Michael Long stood atop the UMP Modified world Friday night, winning an incredible battle with two of the best St. Louis-area racers in Kenny Wallace and Rick Conoyer to score his seventh career DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals Feature win.
Conoyer led early from the pole but was soon engaged in a side-by-side battle with 2012 tour champion Wallace for the top spot. A caution just past the halfway point cooled the intensity, but opened the door for Long, who was only starting to heat up.
Long rolled off fifth on the starting grid but had dropped to as low as eighth at one point in the opening laps. However, that may have been by design.
“The car was a little tight there at the beginning,” Long said. “Once my hard tire came in and burned a little bit of fuel off, the car came to me – which I knew it would here.”
Now running third with slightly under half the race distance to go, Long mashed the throttle on the restart and made a beeline for the leaders. He caught Conoyer and Wallace in about five laps – just in time to see Conoyer bobble hard on the cushion as he snuck by to his inside.
“I kinda found a line where I could get almost in between them,” Long said. “Conoyer finally messed up on the cushion and I was able to get a run and slide him.”
Long continued to rip to the high side and powered his way around Wallace with only five laps remaining. One final caution with three laps left on the board restacked the field and gave Wallace one final shot for the lead, but it was not to be. Long cruised around to the checkers to win his first Summit Modified event of the season.
UP NEXT
The DIRTcar Summit Modified action continues Saturday night with a visit to Fairbury Speedway in Fairbury, IL. Get a ticket to watch in person at the gate or stream all the action live on DIRTVision.
MODIFIEDS
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 18L-Michael Long[5]; 2. 36-Kenny Wallace[3]; 3. 14C-Rick Conoyer[1]; 4. 8-Kyle Steffens[7]; 5. 51-Timmy Hill[11]; 6. 25-Tyler Nicely[23]; 7. 13-Charlie Mefford[10]; 8. 66-Cole Falloway[8]; 9. 25W-Allen Weisser[9]; 10. 10Y-Trent Young[15]; 11. 8K-Levi Kissinger[16]; 12. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[24]; 13. 77-Ray Bollinger[14]; 14. 39-Don Grimm[19]; 15. 51M-Joe Mercurio[17]; 16. 15-Chris Smith[20]; 17. 121-Caleb Slaughter[18]; 18. T9-Ryan Thomas[2]; 19. 19-Trey Harris[4]; 20. J82-Treb Jacoby[6]; 21. 12L-Lucas Lee[12]; 22. 1-Michael Barrett[22]; 23. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[13]; 24. 71S-Dakota Smith[21]
Last Chance Showdown (10 Laps): 1. 8K-Levi Kissinger[1]; 2. 51M-Joe Mercurio[2]; 3. 121-Caleb Slaughter[7]; 4. 39-Don Grimm[10]; 5. 15-Chris Smith[9]; 6. 71S-Dakota Smith[3]; 7. 1-Michael Barrett[6]; 8. (DNS) 128-Zach Schantz; 9. (DNS) 24H-Mike Harrison; 10. (DNS) 25-Tyler Nicely; 11. (DNS) 1A-Steve Meyer Jr; 12. (DNS) 21M-Willy Myers; 13. (DNS) 1D-Dean Hoffman; 14. (DNS) 2C-Ronnie Chance
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. T9-Ryan Thomas[1]; 2. 19-Trey Harris[2]; 3. 8-Kyle Steffens[4]; 4. 13-Charlie Mefford[5]; 5. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie[6]; 6. 8K-Levi Kissinger[3]; 7. 128-Zach Schantz[9]; 8. 121-Caleb Slaughter[8]; 9. 39-Don Grimm[10]; 10. 1D-Dean Hoffman[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 36-Kenny Wallace[1]; 2. 18L-Michael Long[6]; 3. 66-Cole Falloway[5]; 4. 51-Timmy Hill[2]; 5. 77-Ray Bollinger[9]; 6. 51M-Joe Mercurio[7]; 7. 24H-Mike Harrison[4]; 8. 25-Tyler Nicely[3]; 9. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[8]; 10. (DNS) 2C-Ronnie Chance
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 14C-Rick Conoyer[1]; 2. J82-Treb Jacoby[2]; 3. 25W-Allen Weisser[3]; 4. 12L-Lucas Lee[5]; 5. 10Y-Trent Young[6]; 6. 71S-Dakota Smith[8]; 7. 1-Michael Barrett[9]; 8. 15-Chris Smith[7]; 9. (DNS) 21M-Willy Myers
Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. T9-Ryan Thomas, 00:16.171[5]; 2. 19-Trey Harris, 00:16.302[7]; 3. 8K-Levi Kissinger, 00:16.349[3]; 4. 8-Kyle Steffens, 00:16.355[10]; 5. 13-Charlie Mefford, 00:16.370[4]; 6. 24Z-Zeke McKenzie, 00:16.414[9]; 7. 1D-Dean Hoffman, 00:16.517[6]; 8. 121-Caleb Slaughter, 00:16.698[1]; 9. 128-Zach Schantz, 00:16.706[8]; 10. 39-Don Grimm, 00:17.092[2]
Qualifying 2 (3 Laps): 1. 36-Kenny Wallace, 00:16.042[10]; 2. 51-Timmy Hill, 00:16.052[6]; 3. 25-Tyler Nicely, 00:16.070[9]; 4. 24H-Mike Harrison, 00:16.132[2]; 5. 66-Cole Falloway, 00:16.160[1]; 6. 18L-Michael Long, 00:16.191[4]; 7. 51M-Joe Mercurio, 00:16.232[8]; 8. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr, 00:16.325[5]; 9. 77-Ray Bollinger, 00:16.370[3]; 10. 2C-Ronnie Chance, 00:17.223[7]
Qualifying 3 (3 Laps): 1. 14C-Rick Conoyer, 00:16.248[3]; 2. J82-Treb Jacoby, 00:16.336[5]; 3. 25W-Allen Weisser, 00:16.345[2]; 4. 21M-Willy Myers, 00:16.377[9]; 5. 12L-Lucas Lee, 00:16.400[8]; 6. 10Y-Trent Young, 00:16.457[1]; 7. 15-Chris Smith, 00:16.665[6]; 8. 71S-Dakota Smith, 00:17.341[7]; 9. 1-Michael Barrett, 00:18.542[4]