Jeremiah Shingledecker charged from the 12th starting spot and made a thrilling last lap pass of Rex King to capture the 30-lap BRP Modified Tour “Smackdown” Big-Block/Small-Block Challenge. The 30-lap victory was the second straight for Shingledecker in BRP Tour competition at Mercer and was worth $1,300. A record field of 45 cars filled the pit area including 25 big blocks and 20 358 small blocks.
“This is a big one,” acknowledged the Polk, Pa. driver, who cut his teeth in the Sportsman Modified division at Mercer nearly 15 years ago at The Park. “I’ll tell ya what. I thought that was over early for me. I almost hit the wall coming off turn two. I got in the loose stuff and went backwards fast at the beginning. This car worked awesome. I thought he (King) might give me the top (on the last restart). The caution before the last worked well for me allowing me to restart on the inside. He was running the bottom the last couple laps so I thought the outside was worth a try.”
With lightning in the distance, the ground-pounding Modifieds created their own thunder as Rob Kristyak and Del Rougeux, Jr. led the 26-car field to green. Rougeux grabbed the early lead with Dave Murdick getting past Kristyak for third. Murdick caught Rougeux on lap three and drove to the inside of the leader on lap four. The duo raced side-by-side on laps five and six with Rougeux holding on until the first caution was displayed for a spin by Gary Smoker with seven laps completed.
On the ensuing restart, Rougeux came up lame when he broke a flywheel as Tommy Kristyak blasted by into the lead with Murdick, Rob Kristyak, and ninth starting Rex King up to fourth. King drove under Rob Kristyak for third on lap nine and did the same to Murdick two laps later for second. King then caught Tommy Kristyak and made the pass for the lead driving under the veteran in turn four on lap 12.
King caught the back of the pack on lap 17 and fought traffic until the red was displayed when Carl Murdick’s car caught fire bringing a halt to action after 13 straight green flag laps. King’s half-straightaway lead was erased. When racing resumed, 20th starting Brad Rapp was on the move. Rapp used the outside to his liking going around Rob Kristyak then Jeremy Paup for fourth on lap 22.
It was now a three-car race for second with Tommy Kristyak trying to hold off Murdick and Rapp. Shingledecker meanwhile finally cracked the top five with just five laps to go getting by Paup. King began to pull away, while the battle for second now included four cars with Shingledecker joining the mix on lap 27.
Shingledecker’s key move came on lap 28 when he made a thrilling pass of both Rapp and Murdick racing off turn two down the backstretch before the caution was displayed for a spin by Mike Turner. Restarting on the inside of row two, Shingledecker got past Tommy Kristyak for second before the event’s final stoppage came when Turner and Kyle Fink got collected with 29 laps completed.
The caution set up a one-lap shootout to the finish. King chose the bottom and when green replaced yellow, Shingledecker rode the rim and right around King to power by to the popular win in his Village Auto/Hard’s Welding/Steve’s Teez Bicknell #37MD. Last year’s BRP Tour win by Shingledecker was his first ever big-block win at Mercer and he now has two straight and four career wins overall at Mercer.
Jeremiah Shingledecker, from Polk, PA, won the BRP portion of Modified Madness at PPMS. Shingledecker started on the pole, but had anything of an easy time winning the 30 lapper. Shingledecker grabbed the lead at the start with third starting Brad Rapp hot on his heals for second. The front running pair ran this way until lap 11 when a caution appeared. On the restart Rapp took over and began to pull away, while the battle for 2nd raged between Shingledecker, 8th starting Kevin Bolland, Del Rougeaux and Rex King. Bolland took over 2nd on lap 19, with Rex King moving past Shingledecker also. Shingledecker moved past King for third the following lap and began to battle back with Bolland. Meanwhile Rapp was on cruise control with a comfortable lead. This would all change for Rapp on lap 25 as a puff of smoke came out his exhaust, and Shingledecker also moved past Bolland for second, which ended up being a winning pass. A yellow appeared on lap 26, and Rapp pulled into the pits with engine problems. On the restart Bolland slowed, also exiting with engine problems. From that point on, it was all Shingledecker as he led the remaining laps to pick up his first ever win at the track. Del Rougeaux got by Rex King on one of the late race restarts to end up second followed by King, Rex King Jr., Jeremy Paup, Mike Turner, Jr. McGinley, Kevin Hoffman, Mike Miller, and Steve Feder. Three heats for the 28 cars on hand fell to Del Rougeaux, Gary Smoker, and Jeremiah Shingledecker .
Del Rougeux Jr. started on the outside pole and took the early lead when the green flag waved on the Diehl Auto Group DIRTcar Modified feature. Rougeux battled with Jeremiah Shingledecker for the lead, trading the lead back and forth multiple times, until Shingledecker finally pulled away mid-race and cruised to his first feature win of the season.
Jeremiah Shingledecker of Polk, Pa., captured his third feature win in a row in the 20-lap DIRTcar Big Block Modified main passing early race leader Rex King late in the race. With the win in his Village Auto/Hard’s Welding/Steve’s Teez Bicknell No. 37MD, Shingledecker captured his 19th career feature win at Tri-City tying the late Jeff Hoffman for fourth on the all-time DIRTcar Big Block Modified win list at the track. Shingledecker also tied the modern record for three wins in a row in the division.
“I want to dedicate this win to the Hoffman family,” said Shingledecker. “They helped us out when we first started, and it’s an honor to tie Jeff’s win record and be mentioned in the same breath with him. That was a great race, and the track was amazing. Rex ran a great race. I tried to make the low line work and he blocked me off. I took the high side and it worked.”
Dave Murdick and King led the field to the green flag, and ran side-by-side for the first circuit with King leading at the line. Gradually, King pulled ahead while Shingledecker worked past Kevin Hoffman for third on the fourth circuit. Two laps later, Shingledecker passed Murdick for second. Two cautions in the middle of the race slowed the race. On each restart, Shingledecker could not pass King. With King high and Shingledecker low, the duo fought for the win. On the 16th circuit, Shingledecker almost made a pass stick on the low side of turn three. The following lap, King blocked the same move, but Shingledecker swung to the outside lane and used his momentum to pass King off turn four at the line. Another caution occurred, but King was not able to muster the power to pass Shingledecker, who raced to the popular win. King finished second followed by Hoffman. Driving the Shingledecker team car, Chris Haines passed Murdick for fourth on the last lap.
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