The 29th running of the Legend Car Dirt Nationals was contested at Nodak Speedway on Saturday night. Three of the four had tight points battles to keep your eyes on when not watching the leaders, and at the end of the night, only one of the provisional national champions found their way to the checkered flag first, with three winners calling North Dakota home.
Preston Martin hadn’t had the best of luck in recent Legend Car Dirt Nationals in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Now in his home state of North Dakota, he looked to change his fortune. Things didn’t start well for Martin, however, as he over rotated the entry of Turn 3 on Lap 4, sending him around. So began a methodical crawl back to the front.
But before Martin could get back, three drivers mixed it up at the front. Tanner Jones who led the field to green, led early before losing the lead on Lap 9 to Tye Wilke. Around this time, Steven Partin had reentered the conversation as a contender for the lead against Jones and Wilke. The trio pulled away from fourth-place Dauntae Martin, who was doing everything in his power to retain his position. But the bag of tricks ran out on Lap 15 when Ryan Braseth pulled alongside and completed the pass.
The race took a change of direction on Lap 18 just after Partin had taken the lead from Wilke. It was bad news for Wilke, as he spun in front of Jones exiting Turn 4. The caution flew and unfortunately for Wilke, a mechanical failure sidelined him for the remainder of the race. This injected new life into Preston Martin. Restarting sixth, he immediately found himself back in the fight.
Partin continued to lead through to the next caution four laps later. Martin was now fourth and from the drop of the restart green flag, he was fighting for the top position. On Lap 23, he completed the comeback, taking the lead from Jones. While he had to survive one final restart from the lead, he never appeared to be close to relinquishing the lead and drove off to his first Dirt Nationals Championship Feature victory, and securing the 2025 INEX Pro Dirt National Championship, his second in the last two seasons.
Maybe the most exciting feature race Saturday night was the Masters Division, with plenty of bumper nudging to boot. The first caution occurred just after the first lap was completed when Scott Richardson spun off the front bumper of Sean Johnson. On the subsequent restart, both drivers took exception to starting at the rear and didn’t waste a moment of time running around the outside to get back to the front.
Up at the front Donavin Wiest and Glenn Mitchell, who both entered the weekend squared up at 1900 points each, were the top two runners, with Corey Pope thrown in for an extra dose of excitement. Pope and Mitchell battled hard but it was Mitchell who in the long run prevailed as the second-place runner and swiftly followed in Wiest’s tire tracks and every once in a while, showed Wiest his nose to remind his championship rival he was there. Behind them, Michael King was making moves towards the front. He took over third on Lap 13 and closed in on the back of Mitchell.
The two had a coming together on Lap 15, sending Mitchell spinning into the inside rough. Both were sent to the rear for being involved with the caution. While this was going on behind them, Johnson had made his way back to fifth. After the Lap 15 restart, he was then second as the field started the second half of the feature. Over the next 10 laps, Johnson was trying every which way to get an advantage. A few times, he tried to give it away, including nearly over cooking his entry into turn one.
The run Johnson needed finally came on Lap 26 exiting Turn 4. He and Wiest nearly crashed as their Legend Cars collided with one another, but the result was Johnson taking over the lead. Johnson completed his rally from the rear to the lead, winning the Masters Feature. But the fight wasn’t over. Mitchell had made his own recovery and barring down on Wiest in the closing laps. He needed to pass Wiest to place himself as the provisional national champion.
As the duo, running second and third, traveled towards Turn 3, a slow was there in the path of Mitchell. Not one to back down from a fight, Mitchell didn’t flinch and kept his car in line. Contact between him and Wiest messed up both their entries. Wiest recovered from his near spin out and Mitchell traveled high through the corner. Wiest drove to finish second and secured the provisional INEX Masters Dirt National Championship, but contact from Shawn Dement as Mitchell exited the final corner spun Mitchell, resulting in him finishing sixth.
Going green to checkered was the Semi-Pro feature race, and was the race with the most drivers with a chance to be the national champion. Seven drivers were within 18 points of each other, including Noah Madler, who led the opening seven laps until Cody Jawaski took the lead on Lap 8. Jawaski, not in the championship picture, had all seven championship contenders behind him and he steadily worked his way around the track. For some championship contenders, their days ended early. Quade Schoonover entered tied with Ty Olson at 1900 points, but retired his Legend Car after 17 laps. Kody Machart did the same on Lap 22.
With Schoonover no longer in the hunt, all Olson had to do was finish ahead of Gage Madler, which he successfully did. He crossed under the checkered flag in third, behind Noah Madler and Jawaski. But after post-race technical inspection, Noah Madler was elevated to first-place, with the final top five following him being Olson, Hayden Schmuhl, Gage Madler, and Chance Gilbert. Olson’s official second-place victory secured him the provisional Semi-Pro Dirt National Championship.
Traveling all the way from Ohio, Colton Brock wasn’t to be stopped in the Young Lions Championship feature. He received several challenges from Talyn Neuman, but every attempt was thwarted by Brock. But they were on the outside looking in with the championship hunt.
Regan Reinke started the race six points ahead of both Rylan Vetter and Colton Miller. The simplest path to help his efforts to a national title was to finish ahead of both of them. But after a disappointing qualifying day, he started 14th, meaning he had a lot of ground to make up. Slowly he passed cars, making it to sixth place by the seventh lap. He stayed there until Lap 16 when he took fifth place. As they ran, he was tied in points with Colton Miller.
Reinke battled hard with Jett Stovall for fourth place lap after lap. He completed a pass but Stovall quickly crossed him up. It wasn’t until the final lap that Reinke finally was able to cross the line in fourth ahead of Stovall. Little did he know, that broke a tie with Miller.
Colton Brock walked away with the Young Lions Championship Feature victory, with Reinke holding onto the provisional INEX Young Lions Dirt National Championship.
While Brock took a victory back to Ohio, North Dakota claimed three victories through Martin, Johnson, and Madler.
NOTE: All points and championships are not official until November 14, 2025.
Replays of the 2025 INEX Legend Car Dirt Nationals from Nodak Speedway on Friday and Saturday nights can be streamed on USLegendCars.TV. Full weekend results can be viewed on MyRacePass.
The 2025 INEX Fall Championship season concludes in two weeks at The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The 34th Legend Car Asphalt Nationals will take place October 23-25. Coverage of Friday’s ProFABrication Qualifying, Heat Racing, and the Bassett Fastest Qualifier Challenge, and Championship Saturday will be on U.S. Legend Cars TV.
RESULTS
PRO DIVISION
Championship Feature (30 Laps): 1. 77-Preston Martin[2]; 2. 77J-Tanner Jones[1]; 3. 21-Steven Partin[3]; 4. 83-Caleb Day[10]; 5. 37-Joshua Jackson[11]; 6. 99-Dauntae Martin[4]; 7. 66-Casey Martin[9]; 8. 28-Joshua Wiest[5]; 9. (DNF) 29-Ryan Braseth[8]; 10. (DNF) 471-Austin Wiest[7]; 11. (DNF) 412-Brandon Bunnis[12]; 12. (DNF) 72-Tye Wilke[6]
SEMI-PRO DIVISION
Championship Feature (30 Laps): 1. 800-Noah Madler[1]; 2. 7T-Ty Olson[2]; 3. 59S-Hayden Schmuhl[7]; 4. 700-Gage Madler[5]; 5. 01-Chance Gilbert[4]; 6. 27-RJ Garay[8]; 7. 2J-Joseph Lewis[13]; 8. 3-Travis Wagner[11]; 9. 87-Gus Jensen[12]; 10. 43B-Caden Bunnis[16]; 11. 93-Steve Johnson[15]; 12. 13-Ben Lundquist[14]; 13. 335-Beaux Miller[17]; 14. 21-Tanner Hofer[19]; 15. 68D-Kyle Doepke[18]; 16. (DNF) 7-Kody Machart[6]; 17. (DNF) 18-Quade Schoonover[9]; 18. (DNF) 022-Dayton Olheiser[10]; 19. (DQ) 20-Cody Jawaski[3]
MASTERS DIVISION
Championship Feature (30 Laps): 1. 58-Sean Johnson[7]; 2. 19-Donavin Wiest[1]; 3. 00-Duston Hagen[6]; 4. 22K-Michael King[4]; 5. 79-Scott Richardson[5]; 6. 1OZ-Glenn Mitchell[3]; 7. 11D-Shawn Dement[8]; 8. 84-Corey Pope[2]; 9. 06-Weston Hagen[9]; 10. 86-Brent Castleman[14]; 11. 12T-Cory Tharp[10]; 12. 24-Shaun Erickson[11]; 13. 3V-Vernon Martin[13]; 14. 28L-Don Hayes[12]
YOUNG LIONS DIVISION
Championship Feature (30 Laps): 1. 55-Colton Brock[1]; 2. 14T-Talyn Neuman[4]; 3. 33M-Colton Miller[2]; 4. 22-Regan Reinke[14]; 5. 00-Jett Stovall[3]; 6. 21-Noah Lewis[5]; 7. 29V-Rylan Vetter[10]; 8. 11-Mason Lemar[7]; 9. 25-Shawn Artz[8]; 10. 55A-Andrew Clark[9]; 11. 28-Bronson Hawkins[13]; 12. 24X-Qwint Irish[12]; 13. 99-Jacob Campbell[11]; 14. 7-Racelyn Rudland[15]; 15. (DNF) 25A-Alexander Clark[6]