Five weeks, two winners in new weekly championship points structure
CONCORD, N.C. – July 28, 2016 – Two years, one familiar name at the top of the charts as Bobby Pierce cruised to his second straight DIRTcar Summer Nationals title – this season by a dominant 226 points over Jason Feger.
Pierce kicked off the grueling summer tour on June 16 by scoring on the first night at Kankakee County Speedway. He battled Mike Marlar and stood in victory lane – the opening salvo of a season for the history books.
Through the 29 race schedule that stretched from June 15 to July 16, that included seven races rained out or postponed, Pierce dominated, scoring 10 wins. He was the first driver since Shannon Babb in 2006 to accomplish the feat.
“I wanted to get that last (win) so I could be 50/50 (11 wins in 22 features), but it’s been a great Hell Tour,” Pierce said following the final event at Oakshade. “It’s really cool to do it again. There’s a lot of competition with this series, and venturing out to other places… not only did we win the championship, but we ran really good at a lot of tracks that I’m not really used to running at. I’m pretty proud of the team and everyone who helped us out.”
For Feger, the 2010 DIRTcar Summer Nationals champion, his second place points run wrapped up a solid season that included three wins, second only to Pierce. Feger scored at Daugherty Speedway, Farmer City Raceway and in the first ever Oakshade Speedway double-header which capped off the season.
This season, the DIRTcar Summer Nationals went to a weekly championship purse structure that awarded the best drivers every week throughout the season.
While Pierce dominated the weekly championships, scoring four weekly wins and a $2,000 bonus each of those weeks, Ryan Unzicker, who won twice with the tour and finished third in the championship standings, scored the third week championship. It was a clean sweep of weekly championships for Team Pierce Race Cars.
Among the warriors who were part of the 100 percent club and competed in all 22 events were Pierce, Unzicker, Feger, Gordy Gundaker and Bob Gardner. It was the first time Gundaker and Gardner had attempted the entire series.
For winning the championship and the four weekly championships, Pierce took home $23,000.
“It was really cool winning it again,” Pierce said. “How good it went, it made it simple. It’s still the ‘Hell Tour’ for sure. It took a lot of hard work keeping the car together. There are a lot of Illinois guys that are good at those tracks and the same thing when we ventured out of the state. It’s a tough deal.”
Final 2016 DIRTcar Summer Nationals Points Standings
| POS | # | NAME | TOTAL |
| 1 | 32 | Bobby Pierce | 1533 |
| 2 | 25 | Jason Feger | 1306 |
| 3 | 24 | Ryan Unzicker | 1248 |
| 4 | 4G | Bob Gardner | 1045 |
| 5 | 11 | Gordy Gundaker | 971 |
| 6 | C8 | Timothy Culp | 830 |
| 7 | 21 | Billy Moyer | 691 |
| 8 | 157 | Mike Marlar | 526 |
| 9 | 12B | Kevin Weaver | 473 |
| 10 | 16 | Rusty Griffaw | 461 |
| 11 | 18 | Shannon Babb | 411 |
| 12 | 6K | Michael Kloos | 398 |
| 13 | B1 | Brent Larson | 391 |
| 14 | 11D | Brian Diveley | 364 |
| 15 | 74 | Taylor Scheffler | 353 |
| 16 | 89 | Mike Spatola | 346 |
| 17 | 27M | Rodney Melvin | 343 |
| 18 | 45 | Don Hammer | 312 |
| 19 | B5 | Brandon Sheppard | 307 |
| 20 | 32S | Chris Simpson | 261 |
The DIRTcar Summer Nationals “Hell Tour” is brought to fans across the country by many important partners including: Arizona Sport Shirts (Official Apparel Company), Hoosier Racing Tires (Official Racing Tires), Racing Electronics (Official Communication), VP Racing Fuel (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to these fine Contingency Partners: Beyea Headers, Comp Cams, Edelbrock, Fox Shocks, JE Pistons, MSD, Impact Race Products, Quartermaster, Superflow Dynos, Summit Racing Equipment and Wrisco Aluminum; Promotional Partners include: Chevy Performance Parts, Indiana Decal, Intercomp and Petroff Towing.