DirtonDirt Dispatches
Dispatches: Upstart hits jackpot at Tyler County
Levi Yetter won $20,000. (facebook.com/tylercountyspeedway)
Among notes and quotes around the Dirt Late Model world in late August, including World of Outlaws Late Model Series action in Iowa (look elsewhere for Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series coverage in Port Royal, Pa.):
Take me home
Levi Yetter turned some heads with his runner-up finish in Saturday’s Jay's Automotive United Late Model Series action at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va. His Sunday performance sent those same heads spinning in disbelief, starting with the 20-year-old Cabot, Pa., driver himself.
“I still can’t believe it,” Yetter said in victory lane Sunday after his $20,000 Country Roads victory in ULMS action, the richest victory of his career and first 100-lap triumph.
Yetter wrestled the lead from Ryan Montgomery on the 32nd lap, survived body damage in a lap-83 scrape with a lapped car and drove his Joe and Mary Corrado-owned No. 10 to victory lane at the quarter-mile oval. He took the checkers 1.625 seconds ahead of runner-up Jon Lee with Montgomery settling for third. Last year’s winner, national star Hudson O’Neal, fell from contention with a flat tire and settled for 10th.
Yetter, last year’s runner-up in Marion Center (Pa.) Raceway points, is a two-time winner this season at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. He posted a runner-up finish to Tyler Carpenter in Saturday’s $5,000 feature.
"I wasn't really expecting this at all,” Yetter said Sunday in victory lane. “I was happy to run the top-three last night and coming into this weekend, I was like, hopefully we get a little better than the last time.
“It’s just nice to see all our hard work paying off now … I mean, 20-grand? That’s just crazy to me. I think our biggest win is like $2,200 this year at Lernerville, and to come do this in front of all the competition we had tonight was just unbelievable.”
Yetter, who hadn’t finished in the top-five in a 2026 special event entering the weekend, has found speed.
"You know, the car is pretty good and thanks to Joe and Mary. They give me an awesome car week in, week out, and we finally got it really, really good,” he said. “My crew guy Samuel, my dad and mom, they put everything into this car and I really appreciate them for it.”
Lee and Montgomery — who both would’ve recorded their biggest paydays, too — praised the driver they mix it up with regularly.
“Me and Levi there, we're good buddies,” said Lee, the ULMS points leader. “We've raced a lot together up at our home track, Marion Center, over the years, and we were always whooping up on him, but now he's whooping up on us. So congratulations to him and his whole crew there and Joe Corrado and all them.”
Despite letting the lead slip away Montgomery was able to be happy for his fellow driver.
“He’s a great driver, so I was pretty hyped up for him,” Montgomery said. — Hunt The Front TV and staff reports
Dotson’s thriller
Shelby County Speedway’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series feature had it all. Four leaders. Racing from the infield to the wall. Leaders colliding on the final lap. And a drag race to the checkered flag to cap off an instant Race of the Year candidate.
From ninth in the starting order, Ethan Dotson wasn’t on the radar of potential contenders for the win for most of Saturday’s race in Harlan, Iowa. But the Bakersfield, Calif., driver methodically worked his way into the top five by the halfway point of the 50-lapper, then up to third with eight laps to go. That meant Dotson was in prime position when chaos broke out.
The chaos in question came between Daulton Wilson and Bobby Pierce, who pulled away from earlier leaders Nick Hoffman and Dennis Erb Jr. to race for the win down the stretch. Pierce tried everything he could to get past the No. 58v, but Wilson matched every move to keep Pierce behind him. That was until the white flag flew.
On the bottom of turn one, Wilson spun on his own right in front of Pierce, who had nowhere to go but into the side of Wilson’s car. The contact pointed Wilson back in the right direction and allowed him to drive away while Pierce was spun backwards. By series rules, Wilson maintained the lead because his wheels never stopped turning, but Pierce was sent to the tail when his car came to a stop.
The green-white-checkered restart opened the door for Dotson to enter the picture. Wilson remained committed to the bottom for the last two laps, so Dotson elected to rip the cushion for all it was worth in search of his first series win of the season. Dotson pulled alongside Wilson exiting turn two, then edged away exiting turn four to win by one car length.
“The line I was running, nobody was really running down there (in turns three and four),” Dotson said. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good there. Hate it for Bobby and Daulton, but the way it’s been going for me lately, I’ll take a little luck. I figured if I could get around the top down there and get a run on him, I saw (Wilson’s crew) telling him to run the bottom. Just all kind of fell together finally.”
Behind Wilson in second, Justin Duty scored a new World of Outlaws career best in third, while Tristan Chamberlain finished fourth for his best result of the season. Hoffman rounded out the top five. — Spence Smithback
Loving Adams County
Bobby Pierce seems to really like Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa.
With a victory in Friday night’s 45-lap OSR Southwest Iowa Shootout to cap the World of Outlaws Late Model Series debut at the half-mile oval, Pierce won for the second time in as many visits to the track this season. The 29-year-old star from Oakwood, Ill., also won July 14’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series show there, giving him a new reason to enjoy trekking to the western Iowa/eastern Nebraska area since the 2022 closing of I-80 Speedway outside Omaha.
“I was devastated when I-80 (Speedway) went away,” Pierce said, referring to the Kosiski family’s track that hosted the Silver Dollar Nationals from 2011-2022. “I think this is I-80, man. It’s pretty cool. It’s a lot of fun.
“Yeah, I loved I-80. We’re kind of in this area too, so it’s cool how that happens.”
A winner of the 2019 Silver Dollar Nationals, Pierce was a big fan of the sprawling half-mile I-80 Speedway. Adams County reminds him of the track in Greenwood, Neb.
“It just got them long straightaways with them tight corners and a nice amount of, you know, like flat on the bottom and then progressive banking on up,” Pierce said of Adams County. “It always gives us … at least the two times I’ve been here now, it’s gave us a heck of a feature. Heat races are a little single-file, but sometimes that’s what it takes to have like one of the best features, and this track definitely performs both times so far.”
Pierce said Adams County’s wall-less corners and back straightaway separate it from the fenced-in I-80, but it offers a unique challenge in that a miscalculation with a slider could send a driver into the corn fields bordering the backstretch for a “corn cob caution,” as he called it. He remarked that he nearly did just that “a few times” before he wrestled the lead for good from Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, N.C., on lap 28.
“It’s a fine line,” said Pierce, whose second win in the first four nights of a five-race Iowa swing for the WoO pushed his single-season victory record on the national tour to 20 triumphs. “I mean, I mentioned I-80 — I-80 had walls. This has no walls. I don’t know what I like better. The wall at I-80 was treacherous. I bent some right-rear wheels there running the fine line there, but here you just fall off, so I’d almost prefer it to fall off, I guess, as long as I can get back on.
“It takes a lot of focus (to run Adams County). It’s very mentally draining, but that’s what I like. I like it when it’s kind of finesse on the top, and you could roll the bottom and do a diamond line in through the middle. Lots of different lines, so it was a lot of fun.”
Pierce’s closest pursuers enjoyed Adams County as well, though neither runner-up Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., nor Hoffman, who finished third after leading laps 1-27, could match the WoO points leader’s speed.
McCreadie, whose advance from the 13th starting spot reached its zenith when he overtook Hoffman for second on a lap-35 restart, gave the track high praise.
“They know that if they prep it enough at the beginning, they (can) let it slowly go through its course,” McCreadie said. “And the driver matters a lot more in these cars when you start letting the track go a little bit instead of always tilling it. You know, you keep tilling them every night, all night long, it just turns into who’s got the best engine.
“As the track slowed, I got a little better and it was fun. I didn’t have nothing obviously for Bobby. And really, if Nick don’t take the bottom (on the restart), we would have been happy with third. When you can move around and you can dice with guys and still do it in a way that we can all have a beer later together, that’s my type of racing.”
Hoffman called Adams County “bad ass,” but he mourned a missed opportunity starting from the pole.
“Early in that race there, once he started peeking the nose at me and slid me and stuff, I knew he was quite a bit better than I was,” Hoffman said. “I just couldn’t charge a corner like I needed to. I was so tight on entry, and it’s just on me. I just screwed up myself on the setup side, crew-chiefing side. I just wasn’t very good. I just got myself where I was too right-rear stuck on entry and then I’d have to shear my stuff and then you slide across the center.” — Series and staff reports
Sorensen falls short
Third-year World of Outlaws Late Model Series driver Dustin Sorensen has flirted with his first victory on the national tour several times, but things have never quite fallen his way.
And so it was Wednesday for the 25-year-old Rochester, Minn., driver when he led laps 12-20 at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, but watched fast qualifier Tyler Erb drive past on the backstretch on the 21st of 35 laps in the tour’s debut at the half-mile oval.
"It was just a little bit too tight getting to the bottom of turn one there and I missed the bottom two laps in a row and Tyler drove around me,” Sorensen said. “But congrats to him. He had a good race car. I kind of got back to him there a couple of times in lapped traffic, and I thought we had a shot, which we probably did if things fell our way.”
Sorensen, who started outside polesitter Dallon Murty and took the lead from him on the 12th laps, ended up third behind Erb and Ethan Dotson of Bakersfield, Calif.
“If I would have ran a perfect race, we probably would have won, but I just missed the bottom down there a couple of times,” Sorensen added. “And then, second sucks, so whenever I got back close to Tyler, I started trying different stuff and Ethan got around me. But hats off to those two. They're two of my good buddies, and they did good tonight.”
Sorensen’s race almost came to a sudden end on the 13th lap when Trey Mills wrecked on the backstretch, his car ending up on its lid. Dennis Erb Jr. was slowing to avoid Mills and Sorsensen nosed under Erb’s car and spun.
The result? Mills climbed out unhurt and Sorensen was restored to the lead by series rules.
“Honestly, just happy that the spin-to-avoid rule is in existence, so I didn't have to go to the back after that deal with Trey,” Sorensen said. “Hope he's OK. That was pretty scary. I saw the whole thing happening, but we were going so fast. I locked up the brakes and spun around to avoid him.” — DIRTVision reports
Streaming schedule
Among upcoming Dirt Late Model special and sanctioned events available via live streaming:
Friday, Aug. 28
• World of Outlaws Late Model Series at Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa (DIRTVision)
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Rumble by the River prelim at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway (FloRacing)
• Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series at Ponderosa Speedway in Junction City, Ky. (ArrowVision Live)
• MARS Championship Series at Benton (Mo.) Speedway (FloRacing)
• Move Over Michigan Dirt Late Model Series at I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Mich. (Great Lakes Sprints TV)
• Wabam Dirt Kings Tour at Plymouth (Wis.) Dirt Track (Watch FYE TV)
• Burlile Performance Ohio Valley Late Model Dirt Series at Mansfield (Ohio) Speedway (Great Lakes Sprints TV)
• Premier non-touring Late Models Yankee Dirt Track Classic at 300 Raceway in Farley, Iowa (RaceON)
• DIRTcar Tri-State Late Model Regional Series at Sweetwater Speedway in Rock Springs, Wyo. (IMCA TV)
• Jay’s Automotive United Late Model Series prelims at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va. (Hunt the Front TV)
Saturday, Aug. 29
• Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Rumble by the River at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway (FloRacing)
• World of Outlaws Late Model Series at Shelby County Speedway in Harlan, Iowa (DIRTVision)
• Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series at Lake Cumberland Speedway in Burnside, Ky. (ArrowVision Live)
• MARS Championship Series at I-55 Federated Raceway Park in Pevely, Mo. (FloRacing)
• Jay’s Automotive United Late Model Series at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va. (Hunt the Front TV)
• Premier non-touring Late Models Yankee Dirt Track Classic at 300 Raceway in Farley, Iowa (RaceON)
• Burlile Performance Ohio Valley Late Model Dirt Series at Millstream Speedway in Findlay, Ohio (Great Lakes Sprints TV)
• Wabam Dirt Kings Tour at Shawano (Wis.) Speedway (Watch FYE TV)
Ultimate Pro Late Model Series at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va. (Hunt the Front TV)
• Best Plumber 604 Crate Racing Series at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn. (The Thrill TV)
• DIRTcar Tri-State Late Model Regional Series at Sweetwater Speedway in Rock Springs, Wyo. (IMCA TV)
Sunday, Aug. 30
• Jay’s Automotive United Late Model Series at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va. (Hunt the Front TV)
• MARS Championship Series at Belle-Clair Speedway in Belleville, Ill. (FloRacing)
• Ultimate Pro Late Model Series at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va. (Hunt the Front TV)
