Drake Troutman Gets Second Win On Hell Tour, Ashton Winger Barrel Rolls, & Brian Shirley Mechanical Gremlins Still Plague Him

June 17, 2025  ·
  John Trent

Drake Troutman earned his second win on the 2025 Hell Tour besting current overall points leader Jason Feger and Joseph Joiner.

Troutman started the night off strong as he has done throughout most of this year with good qualifying speed. He qualified 5th in Qualifying Group A with a time of 14.531 seconds behind new track record holder Ashton Winger who set an overall fast time of 14.394 seconds. That qualifying time had him start third in heat 1 and he quickly worked his way to the front right from the get go. On Lap 3, he got underneath Winger coming through Turn 2 and drove past him coming out of the turn and down the back stretch. He never looked back and took home the heat race win.

He started third for the feature behind Jason Feger and Joseph Joiner. Early in the race it looked like Joiner and Feger were gonna duke it out between themselves as Troutman had fallen into the clutches of Dennis Erb Jr. A caution on Lap 5 for Brenden Smith brought both Joiner and Feger back to the field. On the ensuing restart Troutman easily cleared Erb and did not let Joiner  nor Feger get away from him. However, a caution for a stopped Dillon McCowan came out on Lap 8.

On the next restart, Troutman found something on the cushion and nearly took the second spot from Feger, but he got slightly over the cushion and lost momentum allowing Feger to clear him going into turn 3 and Dennis Erb Jr. to challenge him for third. That challenge would be put on pause as another caution would come out for Mike Spatola on Lap 9. Troutman had a fantastic restart and took the second spot from Feger and immediately began challenging Joiner for the lead. However, Ashton Winger took flight on Lap 10 and barrel rolled twice after making contact with the cushion in the middle of turns 1 and 2.

After Winger’s car was cleared from the track, Feger retook the second spot on the ensuing restart. Troutman patiently followed in Feger’s tracks for a few laps before he began to challenge him for the spot on Lap 14. Feger did his best to keep Troutman behind him taking away the top side coming out of turn 2 to deny Troutman a huge run. However, Troutman would not be denied and took the spot on Lap 16 blazing past Feger out of turn 2.

Before he even had a chance to challenge Joiner another caution flew for a spun Mike Spatola. On this restart, Troutman kept his second spot and took the lead from Joiner after getting a monster run coming out of turn 2 on Lap 19. He dove below Joiner into turn 3 and finished the pass with a slide into the cushion coming out of turn 4. The next 10 laps would stay green and Troutman would extend his lead over Feger and take home his second win of the 2025 Hell Tour and the first of Week 2.

In victory lane, Troutman stated, “The track gets pretty narrow in certain spots and I knew if I didn’t get it done there on the back stretch and slide him going into 3 we’d probably was going to run second or third here tonight.”

Outside of Troutman’s win and Winger’s flip, Brian Shirley suffered another mechanical failure while leading during his heat race. Immediately after taking the white flag on the heat race Shirley suffered a drive shaft failure. He never returned to the track and had reportedly loaded up and left the track before the feature started.

Billy Moyer Sr., who won the season opening race at the Brownstown Bullring and lead the points for much of Week 1 also suffered a mechanical failure during the feature and was the first to exit the race.

Ryan Gustin came out of a B-Main to finish 9th while Frank Heckenast Jr., who took a provisional, was your hard charger moving up 9 spots from 19th to finish in 10th.

Official Finishing Order

  1. Drake Troutman
  2. Jason Feger
  3. Joseph Joiner
  4. Dennis Erb Jr.
  5. Kyle Bronson
  6. Michael Leach
  7. Tyler Erb
  8. Mark Whitener
  9. Ryan Gustin
  10. Frank Heckenast Jr.
  11. Mitch McGrath
  12. Tyler Millwood
  13. Trey Mills
  14. Brenden Smith
  15. Jackson Hise
  16. Mike Spatola
  17. Clay Stuckey
  18. Ashton Winger
  19. Pauler Parker
  20. Austin Howes
  21. Dillon McCowan
  22. Christian Hanger
  23. Billy Moyer Sr.

Jason Feger maintains the points lead with a second place finish. He now has a 45 point advantage over Dennis Erb Jr. and a 73 point advantage over Drake Troutman. Joseph Joiner now sits in fourth 89 points behind Feger while Billy Moyer is in fifth 92 points behind.

The Hell Tour will be at Davenport Speedway tonight. Tomorrow it heads  at Quincy Raceways and then on to Lee County Speedway on Thursday. On Friday and Saturday it combines with the World of Outlaws for the two-night St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park in Pevely, Missouri. It closes out Week 2 at Lincoln Speedway in Lincoln, Illinois on Sunday, June 22nd.

What do you make of Troutman’s second win, Shirley’s continued mechanical problems, and Winger’s wild flip?

NEXT: Jason Feger Calls DIRTCar Summer Nationals “A Joke And They Don’t Have Good Rules” After They Go To A Single File Restart During A Heat Race

 

Author: John Trent