The Dome at America's Center
Notes: Lost fuel cell spoils Marlar's Dome run
By Kevin Kovac and Aaron Clay
DirtonDirt
Mike Marlar's fuel cell. (joshjamesartwork.com)
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (Dec. 5) — Mike Marlar unloaded a car for the Kubota Gateway Dirt Nationals bearing the Monster Truck-style “Maximum Domestruction” moniker on its doors. He didn’t intend for those words to become a literal description of his Friday outing at The Dome at America’s Center.
But after the 47-year-old veteran from Winfield, Tenn., slid too high into the outside wall during time trials, his Velocity Chassis machine looked like the name it had been given for Marlar’s first-ever attempt at running the blockbuster indoor event.
“I was going to go about a full 10 (on his personal charge meter), and when I seen Garrett (Alberson) crash (earlier in qualifying), I said, ‘Let me tone it down to seven-and-a-half or an eight,’” Marlar said with a smirk. “And that’s what I was doing. I wasn’t even going hard, and the back bumper just caught that (catchfence mounting) pole.”
As Marlar was on his first qualifying lap in his guest appearance behind the wheel of Josh Dietz’s car, he went too high on the track in just the wrong — or, you could say, right — spot between turns three and four to inflict, well, Maximum Domestruction.
“I made a really good (turns) one and two, and I went down to three and four and I got in there a little bit too bent and it over-rotated,” Marlar said. “The back bumper, the right-rear, just kind of climbed up on the cushion and the back bumper caught that pole.”
The forces at work tugged at the car’s rear clip and ultimately ripped the fuel cell completely out, sending it bounding down the track. Marlar was astonished after the car came to a stop, he climbed out uninjured and he eyeballed the mangled rear end of the car.
“What was crazy, (the impact) felt like maybe you tore up the deck or something, not like the whole ass is gone,” Marlar said. “Everybody’s like, ‘Are you OK?’ I’m like, ‘Hell, I barely felt it.’
“It just broke the tubing (on the rear clip). The welds done their job but it broke the tubing, and it just sheared the bolts off the fuel cell. It was literally behind me flipping down the racetrack. You slow-mo the video, the fuel cell’s coming behind me, like, just doing cartwheels down the track.”
Marlar noted that the safety features built into the fuel cell prevented any spillage of gas when it detached from the car, but his engine nevertheless cut out without fuel.
“That’s a first,” he said when asked if he’d ever had a fuel cell separate from his car. “I’ve ran out of gas before, but not that way.”
Marlar good-naturedly quipped that he just wished the “carburetor had enough fuel in it to get to the (checkered) flag” so he could have officially logged a qualifying lap. He didn’t throw in the towel, however, as he jumped in his younger brother Skylar’s car to tag the back of the sixth heat (he finished sixth) and then returned to his Maximum Domestruction entry for the first B-main after his crew welded, hammered and generally thrashed to patch it back together (he finished ninth). — Kevin Kovac
Hocevar’s uplifting outing
NASCAR Cup Series regular Carson Hocevar made his fifth career Dirt Late Model feature start in Friday’s preliminary program, his first since a 2023 Dream semifeature at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway. The 22-year-old from Portage, Michigan., survived the 25-lap race’s rough-and-tumble action to record an 11th-place finish.
“It was really fun,” Hocevar said. “It was a little more attrition than I wanted, instead of just drive it up through there and making some speed out of it. We just struggled a little bit with the right-rear, getting it to stick and everything. I got two or three spots there and then knocked the nose off of it for a minute and we were just kinda stuck where I was.”
Driving a Chili’s-sponsored Longhorn Chassis fielded by his Cup Series team, Spire Motorsports, Hocevar acknowledged his and his crew’s lack of general Dirt Late Model experience.
“We made the main (event) and we were competitive and up there in the mix with a lot of really good guys,” Hocevar said. “I don’t do this a whole lot and, obviously, it’s the first time for Spire doing this with Longhorn and everything. Obviously, every racer is like, ‘I want more, this and that,’ but to make the prelim night and be at least competitive is a good start.”
Hocevar wasn’t entirely satisfied with the night’s results, though. He recalled his first Gateway Dirt Nationals start, a 2022 prelim in which he charged from 17th to eighth before a mechanical failure eliminated him from competition and left him with an 18th-place finish.
“I ran good here the first time and it kinda ruined my expectations a bit because, that year, we started last and we rolled to eighth on pace and then broke, so I hadn’t be able to (recreate) that magic I guess, that beginner’s luck this time around,” he said. “Luckily we got some attrition there. I have no idea where it puts us (Saturday), but at least puts us better than if we were 18th or whatever.”
When asked if we might see him making a few more Dirt Late Model starts in the near future, Hocevar quipped, “I’m not quitting the day job, so my weekends are gonna be pretty busy, but luckily FloRacing and everything, they got a lot midweek shows that just keep popping up here and there and that works perfect for us.” — Aaron Clay
Christmas spirit
Everyone already saw that Tanner English of Benton, Ky., had a unique wrap on his Coltman Farms Racing car themed to the iconic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation movie. He came up with the idea alongside his wife and the look — complete with his faced photo-shopped on Chevy Chase’s Santa Claus, team owner Brett Coltman’s face on the Cousin Eddie character and his bodywork resembling the Griswold family’s green Family Truckster car — drew plenty of attention.
But English upped the ante on Friday when he strapped a real Christmas tree to the roof of the car.
And it wasn’t just for show before he hit the track. English kept it on his car for hot laps, which made him the most photographed practice participant.
English, 32, received special permission from event promoter Cody Sommer to run hot laps with the tree above him.
“I called him, and I said, ‘Hey, what do you think about me putting a tree on the roof for hot laps?’ ” English said. “And he, like, went silent. The phone was silent for a while. For a good three seconds. And I can tell he’s thinking. Then he said, “I’m just thinking about why wouldn’t you just run the whole night with it?’ ”
English didn’t go that far, but he did record the fastest lap time during practice with the tree strapped on. It didn’t lose many needles at speed, either, but he removed it for the remainder of the evening, which ended in the feature when he developed a flat left-rear that relegated him to a 16th-place finish. He also was involved in a brief post-race exchange of words with Drake Troutman of Hyndman, Pa., over a scrape during the feature. — Kevin Kovac
Odds and ends
Friday winner Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., was victorious in a Gateway Dirt Nationals preliminary feature for the third consecutive year. … Zack Dohm of Cross Lanes, W.Va., finished fourth in Friday’s feature in the second Dome appearance of his career. His only previous start came in 2018 when he failed to qualify for the finale. … Two-time Gateway winner Tyler Carpenter of Parkersburg, W.Va., was the first retiree from Friday’s feature, pulling off on lap six because the new transmission his team installed after his qualifying heat kept slipping out of high gear. “I couldn’t hold it in gear” and race with one hand, Carpenter conceded. … Wil Herrington of Hawkinsville, Ga., was running eighth in Friday’s feature when he clipped Donald McIntosh’s sideways car in turn four with his machine’s right-rear corner. He proceeded to stop in turn one with his car’s broken right-rear axle sticking out. … Hunt the Front racer Joseph Joiner of Milton, Fla., scratched for the weekend after suffering terminal engine trouble during Friday’s hot laps.
