After coming up one spot short in the season opener Wednesday night, Tyler Nicely found redemption Thursday night at Kankakee County Speedway, winning his sixth career Feature with the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals.
Nicely, the current DIRTcar UMP Modified national points leader from Owensboro, KY, started third on the grid and wasted little time making a bid for the lead, getting a big run underneath outside polesitter Levi Kissinger on Lap 6 and beating him in a drag race down the backstretch to take the top spot.
Once he was at the head of the field, there was no stopping him. Nicely fended off the field for the rest of the 25-lap main event to win his first career Feature of any kind at Kankakee.
“I just made sure I kept hitting my marks; it got kinda tricky down there in Turns 1-2,” Nicely said. “I just hit my marks and held everybody off.”
UP NEXT
The Summit Modifieds take on Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, IL, on Friday, June 16. Get a ticket at the gate or stream all the action live on DIRTVision.
DIRTCAR UMP MODIFIEDS
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 25-Tyler Nicely[3]; 2. 8-Kyle Steffens[5]; 3. 777-Trevor Neville[11]; 4. 8K-Levi Kissinger[2]; 5. 28M-Frank Marshall[1]; 6. 96M-Mike McKinney[7]; 7. 5-Steven Brooks[20]; 8. 121-Deece Schwartz[15]; 9. 0F-Matt Fabrizius[23]; 10. 20-Tanner Sullivan[19]; 11. 1-Nash Hilmes[14]; 12. 2ND-Jake Leitzman[17]; 13. 94-Tom Pasek[21]; 14. B5-Matthew Baker[22]; 15. 01-Billy Knippenberg[12]; 16. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[4]; 17. 36L-Jamie Lomax[9]; 18. 21A-Nick Allen[10]; 19. 35-Jason Hastings[8]; 20. 77-Ray Bollinger[16]; 21. 21-Lyndon Whitfill[6]; 22. 5CS-Curt Spalding[13]; 23. 89-Austin Friedman[18]; 24. 25B-Braiden Bohlmann[24]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 28M-Frank Marshall[1]; 2. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[3]; 3. 96M-Mike McKinney[5]; 4. 21A-Nick Allen[2]; 5. 5CS-Curt Spalding[6]; 6. 77-Ray Bollinger[4]; 7. 20-Tanner Sullivan[7]; 8. B5-Matthew Baker[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8K-Levi Kissinger[1]; 2. 8-Kyle Steffens[3]; 3. 35-Jason Hastings[2]; 4. 777-Trevor Neville[5]; 5. 1-Nash Hilmes[8]; 6. 2ND-Jake Leitzman[7]; 7. 5-Steven Brooks[4]; 8. 0F-Matt Fabrizius[6]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 25-Tyler Nicely[3]; 2. 21-Lyndon Whitfill[5]; 3. 36L-Jamie Lomax[4]; 4. 01-Billy Knippenberg[1]; 5. 121-Deece Schwartz[8]; 6. 89-Austin Friedman[2]; 7. 94-Tom Pasek[6]; 8. 25B-Braiden Bohlmann[7]
Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. 28M-Frank Marshall, 00:15.102[2]; 2. 21A-Nick Allen, 00:15.304[6]; 3. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie, 00:15.336[8]; 4. 77-Ray Bollinger, 00:15.347[1]; 5. 96M-Mike McKinney, 00:15.396[7]; 6. 5CS-Curt Spalding, 00:15.657[5]; 7. 20-Tanner Sullivan, 00:15.719[3]; 8. B5-Matthew Baker, 00:16.310[4]
Qualifying 2 (3 Laps): 1. 8K-Levi Kissinger, 00:15.324[1]; 2. 35-Jason Hastings, 00:15.414[5]; 3. 8-Kyle Steffens, 00:15.477[3]; 4. 5-Steven Brooks, 00:15.535[6]; 5. 777-Trevor Neville, 00:15.538[7]; 6. 0F-Matt Fabrizius, 00:15.909[2]; 7. 2ND-Jake Leitzman, 00:16.399[4]; 8. 1-Nash Hilmes, 00:16.405[8]
Qualifying 3 (3 Laps): 1. 01-Billy Knippenberg, 00:15.206[4]; 2. 89-Austin Friedman, 00:15.240[2]; 3. 25-Tyler Nicely, 00:15.269[3]; 4. 36L-Jamie Lomax, 00:15.557[6]; 5. 21-Lyndon Whitfill, 00:15.648[1]; 6. 94-Tom Pasek, 00:15.804[7]; 7. 25B-Braiden Bohlmann, 00:15.912[5]; 8. 121-Deece Schwartz, 00:15.912[8]