Dan Ebert continued to improve and show good speed this past weekend, starting on the pole of the prestigious USA Nationals with the World of Outlaws Late Models at Cedar Lake Speedway.

Not only did Ebert start on the pole, but he jumped to the early lead past Brandon Sheppard and would go on to lead the first 14 laps of the feature until he caught the tail end of the field. Nick Hoffman then struck driving through the middle and above Ebert to take the lead.

While he lost the lead, Ebert was able to maintain his second place and keep Brandon Sheppard at bay until Lap 43, where Sheppard was finally able to get underneath and pass him at the line. Ebert would find himself in fourth very quickly as Tanner English also worked past him. However, he would reclaim that third spot by ripping the top of the track.

After a caution for Jake Timm’s flat tire, Ebert fell to fifth on the ensuing restart. He would lose ground again after another restart and fall to eighth. Then on Lap 62, Ebert got sideways battling with Ryan Gustin, but did a whale of a job to save it and keep it going. However, that cost him a couple more positions and he dropped to 10th. 

Following a caution for Jake O’Neil, Ebert again struggled on the restart and fell to 16th. He would eventually finish the race in 20th. 

In a post to Facebook on Monday, Ebert shared that he suffered a mechanical issue with his brakes early in the race that caused him to slide back through the field. He wrote, “95 laps with no brakes.. check the comments, we’ll post a picture.”

“And got to lead the field to green for the 39th annual USA Nationals. We held onto 1st for the first 14 laps but once we had to start maneuvering through lap cars, I was done with no brakes,” he added.

In a video, he shared more information, “We had a really good run going and broke a brake fitting [on] lap five. It was decent when I could keep momentuming around, but once the track burned up and I had to start manipulating and using brakes and dirty, I was in trouble after that. But all-in-all, looking back on the weekend, it was a great weekend. Learned a lot. So looking forward to Florence this weekend.”

As for the image of his brakes, you can see it below:

As Ebert noted, he will be back in action this week with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series for the North/South 100 at Florence Speedway. The action begins on Thursday, August 6th with a complete program. It continues with another complete program on August 7th. Drivers and teams will accrue points in both of those preliminary nights based on their qualifying laps, heat race finish, and feature finish to determine their starting positions for Saturday’s heat races. Additionally, the heat race winners on Saturday will participate in the $5,000-to-win Ron and Madeleine Jerger Dash for Cash Presented by Cincinnati Investment Advisors. The results of the Dash will determine the lineup for the first rows of the North/South 100 feature.

Ebert has only participated in the event once, last year in 2024. He took a provisional to start and finished in 19th. 

He currently sits 13th in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points standings, He has 1 Top 5, and 6 Top 10s so far this year. His best finish was a second place at Lernerville Speedway in Group A on the Friday portion of the Firecracker 100 when the field was split into two. He did follow that up with an 8th place finish in the main event on Saturday night. His best full-field finish of the year was at the beginning of May with a 6th place at Circle City Raceway.

NEXT: 44th Annual Sunoco Race Fuels North/South 100 Set For August 6-8 At Florence Speedway