World of Outlaws Prairie Dirt Classic

Sixteen drivers have punched their ticket into the 2026 running of the Prairie Dirt Classic.

Friday’s program at Fairbury Speedway featured four $5,000-to-win Showdowns for the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision won by Jason Feger, Sam Seawright, Brandon Sheppard and Trey Mills.

Showdown 1

The “High Side Hustler” lived up to his name on Friday, as Feger jumped out to the early lead and remained committed to the cushion with pressure from behind from Dallon Murty and Ricky Thornton Jr.

A flurry of cautions halted the momentum in the second half of the race, but the finish turned out to be worth the wait. With three laps remaining, Thornton used a strong run off Turn 2 to send it to the inside of Feger in Turn 3 and try the slide job. The move cleared, but Feger turned down and used the crossover to go side-by-side down the frontstretch under the two-to-go signal. Feger nosed out in front through Turns 1 and 2 and drove the No. 25F deep into Turn 3 to clear Thornton and take the lead for good.

“Man, this feels good,” Feger said. “We were the only one out there on a hard right-rear tire, and those yellows were killing me. I felt like every time I would get in a good rhythm there was another yellow, another yellow. I felt like I burned up every trick I had on every restart. Ricky’s pretty sly, I knew there was one point where he was going to get me timed up just right. I appreciate him racing me clean.”

Feger will have the chance to start on the pole in the PDC for the second time after doing so in 2024 if luck is on his side in the Redraw. Thornton dropped back to the fourth and final transfer spot at the end behind Murty in second and Kaede Loudy in third, two drivers who will both make their first PDC start on Saturday night.

Showdown Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 25F-Jason Feger[1]; 2. 13-Dallon Murty[3]; 3. 126-Kaede Loudy[14]; 4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[5]; 5. 40B-Kyle Bronson[11]; 6. 8-Matthew Larson[8]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen[22]; 8. 515-Bubba Roling[12]; 9. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[13]; 10. 1M-Mike Mataragas[10]; 11. 74X-Ethan Dotson[7]; 12. 30-Mike Glasscock[15]; 13. 36-Mckay Wenger[17]; 14. 74-Mitch McGrath[9]; 15. 09-Michael Leach[6]; 16. 51-Matt Furman[20]; 17. 11B-Lance Brasington[19]; 18. 11R-Josh Rice[4]; 19. 21XXX-Neil Baggett[18]; 20. 38J-Jake Little[16]; 21. 17SR-Brody Smith[2]; 22. 18M-Jimmy Miller[21]

Showdown 2

Hudson O’Neal in the K&L Rumley Enterprises No. 6 was the one to beat by far in the early stages of the race, but his night turned upside down when he cut his left-rear tire past halfway. Rather than pit and drop to the back, O’Neal elected to stay out and hope for the best, and he held on for a few green-flag laps with the soft tire until it went down completely with six laps to go.

That misfortune put Chris Simpson at the front of the field on the restart ahead of Dennis Erb Jr. and Brenden Smith, but the true beneficiary was fifth-starting Sam Seawright. The Alabama native pounded the cushion to get to third in one lap after going back green, and he stayed up there to work past Erb and then Simpson to lead the final three laps.

“I really wasn’t that good on the bottom and I felt like they were all over me,” Seawright said. “I said, ‘I’m going to just go up here and beat the wall down, see what I got.’ It’s pretty cool because the fans were so pumped up, I could see them on the backstraightaway when I was ripping through there. That’s the coolest moment of my life. We’ll just tweak on it a little bit and see what we’ve got tomorrow.”

Simpson held on for second to make the Saturday Feature along with Erb in third and Ryan Gustin in fourth.

Showdown Feature 2 (25 Laps): 1. 16S-Sam Seawright[5]; 2. 32S-Chris Simpson[8]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[6]; 4. 19R-Ryan Gustin[17]; 5. 58V-Daulton Wilson[14]; 6. 24-Ryan Unzicker[7]; 7. 12-Ryan Montgomery[11]; 8. 6-Hudson O’Neal[3]; 9. 16-Tyler Bruening[12]; 10. 17SS-Brenden Smith[4]; 11. 22*-Zack Mitchell[2]; 12. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[15]; 13. 4G-Bob Gardner[13]; 14. 11S-Austin Smith[9]; 15. 55E-Eli Johnson[16]; 16. 60-Dan Ebert[1]; 17. 729-Mike Winn[20]; 18. 15T-Steven Tippens[19]; 19. 0-Jake O’Neil[10]; 20. 22M-Sean Mattingly[18]; 21. 14C-Doug Carls[21]

Showdown 3

The opening laps saw Justin Duty flex some muscle, as the Oregon driver who spends most of the season competing regionally in the Midwest kept the hottest Late Model driver in the nation, Bobby Pierce, in his tire tracks. The two drivers had roughly equal pace on the cushion, and traffic on the bottom hindered Pierce’s ability to find room to go for a slider.

A Lap 21 restart allowed Tyler Erb to briefly get around Pierce in the first corner after the restart, while Brandon Sheppard also joined the party to make it a three-way race for second. That battle gave Duty a chance to build a gap, but once Sheppard secured second he didn’t need much time to catch Duty. The No. 15 caught the Turn 3 cushion wrong with three to go, and that gave Sheppard all the room he needed to sneak through and win his seventh PDC Showdown.

“Right off the get go, I thought my car was pretty good,” Sheppard said. “I kind of got stuck on the bottom behind those guys longer than I would have liked to, but I think it played out in my favor a little bit. I was able to conserve my tires for a few more laps before I really got up there. About the time I thought I had a clear lane, [Ashton] Winger passed me, and the next thing you know, I’m back there battling with all them guys. They just do such a great job with this racetrack here at FALS. It’s amazing, really. You never know what you’re going to get, and it’s always a little bit different, but it always races really well.”

Joining Sheppard in the transfer spots were Duty, Erb and Pierce in second, third and fourth, respectively.

Showdown Feature 3 (25 Laps): 1. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[7]; 2. 15-Justin Duty[2]; 3. 1-Tyler Erb[6]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 5. 9-Nick Hoffman[9]; 6. 77-Devin Moran[11]; 7. B1-Brent Larson[5]; 8. 18-Shannon Babb[12]; 9. 111-Max Blair[8]; 10. 8S-Kyle Strickler[14]; 11. 12W-Ashton Winger[10]; 12. T2-Brayton Wallace[3]; 13. 89-Mike Spatola[4]; 14. 15S-Shane Stephens[15]; 15. 6H-Clay Harris[13]; 16. 1Z-Logan Zarin[16]; 17. M27-Mike Provenzano[19]; 18. Z61-Alex Wilson[20]; 19. 122-Timmy Dick[17]; 20. 130-Chase Osterhoff[18]; 21. 33-Collin Rutledge[21]; 22. 99-Garrett Alberson[22]

Showdown 4

A pair of Illinois regional favorites shared the front row of the night’s final race, with Caden McWhorter on the pole and Rich Bell to his outside.

McWhorter’s time out front only lasted four laps, as Shane Clanton cleared him in Turn 3 and took command. Ten laps later, a different No. 14 car came knocking in the form of World of Outlaws rookie Trey Mills. After spending a few laps on the cushion sizing Clanton up, Mills used a short slider that barely cleared Clanton entering Turn 1 to grab the top spot. Clanton returned the favor the next time around, but Mills held strong and had enough pace at the end to pull away and end the battle.

“I was getting a little worried with about 10 or so to go,” Mills said. “The tire was going flat, I could feel the right-rear start dipping over, so I was just trying to make sure I didn’t lean on that cushion too hard, just kind of roll to it.”

Clanton will partake in Saturday’s 5-8 Redraw after holding on for second ahead of Mike Marlar in third and Gordy Gundaker in fourth.

Showdown Feature 4 (25 Laps): 1. 14-Trey Mills[7]; 2. 25-Shane Clanton[4]; 3. 157-Mike Marlar[6]; 4. 11-Gordy Gundaker[3]; 5. 21B-Rich Bell[2]; 6. 9M-Tim McCreadie[11]; 7. 84-Myles Moos[10]; 8. 18J-Chase Junghans[8]; 9. 3S-Brian Shirley[16]; 10. 75-Daniel Adam[13]; 11. 45-Kyle Hammer[9]; 12. 96-Tanner English[5]; 13. 14M-Caden McWhorter[1]; 14. 88-Trent Ivey[18]; 15. 17A-Austin Howes[12]; 16. 95-Jerry Bowersock[20]; 17. 90-Brian Rickman[14]; 18. 32H-Cam Harris[21]; 19. 3-Sam Moore[15]; 20. 8K-Tyler Kuykendall[17]; 21. 11G-Trevor Gundaker[19]

UP NEXT: Prairie Dirt Classic weekend concludes at Fairbury Speedway on Saturday, July 25, with three Last Chance Showdowns, the Prairie Dirt Shootout and the 100-lap main event. General admission tickets will be available at the gate.

Want to watch the World of Outlaws? Stream every race live on DIRTVision.