After fighting race-after-race to break through to Victory Lane once in the first half of the summer, Tanner English only needed three days to do it again.
English, of Benton, KY, endured the first 11 rounds of the 2026 DIRTcar Summer Nationals with 10 top-five finishes and eight podiums, but no wins. He finally broke through Wednesday night in Missouri and did it again Saturday night at Highland Speedway to bank his eighth career Hell Tour victory.
“I made a couple moves there about halfway through the race that was probably the game changer,” English said. “I’ve been pretty conservative; I’m trying to wrap this points deal up. Trying not to make any stupid moves, so I could’ve ran harder but I didn’t have to.”
Early in the 40-lap Feature it was Sam Seawright and Jordan Bauer who battled for the lead. Bauer edged ahead as they entered Turn 3, but Seawright threw a slide job in Turn 4 that cleared Bauer’s No. 10J and gave him the lead on Lap 1 by a nose.
Bauer battled back to the inside of Seawright as they drove back into Turn 1, but the No. 16S maintained the top spot with a great run off Turn 2. For the next 30 laps, Seawright paced the field through lapped traffic until disaster struck for the Fort Payne, AL-driver on Lap 32 as he made contact with a slower car and spun to a stop in Turns 1 and 2, ending his hopes at a second Summer Nationals triumph.
Before the caution flag was thrown, English had worked his way past Bauer and into the runner-up spot and was beginning to trim Seawright’s gap of over four seconds at its largest. When Seawright retired to the pits after his incident, English inherited the lead with eight circuits remaining.
The green flag dropped and English pulled away from the field, leading the rest of the distance and driving off with a $10,000 check.
“I hate that for [Seawright], I have lost them like that before too. It sucks, but I am glad I was there to capitalize,” English said. “Sam had a four [NLMT tire], I think he was the only one so that might’ve sent him off; he really took off. When that four fired, he was going, so I guess I was the best car with a three on. I felt like at the beginning of the night, I made a few wrong moves on setup, it slicked off a lot better than I thought it would.”
Tyler Millwood was second, Rusty Schlenk was third, Daryn Klein was fourth, and Bauer finished fifth.
UP NEXT
The DIRTcar Summer Nationals wrap up Week 4 at Macon Speedway on Sunday, July 5 in the 46th annual Herald & Review 100.
How can you watch the DIRTcar Summer Nationals? Every race is live on DIRTVision.
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 96-Tanner English[4]; 2. 31M-Tyler Millwood[3]; 3. 91-Rusty Schlenk[8]; 4. 10-Daryn Klein[6]; 5. 10J-Jordan Bauer[2]; 6. 25-Jason Feger[16]; 7. 49-Luke Morey[12]; 8. 15-Clay Stuckey[11]; 9. 89-Mike Spatola[9]; 10. 74-Mitch McGrath[15]; 11. 26-Jordan Suhre[17]; 12. 30-Mark Voigt[19]; 13. (DNF) 52-Matt Bailey[7]; 14. (DNF) 51B-Brandon Carpenter[5]; 15. (DNF) 17SR-Brody Smith[14]; 16. (DNF) 16S-Sam Seawright[1]; 17. (DNF) T4-Adam Tischhauser[13]; 18. (DNF) LIL91-Carter Schlenk[18]; 19. (DNF) 99-Kyle Hardy[22]; 20. (DNF) 51-Dean Carpenter[10]; 21. (DNF) 35-Claude Walker[21]; 22. (DNF) 6K-Michael Kloos[20]
This article was republished with the permission of the Summer Nationals. The original article can be found here: https://dirtcarsummernationals.com/recaps/tanner-english-wins-eighth-career-summer-nationals-feature-at-highland/
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