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BARBERVILLE, Fla. — America’s second sprint car race of 2026 gave fans one they’ll remember through the end of the year with multiple lead changes, hard charges and a hectic final 10 laps.
Tyler Courtney stood above all the others for the second night in-a-row at Volusia Speedway Park after topping the field Thursday night in his first race back in over six months.
The 31-year-old Indianapolis native drove from fourth to the lead in the final four circuits around the historic half-mile oval to secure his third career American Sprint Car Series victory as part of the 55th Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals.
“It was just chaotic,” Courtney said.
Coming from sixth on the starting grid, Courtney made the move on the opening lap to climb to third behind Brian Brown and Cameron Martin. Not long after, Courtney slipped past Brown to take second on Lap 6 and began to hunt down leader Martin, who held a gap of nearly a second-and-a-half at that point.
But before Courtney could make a move for the lead, fourth-starting Cole Macedo’s No. 2c car came to life, ducking underneath Courtney to take third on Lap 16 and sailing around the outside of Martin for the lead two laps later.
For a moment, Courtney’s charge appeared to be stalling in his difficulty getting by Martin. Once he did on Lap 20, Martin battled back to retake third, and on Lap 21, 10th-starting Brock Zearfoss went by both of them into the runner-up spot.
With time running out and the leaders coming up on lapped traffic, Courtney dug deep and found the speed he needed.
“They kinda got caught up behind the lap cars and we were able to sneak by them there,” Courtney said. “[Flagman] was holding up two-to-go, so I just held it wide-open and hope we made it to the end.”
Out of Turn 4 on Lap 23, Courtney sailed around the outside of a lapped car and Zearfoss to retake third. With a burst of speed down the frontstretch, he charged into Turn 1 with a run on Macedo and zoomed past him into the lead out of Turn 2.
“I thought once [Macedo] got the lead with how the track was there, I figured he’d kinda take off with it,” Courtney said. “But what’s the saying, ‘It’s never over ‘til the fat lady sings.’ I just never gave up, put my nose back down and dug deep to put it back here in Victory Lane.”
Courtney led the field to the white flag and back around to collect the checkered and the $3,000 prize with Macedo behind him in second and Zearfoss in third. Martin faded back to fourth while Austin McCarl completed his charge from 14th into the top five.
The most notable charge of the race came from 23rd-starting Brady Bacon in the Chris Dyson Racing No. 20. After electrical issues in his Heat Race, the Oklahoma native transferred in through the Smith Titanium Last Chance Showdown and drove all the way up to eighth by the checkered flag of the feature.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[6]; 2. 2C-Cole Macedo[4]; 3. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[10]; 4. 4-Cameron Martin[2]; 5. 88W-Austin McCarl[14]; 6. 2-Whit Gastineau[3]; 7. 27-Emerson Axsom[5]; 8. 20-Brady Bacon[23]; 9. 6S-Tyler Clem[8]; 10. 21-Brian Brown[1]; 11. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[12]; 12. 28F-Davie Franek[7]; 13. 44-Chris Martin[9]; 14. 17GP-Hank Davis[11]; 15. 95-Matt Covington[21]; 16. 5K-Danny Sams III[22]; 17. 88R-Ryder Laplante[13]; 18. 32B-Dale Blaney[15]; 19. 45X-Kyler Johnson[16]; 20. 3-Cole Schroeder[17]; 21. 01-Jadan Bowling[24]; 22. 16G-Austyn Gossel[19]; 23. 0-Glenn Styres[20]; 24. 88C-Brogan Carder[18]
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