Mike Harrison has shifted more of his focus to Late Models over the past few years. But Friday night at Coles County Speedway, the six-time DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals champion proved why he’s still one of the most dominant forces in Modified racing.

Harrison, of Highland, IL, reigned supreme over the field, fending off all challengers and leading all 25 laps enroute to his 63rd career Summit Modified Feature win in his debut at the 1/8-mile Micro Sprint course.

Sixty-three Summit Modified wins now puts him only six behind Nick Hoffman — the five-time series champion — who owns 69 Feature wins on the tour.

The Feature began with Harrison taking control early on, NASCAR Truck Series regular Justin Haley second, and Jeremy Nichols running third after the first lap.

Zeke McKenzie disposed of Nichols to take third on Lap 4 as lap traffic was quickly nearing on the tight bullring.

Traffic forced the leaders to begin experimenting with different lines, allowing Haley to close in on the No. 24H of Harrison but a caution would halt the progress for a car spun in turns one and two.

The Lap 10 restart proved to be catastrophic for Haley as he spun entering turn one which caused a chain reaction pileup blocking all of turn one, ending Haley’s hopes for a Summit Modified victory.

On the proceeding restarts, Harrison built up a big enough lead that he was not challenged the rest of the way enroute to the checkered flag.

“The cautions definitely got old after a while, especially sitting there on the reds,” Harrison said. “I wanted to come knock this one off the bucket list and it was fun. But tonight’s over now, that’s what sucks about it all, you gotta start focusing on tomorrow.”

Damian Kiefer climbed from eighth on the starting grid to finish second, Ray Bollinger came from sixth to finish third, while McKenzie and Nichols rounded out the top five.

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The DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals returns to action at Fairbury Speedway on Saturday, June 13th.

How can you watch the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals? Every race is streamed live on DIRTVision.

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 24H-Mike Harrison[1]; 2. 0-Damian Kiefer[8]; 3. 77-Ray Bollinger[6]; 4. 24-Zeke McKenzie[4]; 5. 01-Jeremy Nichols[2]; 6. 01K-Billy Knippenberg[7]; 7. 19C-Carter Sinkhorn[13]; 8. 05-Dave Wietholder[12]; 9. 2-Brayden Doyle[5]; 10. B5-Matthew Baker[18]; 11. 69-Noah Sugg[14]; 12. 4K-Taylor Kerz[17]; 13. 15H-Jeff Hamby[16]; 14. 21JR-Drew Schwartz[22]; 15. 74S-Chris Sieweke[20]; 16. 14-Carter Standerfer[21]; 17. 21D-John Dimmitt[10]; 18. 99-Justin Haley[3]; 19. 10Y-Trent Young[15]; 20. 88L-Christian Lee[19]; 21. 118-Dustin Atchison[24]; 22. 28B-Lucas Pace[23]; 23. B4U-Brad Eitniear[11]; 24. (DNS) 87-Collin Shain

This article was republished with permission from the Summer Nationals. The original article can be found here: https://dirtcarsummernationals.com/recaps/mike-harrison-wins-63rd-career-summit-modified-nationals-event-in-coles-county-debut/

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