Day Goes Back-To-Back at Red Dirt Raceway; Comes up From 7th

Brent Marks, Corey Day and Tyler Courtney in Victory Lane after competing at Red Dirt Raceway (Photo: High Limit Racing Media)

MEEKER, Okla. — For the first time in the 2024 season, the High Limit Racing sprint car series competed in a “Midweek Money Series” event. After their race on Sunday, the series traveled one state north to race at Red Dirt Raceway.

Zeb Wise and Kasey Kahne led the 26-car field to the starting line to begin the highly-anticipated 35-lap main event. As the drivers raced into Turn 1, Wise jumped out to the lead before he exited Turn 2 and Tyler Courtney passed Kahne on the high side for second.

Five laps later, Wise already caught up to lapped traffic and Courtney was right on his coattails. As Wise went high going into Turn 3 to pass a lapped car, “Sunshine” took the bottom. This worked out well for Courtney as it allowed him to gain some serious ground on Wise. The lane choice also allowed Courtney to race side-by-side with Wise down the front straightaway and slide job him going into Turn 1.

After a restart on Lap 12, Corey Day made his presence known to the two leaders. He snuck up on their rear bumpers as they raced down the backstretch, however Wise and Courtney did not expect that he would go low through the turns and down the front straightaway to slide up in front of Wise for second.

Since Day passed both Brad Sweet and Wise for their respective positions in one effortless swoop, those two drivers had nothing better to do than battle with each other. They slide-jobbed each other over and over again and raced all over the track to see if they could grab the third spot. 

All of a sudden though, Parker Price-Miller came out of nowhere as the field raced out of Turn 3 and slid directly in front of Wise, shoving him all the way back in fifth and possibly making contact. Wise tried to go high and take back the spot that was stolen right out from under his nose, but Price-Miller zipped back in front of him.

Corey Day competing at Red Dirt Raceway (Photo: Chad Warner Photography)

With 16 laps to go, Day caught up to Courtney as Courtney hit lapped traffic. Day attempted to pass Courtney multiple times by racing high, low, left and right, but he could not find that sweet spot. When Courtney and Day moved to pass a lapped car, Courtney made the mistake of taking the high line as Day went low. As they came off of Turn 4, the drag race down the front stretch resulted in Day getting the lead.

On the next restart, all of the drivers were desperate to find their lane to race for a spot in the top 10. This desperation resulted in a domino effect that began when Sweet and Price-Miller got together up on the high side. Price-Miller was shoved into the wall and accidentally pushed Rico Abreu down a little bit. Then, because Rico was pushed out of his racing line, he hit Wise, who then spun out. Wise’s dreams of winning the $20,000 payday were squashed.

After the melee was sorted out, the field came back to the green flag and four drivers competed for the third position. Price-Miller, Sweet, Brent Marks and Abreu went four-wide multiple times to attempt to pass at least one car. For Marks and Price-Miller, this method worked out as Marks was scored third and Price-Miller fourth as they crossed the start/finish line.

Lap 20 saw Kyle Larson enter the battle for the top five positions. He passed Sweet on the high side and continued riding in the top lane to cruise to the fifth-place spot. But, to get there, Larson had to love-tap Abreu out of his way. Earlier in the race, Abreu had tapped Larson into the wall, so Larson seemingly returned the favor.

The conclusion of the race saw 18-year-old Day go back-to-back with wins. Day also helped a lucky fan in the audience to be the first ever Durst Dice winner, splitting $7,000 with the fan.

High Limit Racing stays in the Sooner State this weekend to continue their action on Friday at Southern Oklahoma Speedway.