REAPER’S DISPLAY OF POWER: Ryan Gustin Sweeps Saturday Fireball 50 at Atomic Speedway

“The Reaper” goes undefeated at Atomic Speedway on Saturday night through 50 laps of racing

Ryan Gustin gave an ode to Scott Bloomquist by channeling his inner “Dirt Track Dominator” on Saturday night at Atomic Speedway.

Topping the scoring pylon in each appearance on the 3/8-mile racetrack, the Marshalltown, IA driver led all 50 laps through a wave of challenges from multiple World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models competitors.

He began the night by grabbing the Dirt King Simulator Hottest Hot Lap, then picked up his 11th Simpson Quick Time Award.

In Heat 3, Gustin led every lap to lock himself a spot in the Feature Redraw. He made the most of his luck by drawing the #1 chip for his second Bilstein Pole Award of the 2024 season.

Firing on all cylinders at the commencement of the 50-lap Feature, Gustin ripped the high line to escape New Berlin, IL driver Brandon Sheppard, Robeline, LA driver Cade Dillard, and Oakwood, IL driver Bobby Pierce.

In the battle for the top five, Sheppard followed Gustin until contact with the lapped car of Dennis Erb Jr ripped the left rear quarter panel off his No.B5 Longhorn Chassis, then Dillard caught a piece of Erb to damage his right rear quarter panel. Sheppard and Dillard kept on rolling with the damage lingering on their cars.

Gustin got away on the restart as Sheppard held his own with the damage to his car. Dillard had to retire his No.97 machine with a smack of the Turn 4 wall that sent a dagger into his hopes of salvaging a rebound result at Atomic after a DNF on Friday night.

While leading, Gustin ripped the rear spoiler off his No.19R Infinity Chassis and began to dangle until the caution flew for debris from Sheppard’s left rear quarter panel falling off.

When the green flag flew once more with 14 laps to go, Pierce sent his No.32 Megan’s Mission machine deep into Turn 1, then slid up on Sheppard to force him off the track to claim second place in a move that caused implications the season-long points battle.

Sheppard dropped to seventh place, Chatham, IL driver Brian Shirley took third, and fellow championship contender Nick Hoffman inherited fourth place.

While Gustin had aero troubles with the loss of his spoiler, he maintained the gap on Pierce through the remaining circuits around the Chillicothe, OH racetrack for his fourth win of the season in the Fireball 50.

In Victory Lane, he celebrated with Scott Bloomquist’s infamous “hang loose” signal and a point to the sky to the man that meant a lot to Gustin as a mentor and friend. He also dedicated the win to his son, Bradyn, who turned 12 on Saturday.

“It means the absolute world to me,” Gustin said. “It’s been rough, I’m sure we made him proud up there tonight. We were handicapped pretty bad when you lose a spoiler like that. I thought we were done, but the only way to win was to drive like a madman like we did for the last (14) laps.

“Tim (Douglas) was telling me I had a pretty big lead before lap traffic, but its hard when you got guys that can catch up pretty fast to you. Cautions definitely helped us for sure to get us going again, but anytime you can win with no spoiler is a testament to how good these Infinity Chassis are and these Jay Dickens Engines run flawlessly. It’s also my son’s birthday today so I wanted to get one for him.”

Pierce finished second to finish the weekend by closing the distance to Sheppard in the Series championship hunt to 54 points with seven races left in the season. Pierce is in a tie with Hoffman for second place but has the tiebreaker over Hoffman for finishing higher than him in the Feature.

“I love the finish,” Pierce said. “It’s good to end the weekend with a first and second, but I didn’t like how I got there. When I passed Sheppard, he got off the track and I know he wouldn’t have fell off the track if he had more room there. I did kinda come up into his line. It’s such a tricky deal when the top has so much speed and you’re trying to make passes here.

“Besides that, we held on and didn’t fall off which was one of my main concerns. The track was so treacherous and both corners had it’s characteristics. Turns 1 and 2 was like running at Bristol with potholes. The last two corners were normal to how the track is, but had a dip with a slick spot in Turn 4. I gotta hand it to Gustin, he was fast and turning like he was going for qualifying laps each time. We gotta work on it, see what’s wrong, but we’ll take it.”

Shirley finished third for his fifth consecutive podium finish in August with the World of Outlaws CASE Late Models. While he was inside the thick of the drama at the front of the field, Shirley kept his nose clean to finish the night with a podium result.

“The track was really demanding,” Shirley said. “It was one of those deals where we were good, but not the greatest. I just had to bide my time, get by guys when I could on the restarts, and lucky enough for things to fall our way to end up third.

“Nights like tonight, when our car is 85-90%, it shows that we can be patient and take what you can get. That’s what it boiled down to, I was really trying to do all I could on restarts and take what’s in front of us.”

Hoffman finished fourth with an 18-place climb from a 22nd-place starting spot to receive Saturday night’s Fox Factory Hard Charger Award. Batavia, OH driver Adam Stricker finished the night with a fifth-place result to end his weekend with the Series.

RECAP NOTES:

Dirt King Simulator Hottest Hot Lap: Ryan Gustin

Simpson Quick Time Award: Ryan Gustin

Heat Race Winners: Bobby Pierce, Cade Dillard, Ryan Gustin, Brandon Sheppard

Last Chance Showdown Winner: Freddie Carpenter

Bilstein Pole Award: Ryan Gustin

Fox Factory Hard Charger: Nick Hoffman (+18)

Up Next: The World of Outlaws CASE Late Models head south towards Georgia and Alabama for Senoia Raceway on Saturday, Sept. 14, and the completion of the Alabama Gang 100 at the Talladega Short Track on Sunday, Sept. 15.

For more information about the upcoming events in the 2024 World of Outlaws CASE Late Models season, CLICK HERE.      

If you can’t make it to the track, watch every lap of the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models season on DIRTVision – through your computer or mobile device.

CASE Late Model Feature (50 Laps): 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley[10]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[22]; 5. 68-Adam Stricker[7]; 6. 19M-Spencer Hughes[5]; 7. B5-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 8. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[12]; 9. 40B-Kyle Bronson[15]; 10. 19-Dustin Sorensen[11]; 11. 16-Tyler Bruening[18]; 12. 71C-RJ Conley[16]; 13. 17-Zack Dohm[13]; 14. B1-Brent Larson[24]; 15. 22*-Max McLaughlin[20]; 16. 71R-Rod Conley[19]; 17. 90-Michael LeFevers[25]; 18. S21-Seth Daniels[8]; 19. 1-Tyler Erb[6]; 20. 11-Jared Hawkins[14]; 21. 97-Cade Dillard[3]; 22. C4-Freddie Carpenter[17]; 23. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[23]; 24. 97JR-Cody Overton[9]; 25. 57B-Caiden Black[21]

Friday, August 23rd to Saturday, August 24th

Atomic Speedway

2535 Blain Hwy

Chillicothe, Ohio, 45601

Event Schedule

Friday, August 23
2PM Pit Gates open
4PM Grandstand Gates open
6PM Hot Laps/Qualifying
7:30PM Racing Begins

Saturday, August 24
12PM Pit Gates open
2PM Grandstand Gates open
6PM Hot Laps/Qualifying with Racing to follow

*All times Eastern

Atomic Speedway

2535 Blain Hwy

Chillicothe, Ohio, 45601