Moyer Jr. leads flag to flag for ‘Hell Tour’ win

FARLEY - In late April, one of the faces of dirt Open Late Model racing stepped away from the sport in a move that shocked the dirt racing world. Billy Moyer Jr. said he needed to reassess his priorities at the time.

The son of dirt legend Billy Moyer was only away for a few months before coming back to his No. 21JR Late Model with a fresh outlook on his life and his racing career. He's as focused as ever, he said, and that culminated in taking home $10,000 in the UMP DIRTCar Summernationals main event on Wednesday night at Farley Speedway.

'I had some personal stuff I needed to get straight, and I feel a lot better now. I just had to get my head right,” Moyer Jr. said in Victory Lane. 'I had some stuff inside my head and my head only. I needed to get away and get my head straight. The best thing I could do was get away and get my head straight. Now here we are.”

Moyer Jr. put down the fast lap in qualifying to start the night, and didn't look back from there. He led all 60 laps he raced in competition throughout the night - all 10 in his heat race win and all 50 in the main event after starting on the outside pole.

The Batesville, Ark. native had to hold off challenges from Oakwood, Ill. driver Bobby Pierce (who won the Tuesday night Hell Tour main event at Jacksonville (Ill.) Speedway) and Oxford racer Chris Simpson.

Moyer Jr. had the benefit of track position to start the race, but had to manage his tires throughout all 50 laps and four cautions. The 25 cars - including NASCAR Sprint Cup racer Austin Dillon - that made the trip to Farley were stout from front to back, and Moyer Jr. was well aware.

He said the biggest challenge running up front in a long race like that is to take care of your tires so there's some left in the case of a late race caution. With Simpson bearing down on him, a caution came out with five to go. From there, Moyer Jr. lit the fire on all he had left in his tires and ran away for the win.

'The car count wasn't great, but we could've run 10th tonight and been a solid 10th. It was a tough crowd, man,” Moyer Jr. said. 'There was a couple times we came and went, came and went. After that caution came out with five to go we flipped the switch and I think we got away from him a little bit.

'I knew Simpson's good around these places, but we had to manage our tires and find that sweet spot. It was an aggressive track condition.”

Simpson started sixth, and had to get around defending Hell Tour champion Shannon Babb, his brother Chad Simpson, Billy Moyer and Pierce to have a shot at the win.

By the time he got to second, the track had rubbered up, and he'd essentially gotten all he was going to get out of his car.

'The track was just rubbered up; there wasn't much to race on (at the end),” Simpson said. 'We followed him close around there. I knew I was hurting the right rear and the motor was running a little warm, so I just kind of took it easy. I just wanted to finish at run second. If the track would've stayed dirty the way it was at the start, we came up there pretty fast. On a rubbered down racetrack, that's about all you can do.”

As for the NASCAR star in Dillon, he's had better nights at the races.

The Sprint Cup driver finished 13th in the main event, and said if he could've put down a better qualifying lap - and therefore get a better start in his heat race - things might've gone a little better. He even brought out a caution midway through the race, spinning in Turn 2 trying to pass Wheatland driver Justin Kay.

'Our qualifying group was the fastest group, and that probably set us back,” Dillon said. 'Once the race got started, it rubbered up and the track wasn't very racy. I was trying to make something happen and spun out under (Kay). Not many people moved up in the field. I think coming back, if we'd just qualified better (it would've helped).

'I expected a little bit more from us, but having never come here or seen the place (I'm happy).”

UMP DIRTCar Summernationals Results

1. 21JR Billy Moyer Jr., Batesville, Ark.; 2. 32S Chris Simpson, Oxford; 3. 32 Bobby Pierce, Oakwood, Ill.; 4. 18 Shannon Babb, Moweaqua, Ill.; 5. 25S Chad Simpson, Mt Vernon; 6. 21 Billy Moyer, Batesville, Ark.; 7. 24 Ryan Unzicker, El Paso, Ill.; 8. 25 Jason Feger, Bloomington, Ill.; 9. 29 Spencer Diercks, Davenport; 10. 15K Justin Kay, Wheatland; 11. 98 Jason Rauen, Farley; 12. 22 Charlie McKenna, Clear Lake; 13. 3 Austin Dillon, Welcome, N.C.; 14. 22M Darrel Moser, New Haven, Mo.; 15. 1M Jim Moon, New Florence, Mo.; 16. 58 Dave Eckrich, Oxford; 17. 124 John Hahler, New Florence, Mo.; 18. 54 Mike Fryer, Freeport, Ill.; 19. 40 Joel Callahan, Dubuque; 20. C8 Timothy Culp, Sheridan, Ark.; 21. 58R Ray Guss Jr. Milan, Ill.; 22. 0 Chris Keller, Adrian, Mich.

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