Hoffman Cruises to Win #12 of 2020 at Tri-City Motor Speedway
AUBURN, MI – Eighteen starts. Twelve Feature wins. Nick Hoffman is simply dominating.
With his third DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals victory of Racing Electronics Champions Week #5, the Mooresville, NC-driver now moves within one win of tying his own record for most wins in a single season.
Friday night’s victory at Tri-City Motor Speedway was the 38th of his Summit Modified career. Hot on the tail of his third tour championship, Hoffman was very satisfied with the track type and its racy nature.
“Tonight, it was a little bit slick in Qualifying and all the way through. Our stuff’s really good in any condition right now. I enjoy any condition, but this here is right up my alley. This is where I shine, and all of our racecars are really good right here,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman’s biggest competition of the night might have been from a driver he never actually dealt with in the Feature.
Michigan’s own Jeffrey Erickson Jr. became the biggest “what if?” of the evening after coming together with another car while leading his Heat Race, sending he and the other involved to the tail and forcing him to qualify through the Last Chance Showdown.
Erickson won the Last Chance, setting him 16th on the starting grid. By Lap 9 of the 25-lap Feature, he had cracked the top-five and was in hot pursuit of the leaders. Using the very bottom of the track, Erickson made a few more passes to take second on Lap 16 and made a beeline for Hoffman’s rear bumper, but ultimately came up one spot short.
Hoffman was already too far out ahead. He’ll take his big points lead and 12 trophies into the final race in Michigan, tying to tie his own single-season wins record at 13.
UP NEXT
The DIRTcar Summit Modified field is back in action Saturday night at Merritt Speedway as part of the Summer Nationals Late Model finale – the final race before a champion of their own is crowned next Fri-Sat, Aug. 28-29 at Cedar Ridge Speedway. Catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
Qualifying Flight-A
1. 1E-Jeffery Erickson, 14.224; 2. K19-Will Krup, 14.527; 3. 99-Hunt Gossum, 14.573; 4. 99B-Brent Banning, 15.035; 5. 23-Luke Hubbell, 15.049; 6. 4B-Brian Brindley, 15.097; 7. 26P-Nathan Patrick, 15.135; 8. 92-Caleb Kill, 15.159; 9. 81-Rick Swartout, 15.327; 10. 1X-Wyatt Baker, 15.57; 11. 8C-Corey Bevard, 15.654
Qualifying Flight-B
1. 7-Nick Hoffman, 14.401; 2. 5CS-Curt Spalding, 14.615; 3. 24-Zeke McKenzie, 14.75; 4. 19-Chad Bauer, 14.907; 5. 622-Jacob Gamber, 15.509; 6. 67B-Mason Bevard, 15.553; 7. 1-Brian Przepiora, 15.619; 8. 87Z-George Zieman, 15.625; 9. 313-Clayton Smith, 15.715; 10. 4-Logan Beckwith, 15.976
Qualifying Flight-C
1. 12M-John McClure, 14.737; 2. 117-Kevin Reeve, 14.914; 3. 47-Collin Thirlby, 14.947; 4. 49-Brian Ruhlman, 15.204; 5. 15R-Rich Robinson, 15.301; 6. 14-Bill Endert, 15.424; 7. 15-Dave Baker, 15.462; 8. 9-Garrett Rons, 15.712; 9. 13-Andy Galgoci, 16.165; 10. 60-Jason Begeman, 16.166
Heat #1 – Flight (A) (8 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer
1. K19-Will Krup [2]; 2. 92-Caleb Kill [8]; 3. 99-Hunt Gossum [3]; 4. 99B-Brent Banning [4]; 5. 8C-Corey Bevard [11]; 6. 1E-Jeffery Erickson [1]; 7. 26P-Nathan Patrick [7]; 8. 4B-Brian Brindley [6]; 9. 81-Rick Swartout [9]; 10. 1X-Wyatt Baker [10]; 11. 23-Luke Hubbell [5]
Heat #2 – Flight (B) (8 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer
1. 7-Nick Hoffman [1]; 2. 5CS-Curt Spalding [2]; 3. 19-Chad Bauer [4]; 4. 24-Zeke McKenzie [3]; 5. 67B-Mason Bevard [6]; 6. 622-Jacob Gamber [5]; 7. 1-Brian Przepiora [7]; 8. 313-Clayton Smith [9]; 9. 87Z-George Zieman [8]; 10. 4-Logan Beckwith [10]
Heat #3 – Flight (C) (8 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer
1. 12M-John McClure [1]; 2. 47-Collin Thirlby [3]; 3. 15-Dave Baker [7]; 4. 117-Kevin Reeve [2]; 5. 49-Brian Ruhlman [4]; 6. 13-Andy Galgoci [9]; 7. 9-Garrett Rons [8]; 8. 15R-Rich Robinson [5]; 9. 14-Bill Endert [6]; 10. 60-Jason Begeman [10]
Last Chance Showdown #1 (8 Laps) – Top 3 Transfer
1. 1E-Jeffery Erickson [1][]; 2. 26P-Nathan Patrick [4][]; 3. 9-Garrett Rons [6][]; 4. 4B-Brian Brindley [7][]; 5. 13-Andy Galgoci [3][]; 6. 23-Luke Hubbell [16][]; 7. 313-Clayton Smith [8][]; 8. 4-Logan Beckwith [14][]; 9. 81-Rick Swartout [10][]; 10. 60-Jason Begeman [15][]; 11. 14-Bill Endert [12][]; 12. 1X-Wyatt Baker [13][]; 13. 87Z-George Zieman [11][]; 14. 1-Brian Przepiora [5][]; 15. 622-Jacob Gamber [2][]; 16. 15R-Rich Robinson [9][]
Feature (25 Laps)
1. 7-Nick Hoffman [1][]; 2. 1E-Jeffery Erickson [16][]; 3. 5CS-Curt Spalding [5][]; 4. 15-Dave Baker [9][]; 5. 47-Collin Thirlby [6][]; 6. K19-Will Krup [3][]; 7. 49-Brian Ruhlman [15][]; 8. 19-Chad Bauer [8][]; 9. 24-Zeke McKenzie [11][]; 10. 99-Hunt Gossum [7][]; 11. 12M-John McClure [2][]; 12. 117-Kevin Reeve [12][]; 13. 99B-Brent Banning [10][]; 14. 9-Garrett Rons [18][]; 15. 26P-Nathan Patrick [17][]; 16. 23-Luke Hubbell [21][]; 17. 1-Brian Przepiora [22][]; 18. 4-Logan Beckwith [19][]; 19. 81-Rick Swartout [20][]; 20. 92-Caleb Kill [4][]; 21. 67B-Mason Bevard [14][]; 22. 8C-Corey Bevard [13][]
KSE Hard Charger Award: 1E-Jeffery Erickson[+14]