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Stremme, Neville, Koehler & Wilson bring home golden gators in hunt for Big Gator title

By Matt Skipper

BARBERVILLE, FL (February 3) - The 2026 edition of the DIRTcar Nationals has created memorable moments from the DIRTcar UMP Modified class, and Tuesday’s program was no exception.

Volusia Speedway Park provided unpredictability, with first-time feature winners, last-lap drama, and a look at the drivers seeking to leave Saturday night hoisting the Big Gator title.

Here’s a look at how each feature went down:

Feature 1

David Stremme rode a wave of up-and-down finishes during the first four nights of the DIRTcar Nationals. But on the fifth night, the surf ended with another trip to victory lane at Volusia Speedway Park.

Stremme took the lead in Tuesday’s first feature from the outside pole, passing polesitter Aidan Hinds in the entrance into turn one.

Hinds almost had the lead back before the second lap when Stremme washed up the track off turn four, allowing Hinds to get underneath him. The two raced side by side for a lap before Stremme got a strong enough run off turn four to build a gap between him and Hind once again.

Shortly after, a caution brought the field back together. When the race resumed, Stremme pulled away, and Ricky Thornton, Jr., owner of two golden gator trophies already for the week, passed Hind for second.

Stremme maintained more than a second lead for most of the feature, but in a long-run situation, Thornton’s car started to come alive.

With three laps to go, Thornton cut Stremme’s lead down to a few tenths. With two laps to go, he dove into turn one, going from three car lengths back to underneath Stremme in the corner. But Stremme had a better run off turn two and kept the No. 20RT behind him.

Knowing Thornton was on his tail, Stremme got up on the wheel to drive to his ninth DIRTcar Nationals golden gator trophy.

“Our car wasn’t very good,” Stremme said. “The track has been great here. We had to go to work, work on some stuff. This is a brand-new car. It’s been pretty good.”

SUMMARY

Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 35-David Stremme[2]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 3. 01-Aidan Hinds[1]; 4. 45H-Kyle Hammer[12]; 5. J82-Treb Jacoby[11]; 6. 27-Jason Garver[7]; 7. 7J-Justin Allgaier[9]; 8. 57-Charlie Sandercock[8]; 9. 8-Jimmy Lennex Jr[13]; 10. 3F-Rob Fuqua[15]; 11. 28-Mason Lobb[10]; 12. 1H-Ben Harmon[14]; 13. 55-Blaze Melton[16]; 14. 28B-Jason Brookover[3]; 15. 72H-Tristan Chamberlain[6]; 16. (DNS) 17T-Tyler Evans

Feature 2

Koehler Motorsports has been one of the top teams throughout the 55th DIRTcar Nationals, with Ricky Thornton, Jr. in contention for the win every night. But a new Koehler-team driver led the charge Tuesday night.

Jordan Koehler scored his first DIRTcar Nationals victory after besting the likes of Monday night winner Mike McKinney and veteran Modified driver Ray Bollinger.

McKinney led the first two laps before a caution came out on lap two. When the race resumed, Koehler rocketed around the outside of second-place Ray Kable and McKinney through turns one and two. He cleared both by the time his No. 114 car reached the backstretch and continued to drive away.

A caution on lap 14 fell for McKinney, who had a flat right rear tire, ending his chances of scoring back-to-back wins.

When the race resumed, 12th-starter Ray Bollinger continued his climb, going from sixth to second in a lap. However, the restart ended up as the only highlight of the race for him, as Koehler set sail out front.

Jordan’s win was the third by the Koehler Motorsports team in four days.

“I was really pumped,” Koehler said about earning his first little gator. “I was watching my stick guy, Bryce, there, and I hit a hole and probably about gave it away. But, no, I was really pumped.”

SUMMARY

Feature 2 (20 Laps): 1. 114-Jordan Koehler[3]; 2. 77B-Ray Bollinger[12]; 3. 7-Evan Taylor[7]; 4. 05-Dave Wietholder[13]; 5. 35H-Michael Altobelli[8]; 6. 21C-Drew Charlson[10]; 7. 17W-Mikey Wilson[11]; 8. 99K-Ray Kable[2]; 9. 114K-Evan Koehler[4]; 10. 56-Chris Wilson[6]; 11. 9-Ken Schrader[5]; 12. 96M-Mike McKinney[1]; 13. 11Z-Zane Oedewaldt[15]; 14. 5B-Bobby Bagley[9]; 15. 11-Dylan Drake[14]; 16. 10X-Billy Uptegraff[16]

Feature 3

After coming up one spot short twice in the last four races, Trevor Neville finally punched through to Volusia’s victory lane Tuesday night in dominant fashion.

Neville, 25, of Mackinaw, IL, started on the outside of the front row and had only one challenge to beat when polesitter Tyler Spalding gave him a run through turns one and two and down the backstretch on the opening lap. Side-by-side they raced into turn three, but Neville’s high-side momentum carried him off turn four with greater speed as he zoomed past Spalding into the lead at the flag stand.

From there, Neville was nearly untouchable out front. He fended off all opponents through multiple restarts, including multi-time DIRTcar Nationals Feature winner Kenny Wallace, who nearly pulled alongside Neville on the final restart.

In the end, Neville led the field back around to the checkered flag to collect the fourth gator trophy of his career.

“We’ve got this new Lethal Chassis, this Ryan engine, we’ve got a buddy here from Freedom Race Lifts, so we’re having a good ol’ time this weekend,” Neville said.

SUMMARY

Feature 3 (20 Laps): 1. 777-Trevor Neville[2]; 2. 36-Kenny Wallace[3]; 3. 1TS-Tyler Spalding[1]; 4. 712-Drake Troutman[7]; 5. 21CZ-Cole Czarneski[8]; 6. X-Wyatt Scott[5]; 7. 31G-Stephen Pedulla[12]; 8. 11D-Brian Diveley[13]; 9. 17X-Richard Michael Jr[14]; 10. 3S-Josh Sanford[4]; 11. 1-Eric Kinney II[10]; 12. 00B-Buzzie Reutimann[15]; 13. 17C-Coleman Evans[9]; 14. 52-Mikey Kopka[11]; 15. 72-Todd Neiheiser[6]; 16. (DNS) 81K-Kyle Cole

Feature 4

In the wildest ending of any UMP Modified feature run over the past five days, Chris Wilson scored his first career DIRTcar Nationals win with a last-lap pass after white-flag leaders Zeke McKenzie and Charlie Mefford came together in the final corners.

Wilson, 45, of Louisa, KY, led the first 13 laps but slipped back to third for a green-white-checkered finish. As the green flag waved with Zeke McKenzie in the lead, Charlie Mefford got a big run on the outside through turns one and two and nearly pulled even with McKenzie down the backstretch.

Mefford drove deep down low into turn three with speed and made contact with McKenzie, sending Mefford’s No. 13 car around in front of the field. This opened the door for Wilson coming through on the bottom as he sped past the colliding drivers, took the lead out of turn four and beat everyone to the checkered flag to score the win in epic fashion.

“I know [Mefford] is a younger kid, and I was hoping that maybe he was a little more aggressive than an older guy like me,” Wilson said. “I put myself in position, and it worked out in our favor.”

SUMMARY

Feature 4 (20 Laps): 1. 17-Chris Wilson[1]; 2. 24-Zeke McKenzie[4]; 3. 7D-Brad DeYoung[3]; 4. 14-Dalton Lane[10]; 5. 97-Mitch Thomas[5]; 6. 99H-Justin Haley[8]; 7. 15X-Justin Stone[2]; 8. 21B-Hunter Breland[6]; 9. 13-Charlie Mefford[7]; 10. 81C-Christopher Cole[16]; 11. T9-Zack Tate[13]; 12. 25B-Greg Belyea[15]; 13. 99W-Wade Olmsted[12]; 14. 11N-Gene Nicholas[14]; 15. 78-Rich Pratt[9]; 16. 46-Matt Crafton[11]

Feature 5

After struggling through Monday with 14th and 16th-place finishes, the pendulum swung in Tyler Nicely’s direction with a trip to Volusia victory lane for the first time since his 2024 Big Gator championship on Tuesday.

The Owensboro, KY driver brought the field to the green flag for the fifth feature, as outside starter Cole Hilton slipped into second place. On lap two Hilton lost control of his Modified and slid across the middle of the track, collecting seven cars and ending his chances to fight for a golden gator.

Following the restart Nicely kept control at the front as Kyle Strickler took over second place and Pierce McCarter occupied third. As each lap ticked by, Nicely used the clean air to his advantage by reaching a 2-second lead before he entered lapped traffic at the halfway mark.

When the lapped cars blocked space for Nicely to use in passing, the “High Side Tickler” chopped the gap by using the cushion around each corner of the “World’s Fastest Half Mile” — reaching Nicely’s back bumper by lap 15.

Nicely picked up the pace and started deviating from the cushion to use the lapped cars to his advantage.

When Strickler cut to the bottom on lap 18, he immediately lost control of the car entering turn one and began to spin. However, the Mooresville, NC, racer was able to save the car and maintained second place while Nicely drove away to his 11th golden gator trophy.

“I’m just glad I have a good crew behind me,” Nicely said. “Special thanks to Nick [Hoffman] for coming down this morning and helping us get everything back together. Brandon and Blade, they help me all week, so just thankful to have a good crew behind me.”

SUMMARY

Feature 5 (20 Laps): 1. 25-Tyler Nicely[1]; 2. 8S-Kyle Strickler[4]; 3. 71-Pierce McCarter[6]; 4. 51-Dalton Lanich[8]; 5. 0-Glenn Styres[14]; 6. 49-Brian Ruhlman[5]; 7. 66-Adam Wright[9]; 8. 43A-Mark Anderson[10]; 9. 3G-Bryce Graber[13]; 10. T23-Adam Ogle[15]; 11. 60-Jim Manka[12]; 12. 2K-Taylor Kuehl[16]; 13. 99-Cole Hilton[2]; 14. 60F-Shannon Fisk[3]; 15. 84-Ryan Toole[11]; 16. 155-Peyton Harlow[7]

Feature 6

While Will Krup left Tuesday with a DIRTcar Nationals feature win, he also has work ahead of him to keep a Big Gator hunt in his favor.

The Mt. Carmel, IL driver started in the second row behind polesitter Michael Ledford for the start of the 20-lap feature. Entering the first turn, Ledford jumped the entrance of turn one and lost momentum by sliding up to the exit of turn two. Krup capitalized by powering his Modified under Ledford into turn three and secured the lead on the opening lap.

At the helm of the field, Krup extended his lead to 3.3 seconds over Ledford until the first caution waved on lap nine. The Illinois native held the lead in his possession as he built the distance to Ledford by 1.9 seconds using the bottom lane throughout the second half.

As Krup made his way to the exit of turn four on the final lap, he drove through a slick patch across the bottom and darted into the outside wall. The “Land of Lincoln” driver limped the damaged No. K9 to a seventh golden gator trophy, but will evaluate the work that lies ahead for his chance at a first Big Gator Championship.

“There was a bunch of water down there off of [turn four],” Krup said regarding the accident. “It wasn’t there the previous lap, and I was already committed there. By the time I had seen it and tried to slow down, the car took off and went straight into the wall.”

SUMMARY

Feature 6 (20 Laps): 1. K9-Will Krup[3]; 2. 09-Michael Ledford[1]; 3. 10Y-Trent Young[8]; 4. 66F-Cole Falloway[5]; 5. 77D-George Dixon[4]; 6. 54-Zachary Hawk[2]; 7. 12L-Lucas Lee[14]; 8. 70B-Ty Norder[12]; 9. 0K-Damian Kiefer[9]; 10. 5T-Jonathan Taylor[6]; 11. 29C-Joey Cotterman[15]; 12. 88-Cody Thornhill[16]; 13. 114B-Clayton Bryant[10]; 14. 90-Jason Beaulieu[7]; 15. 43J-Jacob Hall[11]; 16. 21J-Clay Harris[13]