For the first time in 105 days, 360 Sprint Cars roared into Volusia Speedway Park with the DIRTcar UMP Modifieds, 3/4 Modifieds, and Factory Stocks in attendance for the Top Gun Classic.
Through the four Feature races ran around the “World’s Fastest Half Mile,” taking home the trophies included Tyler Clem, Seth Geary, Ethyn Hwan, and Jason Garver.
Top Gun Sprint Cars
Tyler Clem continued his streak of winning a race at Volusia Speedway Park every year since 2021 by bringing the Smith Racing No. 6S to Victory Lane during the Top Gun Classic Saturday night.
The St. Petersburg, FL native began the 25-lap Feature from seventh but fell to ninth at the end of the first lap.
However, he powered his way back to seventh by Lap 3 and continued that momentum into the top five by Lap 5 with a three-wide pass.
As multiple caution periods occurred at the halfway mark of the Feature, Clem used the restarts to his advantage by passing for fourth on Lap 14, then claimed his place on the podium in a five-lap battle against Sport Allen. While he climbed, Mark Ruel Jr. took the lead of the race by the halfway point and ran away with it.
A caution slowed the field for the final time on Lap 22 and when the race resumed, Ruel continued to lead while Clem threw a slider at Matt Kurtz in Turns 1 and 2 for second place and then secured it by running the cushion the next corner.
Ruel saw the twin checkered flags first with Clem next in line, but Ruel was disqualified for a wing infraction. The victory was awarded to Clem, who took home the $2,000 prize and his sixth career Sprint Car win at Volusia.
“We started off good, winning the Heat race,” Clem said. “We had a good starting spot for the (Feature), but I didn’t get a clean first five laps at all, struggling to pass cars and hard to get around guys. Finally, we got going halfway through and those restarts helped me to where we could bunch everybody up and focus on getting a good first lap out of the restart and go from there. We just got to build up our notebook for our next time we come back.”
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 6S-Tyler Clem[7]; 2. 92-Matt Kurtz[4]; 3. G6-Brandon Grubaugh[10]; 4. 116-Nick Snyder[12]; 5. 88-Sport Allen[2]; 6. 11K-Joshua Kunstbeck[1]; 7. 27-Austin Martin[9]; 8. 71-Robbie Smith[6]; 9. 10X-Joel Charles[3]; 10. 20D-Stephen Darvalics[18]; 11. 26-Jeff Bye[16]; 12. 44C-Cheyenne Potter[14]; 13. 28-Kenneth Ives Jr[17]; 14. (DNF) 41-Luke Hill[11]; 15. (DNF) 68C-Katlyn Calhoun[19]; 16. (DNF) 25-John Crowder[13]; 17. (DNF) 82-Garrett Green[15]; 18. (DNS) 9-Austin Rice; 19. (DNS) 65-JR Steele; 20. (DNS) 24-Danny Martin Jr; 21. (DQ) 83-Mark Ruel Jr[8]; 22. (DQ) 11-Trey Meredith[5]
DIRTcar UMP Modifieds
After a DNF in the season opener sent reigning Volusia Speedway Park track champion Seth Geary into a points hole, his last two Features have shown that he is not out of the 2025 title fight.
Starting the Top Gun Classic Feature from sixth, the Gibsonton, FL driver had a remarkable opening lap by passing five cars on the high side of the track to leave the first lap in second place.
The following lap, he did not waste time behind leader Jason Garver by using every inch of the cushion through Turns 3 and 4 to lead Lap 2, then got clear of Garver in Turns 1 and 2 to cement his place at the front.
Geary never relinquished the lead once it was in his possession, but Garver attempted to challenge for the lead. However, a slip in Turn 2 helped “Big Red” extend his lead to over three seconds as he claimed his second consecutive Volusia Feature win of 2025.
With the result on Saturday, Geary moved up to third in the championship standings – 24 markers back from Garver, the points leader, and nine points from second-place Dillon Buhr.
“I thought we were gonna fire off pretty good there,” Geary said. “I decided to go with a soft tire after watching the Sprint Cars. It didn’t look like it was getting dark and rubbered up, and I knew some of the (Modified) guys were gonna put a hard tire on. So, I hit it off really good, and I don’t ever think I touched the brake pedal, so (the car) rolled right around them.”
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 7G-Seth Geary[6]; 2. 27G-Jason Garver[2]; 3. 24B-Dillon Buhr[1]; 4. 3S-Josh Sanford[8]; 5. 3D-Makayla Tyrrell[9]; 6. 07-Eric Moon[4]; 7. 72B-William Bartlett[5]; 8. 34-Rob Giffen[10]; 9. 23-Kevin Dugger[12]; 10. 61-Ronnie Soltis[13]; 11. 00B-Buzzie Reutimann[7]; 12. 71A-Andrew Smith[14]; 13. 222-Cory Hupp[18]; 14. 1P-Mike Phillips[15]; 15. (DNF) 11P-Charlie Phillips[17]; 16. (DNF) 99-Wade Olmsted[11]; 17. (DNF) 72-Todd Neiheiser[3]; 18. (DNF) 8T-Trevor Senterfitt[16]; 19. (DNS) 5-Jerome Dippel
3/4 Modifieds
Ethyn Hwan’s first taste of Volusia Speedway Park Victory Lane came to fruition on Saturday night after a five-year wait for the 19-year-old driver.
The DeLand, FL driver rolled off from the second row as Dakota Cleland and Bo Bass led the field to the green flag. Bass took over the top spot as Hwan followed in his tire tracks to take second at the end of the first circuit.
While Bass found his comfort around the bottom lane, Hwan drove on the high side of the track, with the two beginning to battle door-to-door for three laps around the half-mile facility.
On Lap 5, Hwan used the lapped car of his sister, Samara, as a pick when the two cars approached the tail end of the field. Hwan’s strategy played to his favor as he locked the lead away from Bass on the backstretch.
Once he gained clean air, Hwan stretched the lead over Bass to six seconds as he crossed the finish line for his first Volusia Speedway Park Feature win. His win helped the No. 57 claim the division’s points lead for the first time in his career.
“It’s unreal,” Hwan said. “I’ve been trying to win here for five years, and this is right at the top. I wanna thank everyone that helps us on this car, the Volusia track surface was great, and all the thanks to all the people that helped us get here.”
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 57-Ethyn Hwan[4]; 2. 41B-Bo Bass[2]; 3. 5C-Chase Cooke[3]; 4. 7L-Jonathan Layerd[13]; 5. 27-Steven Powers[5]; 6. 9-Logan Malone[7]; 7. 29-Nathyn Hwan[9]; 8. 21-Dakota Cleland[1]; 9. 59H-Samara Hwan[6]; 10. 45S-Thomas Sheehan[15]; 11. 32P-Jesse Powers[14]; 12. 59-William Inabnett[12]; 13. (DNS) 51-Dustin Peterson; 14. (DNS) 55-Robert Brynteson; 15. (DNS) 188-Josh Panetti
Factory Stocks
Jason Garver’s all-around ability at Volusia Speedway Park continued to present itself on Saturday night at the Top Gun Classic.
Fresh from a second-place run in the DIRTcar UMP Modifieds Feature, the Starke, FL native climbed into his No. 01 Factory Stock to tackle 20 laps from the outside of the second row.
Patrick Thomas and Willy Cuddy commanded the field towards the initial start, with Cuddy taking the lead from the high side as Garver followed suit to steal second from Thomas.
Using lessons learned from the Modifieds that lost Garver the win, he used the momentum from the start to pass Cuddy on Lap 2 with a slide job on the bottom of Turns 1 and 2.
With a clean track in front of Garver, he got to create distance on the field as Thomas and Cuddy fought for second place throughout the remainder of the Feature.
As Garver cemented his second consecutive Factory Stocks win, he left Saturday night as the only driver to win in all three points-paying Volusia Speedway Park events. His Spring Fling win came in the UMP Modified.
With Thomas finishing in second and Cuddy in third, the two drivers are tied for the lead in the division’s standings, with each sharing 205 points.
“On track, it was a little slick,” Garver said. “I kinda had to run a different, or an unorthodox line I guess, but it worked out. It’s tough competition, it’s a tough class, so anytime you win in these, it feels really good. (There’s) a lot of good racers, and it takes a lot for this to happen.”
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 01-Jason Garver[4]; 2. 25T-Patrick Thomas[1]; 3. 23-Willy Cuddy[2]; 4. 5-Blake Clouser[6]; 5. 1T-Tanner Thomas[7]; 6. 00-Shaun Daugharty[8]; 7. 24-Bruce Bennett[3]; 8. 17-Billy Cassidy[13]; 9. 20-Justin Reynolds[5]; 10. 13-Ron Adams[14]; 11. 82D-Larry Masters[9]; 12. 21M-Mayson Mossow[16]; 13. 20C-Rich Clouser[10]; 14. 3X-Scott Durlin[12]; 15. (DNS) 69-Derrick Wood; 16. (DNS) 91-Kyle Peters; 17. (DNS) 118S-Donald Springer
Up Next: Volusia Speedway Park welcomes the “Fab 5” back to the track on Saturday, June 14 for the Firecracker Classic. Grandstand gates will open at 4:00 p.m, with Hot Laps commencing at 6:00 p.m.
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.