Next: The final night of DIRTcar UMP Modifieds in the 55th Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals begins with Last Chance Showdowns, leading up to the 30-lap, $5,000-to-win Gator Championship Feature to conclude the division’s portion at Volusia Speedway Park. Grandstand gates will open at 4 p.m and on-track activity starts at 5:30 p.m.
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