BARBERVILLE, Fla. Kicking off the sixth annual DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park included four features contested to decide the top-20 starting positions in Saturday nights finale.

Starting the weekend with feature wins bagged by Sam Seawright, Matt Herlong, Demetrios Drellos and Mark Whitener.

Feature 1 Sam Seawright

Friday nights opening feature began with Mack McCarter spinning in the middle of Turn Two on the first lap. Multiple cars suffered damage, ending the races of McCarter, A.J. Miller, and former track champion Garret Stewart.

On the following restart, Sam Seawright took advantage of the gained track position to pass polesitter Layton Sullivan for the lead.

The Alabama native dominated the 20 laps by inflating his gap to over 10 seconds before the feature prematurely ended with Robert Smith, Kyle Hardy, and Sean Ragan involved in a major crash on the front stretch.

With Smith and Hardy contending for second place when time expired on the Feature, Smith was credited with a second-place result and Sullivan finished the night in the third position.

The finish:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 16S-Sam Seawright[4]; 2. 01S-Robert Smith[8]; 3. 99-Kyle Hardy[13]; 4. 7J-Dalton Jacobs[12]; 5. 23M-Beckham Malone[6]; 6. 15-Marty Massey[9]; 7. 42-Steven Stratton Sr[15]; 8. 7T-Tyler Thomason[7]; 9. 87C-Jarrod Carey[3]; 10. 16W-Wesley Scott[16]; 11. 59-Brian Wooldridge[19]; 12. 96-Sean Reagan[18]; 13. (DNF) 19X-Mark Page[17]; 14. (DNF) 2S-Layton Sullivan[1]; 15. (DNF) 16-Caleb Gay[11]; 16. (DNF) 7-Corey Neil Jr[10]; 17. (DNF) 51-Mack McCarter[2]; 18. (DNF) 14AJ-AJ Miller[5]; 19. (DNF) 67S-Garret Stewart[14]

Feature 2 Matt Herlong

Similar to the first feature, the second go-around for the 604 Late Models began with several late models spinning through the middle of Turn 2 and stopping the nights of Rob Pitcher, Monte Skinner, Dale Young, and Luke Bennett.

On the second attempt, Kaede Loudy took command of the feature, leading every lap to build a six-second gap until a late caution with two laps left opened the door for the field to contend.

Up to bat was Matt Herlong, who traded lanes with Loudy in the final two laps, which culminated in Herlong swinging down to the bottom of the track and then sliding up around Loudy to steal the feature win.

I watched him do it three or four times in a row so I set him up for that, Herlong said. It was a hell of a race. Im worn out, it was rough out there for sure. I did this for my good friend Jim, who isnt here no more.

The finish:

Feature  (20 Laps): 1. 131-Matt Herlong[2]; 2. 126-Kaede Loudy[3]; 3. 07-Hayden Cardwell[6]; 4. 18X-Michael Page[7]; 5. 18B-Austin Yarbrough[13]; 6. 18-David Showers Jr[4]; 7. 44-Kam Boyd[1]; 8. 8-Matthew Larson[8]; 9. B2-Brian Booze[17]; 10. 515-Bubba Roling[12]; 11. 49-Mario Gresham[9]; 12. 31S-Tim Swartz[16]; 13. 4G-Kale Green[11]; 14. 57-Landon Zakalowski[18]; 15. 119-Joe Belkey[10]; 16. (DNF) 17P-Rob Pitcher[15]; 17. (DNF) 00M-Monte Skinner[5]; 18. (DNF) 14Y-Dale Young[19]; 19. (DNF) 3-Luke Bennett[14]

Feature 3 Demetrios Drellos

Curtis Glover and Nathan Bray led the field to the start, but Super DIRTcar Series regular Demetrios Drellos stole the show in the third feature.

The New Yorker ran in second for the majority of the race until a three-car battle gave him breathing room for that chance. Drellos, Trynt Lloyd, and Nathan Bray for the lead off a late restart on Lap 13, which resulted in Drellos prevailing with a move around the top of Lloyd.

Lloyd finished second. Ethan Wilson rounded out the podium.

I really had to bide my time there, Drellos said. I didnt want that caution to come out because I was about to turn it up a wick, but it did and next thing I knew, we were three-wide going for the lead. That was a lot of fun though.

The finish:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 111-Demetrios Drellos[4]; 2. 2-Trynt Lloyd[9]; 3. 00-Ethan Wilson[8]; 4. 21-Nathan Bray[2]; 5. 30-Curtis Glover[1]; 6. D8-Dustin Linville[3]; 7. 257-Skylar Marlar[10]; 8. 86-Wil Herrington[11]; 9. 7A-Corey Almond[6]; 10. 39W-Brandon Wells[14]; 11. 67-Gregory Carrico[7]; 12. 23-Toby Sims[12]; 13. 20-Owen Osteen[13]; 14. 71C-Davy Cline[18]; 15. 18C-Miles Cook II[5]; 16. (DNF) 28L-Austin Leamon[16]; 17. (DNF) 24-Payton Stevenson[19]; 18. (DNF) 118-Jared Delk[15]; 19. (DNF) 1X-Ethan Whitis[17]

Feature 4  Mark Whitener

Visiting Sunshine Nationals victory lane for the first time since 2022, Mark Whitener continued to prove his threat for the feature win on Saturday with a dominant display in the final 604 Late Model feature.

To do so, he had to fend off Winter Shootout points leader Jimmy Thomas and reigning Volusia division champion Mikey Kopka for the race win through the 20 laps.

We come here a couple of times to get ready for Speedweeks, Whitener said. Weve been working on the (super late model) and not enough on this thing, so we got some things to work on. Everythings all good, I know theyre working hard on (the track) and I look forward to tomorrow.

Thomas finished second, and Kole Platt snagged the final podium spot from Kopka off the final restart on Lap 19.

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 5-Mark Whitener[1]; 2. USA1-Jimmy Thomas[10]; 3. 44P-Kole Platt[4]; 4. 721-Mikey Kopka[12]; 5. 28-Jake Rainey[5]; 6. 6-Dillon Brown[7]; 7. 611-Koulten Herbert[11]; 8. 52-Cody Karl[9]; 9. 2C-Zack Carley[8]; 10. 94-Holden Allen[16]; 11. 12C-Chase Giddens[6]; 12. 54T-Tuck Trentham[2]; 13. 17C-Jamie Maurice[15]; 14. 18I-Jason Intoppa[13]; 15. (DNF) 69-Wyatt Boyd[17]; 16. (DNF) 89-Timmie Harrelson[18]; 17. (DNF) 11-John Ownbey[3]; 18. (DNS) 35-Christian Augspurger