By Greg Soukup
Now THAT is the way to end the regular season!! Saturday was the Championship Showdown at Eagle Raceway, presented by Avid Realty and the Lincoln Stars. The night can only be described as ‘Jam Packed’ as the largest crowd of the season showed up to see 147 cars compete in 28 races to determine who would leave the facility with the honor of being the 2026 points champion in the 5 classes.
As usual, there were several teams from around the country show up to familiarize themselves with the high banked 1/3 mile known as America’s Home Track. Those teams towed in from Minnesota, Texas and Missouri. The grandson of the late, great Dale Earnhardt, Wyat Miller came all of the way from North Carolina to try to acclimate himself with the track before next week’s IMCA Sprint Car Racesaver Nationals.
All of the races on the night were run without serious incidents.
Cole Wayman held a slim 9 point lead over Adam Gullion in the race for the championship in the Nebraska Septic IMCA Racesaver Sprint Cars.
The first lap of the A Feature saw Dan Nekolite’s 22D in the lead, Brandon Horton second in the1B, Hunter Hanson’s,9A third and Cole Vanderheiden’s 15V fourth. Cole Wayman spun the 18W in turn 4 on lap 2. The Choose Cone restart top 4 were Nekolite, Hanson, Horton and the 5 of Stu Snyder. Horton moved up to second on the restart with Vanderheiden regaining fourth place. Gene Ackland put the 14G into fourth place the next lap with Vanderheiden moving up to third. Lap 6 saw Horton pass Nekolite for the lead and Ackland get past Vanderheiden to take the third spot. Ackland and Vanderheiden then spent the next 2 circuits swapping third place. Cole Wayman’s night and his chase for the championship ended on lap 11 when he stopped in turn 4 with a broken left rear heim as he went off on the hook. Horton, Nekolite, Vanderheiden and Ackland were the Choose Cone restart top 4. Ackland again passed Vanderheiden on the restart to retake the third position and moved past Nekolite on lap 13 with John Klabunde advancing to fourth place in the 77X. Klabunde lost the spot to Tyler Drueke’s #12 the next time around. 15 laps were in the books when Vanderheiden passed
Ackland for second. Drueke jumped up to second the following lap. Nekolite moved back up to fourth with 8 circuits remaining. Horton jumped the cushion and hit the turn 2 wall with just 4 laps left, moving Drueke to the lead, Vanderheiden to second, Nekolite to third with the 35L of Gaige Weldon taking over the fourth position. Ackland passed Weldon on the restart for fourth. Drueke came from 13th on the starting grid and held them off to win by nearly 2 seconds with Vanderheiden, Nekolite and Ackland rounding out the top 4. Adam Gullion managed a fifth place finish, winning his second IMCA Racesaver Sprint Car Championship. His previous win was in 2020.
This marked Tyler’s fourth victory in 2026 at America’s Home Track. He stated “Austin, Adrian, Gavin and Dad did a really great job tonight. We made a lot of changes after our heat race. I wasn’t happy in hot laps and I wasn’t happy in my heat race. We changed a lot of stuff before the feature and the car ended up really good. We found the rubber on the racetrack at the right time. Sometimes it works out and it did tonight.” Tyler’s sponsors include Speedway Motors Racing Engines, Cherney Enterprises, Cutting Edge Ag, Forbes Motorsports, Drueke Trucking, Jeffries Trucking, Engels Energy Service, Johnson Farms and Kings Auto Supply.
Yes, the 2026 regular season may have ended, but the action kicks up a dozen notches starting next Thursday when the 14th Annual IMCA Sprint Car Racesaver Nationals begin.
Normally, the Thursday night portion is just for a practice night with qualifying for the Race Jugs Race of Champions. But, since Mother Nature got the last laugh last year, postponing the 2025 IMCA Sprint Car Racesaver Nationals A Feature to this year, it will be run as a part of the Thursday portion. 24 cars, starting 3-wide for a top prize of $13,000!!!
Better get busy getting your 4-day passes for both the grandstands and the pits to save yourself some concession stand money.
For complete information about not just Thursday, but for the whole weekend please visit Eagle Raceway.
We look forward to seeing everyone at Eagle Raceway as well as over 100 teams from all across the nation compete in the largest IMCA Racesaver event in the world.
RESULTS:
IMCA RaceSaver Sprint Car 28 Entries A Feature 1 25 Laps | 00:14:28.152 1. 12-Tyler Drueke[13]; 2. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[6]; 3. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[2]; 4. 14G-Gene Ackland[9]; 5. 91-Adam Gulion[10]; 6. 35L-Gaige Weldon[15]; 7. 5-Stuart Snyder[5]; 8. 11J-Wyatt Miler[19]; 9. 77X-John Klabunde[7]; 10. 35 Trevor Grossenbacher[17]; 11. 9A-Hunter Hanson[1]; 12. 03-Shayle Bade[8]; 13. 4X-Jason Danley[16]; 14. 63-Jack Thomas[12]; 15. B2-Carson Bolden[14]; 16. 1B-Brandon Horton[3]; 17. 25-Gunnar Pike[11]; 18. 18W-Cole Wayman[18]; 19. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[4]; 20. 2T-Cameron Thompson[20]
B Feature 1 10 Laps | 00:02:20.118 1. 4X-Jason Danley[2]; 2. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[3]; 3. 18W-Cole Wayman[7]; 4. 11J-Wyatt Miler[6]; 5. 2T-Cameron Thompson[1]; 6. 25X-Chase Brewer[4]; 7. 32-Trefer Wa ler[8]; 8. 10-Brad Schreiner[10]; 9. 2A-Alex Salzman[12]; 10. 44V Daren Bolac[13]; 11. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[9]; 12. 3V-Len Vermeulen[5]; 13. (DNS) 4W-Nathan Weiler
Drueke Trucking Heat 1 10 Laps | 00:02:14.536 1. 77X-John Klabunde[4]; 2. 9A-Hunter Hanson[1]; 3. 14T-Tyler Hendrickson[3]; 4. 91-Adam Gu lion[6]; 5. 12-Tyler
Drueke[7]; 6. 2T-Cameron Thompson[5]; 7. 25X-Chase Brewer[9]; 8. 18W-Cole Wayman[8]; 9. 10-Brad Schreiner[2]; 10. 44V-Daren Bolac[10]
Heat 2 10 Laps | 00:04:17.339 1. 22D-Daniel Nekolite[2]; 2. 5-Stuart Snyder[3]; 3. 03-Shayle Bade[5]; 4. 63-Jack Thomas[8]; 5. B2-Carson Bolden[9]; 6. 4X-Jason Danley[6]; 7. 3V-Len Vermeulen[1]; 8. 32-Trefer Wa ler[4]; 9. 4W-Nathan Weiler[7]
Heat 3 10 Laps | 00:02:17.020 1. 1B-Brandon Horton[2]; 2. 15V-Cole Vanderheiden[3]; 3.
14G-Gene Ackland[5]; 4. 25-Gunnar Pike[7]; 5. 35L-Gaige Weldon[8]; 6. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[6]; 7. 11J-Wyatt Miler[9]; 8. 8B-Kaedon Thurman[1]; 9. 2A-Alex Salzman[4]