Chris Madden leads the Xtreme DIRTcar standings with one race remaining
The inaugural season for the Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Winter Series will come to a close this weekend with the running of a $7,000-to-win feature event at South Carolina’s Modoc Raceway on Saturday, February 29th. It will be the fifth race for the series after the previous four events have been contested in South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.
Chris Madden will enter the Xtreme DIRTcar finale with a commanding points lead in the overall standings as the Gray Court, SC racer looks to collect the $20,000 first prize set to be awarded to the series champion. Ross Bailes, Zack Mitchell, Kyle Strickler and Trent Ivey round out the top-5 in the title chase as the tour heads toward its conclusion.
Not only will the eventual champion receive a lucrative payout but the drivers who finish second and third in the final rundown will garner $10,000 and $5,000 respectively with 100% attendance at all events not being mandated to collect those payments. Competitors who finish in positions 4-10 will take home $1,000 each provided they do indeed have 100% attendance for all five events.
Considering that these races have been run in the time of year typically regarded as the off-season, car counts have been generally good. There have been an average of 24 cars to enter the four races held so far on the series with the high number of 38 coming at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, SC in the opener back on November 25, 2019 in a race co-sanctioned by the Carolina Clash Super Late Model Series. The low number of 14 cars also came at Cherokee Speedway on January 26, 2020.
Zack Mitchell picked up an Xtreme win at Lavonia
It is fair to point out that the second Cherokee race had to be postponed from one week earlier due to weather which, in turn, placed that event less than one week away from the opening of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series season at Golden Isles Speedway. Perhaps some who might have attended the Cherokee race had it been held earlier were reluctant to do so once the date was pushed back so close to the beginning of the hectic Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks schedule.
A total of 61 drivers have entered the four races held to this point on the series.
Initially, it looked as if the series might turn into a Chris Madden cakewalk after the Scott Bloomquist Racing driver dominated the first two features at Cherokee and Tennessee’s Volunteer Speedway. However, drivers Zack Mitchell and Ross Bailes fought back by scoring victories at Lavonia(GA) Speedway and Cherokee Speedway respectively in the two most recent events.
The race originally slated for January 25, 2020 at Cochran(GA) Speedway had to be shelved due to weather.
Ross Bailes drove to a dominant win in the most recent Cherokee feature
Still, Madden’s non-winning finishes of third and fourth at Lavonia and Cherokee have helped to secure his solid standing at the top of the Xtreme DIRTcar Series standings.
While Madden’s points lead appears to have him well placed for the championship, combatants Bailes, Mitchell, Strickler and Ivey are so close together in positions 2-5 that any of those drivers could come away with the higher paying spots in the final rundown. Further, the field for this race looks to be an outstanding one as the track’s website points out that the likes of Brandon Overton, Dale McDowell, Chris Ferguson, Casey Roberts and Dennis Franklin are expected to join the regulars and compete for the $7,000 first prize.
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