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Brian Shirley Dominates Summer Nationals at LaSalle

Brian Shirley continued his recent hot-streak on Wednesday, dominating the DIRTcar Summer Nationals event at LaSalle (Ill.) Speedway. (Jim DenHamer photo) 

Shirley swept the night’s racing card in the Bob Cullen Racing No. 3s Hoker Trucking/ Thomason Express/ J&J Ventures Gaming/ Rocket Chassis/ Durham Racing Engine Super Late Model.

The victory was Shirley’s third in four races on the tour. Stretching his point lead, Shirley was glad to be in Victory Lane one more time. “Listen, this sport’s very humbling,” Shirley said. “You can be good one night and be horrible the next. So we’re just going to do the best we can do and takes it as it comes.” “To be honest, every race we go to, whether it’s Summer Nationals, World of Outlaws, heck, (even) a local $1,500-to-win race … every race is as tough as can be. Anymore, the competition is tough,” he said. "It doesn’t matter who comes in, where you go, what you do, it’s just super tough. All in all we just try to wake up every day, do the be job we can do as a team and prepare the car the best we can and just come to the race and do what the good Lord gives us.”

One 32 drivers in a stout roster, Shirley opened the program by setting QuickTime in his qualifying group, winning his heat race, and redrawing the pole for his feature starting spot.

At the drop of the green flag, Shirley took command. He went virtually unchallenged in the 40-lap affair and, by the time the white flag had come out, he’d lapped the field up to ninth.

Finishing 3.234 seconds ahead at the checkers, Shirley claimed his 30th career Summer National triumph and the $5,000 payday over Tyler Erb, Dennis Erb Jr., Shannon Babb, and Chase Junghans.

Continued rain at Peoria (Ill.) Speedway on Thursday forced officials to once again postpone the remainder of the July 9th DIRT Summer Nationals event.

Brian continues to lead the overall DIRTcar Summer Nationals standings. To learn more about these events, please visit www.DIRTcarSummerNationals.com.

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