Volusia Speedway Park continued to build excitement in Saturday night’s Short Track Showdown as new twists packed the “Fab 5” Feature races.
From the 102 cars that signed in between the 604 Late Models, 602 Late Models, DIRTcar UMP Modifieds, 3/4 Modifieds, and the Factory Stocks, it was Donnie Chappell, Dalton Hopke, Seth Geary, Trynt Lloyd, and Jason Garver visiting Victory Lane.
602 Late Models
Donnie Chappell’s two-year hiatus from winning a Volusia Speedway Park Feature ended on Saturday night with a performance that made the wait worth it.
The St. Augustine, FL native won his Heat race to start the night, rewarding him with a Feature start on the inside of the second row.
Polesitter Billy Rodriguez made the first claim for the lead on the first lap, but Chappell did not make his time in the lead last long as he beat him to the bottom line to take the point.
While Chappell never relinquished the lead for the remainder of the Feature, he had Brandon Yates and Jason Garver using every inch of the track available to stay behind the No. 25 Late Model, but did not have enough momentum to attempt a pass.
Garver and Yates lost ground with a multi-lap battle for second place, which gave Chappell a 4.4-second lead for his first win at Volusia since April 23, 2023.
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 25-Donnie Chappell[3]; 2. 45-Jason Garver[7]; 3. 17S-Brody Smith[8]; 4. 53-Brandon Yates[5]; 5. 28-Austin Leamon[10]; 6. 01-Fletcher Mason[6]; 7. 131-Matt Herlong[4]; 8. 44-Billy Rodriguez[1]; 9. 1J-Jason Papp[2]; 10. 21D-Lenny Dallman[14]; 11. 86A-Evan England[12]; 12. 37S-Layne Smith[15]; 13. 1-Hania Humphries[17]; 14. 11-J R Gray[13]; 15. 1A-Ricky Haugen[11]; 16. (DNF) 71-Davy Cline[9]; 17. (DNF) 55-Dustin Childers[19]; 18. (DNF) 5-Hunter Blasingame[18]; 19. (DNF) F5-Nathan Rhoades[21]; 20. (DNF) 35-Justin Dean[20]; 21. (DNS) RP 1-David Castello; 22. (DNS) 32D-Ty Dorn
3/4 Modifieds
Dalton Hopke continued his reign over the 3/4 Modifieds on Saturday night with a dominating Feature win in the Short Track Showdown.
The Jacksonville, FL driver kept his No. H1 at the top of the board through Hot Laps and Heat racing to have an opportunity at a complete division sweep.
Hopke started fourth in the 15-lap Feature after a four-car invert, but that did not stop him from swinging his 3/4 Modified to the high side of the track to take the lead exiting Turn 2 on the opening lap while the field behind him worked to follow his tire marks around the half-mile track.
Pierson, FL driver Colton Lane attempted to challenge the lead after moving up to second place on Lap 4, but Hopke’s extension to a 2.3-second gap dwindled Lane’s chances.
A caution with three laps to go gave the hornet’s nest of Modifieds a final run at Hopke, but a smooth restart and a 1.3-second bubble solidified his second consecutive Feature win in the 2025 points season.
“We’re gonna keep coming back, and we are going to keep tearing it up every time we come,” Hopke said. “The racing is so much better, the track surface was great, it slicked off in Turn 2, and coming out of Turn 4, and I felt like it made it a little bit more interesting as the race went on.”
Feature (15 Laps): 1. H1-Dalton Hopke[4]; 2. 26L-Colton Lane[5]; 3. 51-Dustin Peterson[3]; 4. 57-Ethyn Hwan[9]; 5. 7L-Jonathan Layerd[13]; 6. 188-Josh Panetti[6]; 7. 859-Timmy Hogan[1]; 8. 5C-Chase Cooke[15]; 9. 27-Steven Powers[7]; 10. 29-Nathyn Hwan[8]; 11. 59-William Inabnett[10]; 12. 21-Dakota Cleland[12]; 13. (DNF) 7-Chris Olmstead[2]; 14. (DNF) 9-Logan Malone[11]; 15. (DNS) 32P-Jesse Powers
DIRTcar UMP Modifieds
Seth Geary rediscovered his way of winning at Volusia Speedway Park by going back to the basics.
The reigning track champion struggled in the Heat race after experimenting with a new setup on his car, which resulted in a sixth-place finish.
Geary started 12th in the 20-lap Feature and went straight to work by moving up to eighth place by the end of the opening circuit.
“Big Red” continued moving up the field while Todd Neiheiser controlled the front of the field with Spring Fling winner Jason Garver on his tail.
The Feature shaped up for a rematch between the two drivers until Garver’s miscalculation of entry into Turn 1 damaged his nose, but he continued to fight through the issue.
Geary found himself near the leaders with a pass around Dillon Buhr for third place at the halfway mark, and steadily made ground on Neiheiser.
With five laps to go, Geary took his chance on Neiheiser by sending his No.7G Longhorn Chassis to the bottom lane for a slide job attempt. The move paid off as Geary got clear of Neiheiser and led the remainder of the Feature for his first 2025 win at Volusia.
“I thought I knew what I was doing there,” Geary said. “We tried some stuff in the Heat race, and it did not like that at all. It was not my driving style, I was hunkered on the right rear so bad that I couldn’t steer in a 40-acre field. So, I went back to the good ole Longhorn baseline, and here we are.
“The thing was unbelievable, I got a little bit tight there, but man, I just had to put it to the floor, and I told (the crew guys) ‘Either we’re gonna be really good, or we’re gonna suck.’ And this thing was damn good.”
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 7G-Seth Geary[12]; 2. 21-Devin McLeod[5]; 3. 27G-Jason Garver[1]; 4. 24B-Dillon Buhr[4]; 5. 72-Todd Neiheiser[2]; 6. 07-Eric Moon[3]; 7. 15-Hunter Gustafson[8]; 8. 00B-Buzzie Reutimann[20]; 9. 80-Paul Shead[6]; 10. 23-Kevin Dugger[14]; 11. 3D-Makayla Tyrrell[9]; 12. 99-Wade Olmsted[11]; 13. 2C-Ronnie Chance[19]; 14. 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt[10]; 15. 1P-Mike Phillips[15]; 16. 11P-Charlie Phillips[17]; 17. 52-Adam Hanas[16]; 18. 18A-Jared Allison[7]; 19. 34-Rob Giffen[13]; 20. (DNS) 51-Dalton Lanich
604 Late Models
To be the best, you have to beat the best.
Trynt Lloyd had to topple Florida’s top dirt Late Model drivers for his first win at Volusia Speedway Park since 2022.
Tim Swartz and Mark Whitener led the field of 27 604 Late Models to the green flag, with Whitener taking the top of the leaderboard on the first lap.
Lloyd initially used the bottom line to his advantage by passing Swartz, Garret Stewart, and Keith Nosbisch for second place.
Whitener’s Big Frog Motorsports No. 58 slowly distanced himself from Lloyd by taking a 1.3-second lead until the halfway mark added a new element of competition with lapped traffic ahead of the two leaders.
With the “Magic Man” struggling to get by the lapped cars, Lloyd used Whitener’s woes to his advantage by cutting down the gap to 0.4 seconds with five laps to go.
When Whitener got caught behind the lapped car of Steven Stratton Sr entering Turn 1, Lloyd used the bottom line to race door-to-door, then got clear with a slide job around Stratton to secure his lead placing.
From the moment he had the position, the Jacksonville, FL native used his No. 2 Longhorn Chassis to spread from Whitener as he took his first checkered flag at Volusia in the 2025 season.
“Man, I’ve been trying to (win) for a long time,” Lloyd said. “Last time we came here, we were junk. I was expecting no more, no less. The Heat race, we came from the tail to win it, but I don’t know. We didn’t touch it much, tweaked on a little bit, and Mark (Whitener) had a hard time with those lappers. But I mean, it was a good race.”
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 2-Trynt Lloyd[5]; 2. 58-Mark Whitener[2]; 3. 67-Garret Stewart[3]; 4. 17SS-Brenden Smith[9]; 5. 74-Jason Garver[6]; 6. 31S-Tim Swartz[1]; 7. 25C-Donnie Chappell[7]; 8. 5-Bubba Whitener[18]; 9. 131-Matt Herlong[8]; 10. 02-Keith Nosbisch[4]; 11. 28-Austin Leamon[13]; 12. 44P-Kole Platt[11]; 13. 07-David Clegg[17]; 14. 17SR-Brody Smith[15]; 15. 54T-Tuck Trentham[21]; 16. 75-Sonny Thompson[20]; 17. 17-Rob Pitcher[14]; 18. 71-Davy Cline[12]; 19. 42-Steven Stratton Sr[16]; 20. 23K-Korbin Minchew[19]; 21. 23L-Lawton Minchew[26]; 22. 46S-Kevin Strife[24]; 23. 5C-Dustin Carter[27]; 24. 27-Noah Carpenter[23]; 25. 44K-Troy Kidd[25]; 26. (DNF) 721-Ivedent Lloyd[10]; 27. (DNF) 96-Sean Reagan[22]
Factory Stocks
Jason Garver finished inside the top five in the three Feature races he ran at the Short Track Showdown, but did not cross the checkered flag in first place.
That changed in his fourth and final race of Saturday.
Curt Spencer and former track champion Shaun Daugharty set the front row for the Feature as Spencer took control on the first lap.
Spencer’s lead did not last the following circuit as a miss of the Turn 1 apex left an open space for Garver to fill, which awarded him the lead on the second lap.
The Starke, FL driver crafted his lead to over a second as reigning track champion Patrick Thomas followed in his shadow to pass Spring Fling winner Willy Cuddy for second-place.
While Thomas used the bottom lane, Garver found his way to the high side of the track as lapped traffic became his newest challenge in the second half of the Feature.
Garver’s high-side running helped extend the distance from Thomas to 2.2 seconds as he claimed his first 2025 win in the Factory Stocks, but his second 2025 win overall in the Volusia championship chase.
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 01-Jason Garver[3]; 2. 25T-Patrick Thomas[5]; 3. 23-Willy The Kid Cuddy[4]; 4. 24-Bruce Bennett[8]; 5. 12S-Curt Spencer[1]; 6. 15-Jamie Carter[7]; 7. 5H-Tommy Hill[6]; 8. 00-Shaun Daugharty[2]; 9. 20K-Kyle Peters[10]; 10. 20-Justin Reynolds[12]; 11. 17-Billy Cassidy[11]; 12. 9AR-Charlie Stone[15]; 13. 12-Danny Frye[14]; 14. 82D-Larry Masters[16]; 15. (DNF) 13-Sean Babcock[19]; 16. (DNF) 107-Brad Stevens[13]; 17. (DNF) 118S-Donald Springer[18]; 18. (DNF) 21M-Mayson Mossow[17]; 19. (DNS) 69-Derrick Wood
Up Next: Volusia Speedway Park welcomes the Top Gun Sprint Cars for the first time in 2025 for the Top Gun Classic on Saturday night, May 17. Joining the Sprint Cars will be the DIRTcar UMP Modifieds, 3/4 Modifieds, and Factory Stocks.
For info about the event, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.