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FARMER CITY, Ill. — Ashton Winger’s emotions after finishing second in the Saturday finale at Swainsboro Raceway could be described with one word – relief.
Following a disastrous start to the World of Outlaws Late Models season that saw him drop as low as 29th in points, his Battle at the Crossroads showing was proof that the No. 12 was still going to be a contender.
After leaving the “Sunshine State” with no feature starts in six attempts and a trailer full of damaged parts, Winger found himself in a deeper hole than he could have imagined. He expected to spend the month between Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals and Smoky Mountain Speedway fine-tuning his equipment. Instead, he was rebuilding it.
“When we got back, instead of getting to go testing and continuing to develop, they always say it’s harder to work on your stuff when you’re repairing it,” Winger said. “It was a lot, but nothing that we’re not really used to. I don’t think anything worth having comes easy.”
Winger made his first World of Outlaws feature of the year at Smoky Mountain, but a 22nd-place run was still far from where he expects to be. One week later, his Swainsboro weekend didn’t get off to an ideal start. Winger snuck into the main event and finished 17th.
At long last, things finally came together on Saturday. The Hampton, Ga., driver qualified second in his group, won his first Heat Race of the season and kept feature winner Ryan Gustin in sight throughout the 50-lap main event before coming home second.
“Friday night, I actually thought we were going to be OK,” Winger said. “We got caught up in that big wreck, and I would say we had minimal damage compared to some other guys that got caught up in it. My left-rear quarter panel got against my tire, they tried to pull it out, but I ended up having a left-rear flat. I think I was going to restart ninth or 10th on that deal and I really thought we were good enough to run top five, top seven.
“Saturday, I would just say things kind of went our way, I think that’s a lot of it. People don’t realize you can do everything right and still find a way to run 10th. We always just try to keep it in perspective and control the stuff you can control.”
The following week, Winger spent his weekend off from the Outlaw trail at Whynot Motorsports Park in Mississippi looking to keep the momentum up in Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series action. What he didn’t expect, though, was for some mechanical gremlins for longtime friend Trey Mills to lead to Jeff Mathews Motorsports becoming a two-car operation for a night.
“We’ve always been really close with the Mills family, they’ve helped us out a ton at times. Stanton’s like a cool uncle to me, he’s always been nothing but good to me, and Trey’s like my little brother,” Winger said. “Trust me, I know how it feels to go to the racetrack and feel like you’ve tore everything up in the trailer whether you can control it or not. They were going to leave, but luckily, I’ve got a good enough car owner in Jeff Mathews, he was like, ‘They don’t need to leave, they’re running for points. We’ve got another car.’ So, he actually pulled out my Rocket car and went out there and was actually pretty good. He got caught up in a melee on a late-race restart, but I think he was headed for a top five.
“Mainly it’s just good people, having good people around us that allowed us to do that. We all bicker and fight with each other no matter what, but we’re all one big racing family. We don’t really want to see anybody go without.”
With this weekend’s Fireball 50 at Atomic Speedway postponed due to weather, Winger will once again stay in the southeast for another weekend with Hunt the Front at the Talladega (Ala.) Short Track.
Two regional wins in the last three years and a pair of World of Outlaws top 10s are proof Winger knows how to find speed the “Hornet’s Nest,” and his goal for this weekend is to make sure his notebook is as up-to-date as possible for when the big money is on the line later this month.
“We’ve won there before, but that’s one of the places that’s really hard to get around especially with this new car,” Winger said. “The main thing is that place changes a bunch throughout the night. It’ll be mocked up early probably, and it’s one of those places where you can go out and get as much as you want, but you can definitely go and get too much. I had a pretty violent rollover there last year in Qualifying, just tried to get too much.
“Once feature time rolls around, you’ve definitely got to flip a switch to an extent. The racetrack changes, you can still be aggressive but it’s a different kind of aggression. It’s one of those places where sometimes going slower is faster.”
The next stop on the World of Oulaws tour is the April 10-12 Illini 100 at Farmer City Raceway. He picked up his first Farmer City top five on the way to the 2023 DIRTcar Summer Nationals championship, and he believes his time on the Hell Tour grind could pay off with another solid showing against the Outlaws next weekend.
“Farmer City, whenever it’s right, it’s right up there with the best places in America,” Winger said. “I think I excel on the Summer Nationals deal because I’m one of those guys where all my problems go away, whether I’m running good or bad, eventually just getting in the truck and going racing. You don’t get better unless you go do that. Yeah, you can go test and do all this other stuff, but there’s nothing that compares to the real thing.
“If I could race 200 nights a year I would, but there’s other factors that involve keeping your stuff fresh. Whether that’s smart or not, I’ve just always thought it’s just smart to put your stuff in the trailer and go race. I’m excited for everything coming up, and Farmer City is definitely one of my favorite places.”
