Brian Shirley’s struggles during the DIRTCar Summer Nationals 2025 Hell Tour continued at Peoria, but while Shirley struggled Troutman took advantage and claimed his first ever Hell Tour win.
It looked like it was going to be Brian Shirley’s night. He qualified fourth fastest in Group A, which set him up for a second place starting position in Heat 2. On the first lap of the heat race it looked like Ryan Unzicker might get the best of him, but Shirley performed an excellent crossover to get to his inside in turns 3 and 4. While Unzicker would lead the first lap by an inch, Shirley pulled off the past through turns 1 and 2 and then left the field in his dust eventually winning by around a second. With the heat race win, Shirley started the feature on the pole.
Meanwhile, Troutman also put together a strong night. As has been typical he put together a strong qualifying run topping Group B with a time of 12.135. He then cruised to his heat race win over Christian Hanger, Billy Moyer, and Kyle Bronson and set himself up for a fourth place starting position.
During the 30-lap feature, Shirley jetted to the lead from the start over Dillon McCowan and Bob Gardner. A caution for a spin involving Cameron Gardner and Trey Mills would slow the race on Lap 4, but after they restarted Shirley was back to setting the pace in commanding fashion extending his lead to over a second by lap 6. As they got in to lap traffic on lap 15 McCowan attempted to track him down, but he made contact with the lap car of Christian Hanger and spun in the middle of turn 2 ending his hopes for a win.
During that green flag run, Troutman made his way past Bob Gardner into third and inherited the second position after McCowan’s spin. On the next green flag run, Troutman did not let Shirley get too far away and it was shaping up to be an exciting duel especially if they got to lap traffic. However, they never saw the tail of the field and Shirley suffered a flat left rear tire on lap 22 that ended his chances of victory.
With Shirley out of contention, it came down to Troutman and Ryan Unzicker who had moved up to second place. Unzicker made Troutman earn the win as he dove to the bottom of the track in turns 3 and 4 on lap 24 and drew even with Troutman who was ripping the lip. Unzicker would inch ahead coming out of the turn and onto the straightaway, but Troutman stormed past him with a huge run off of four.
On lap 26, Unzicker tried the bottom of 1 and 2 and again edged Troutman coming out of the corner, but Troutman had a head of steam coming off the top and beat him into turns 3 and 4 where he dove to the bottom to take Unzicker’s line away. He would continue to play defense guarding the bottom and sliding through the middle to take Unzicker’s preferred line away and took home the victory.
In victory lane, Troutman shared, “I hate to get one this way. Squirrel (Brian Shirley) was pretty good. I felt like we might have been every bit of good as him and I think it could have got pretty exciting in lap traffic. But I’ve been leading races before and broke too so I guess that’s just part of it.”
Outside of Shirley and Troutman, the other big storyline was Shannon Babb. Babb got caught up in a wreck during his heat race with Brenden Smith and chose to take a provisional to start the feature. He started in 20th and stormed through the field finishing in 6th.
Jason Feger also rallied for a 12th place finish after taking a provisional for the feature. Feger found himself in a B-Main after finishing fifth in Heat 3. After Thomas Hunzicker spun on Lap 4 of the B-Main, Feger took his car to the pits while running in fourth two spots out of the transfer.
Mark Whitener, who has had really good speed the entire week, continued to struggle in qualifying putting him behind the eight ball for the heat races. He qualified 20th in Group A, which put him 10th in Heat 2 where he eventually finished 8th. He started second in the C-Main and won. In the B-Main he started 13th and finished 7th even after plowing into a spinning Frank Heckenast Jr. halfway through.
Official Finishing Order
- Drake Troutman
- Ryan Unzicker
- Dennis Erb Jr.
- Billy Moyer Sr.
- Bob Gardner
- Shannon Babb
- Tyler Erb
- Tyler Millwood
- Jackson Hise
- Trey Mills
- Clay Stuckey
- Jason Feger
- Kyle Bronson
- Dillon McCowan
- Michael Leach
- Joseph Joiner
- Christian Hanger
- Cody Maguire
- Frank Heckenast Jr.
- Brian Shirley
- Camden Gardner
- Jake Little
Billy Moyer Sr. is the current points leader with a 14 point gap over Troutman who now sits in second. Jason Feger is 25 points behind in third while Babb sits 31 points out in fourth and Dillon McCowan is fifth 36 points behind.
The Hell Tour will be at Tri-City Speedway tonight and it closes out the week at Fairbury American Legion Speedway on Saturday. However, there won’t be any breaks as it will be at Sycamore Speedway in Maple Park, Illinois on Sunday before heading to Wilmot Raceway in Wisconsin on Monday.
What do you make of Shirley’s struggles continuing and Troutman getting his first Hell Tour win?
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