Tyler Erb has a colorful history at Cedar Lake Speedway, one that now includes a victory.
“Terbo” has been a regular at the USA Nationals since 2016, scoring a best finish in the main event of third in 2022. But his most infamous moment in New Richmond, WI had nothing to do with his results, as Cedar Lake was the site of his on-track retaliation incident against Bobby Pierce in 2020 that resulted in a suspension.
Six years later, Erb is doing his best to put his bad boy days behind him. He’s now engaged to fiancée Emma Hodge with a baby on the way, and he approaches his racing career with a renewed sense of maturity and discipline. That growth has led to some gains in the win column in recent years, and he’s now up to three in 2026 with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision after his Cedar Lake win on Thursday night.
“I haven’t ran good here since I got police escorted out,” Erb said. “I mean, I have ran good here before, just had one bad weekend and I feel like I’ve paid for it every time I’ve come here since. Last week, felt like we had a really good car all week at Fairbury [Speedway]. When it doesn’t work out, it’s really hard for me to just not lose my mind and go postal. I’m working on that, and tonight’s just a testament to that.”
History will show a wire-to-wire performance for Erb in the 30-lap Feature, but his path to the win included plenty of challenges. The biggest one came from Hudson O’Neal, who worked his way from fifth in the starting order to second in time for a Lap 8 restart. O’Neal briefly got alongside Erb in Turn 2 after going back green, but Erb had enough momentum around the top to drive away down the backstretch.
Erb hadn’t seen the last of O’Neal, because the No. 71 remained right behind Erb for most of the race. While both drivers agreed on running the bottom through Turns 3 and 4, the other end of the track was where O’Neal tried over and over to get the lead. Erb and O’Neal both entered low, but Erb then drifted toward the wall through the middle of the corner, opening the door for O’Neal to stay low and try to slide up in front on the exit of Turn 2. O’Neal never found enough speed around the inside to get clear, allowing Erb to hold the lead as the laps clicked by.
One final restart on Lap 23 brought Brandon Sheppard into the picture, and he rallied around the cushion to take second from O’Neal, but he was unable to track down Erb before he took the checkers to claim his first Cedar Lake win.
“This track changes so much,” Erb said. “When I was following cars, it was in dirty air, I was like, ‘I need to move down at some point, someone’s going to drive by me.’ I could see Hud kind of half slide me there. I saw Shepp got to second on the board, and I was like, ‘Well I’ll be damned, here we go.”
Sheppard made up the second half of a Rocket Chassis 1-2 ahead of O’Neal in third. Nick Hoffman and Devin Moran completed the top five.
UP NEXT: The USA Nationals continue at Cedar Lake Speedway with Qualifying, Heat Races, the pole Dash and the FANS Fund Dash on Friday, July 31. Tickets will be available at the gate.
Want to watch the World of Outlaws? Stream every race live on DIRTVision.
RACE NOTES:
Brian Shirley set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.
Tanner English won the Simpson Quick Time Award.
Devin Moran won Heat 1.
Hudson O’Neal won STAKT Products Heat 2.
Ethan Dotson won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.
Brandon Sheppard won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.
Tyler Erb won Heat 5.
Jake O’Neil won Heat 6.
Tanner English and Jason Feger won the Last Chance Showdowns.
Tyler Erb won the Bilstein Pole Award.
Ryan Gustin won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.
Trey Mills won the MD3 Rookie of the Race Award.
Brandon Sheppard was the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher.
Hudson O’Neal was the WIX Filters Third-Place Finisher.
Nick Hoffman was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.
Devin Moran was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.
Trey Mills was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.
Jake Timm was the Penske Racing Shocks Seventh-Place Finisher.
Tim McCreadie was VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.
Cody Overton was the Lifeline Ninth-Place Finisher.
Tanner English was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.
Ryan Gustin was the Quarter Master 11th-Place Finisher.
Bobby Pierce was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.
Tyler Bruening was the Quarter Master 13th-Place Finisher.
Jake O’Neil was the ARP 14th-Place Finisher.
Dennis Erb Jr. was the Arizona Sport Shirts 18th-Place Finisher.
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 1-Tyler Erb[1]; 2. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[6]; 3. 71-Hudson O’Neal[5]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[9]; 5. 99-Devin Moran[4]; 6. 14-Trey Mills[15]; 7. 49-Jake Timm[10]; 8. 9M-Tim McCreadie[14]; 9. 97-Cody Overton[12]; 10. 96-Tanner English[19]; 11. 19R-Ryan Gustin[22]; 12. 32-Bobby Pierce[13]; 13. 16-Tyler Bruening[17]; 14. 0-Jake O’Neil[3]; 15. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[11]; 16. 25-Jason Feger[20]; 17. 74X-Ethan Dotson[2]; 18. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[25]; 19. 3S-Brian Shirley[8]; 20. B1-Brent Larson[26]; 21. 22*-Zack Mitchell[23]; 22. 60-Dan Ebert[7]; 23. 58V-Daulton Wilson[24]; 24. 09-Michael Leach[21]; 25. 19-Dustin Sorensen[16]; 26. 13-Dallon Murty[18]
This article was republished with permission from the World of Outlaws Late Models. The original article can be found here: https://worldofoutlaws.com/latemodels/tyler-erb-opens-usa-nationals-in-victory-lane-at-cedar-lake/.
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