Dillard crowned Modified champion at Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track

Cade Dillard of Robeline, La., held off Jason Hughes to take the Modified Championship at the Port-A-Cool Texas World Championships at Texas Motor Speedway.

Dillard, a 22-year-old from Many, La., took home the Modified division championship in what was his first career win at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track.

After leading the field to the green flag with the pole position, Dillard quickly lost it to Sanders on the second lap.

Sanders, who had just switched cars after winning his Limited Modified championship, appeared to be pulling away for his second championship of the night.

Unfortunately for Sanders, he got loose on lap 10 running high in turn 2 and allowed Dillard to regain the top spot.

Despite a late surge from Jason Hughes and a caution on lap 38, Dillard held on to win 40-lap main event.

“I rode behind (Sanders) for a couple of laps until I caught him in a mistake and was able to get around him,” Dillard said. “I got out there a ways and I tried to be a little more conservative and I thought we had it wrapped up and then the caution came out and I was like ‘that’s the last thing we need.’ So I just put (the car) up against the wall and held it to the floor for two laps.”

Rounding out the top 10 were John O Whittington, Chris Brown, Sean Jones, Kelly Shyrock, Kyle Pleasant, Thomas Tillison Jr. and David Winslett.

The three divisions fielded 216 entries over the two-day Port-A-Cool Texas World Dirt Track Championship. The event was the first of two dirt track events at Texas Motor Speedway in 2014. The second is the Port-A-Cool U.S. National Dirt Track Championship on September 12-13.