Kankakee County Speedway welcomes return of DIRTcar Summer Nationals

The pinnacle of world motorsports may have come nearly a month ago over Memorial Day weekend with the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600, but for dirt track fans across America, the season just got started this week.

The DIRTcar Summer Nationals, a grueling gauntlet of 31 nights of racing in 34 days, kicked off this week. After the tour opened Tuesday in Brownstown, Kankakee County Speedway hosted Night 2 on Wednesday.

Some of the best late model and Summit Modified racers in America graced the quarter-mile dirt track at the Kankakee County Fairgrounds alongside local stars in the pro late model, modified and stock divisions for an action-packed night of racing that started at 6 p.m. and didn’t end until well after midnight.

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Derek Losh (21) and Trevor Neville race through turn four during the DIRTcar Summit Modified Nationals at Kankakee County Speedway Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (Mason Schweizer)

“There’s only once a year in Kankakee where you get to see the top talent from, it used to be only in the Midwest, but now it’s around the country,” track PA announcer Bill Yohnka said. “Especially being on the early part of the summer national tour, it’s a lot of excitement. As the tour goes on, racers fall off, cars get damaged and people run out of money. Early on there was a lot of excitement, and it was great to be able to showcase the work the people at Kankakee County Speedway put into this place.”

Televised on DirTVision, both national feature races were won in dominant fashion. With Bourbonnais native Steven Brooks on the pole in the modified race, Derek Losh was able to win the race into Turn 1 on the opening lap to set the stage for a wire-to-wire win in the 25-lap race.

Jason Feger also was a wire-to-wire winner in the 30-lap late model feature that included the two drivers tied for the most late model feature wins in Summer Nationals history, Billy Moyer Sr. and Shannon Babb, who became tied with 101 wins after Moyer Sr. took the opener at Brownstown.

Locally, Ryan Miller won the pro late model feature. Defending back-to-back modified season points winner Deece Schwartz won the modified feature, and Allen Provenzano won the stock feature.

After stops at Granite City’s Tri-City Speedway on Thursday and Peoria Speedway on Friday, the national tour is making its way through Fairbury Speedway on Saturday and Sycamore Speedway on Sunday. A total of 14 tracks in Illinois are hosting nights on the tour, with Fairbury also hosting the two-day World of Outlaws Prairie Dirt Classic on July 25 and 26. Included in those 14 tracks is La Salle Speedway, which is operating for certain special events this year for the first time since 2021.

DIRTcar UMP Modifieds

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 21L-Derek Losh[2]; 2. 66-Cole Falloway[6]; 3. 21A-Nick Allen[8]; 4. 99-Hunt Gossum[5]; 5. 45-Chase Holland[3]; 6. 777-Trevor Neville[9]; 7. 5-Steven Brooks[1]; 8. 27-Beau DeYoung[10]; 9. 1TS-Tyler Spalding[14]; 10. 96M-Mike McKinney[12]; 11. 5CS-Curt Spalding[16]; 12. 01-Billy Knippenberg[7]; 13. 7-Brad Deyoung[17]; 14. 1H-Ben Harmon[15]; 15. 25S-Jake Straka[13]; 16. 35-Jason Hastings[23]; 17. 73-Mark Rhoades[18]; 18. 2-Brayden Doyle[19]; 19. 28M-Frank Marshall[11]; 20. (DNS) 0-Travis Kohler; 21. (DNS) 17N-Dillon Nusbaum; 22. (DNS) 71J-Justin VanDrunen; 23. (DNS) 14-Dalton Lane

DIRTcar Late Models

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 25F-Jason Feger[2]; 2. 75-Dillon McCowan[1]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 4. 5-Mark Whitener[13]; 5. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[8]; 6. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[12]; 7. K67-Braiden Keller[10]; 8. 22*-Drake Troutman[9]; 9. 40B-Kyle Bronson[5]; 10. 14JR-Trey Mills[7]; 11. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[18]; 12. 18-Shannon Babb[17]; 13. 10J-Joseph Joiner[15]; 14. 31-Tyler Millwood[4]; 15. 17SS-Brenden Smith[16]; 16. 1-Tyler Erb[11]; 17. 16-Rusty Griffaw[20]; 18. 15-Clay Stuckey[19]; 19. (DNF) 130-Chase Osterhoff[6]; 20. (DNF) C6-Oakley Johns[14]; 21. (DNF) 29-Christian Hanger[22]; 22. (DNF) 10-Paul Parker[21]

DIRTcar Pro Late Models

Feature $1200 to win (25 Laps): 1. 11-Ryan Miller[1]; 2. 10M-Austin Mccarty[5]; 3. 818-Matt Hammond[4]; 4. 97M-Michael Marden[12]; 5. X3-Ben Kirchner[2]; 6. BK3-Billy Knippenberg III[9]; 7. 51A-Amber Crouch[7]; 8. 19-Chad Osterhoff[10]; 9. 25-Luke Robbins[8]; 10. 83-Brandon Williams[13]; 11. 56-Brandon Pralle[6]; 12. 3-Sam Moore[14]; 13. 32-Donita Hines[18]; 14. 47-Dan Kuhn[11]; 15. 35-Jeff Moore[16]; 16. 63-Stuart Hicks[15]; 17. 25E-Dakota Ewing[3]; 18. 41-Logan Nesselrodt[17]

DIRTcar Pro Modifieds

Feature (15 Laps): 1. 121-Deece Schwartz[2]; 2. 10-Curtis Caldwell[3]; 3. 24F-Patrick Fatigato[4]; 4. 14-Tom Knippenberg[8]; 5. 39-Kevin Sonquist[11]; 6. 21JR-Ryan Kohler[5]; 7. H24-Tony Hemp[9]; 8. 42A-Pete Argianas[1]; 9. 31T-Meara Tilstra[7]; 10. (DNF) 22-Allen Line[6]; 11. (DNF) 44E-Evan Eckhoff[13]; 12. (DNF) 88-Derek Line[10]; 13. (DNS) 12-Brenden Tezak

DIRTcar Stock Car

Feature (15 Laps): 1. K1-Allen Provenzano[1]; 2. 99K-Jerrad Krick[4]; 3. 01-Joe Hillman[10]; 4. 52P-Steve Perkins[7]; 5. 43-Dustin Hubert[12]; 6. 19K-Bailey Downey[8]; 7. 18-Sam Casko[11]; 8. 7-Joe Steurer[14]; 9. (DNF) 10H-Don Hilleray[5]; 10. (DNF) 83-James Williams[6]; 11. (DNF) 23G-Jace Gall[9]; 12. (DNF) 007-Kyle Anderson[2]; 13. (DNF) 16X-Bo Barger[13]; 14. (DNF) 27-Reid Gall[3]