World of Outlaws St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff

It was only a matter of time until Drake Troutman became a winner with the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision.

As it turned out, his time came on Saturday night at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park in the final night of the St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff.

The triumph was the latest chapter in a career-changing month for the 20-year-old rising star. Three weeks ago at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Troutman bagged the richest win of his life in the $100,000-to-win Modified World Championship. He then turned his attention to the DIRTcar Summer Nationals, and wasted little time delivering Team22 Motorsports a win for the first time on the third night of the tour at Peoria Speedway.

But the ultimate goal was always to win World of Outlaws races, and Troutman finally reached the mountaintop on Saturday night.

“Winning, you just get in a routine I guess, and the morale of everything’s up when you’re winning races, or whenever you get your first win,” Troutman said. “All of us racers are just a bunch of head cases. If we sucked the night before, our confidence is down and it’s just tough. If you win the night before, you go into the next night like ‘this car is good, we feel good, everyone’s happy and in good spirits.’ It’s all performance driven.”

Troutman started the race on the outside of Row 2 behind two other drivers searching for their first World of Outlaws victory in Mike Harrison and Jake Timm. Harrison jumped out to the early advantage and kept the loaded field at bay. Behind him, Troutman edged out Timm to slide into third on Lap 10 in the battle of former Modified standouts turned MD3 Rookie of the Year contenders.

That left Brian Shirley as the only driver sitting between Troutman and the leader, but a bicycle in Turn 1 was all Troutman needed to get by on the bottom. Shirley pulled a slider into Turn 3 to briefly reclaim the spot, but Troutman crossed him back over to pull back ahead. The pair continued swapping spots a lap later, but a strong drive off Turn 2 allowed Troutman to get far enough ahead to hold on for good.

At that point, 1.2 seconds and a handful of lap cars separated Harrison and Troutman, but it didn’t stay that way for long. Troutman was all over the back of the No. 33 at the halfway mark, and when Harrison’s slip up on the cushion in Turn 4 opened the door, Troutman didn’t hesitate to walk through.

Troutman got to spend the final 18 laps doing something he has grown increasingly comfortable with over the past few weeks – controlling a race from the lead. On a treacherous racetrack with an endless stream of traffic in front of him, Troutman didn’t let anyone get within striking distance on his way to the checkered flag.

“My biggest thing is obviously still, I’m not going to try to go out there and run over anyone by any means,” Troutman said. “But just getting more aggressive, you know. I’ve always been the type that, I wasn’t going to take a lane if I didn’t know if I could for sure clear it. I’m still like that, but I just feel like I’m getting a little bit more aggressiveness out of the car, which is helping me out.”

While Harrison came up one spot short of a storybook ending at one of his home tracks, the Highland, IL driver maintained second to ensure the St. Louis crowd had one of their own standing on the podium.

“I’ve got to give it to [Troutman], he’s a hell of a young racer and he’s got a very bright future ahead of him,” Harrison said. “That’s part of being out in front and dealing with lap cars, not being able to take advantage of the leader when you’re running second or third. Just the nature of racing and there ain’t nothing you can do about it, it’s just part of it.”

Coming home third was Shirley, who bounced back from a DNF on Friday with his first World of Outlaws podium since Raceway 7 four races ago.

“I feel like I probably drove a little soft, should have probably got up there and raced a little bit harder,” Shirley said. “I was trying to just be as smooth as I could without tearing anything up, because we were definitely bouncing around. All in all it was a good night.”

Tyler Erb and Bobby Pierce completed the top five.

RACE NOTES:

Tyler Erb set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.

Cade Dillard won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Bobby Pierce won Real American Beer Heat 1.

Aaron Marrant won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Brian Shirley won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Mike Harrison won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Jake Timm won Real American Beer Heat 5.

Drake Troutman won Real American Beer Heat 6.

Brenden Smith and Kayden Clatt won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Mike Harrison won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Tyler Erb won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Mike Harrison won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Tyler Erb was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Bobby Pierce was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Ryan Gustin was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Frank Heckenast Jr. was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Jake Timm was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.

Tanner English was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Nick Hoffman was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision is back in action with Monday Madness at Independence Motor Speedway on Monday, June 23. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.

If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.

Feature (40 Laps): 1. 22*-Drake Troutman[4]; 2. 33-Mike Harrison[1]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 4. 1-Tyler Erb[21]; 5. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin[7]; 7. 12-Ashton Winger[17]; 8. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[10]; 9. 49-Jake Timm[2]; 10. 96-Tanner English[8]; 11. 24-Ryan Unzicker[12]; 12. 9-Nick Hoffman[11]; 13. 75-Dillon McCowan[9]; 14. 17SS-Brenden Smith[19]; 15. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[28]; 16. 09-Michael Leach[15]; 17. 31-Tyler Millwood[22]; 18. 5-Mark Whitener[16]; 19. 74X-Ethan Dotson[24]; 20. 19-Dustin Sorensen[27]; 21. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[13]; 22. 1X-Aaron Marrant[5]; 23. 40B-Kyle Bronson[26]; 24. 50-Kayden Clatt[20]; 25. 9M-Tim McCreadie[23]; 26. 25-Jason Feger[25]; 27. 97-Cade Dillard[14]; 28. 2-Cody Overton[18]