Heckenast Jr. Dominates Montpelier for Seventh Career Summer Nationals Win

MONTPELIER, IN (July 7, 2026) — Frank Heckenast Jr. is turning up the heat on his 2026 DIRTcar Summer Nationals campaign.

Heckenast, of Frankfort, IL, led 27 of 30 laps Tuesday night at Montpelier Speedway for his second win in the last five races. His seventh career Hell Tour triumph solidified a turnaround after starting the season winless in the first 13 events and winless in six consecutive years competing in various Summer Nationals events.

“I didn’t put it in perspective how good everyone I was racing with was at the beginning of the tour,” Heckenast said. “Tanner (English) and Jason (Feger) were extremely good, and then I kind of got off of what I was doing a little. We have always been close, just not really in the hunt. So then the other night at [Red Hill Raceway], I just went right back to where we were the first night and tonight, the same thing and it’s like ‘Okay, I don’t think we slowed down at all here.’ I feel like I slowed us down a little bit there.”

Sam Seawright led the field to green with Heckenast to his outside. Early on, Seawright charged ahead and led the opening lap with Heckenast following close behind.

Heckenast was relentless on the top of the track and worked by Seawright to lead Lap 3. A caution on Lap 5 for a slow car on the front stretch gave Heckenast a clear track on the restart, and he took advantage of it over the next 25 laps.

Heckenast worked the middle of the speedway and found the speed to extend his lead to over three seconds as the laps wound down. In the end, nobody was able to challenge the driver of the No. 99JR and Heckenast cruised to the win in front of a big Indiana crowd.

“I’ve raced a while now, so I’ve seen a lot better and I’ve seen a lot worse,” Heckenast said. “It was alright in the middle there, as far as my opinion, you could have ran around the whole track and never hit a hole. You were just going to be a little bit slower.

“I was shocked going down the front stretch that the white flag was waving, I couldn’t believe it was that quick.”

Kyle Moore charged to second from eighth, Tristan Chamberlain finished third, Rich Bell was fourth, and Mitch McGrath rounded out the top five.

UP NEXT

The DIRTcar Summer Nationals heads to Michigan and Lake Odessa’s I-96 Speedway on Wednesday, July 8.

How can you watch the DIRTcar Summer Nationals if you can’t be at the track? Every race is broadcasted live on DIRTVision.

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[2]; 2. 1*-Kyle Moore[8]; 3. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[4]; 4. 21B-Rich Bell[5]; 5. 74-Mitch McGrath[7]; 6. 46-Colin Shipley[18]; 7. 20B-Todd Brennan[16]; 8. 95J-Jerry Bowersock[15]; 9. 18B-Chase Burda[9]; 10. 49-Luke Morey[17]; 11. 51B-Brayden Shiels[20]; 12. 25-Jason Feger[12]; 13. 1-Wayne Chinn[21]; 14. 51-Devin Shiels[10]; 15. 07-Rylee Knoll[11]; 16. 20-Tyler Neal[14]; 17. 16S-Sam Seawright[1]; 18. 91-Rusty Schlenk[3]; 19. 30-Mark Voigt[19]; 20. 42-Chad Finley[13]; 21. LIL91-Carter Schlenk[22]; 22. 96-Tanner English[6]

Trevor Neville Earns Seventh Career Summit Modifieds Win at Montpelier

Trevor Neville continues to make the most of his momentum with the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals, capturing his second win in the last six races.

Neville, of Mackinaw, IL, led the final 23 laps of Tuesday night’s main event Montpelier Speedway, garnering his second victory of the season and seventh of his career.

“We’ve been working hard, we put in 12 or 13 hours yesterday just making sure everything was right, the body, just everything was on point,” Neville said. “Last year we were really grinding and this year we took a little step back and just kind of looked at what was worth it. We’ve come out the gate really good here. We should have had one the other night but that was driver error, so we’ll go on from there.”

Tyler Spalding and Neville started out the 25-lap main event side-by-side around the 1/4-mile oval with Spalding leading the opening lap.

Neville continued his persistence on the outside, finding some momentum to drive around Spalding to lead on Lap 2. Neville washed high exiting Turn 4, opening the door for Spalding to get underneath Neville’s No. 777 to take the lead on Lap 3.

The first five laps saw three lead changes as Neville continued to work the cushion and drove back around Spalding to lead Lap 5.

Over the next 20 laps, Neville continued to build his advantage, pulling away from the field unchallenged enroute to career win No. 7 with the Summit Modifieds.

Spalding finished second, Dillon Nusbaum was third, Dylan Woodling was fourth, and Dalton Smith finished fifth.

UP NEXT

The DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals return to action at I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, MI on Wednesday, July 8.

How can you watch the Summit Modifieds? Every race is broadcasted live on DIRTVision.

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 777-Trevor Neville[2]; 2. 1TS-Tyler Spalding[1]; 3. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[3]; 4. 3W-Dylan Woodling[7]; 5. 05-Dalton Smith[10]; 6. 24H-Steven Hogue[5]; 7. B5-Matthew Baker[22]; 8. T23-John Toppozini[15]; 9. 4M-Dustin Moore[8]; 10. 9R-Garrett Rons[13]; 11. 22T-Tony Anderson[21]; 12. T5X-Bub Roberts[20]; 13. 14-Dalton Lane[12]; 14. 21C-Drew Charlson[4]; 15. 82-Brennan Sherman[18]; 16. 5CS-Curt Spalding[9]; 17. 2-Garrett Bradley[17]; 18. 166-Travis Shoulders[14]; 19. 25L-Josh Lolmaugh[6]; 20. (DNS) 10-Brody Davis; 21. (DNS) 65-Todd Sherman; 22. (DNS) 24-Zeke McKenzie

Heckenast Jr. Dominates Montpelier for Seventh Career Summer Nationals Win