In a night where seconds made all the difference, the Bedford Speedway concluded another exciting night of racing Friday night. Spike Moore out maneuvered the late model field to achieve his second late model victory of the 2026 season, his first win coming only three races ago on July 3rd. Gunnar Walls also picked up his second 2026 win in the Late Model Sportsman division. Brian Weyandt Jr in the Semi Lates and Josh Ringer in the Crown Vics both got to take their first trips to the historic Bedford Speedway victory lane in 2026.
Del Rougeux led the Late Models to the track as the feature got underway but it wasn’t meant to be his night in victory lane. As soon as the green dropped Spike Moore took the lead in an artful cross move starting on the front stretch pushing Rougeux back to meet with Matt Sponaugle. Sponaugle had started fourth in the field but wasted no time passing Nathan LaSalle in his third position starting spot. A caution was called and, on the restart, Sponaugle overtook Rougeux. Another caution came out for a small debacle in turn four shaking up the field a bit as the crash cars went to the tail for the restart. Moore, Sponaugle, and Trever Feathers, originally having started 6th, now led the pack into the next wave. Shawn Shoemaker and Nathan LaSalle were side by side for fourth before LaSalle needed to pull off and another yellow was thrown. The tempo of the race picked up under green, and Matt Sponaugle was left to chase down Spike Moore. Trever Feathers sat comfortably in third place while Shawn Shoemaker made skillful moves to catch up to the front of the field. By the halfway mark Moore had the last car in the field in his sights and was just laps away from catching up to lap traffic. Moore managed to pass the last car with five laps to go, Sponaugle just seconds behind him with no intention of letting him slip away. Moore hit a roadblock as the laps counted down when he faced the taillights of last week’s winner Jeff Rine, who had been sent to the back of the field earlier in the race, still battling hard with Jeff Miller. The drivers formed a formidable wall preventing Moore from making any more progress forward. Spike Moore picked up his second Late Model feature win of the 2026 season followed across the line by Matt Sponaugle, Trever Feathers, Shawn Shoemaker and Justin Weaver.
Late Model heat race winners: Trever Feathers, Nathan LaSalle.
Brad Benton started on the pole in the Late Model Sportsman feature, and he was able to defend the spot for the better part of the race but it wasn’t meant to be his night. Gunnar Walls rose to the challenge ahead of him finding his way past the third and fourth cars to join Devin Weyandt and Brad Benton in the battle for first. Also rising from the back was another previous 2026 feature winner, Kyle Lear, originally having started 7th. Weyandt fought off Walls most of the race, the pair often being door-to-door as they charged around the track and switching positions if only just for seconds, both nipping at the heels of Brad Benton. Walls managed to snag second away from Weyandt and both of them quickly became busy holding off a hard charging Kyle Lear. Out of nowhere with only a handful of laps to go, Benton had a snafu in turn four bringing out the caution and costing him first place. Under the green the new leader Gunnar Walls was determined not to let Weyandt or Lear back in after working so hard to get by. Lear snuck by Weyandt and knew there was only moments left to catch Walls. Walls put his foot to the floor and took the checkered flag followed by Kyle Lear, Devin Weyandt, Bryan Benton, and Brian Booze.
Late Model Sportsman heat race winners: Devin Weyandt, Gunnar Walls.
Mike Duck held the starting spot in the Semi Late feature. Duck managed to lead every lap except the one that matters most. Duck survived challenges first from Bob Jay, then from Garrett Keifer who had aggressively made his way up from his 8th place starting spot in only five laps and finally from Brian Weyandt Jr. Weyandt had started 7th in the feature but unlike Keifer, who ended up in a one car spin-out in turn 2, stayed steady and consistent on his path to the front. Weyandt had a brief second where his nose was ahead of Duck’s only to be dropped back to third by Duck and Jay. He saw a chance on lap 13 to get around Bob Jay and he took it without delay. A caution came out and Weyandt would start in second behind Duck as the field went green once more. As the last lap rolled Mike Duck went way high in turn 2, Weyandt jumped at his chance and took first place and the checkered flag. Mike Duck had blown a tire, ending perfect run just shy of completion. Weyandt was followed by Kyle Weyant, Bob Jay, Mike Duck, and Chubby Childers.
Semi Late heat race winners: Chubby Childers, Nick Bechtel.
The Crown Vic division came back to the speedway for their 6th visit this year. Josh Ringer, originally having started third, took home his first Bedford Speedway victory of the 2026 season. Ringer was followed by Dacron Powell, Byler Aikey, Brandon Bowman, and Charlie Clise.
Crown Vic heat race winners: Braxton Beckett, Dacron Powell, Charlie Clise.
Results
Late Models – 25 Laps
1.11-Spike Moore[2]; 2. 8-Matt Sponaugle[4]; 3. 27-Trever Feathers[6]; 4. 44-Shawn Shoemaker[5]; 5. 2J-Justin Weaver[7]; 6. 11H-JT Spence[14]; 7. 31-Billy Pauch Jr[8]; 8. 92-Jeff Rine[10]; 9. 119-Bryan Bernheisel[11]; 10. 28D-Del Rougeux[1]; 11. 57-Jeff Miller[15]; 12. 23-Lane Snook[13]; 13. 06-Mike Lupfer[9]; 14. 21F-Taylor Farlling[17]; 15. 68-Nathan LaSalle[3]; 16. 21-Jakob Piper[12]; 17. (DNS) 39-Tim Smith Jr
Late Model Sportsman – 20 Laps
1.85-Gunnar Walls[5]; 2. 151-Kyle Lear[7]; 3. 88-Devin Weyandt[1]; 4. 32X-Bryan Benton[8]; 5. B2-Brian Booze[6]; 6. 13-Brian Lowery[4]; 7. 94-Brandon Bard[3]; 8. 7D-Ryan Dixon[12]; 9. 7-Travis Fleegle[14]; 10. 81-Eddie Cornett[15]; 11. 51-Brad Benton[2]; 12. 88M-Isaiah Miller[11]; 13. 11SR-James McBee[9]; 14. 01-Jayce Piper[10]; 15. 21M-Matt Murphy[13]
Semi Lates – 15 Laps
- 88JR-Brian Weyandt Jr[7]; 2. 88-Kyle Weyant[6]; 3. 4J-Bob Jay[2]; 4. 12C-Mike Duck[1]; 5. 65-Phillip Childers[5]; 6. 26-Cody Jarvie[10]; 7. 28-Kyle Deneen[9]; 8. 3-Greg Cornell[3]; 9. 111-Garrett Keifer[8]; 10. 8E-Andrew Stough[14]; 11. 36-Travis Calhoun[11]; 12. 36M-Cale Martin[13]; 13. 28M-John Miller[12]; 14. B1-Nick Bechtel[4]
Crown Vic – 12 Laps
1.15-Josh Ringer[3]; 2. 8*-Dacron Powell[7]; 3. 11-Byler Aikey[13]; 4. 2EZ-Brandon Bowman[9]; 5. 5-Charlie Clise[6]; 6. 58-Braxton Beckett[5]; 7. 9-Jeff Detwiler[11]; 8. 57-Devin Thompson[2]; 9. 59-Kyle Beckett[12]; 10. 68H-Allen Harding[17]; 11. 60-Troy Swindell[21]; 12. 40-Johnathan Haburcsak[4]; 13. 18B-Beth Clise[19]; 14. 55-Timothy New[15]; 15. 7-Justin Blizzard[18]; 16. 31-Brandon Emerick[20]; 17. 13-Brayden Blizzard[22]; 18. 529-Mark Patterson[25]; 19. 59B-Brennen Shroyer[14]; 20. 9W-Kevin Weyandt[1]; 21. 8X-Kainen Brown[10]; 22. 6-Franklin Foor[8]; 23. 22R-Brent Ronk[24]; 24. (DNS) 8-Madison Sponaugle; 25. (DNS) 39-Chance Smith
