Kyle Dudley led all 125 laps to win Saturday’s $25,000-to-win inaugural IHRA Stock Car Series Late Model Sportsman feature at Pulaski County Motorsports Park.
The race marked the debut of IHRA’s Late Model Sportsman division as part of the IHRA Stock Car Series expansion into oval racing for 2026, featuring a $2,000,000 season purse.
“We had a really good car,” Dudley said to Speed Sport 1. “The car took off really well on restarts, we just had everything we needed. We got a little tight at the end, I can’t complain too much. We’re gonna party this one up tonight.”
Dudley won the pole and led the field of 37 to the green flag, immediately putting distance between himself and second-place starter Nick Loden.
Loden was then passed by Coy Beard, who moved into second while Kade Brown advanced to third.
Loden continued to fall back, finishing 15th.
By Lap 20, Dudley began to encounter lapped traffic but continued to stretch his lead over the field.
The race remained clean through the first 80 laps before the first caution on Lap 83 when Bryan Reedy blew a right-front tire and hit the wall.
Dudley led the field back to the green flag, with Beard racing him door-to-door into Turn 1 before Dudley cleared him off Turn 2.
The second caution came two laps later when Larry Isenhower and AJ Henriksen came to a stop in Turn 2. Henriksen suffered a brake failure and pulled to pit road, both drivers finishing 29th and 31st, respectively.
Racing resumed on Lap 86 with Beard once again mounting a charge, but Dudley powered off the corner to maintain the lead.
The third and final caution occurred on Lap 116 when Dudley made contact with Brandon Hanks while attempting to lap him entering Turn 3, sending Hanks spinning. Dudley continued without major damage.
On the final restart, Beard raced Dudley side by side all the way into Turn 3, the first sustained challenge Dudley faced all race, but Dudley maintained the lead off Turn 4.
Beard said using his tires getting through lapped traffic made it difficult to challenge Dudley for the win, finishing with a second-place effort.
“Congratulations to Kyle Dudley, it was a great race,” Beard said to Speed Sport 1. “I enjoyed it. This is a great facility. I think I had to use a little too much tire getting around the lap cars, which I knew was going to be a problem. I’ve never been on this tire before, so we’ll put that in our notebook, we’ll come back again.”
Ryan Wilson made a pass on Brown in the final laps to secure the final podium position. Wilson qualified ninth and felt a better qualifying effort could have made the difference.
“Our first lap of qualifying, pretty much matched Dudley, I just messed up on lap two and qualified ninth,” Wilson said to Speed Sport 1. “I felt like we had a shot at being top two or three.
“I’m not sure if anybody was going to beat Kyle. He was just really strong, but I would have liked to have started a little better, to kind of see what we had. We unloaded yesterday and we were absolutely terrible but by the end of the day we got it handling much better. I had a lot of fun this weekend.”
Several drivers experienced mechanical issues during the race, including Tyler Worley, Michael Bumgarner, Austin Peters, Jeff Sparks and Brandon Dean, ending their night early.
Brown finished fourth with Derrick Lancaster completing the top five.
IHRA Late Model Sportsman- IHRA 225
Pulaski County Motorsports Park
March 21, 2026
- Kyle Dudley
- Coy Beard
- Ryan Wilson
- Kade Brown
- Derrick Lancaster
- Dylan Newsome
- Trey Burke
- Mike Looney
- Lane Woods
- Dylan Ward
- Kyle Barnes
- Zeke Shell
- Daniel Vuncannon
- Trey Crews
- Nick Loden
- Niel Meredith
- Jacob Borst
- John Goin
- Lance Gatlin
- Rickey Locklier
- Chandler Gallman
- Brandon Hanks
- Jason Myers
- Peyton Hamlett
- Trenton Kilgore
- Bennie Hamlett
- Nikolas Williams
- Lee Tissot
- Larry Isenhower
- Bryan Reedy
- AJ Henriksen
- Brandon Dean
- Jeff Sparks
- Dean Ward
- Austin Peters
- Michael Bumgarner
- Tyler Worley
