A return to NASCAR’s backyard this weekend saw a bevy of NASCAR regulars find time to play in the dirt.
Lawless Alan
The Truck Series competitor contested the wingless micro sprint division at Millbridge Speedway in North Carolina Wednesday night (Oct. 4) but ran in the back for all of it, finishing last in his heat race and second-to-last in the B-main.
Rajah Caruth
The Truck Series regular ran the wingless micro division at Millbridge Wednesday and showed improvement over the evening, rebounding from a third-fifth run in his heat to go 15th-10th in the A-main.
Tyler Dippel
The former Truck Series regular managed to crack the field and qualify for the Billy Whittaker Cars 200 Super DIRTcar Series event that finally was run Monday afternoon after a rain-soaked weekend at Oswego Speedway in New York. Dippel failed to finish the feature, finishing 26th among the 38 cars that started the race.
Stewart Friesen
Any concerns about lasting effects from the Truck Series regular’s violent crash at Talladega last week should be assuaged after Friesen’s performance at Oswego Speedway on Monday.
Friesen ran 350 competitive laps at Oswego on Monday, finishing fifth in the Super DIRTcar Series feature, as well as a fourth-place finish in the Salute to the Troops 150 feature, the Super DIRT Week finale for the 358 modified division.
Jerry Hill
The former Truck Series regular contested the Delmarva Super Trucks feature at Middleford Speedway in Delaware Friday night. Hill won a heat race and finished third in the feature, languishing from the fourth starting position on a track that saw very little passing during the 20-lap truck feature.
Kasey Kahne
The former Cup Series regular contested all three big-league sprint car races held at Port Royal Speedway in Pennsylvania on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, but didn’t make a lot of noise in any of them. Kahne did crack the field to qualify for Thursday’s big-dollar Tuscarora 50 feature but failed to finish, bowing to mechanical woes.
Kahne stuck around for the two-night Nittany Showdown with the World of Outlaws but continued a trend of going backwards, losing positions in his heat and going from 14th to 26th in the Friday feature. Kahne finally gained spots in a race Saturday night when he went from 14th to 10th in the Last Chance Showdown, though that was not enough to qualify for the main event Saturday.
Kyle Larson
The Cup Series regular had strong showings in the two sprint car features he was able to run before heading to Charlotte to run the ROVAL. Larson won a heat race and finished second in a protracted battle with Rico Abreu in the High Limit Racing Series at Bridgeport Speedway Park in New Jersey Tuesday night, leaving him in prime position to secure the inaugural season title for his own touring series this coming week.
Larson also made it to Port Royal Thursday night for the Tuscarora 50 and put on a show, winning hard charger honors with a 14th to second run in the A-main that was arguably the strongest display of passing that any driver put on display across three days of racing this weekend.
Jesse Love
The newly-crowned ARCA Racing Series champion won the pole dash and finished second in wingless micro action at Millbridge Wednesday, but as of this writing is listed as the race winner according to MyRacePass (winner Sam Johnson is listed as disqualified). At the time of this writing no further details have been made available regarding this development.
Austin Wayne Self
The former Truck Series regular continued his strong run on the Mid-East Modified Tour with a fourth-place finish at the Fayetteville Motor Speedway in North Carolina Saturday night, allowing him to retain the series points lead heading into the third week of its playoffs.
Daniel Suarez
The Cup Series regular ran a very strong wingless micro program at Millbridge Wednesday, going from sixth to second in his heat race and scoring a top-five finish in the A-main. Suarez committed to the high side of the Millbridge bullring early in the program and it paid off all night long.
About the author
Richmond, Virginia native. Wake Forest University class of 2008. Affiliated with Frontstretch since 2008, as of today the site's first dirt racing commentator. Emphasis on commentary. Big race fan, bigger First Amendment advocate.
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