As cooler temperatures filled the Florida air, the heat towards the “Fab 5” championships intensified throughout the penultimate points challenge at Volusia Speedway Park.
Through the five Features of 604 Late Models, 602 Late Models, DIRTcar UMP Modifieds, 3/4 Modifieds, and Factory Stocks, it was Trynt Lloyd, Bubba Roling, Jason Garver, Dalton Hopke, and Willy Cuddy picking up vital triumphs in Saturday’s Fall Classic.
Here is how each Feature played out:
604 Late Models
Trynt Lloyd took a major step towards his first track title with a performance that mirrored his win at the Firecracker Classic.
Nevin Gainey took the early lead as championship contenders Lloyd and Garret Stewart followed behind in second and third place, respectively.
While Gainey maintained a consistent one-second gap over Lloyd in the first 15 laps by driving his No. 17G through the middle lane, Stewart had to handle the challenge of Bubba Roling for the final podium spot.
When the caution flew on Lap 17, Lloyd was not going to let Gainey leave his grasp by keeping his No. 2 Longhorn Chassis on the back bumper of the Ft. White, FL driver when the final green flag flew.
While Gainey kept to his middle line, Lloyd found pace on the bottom that helped propel him to Gainey’s door as the white flag was displayed. Lloyd did not let his momentum stall as he got clear of Gainey through Turns 3-4 to steal the Fall Classic for his fourth win of 2025.
“Right now, I’m thinking about three gallons of water,” Lloyd said. “We was pretty decent in Hot Laps, then we got clobbered on the first lap of the Heat race. I didn’t really didn’t feel I was where I need to be, and they was a little better through the holes than I was. But man, I could fire right with (Gainey), and I figured one time or another, I could get below him. It did, and we’re here now.”
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 2-Trynt Lloyd[3]; 2. 17G-Nevin Gainey[1]; 3. 515-Bubba Roling[14]; 4. 67-Garret Stewart[4]; 5. 44-Kam Boyd[16]; 6. 721-Dustin Carter[12]; 7. 11-Waylon Haynes[2]; 8. 23-Toby Sims[13]; 9. 31-Tim Swartz[5]; 10. 28-Austin Leamon[9]; 11. 7-Jack Kicklighter[22]; 12. 94-Holden Allen[11]; 13. 74-Jason Garver[10]; 14. 44P-Kole Platt[6]; 15. 32-Jason Jack[15]; 16. 23L-Lawton Minchew[17]; 17. 27-Randy Phillips[21]; 18. 51-Larry Anderson[19]; 19. 54T-Tuck Trentham[7]; 20. 07-David Clegg[8]; 21. 23K-Korbin Minchew[20]; 22. 75-Sonny Thompson[18]; 23. 119-Joe Belkey[24]; 24. (DNS) 97-Cody Overton
3/4 Modifieds
As the driver to beat in the 3/4 Modifieds, Dalton Hopke continued to stay at the top Saturday night as he hunts for his first track championship in 2025.
The Jacksonville, FL driver immediately took the lead from the drop of the green flag after taking his No. H1 machine to the top of the track as Battle in Barberville winner Colton Lane drove in Hopke’s shadow through the early stages.
Though Hopke stretched his lead to three seconds by Lap 6, lapped traffic in front of him helped Lane shorten the distance by 0.3 seconds each lap to get within 1.5 seconds by Lap 12. Suddenly, Lane spun off Turn 2 on Lap 13 after attempting to avoid a lapped car.
Top Gun Classic winner Ethyn Hwan became the new challenger against Hopke for the run to the finish as his No. 57 kept the No. H1 within a one-second gap within the final three laps. Though Hwan assimilated Hopke’s pace, it was not enough to make a final charge at his title opponent as Hopke passed the checkered flag for his fifth Feature win of the season.
“Well, first off, I was a little nervous,” Hopke said. “The track’s got a lot of character in it, and they started tilling it up and I’m like ‘It’s gonna be a little dirty.’ I was nervous that (Lane) was out front, he got me in clean air the last go-around and did a really good job. I knew he was gonna be fast so I knew if I didn’t get him behind me as soon as I could, it was gonna be hard to stop him. My goal was to attack, attack, attack, and that’s what we did.”
Feature (15 Laps): 1. H1-Dalton Hopke[4]; 2. 57-Ethyn Hwan[6]; 3. 32P-Jesse Powers[8]; 4. 188-Josh Panetti[3]; 5. 5C-Chase Cooke[2]; 6. 26L-Colton Lane[1]; 7. 29-Nathyn Hwan[7]; 8. 59-William Inabnett[10]; 9. 21-Dakota Cleland[11]; 10. (DNF) F5-Dustin Childers[9]; 11. (DNS) 51-Dustin Peterson; 12. (DNS) 54-Austin Harley
602 Late Models
Bubba Roling has “The World’s Fastest Half Mile” dialed in with a 602 Late Model.
The Clay Hill, FL driver dominated the night for his fourth win at the track in 2025 as he took home the $1,000 Fall Classic payday.
Polesitter Adam Bennett took the early lead as Roling went to work from a fifth-place starting position, passing Billy Rodriguez and James Haynes on the first lap to place himself in the podium.
Roling’s early momentum helped him get by Justin Dean for second place on Lap 2, then chased down Bennett’s No. 40 Late Model until Roling performed a slide job around the bottom to become the Feature’s newest leader.
Once the 18-year-old caught the clean air at the head of the field, Roling had the ability to drive away from the pack as Bennett and Dean went to battle for second. Though Dean got around Bennett to retake the position on Lap 8, he was unable to gain an edge on Roling as he grew the bubble to 2.9 seconds as he picked up his first win at the track since the Summer Sizzler in July.
“This thing is always good at this place,” Roling said. “I won in it last weekend against a pretty stout field, and this thing has been on tune. The balance is great on it, I don’t have to change a whole lot on it, I just get in and drive it. This Capital Race Car, I can’t complain about it. Especially the 604 (Late Model), coming from 14th to third. But, I had a really good car right there.”
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 515-Bubba Roling[5]; 2. 35-Justin Dean[3]; 3. 40-Adam Bennett[1]; 4. 17G-Nevin Gainey[6]; 5. 28-Austin Leamon[17]; 6. 53-Brandon Yates[9]; 7. 1J-Jason Papp[11]; 8. 1-Hania Humphries[13]; 9. 45-Jason Garver[7]; 10. 86A-Evan England[15]; 11. 21S-Sonny Thompson[8]; 12. (DNF) 1A-Ricky Haugen[10]; 13. (DNF) 41-Gary Sexton[12]; 14. (DNF) 21M-Mayson Mossow[14]; 15. (DNF) 36-James Haynes[4]; 16. (DNF) 11-J R Gray[16]; 17. (DNF) 44-Billy Rodriguez[2]
DIRTcar UMP Modifieds
In a Feature that saw championship implications throughout 20 laps of racing, Jason Garver made sure to keep DIRTcar UMP Modified title hopes in his control Saturday night.
Starting the competition from the outside of the front row, Garver used his starting spot to his advantage on the start by taking his machine to the top of the track of Turn 1 and drove around the cushion to exit Turn 2 with the lead.
Directly behind Garver was his title opponent, Seth Geary. At the moment he mashed the gas to the green, his hood flew up and blocked his sight in front of him, bringing out the caution on Lap 2 and went to the tail of the field to fix the mishap.
Garver orchestrated the field as Austin Self and 2023 track champ Dalton Lanich joined the battle for the night’s win. Self kept his No. 23Z to the bottom while Lanich used a mix of the bottom, middle, and the top in his search for an advantage on the two drivers.
As Lanich found the outside line as his preferred racing line, he passed Self on Lap 7 and kept Garver within one second to be within striking distance of the No. 27G.
Behind the two drivers, Geary did not waste any laps in his charge back to the front by driving up into the top 10 by Lap 4, then worked his way into the top five by Lap 13.
Though Lanich attempted the opposite moves that Garver made, he could not get close enough to steal the top spot as the Starke, FL driver captured his second Feature win of 2025 in the division.
“Yeah, that one took a minute,” Garver said. “Luckily, we had the lead and it worked out in our favor tonight. I’ve lost a couple right there at the end, so it felt good that we got one. It takes a lot of hard work by this crew to make it all happen. Of course, we bring all these cars and they work their tails off, so I wanna thank them.”
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 27G-Jason Garver[2]; 2. 51-Dalton Lanich[8]; 3. 23Z-Austin Self[9]; 4. 7G-Seth Geary[4]; 5. 07-Eric Moon[7]; 6. 3S-Josh Sanford[6]; 7. 72-Todd Neiheiser[21]; 8. 78-Rich Pratt[3]; 9. 21-Devin McLeod[23]; 10. 23-Kevin Dugger[24]; 11. 52-James Haynes[17]; 12. B69-Bryan Bernhardt[10]; 13. (DNF) 34-Rob Giffen[22]; 14. (DNF) 24B-Dillon Buhr[11]; 15. (DNF) 80-Paul Shead[1]; 16. (DNF) 18A-Jared Allison[12]; 17. (DNF) 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt[14]; 18. (DNF) 00B-Buzzie Reutimann[15]; 19. (DNF) 20-Kyle Wiggins[19]; 20. (DNF) 99-Wade Olmsted[18]; 21. (DNF) 192-Tim McLeod[16]; 22. (DNF) 15-Tim Swartz[13]; 23. (DNF) 71A-Andrew Smith[20]; 24. (DNF) 47-Billy Howard[5]
Factory Stocks
Willy Cuddy took every advantage offered to him on Saturday to close the gap on Jason Garver in the Factory Stocks title fight.
Starting the Feature in fourth, Cuddy witnessed former champ Shaun Daugharty take the lead from the start while he had to manuever around Dustin Turnage Jr and David Dowling on the opening lap to take second place.
As Daugharty took the middle lane around the track, Cuddy glued his No. 23 to the bottom line to reach the leader’s left rear quarter panel and battle side-by-side on Lap 3. One lap later, Daugharty lost control in Turn 3 and spun as Cuddy became the new leader.
As Cuddy led, Garver – who had to start the Feature in Chris Meyer’s No. 17K – worked his way up from a 13th place starting position to reach second place by the end of Lap 6.
Though Garver got clear with the podium spot, he was unable to keep up with as Cuddy inflated his lead with each circuit. When lapped traffic appeared in his crosshairs, Cuddy did not lose ground as he was able to hold a lead over Garver by 4.4 seconds as he drove to his second win at the track since the season opener in March.
“Me and my dad have been working hard trying to get this thing to where I want it,” Cuddy said. “We want it to where it’s effortless to drive, and man, I cannot thank him enough. I wasn’t driving, I was riding wide open the entire time. I was just riding. Oh man, I love it.”
Feature (15 Laps): 1. 23-Willy The Kid Cuddy[4]; 2. 01-Jason Garver[13]; 3. 1JR-Dustin Turnage Jr[3]; 4. 69-Derrick Wood[5]; 5. 38-David Dowling[1]; 6. 00-Shaun Daugharty[2]; 7. 82D-Larry Masters[6]; 8. 44-Dexter Rodriguez[8]; 9. 118S-Donald Springer[11]; 10. 3-Brad Stevens[10]; 11. 12F-Danny Frye[9]; 12. (DNS) 17K-Chris Meyer; 13. (DNS) 21M-Mayson Mossow
Up Next: Volusia Speedway Park will decide the “Fab 5” champions of the 2025 season in The Prelude to the Reutimann on Saturday night, Nov. 15. The DIRTcar UMP Modified will up the stakes as the winner of the night’s Feature will be locked into the 12th Emil & Dale Reutimann Memorial finale. Gates will open at 4 p.m. ET, with Hot Laps at 6 p.m. Tickets will be $15. Attendants 12 and under are free.
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.