Eastern Iowa Driver Rankings: May 24

Welcome to the Inside Track's Eastern Iowa Driver Rankings. Each week of the racing season, the Gazette's Jeremiah Davis will rank the area's top 10 drivers across all divisions.

Think the list should be different? Tweet him at @jeremiahdavis10, send him an email at jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com or leave a comment at The Inside Track by Jeremiah Davis Facebook page.

New this week: N/A

Dropped out: N/A

Others considered (in no order):  David Brandies, Luke Goedert, Benji Irvine, Tyler Bruening, Ronn Lauritzen, J.D. Auringer, Nathan Ballard, Matt Ryan, Rob Toland, Mark Schulte, Chris Zogg, Mitch Hovden, Kyle Olson, Cayden Carter, Johnny Spaw, Troy Hovey, Daniel Wauters, Jeremiah Hurst, Dalton Simonsen, Richie Gustin, Kyle Brown, Ricky Thornton Jr., Troy Cordes, Damon Murty

RANK

+/-

NAME

CLASS

THOUGHTS

1

--

Tyler Soppe

Sport Mod

New car? No problem. Soppe went to LaSalle Speedway last Thursday and ran sixth, then took his brand new race car to Victory Lane on Sunday at Quad City Speedway in East Moline, Ill. Given the success he had with his car last year, I was surprised to hear he went in another direction, but a win right away shows how much I know. With his home track of Dubuque rained out, they hauled south to the Quad Cities and it paid off. 

2

--

Chris Simpson

Late Model/Modified

As fast as he's been in his Late Model, he had to have eagerly anticipated trips to LaSalle (Ill.) Speedway and I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb. An eighth place finish at LaSalle was a solid run, but I-80 wasn't at all what he planned. In the main event, Simpson went to make a pass of Hudson O'Neal, and contact to his left rear out of the corner sent him flipping down the back stretch. Simpson said Wednesday he was sore, but would be back in the car this weekend. 

3

+2

Justin Kay

Late Model/Modified

Kay said he was going to go have fun and find different tracks to race, and he's backed that up. With Davenport's Modified Madness being rained out, he hauled to I-80 Speedway as well - but to race the Modified, not his Open Late Model. He finished second to Jordan Grabouski out there in NASCAR-sanctioned country. He has a full slate ahead of him, likely, with Davenport's reschedule this week and (potentially) two big-money races at Vinton Sunday and Monday.

4

-1

Hunter Marriott

Modified

No racing for him last weekend (that I could find anyway), but with $5,000 on the table in Eastern Iowa, that won't be the case this weekend. The aforementioned Modified Madness reschedule at Davenport pays $2,000 to win on Friday night, then the prelude to the Hawkeye Dirt Tour race pays $2,000 to win at Benton County Speedway on Sunday, followed by the $1,000-to-win HDT opener on Monday. Chances are Marriott will be one to beat all three races.

5

+4

Tyler Droste

Modified

I dropped him quite a bit last week after he didn't race his Non-qualifier at the Modified Super Weekend, but he gets a bump back up for how he ran traveling to LaSalle. Droste ran second to Kelly Shryock over in Illinois, and by all accounts was charging to the lead at the end of the main event, only to run out of time. He's got loads of talent, and it's showing.

6

--

Jeremiah Hurst

Late Model

Hurst might be the poster-child for bad luck in many ways so far this season. There have been multiple races where he's had a fast car or the car to beat and an incident or failure has cost him. He only got to race once this weekend, at Quad City Speedway, and took a DNF. If he can iron out some of the issues he's had, Hurst will challenge for a lot of wins.

7

--

Tony Olson

Sport Mod

No racing for him either this weekend. As I've said before, I won't penalize guys for getting rained out, and that applies to Olson this week. He's got multiple wins this season and doesn't feel like he's hit his stride yet. Weekly racing is about to get into full gear, which is where he makes his money (literally and figuratively). 

8

+2

Bryce Garnhart

Modified

Another solid weekend from Garnhart, who unlike many got multiple races in. He made the trip to Illinois to race at LaSalle, and finished fourth behind Shryock, Droste and Eric Barnes. He followed that up a few days later with a third-place finish at Quad City Speedway behind winner Rob Toland. He's been consistent and that's usually what precedes wins.

9

-1

Darrel DeFrance

Late Model

I met Dale DeFrance in the Deery Brothers Late Model Victory Lane at Quad City Speedway two weeks ago. His son Darrel had just broken a long Deery winless streak. Dale, the patriarch of a vast racing family, beamed and talked to me for five full minutes about how proud he was to be there - all while holding the winner's check. Dale's death on Monday had the Iowa racing scene sending out condolences, but also warm stories. Darrel getting one last win for his dad is something he'll carry forever - and as a writer, I'll never forget being there to cover it.

10

-6

Johnny Scott

Modified

One of the criteria for making the rankings is to be from Eastern Iowa or race a lot in Eastern Iowa. Scott likely won't fit that bill much longer if he chases more USMTS races, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt (maybe he'd have raced Davenport) because it rained. He was third in the USMTS main event at I-94 Speedway in Fergus Falls, Min, though. 

Previous weeks: May 10, May 17

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com