By Jimmy Dearing – Fairbury, IL (July 27th, 2018) – The Summit Modified Nationals points championship will come down to this weekend’s Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury American Legion Speedway! Mike McKinney leads Mike Harrison by just four points going into this weekend’s deciding action.
Each driver’s top eight feature finishes in the Summit Modified Nationals count towards the championship. A win is awarded 75 points and a second place finish is worth 70 points. This can increase by up to five points should there be more than 25 cars in attendance at an event. So if there are 26 cars, then a win is 76 points and second is 71 points. These increment by one point for each additional car up to 30 cars so if there are 30 are more cars, then a win is worth 80 points and a second place finish is worth 75 points.
Mike McKinney’s top eight finishes are all victories and his current eight finishes that count toward his point total are June 15th at Sycamore Speedway for 75 points, June 16th at The Dirt Oval at Route 66 Speedway for 75 points, June 17th at Plymouth Speedway for 78 points, June 23rd at Fairbury Speedway for 80 points, June 28th at LaSalle Speedway for 75 points, July 10th at Shadyhill Speedway for 77 points, July 12th at I-96 Speedway for 75 points and July 14th at Oakshade Raceway for 80 points which all total up to 615 points.
Mike Harrison’s top eight finishes include six victories and two second place finishes. The eight events counting towards his points total are June 13th at Peoria Speedway for 80 points, June 14th at Kankakee County Speedway for 80 points, a second place on June 30th at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 for 75 points, July 5th at Macon Speedway for 79 points, July 6th at Farmer City Raceway for 76 points, a second place finish at Highland Speedway on July 7th for 71 points, July 8th at Quincy Raceway for 75 points and July 9th at Lincoln Speedway for 75 points to bring his total to 611 points.
Their will be four separate features on Friday for the UMP DIRTcar Modifieds at Fairbury Speedway’s Prairie Dirt Classic. Therefore, no bonus points will be awarded on Friday, so the most points either driver could get on Friday would be 75 points with a win. If Mike Harrison were to get a win on Friday, the 75 points would replace his 71 points for his Highland Speedway finish and bring the two drivers into a tie for the Summit Modified Nationals going into the final night on Saturday. Mike McKinney cannot improve his point total even with a win without any bonus points.
Bonus points will be on the line on Saturday during Fairbury Speedway’s Prairie Dirt Classic Summit Modified Nationals event. So if either driver were to win, they would get 80 points for the win and essentially win the title no matter what either driver does on Friday.
If the points end in a tie (which could happen if Mike Harrison wins on Friday and neither wins on Saturday), then the tie breaker would be their next best finish in their ninth event.
Both drivers have had a lot of success over the past few years at Fairbury American Legion Speedway, so it shapes up to be a great battle between these two for the championship and anything could happen!