By Greg Soukup
As Creedence Clearwater Revival once sang, and as Anthony Ainsle often says, ‘Nighttime is the Right Time’, both rang true Saturday night as Speedway Motors and AM Contracting presented the Eagle Shootout at America’s Home Track, Eagle Raceway.
With just 2 nights of regular season racing left in the 2026 season and none of the points chases in any of the 5 IMCA classes decided yet, and the S&L Trenching IMCA Modified top 4 being within 5 points of the title, the large crowd knew that it was going to be a battle not to be missed.
147 cars filled the pits, all ready to fight for each and every position during the 29 races on the high banked 1/3 mile of America’s Home Track.
There were no serious incidents in the preliminary racing action.
The intermission featured kids bike races around Mini E Raceway.
First up were the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprint Cars. Brad Schreiner put the #10 out front on lap 1 followed by the 14T of Tyler Hendrickson, Brandon Bosma’s 23 and the 2T of Cameron Thompson. Bosma moved up to second on lap 2. Hendrickson passed Schreiner and Shayle Bade passed Thompson on lap 3 to put the 03 into fourth and advanced to third on lap 7, moving Schreiner back to fourth. The next time around former track champion Joey Danley got by Bade to jump up to third. Taylor Velasquez spun to a stop at the bottom of turns 1 and 2 on lap 11 to slow the action. The Eastep Wheels Choose Cone top 4 were Hendrickson, Bade, Bosma and the 4X of Jason Danley. Joey Danley got a huge run on the restart to grab the lead away from Hendrickson as Cole Wayman jumped up to third place in the 18W with fourth going to Bade. Gaige Weldon passed Bade with 10 laps remaining to put the 35L into fourth. From there to the checkers Danley remained out front for the victory with Hendrickson, Wayman and Weldon rounding out your top 4.
Joey, although not visiting the track often is no stranger to Eagle Raceway having won several track championships. I kidded with him, telling him that he decided to come out and get some laps in before the IMCA Racesaver Nationals and take some of the track’s money, to which he replied “Yes, it was definitely a tune-up weekend for us. I didn’t really expect to win but we hit it right and got it done. The track was very dry tonight. I was surprised that they didn’t rip up the corners at intermission. It made the track nice and slick and wide which I prefer but it got rutty in the second half of the race but luckily I had the lead so then the rubber on the track is okay.” I mentioned that a dry slick track puts the race in the hands of the drivers and he said “That’s the way that it has to be when you start tenth like I did. It has to be! You have to be out of the throttle, driving the car to get by anybody. For me, the track was really, really good, so I was happy.” Joey’s sponsors include Empire Netting & Fence, Myers Engine Inc., mySalesman, The WAVE, HotKote Powder Coating, Unlimited Sports Solutions, Adams Automotive, High Performance Lubricants, Nissen Hardwood Floors and Onyx Digital Group.
Next Saturday is the Championship Showdown, presented by Avid Realty and the Lincoln Stars. The championships in all 5 classes are still up for grabs. The leaders in each class are as follows,
Nebraska Septic IMCA Sprint Cars:
Cole Wayman with Adam Gullion 9 points back and Tyler Drueke trailing by 30.
All 5 IMCA classes will be competing.
Grandstands open at 5:15 with adult admission being $15, youths 6-12 are just $5 with children 5 and under free.
Pit gates open at 3:15 and hot laps start at 5:45 and racing at 6:30.
Don’t forget that the IMCA Racesaver Nationals begin at Eagle Raceway in less than 2 weeks. Well over 100 sprints will tow to America’s Home Track to determine who will be the 2026 Champion but also the 2025 Champion after rain cancelled last year’s finale. For ticket and race information go to Tickets – RACEsaver Sprint Series
RESULTS:
IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car 29 Entries A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:08:57.081 1. 14-Joey Danley[10]; 2. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[2]; 3. 18W-Cole Wayman[11]; 4. 35L-Gaige Weldon[19]; 5. 12-Tyler Drueke[17]; 6. 4X-Jason Danley[7]; 7. 03-Shayle Bade[5]; 8. 91-Adam Gu lion[16]; 9. 23-Brandon Bosma[4]; 10. 1B Brandon Horton[15]; 11. 14J-Josh Riggins[6]; 12. 2-Colby Stubblefield[12]; 13. 14G-Gene Ackland[9]; 14. 17X-Conner Thomas[20]; 15. 11-Taylor Velasquez[8]; 16. 4W-Nathan Weiler[18]; 17. 6B-Bayley Ba lenger[13]; 18. 10-Brad Schreiner[1]; 19. 2T-Cameron Thompson[3]; 20. 2A-Alex Salzman[14]
B Feature 1 10 Laps | 00:04:51.621 1. 12-Tyler Drueke[1]; 2. 4W-Nathan Weiler[2]; 3. 35L-Gaige Weldon[3]; 4. 17X-Conner Thomas[9]; 5. 77X-John Klabunde[8]; 6. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[11]; 7. 5-Stuart Snyder[10]; 8. 17-Justin Bolte[12]; 9. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[7]; 10. 77 Bret Klabunde[5]; 11. 3B-Blake Ba lenger[4]; 12. 9A-Hunter Hanson[13]; 13. 0-Chase Weiler[6]
Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:02:10.723 1. 03-Shayle Bade[4]; 2. 2T-Cameron Thompson[3]; 3. 14-Joey Danley[7]; 4. 6B-Bayley Ba lenger[2]; 5. 12-Tyler
Drueke[6]; 6. 77-Bret Klabunde[5]; 7. 17X-Conner Thomas[8]; 8. (DNS) 9A-Hunter Hanson
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:05:00.434 1. 11-Taylor Velasquez[6]; 2. 18W-Cole Wayman[7]; 3. 10-Brad Schreiner[2]; 4. 2A-Alex Salzman[3]; 5. 4W-Nathan Weiler[4]; 6. 0-Chase Weiler[1]; 7. (DNS) 5-Stuart Snyder
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:02:09.745 1. 23-Brandon Bosma[3]; 2. 4X-Jason Danley[5]; 3. 14G-Gene Ackland[6]; 4. 1B-Brandon Horton[2]; 5. 35L-Gaige Weldon[7]; 6. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[1]; 7. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[4]
Heat 4 10 Laps | 00:02:13.782 1. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[2]; 2. 14J-Josh Riggins[4]; 3. 2-Colby Stubblefield[7]; 4. 91-Adam Gu lion[6]; 5. 3B-Blake Balenger[1]; 6. 77X-John Klabunde[5]; 7. 17-Justin Bolte[3]