BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Volusia Speedway Park is alive with the sound of dirt late model racing as the inaugural DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals kicked off on Wednesday night with the track’s first event of 2020.

Full races for three divisions of dirt late models run Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and some of the biggest names in Florida racing took to the half-mile dirt track on Wednesday for a final tune-up before the money is on the line.

When the hot laps wrapped up, Kyle Bronson topped the leaderboard with a lap of 16.850 seconds behind the wheel of his Rocket Chassis DIRTcar Pro Late Model.

“This car has been pretty good every time we race it,” Bronson said. “The track held up pretty good … I was one of the fastest cars out every time we went onto the race track, so I can’t ask for much more than that.”

Plenty of big names have made the trip out to Volusia to take part in the event, including Randy Weaver, Max Blair, Clay Harris and Cody Overton. These, and several other victory lane contenders have just as good of a shot at the $10,000 top prize in Saturday’s 30-lap Feature for the DIRTcar Pro Late Models. There are already 44 cars in the pits with the laps that matter starting Thursday.

“There are a lot of good cars here this weekend,” Bronson said. “There are 15 guys that can win this race… My car’s good enough to where I feel like if we go out here and I do the best job I can do, I feel like we have as good or a better shot to win this deal.”

The first of three complete shows in the inaugural DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals begins Thursday evening at Volusia with hot laps hitting the track for the 602 Late Model division at 5:15 p.m. They’ll be joined by the Florida Late Models and Pro Late Models to make up three full features on each night.

Adult general admission tickets are $20 Thursday and Friday, $25 on Saturday. Kids 12 and under are free all weekend.

Catch all the action live from your home with a DIRTVision Fast Pass, only $39 a month!