Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill. (Super Late Models) and Gary Cook Jr. of Deer Creek, Ill. (Modifieds) maintained their respective leads in the UMP DIRTcar Racing national points standings released Thursday by organization officials.
Erb, a 36-year-old who is bidding to win the UMP DIRTcar Summer Nationals and national points crowns for an unprecedented third consecutive season, added four points to his lead from the previous week over Jason Feger of Bloomington, Ill. In races run through July 27, Erb held a 35-point edge over Feger (2,704-2,671).
The top-two drivers in the national Super Late Model standings – now more than 200 points ahead of third-place Kevin Weaver of Gibson City, Ill. – ran head-to-head four times last week in Monster Midwest Tour action.
Feger was the biggest winner, capturing A-Mains on July 23 at Charleston (Ill.) Speedway and July 25 at Kamp Motor Speedway in Boswell, Ind. The ‘Highside Hustler’ also scored a second-place finish to Erb on July 26 at Vermilion County Speedway in Danville, Ill., but his 19th-place outing on July 24 at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway was a hiccup that hurt him versus Erb’s consistency.
In addition to his Vermilion County score, Erb registered runner-up finishes at Farmer City and Kamp and a sixth-place run at Charleston.
Cook, meanwhile, saw his national Modified points lead over Randle Sweeney of Clifty, Ky., shrink by 11 points from the previous week’s rankings. Cook’s lead over Sweeney through July 27 sat at 76 points (2,315-2,239).
Both Cook and Sweeney, who have reached the 30-race threshold for Modified drivers to begin replacing their worst finishes/points nights, enjoyed strong weeks. Cook won features on July 22 at Quad Cities Raceway in East Moline, Ill., July 24 at Kankakee (Ill.) County Speedway and July 25 at Fairbury (Ill.) American Legion Speedway, while Sweeney was victorious on July 24 at Paducah (Ky.) International Raceway and July 25 at Soggy Bottom Raceway in Morgantown, Ky., and finished second on July 26 at Windy Hollow Speedway in Owensboro, Ky.
Other UMP DIRTcar national points leaders through July 27 included Tait Davenport of West Paducah, Ky. (Pro Late Models), Jimmy Cummins of Waterloo, Ill. (Sportsman), Chad Boone of Owensboro, Ky. (Limited Modifieds), Rick Thomas of Koehler, Ill. (Stock Cars), Bill May of Muskegon, Mich. (Factory Stocks) and Joe Reed of Decatur, Ill. (Sport Compacts).
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