Ogle Bags First Win of Season at Nashville

Tom Ogle's #13 Tour Modified

Tom Ogle picked up his first win of the 2025 YesterYear Racing™ Tour Modified season at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway Tuesday night. Ogle had been plagued throughout the season thus far by bad luck. At Daytona, Ogle struggled to figure out the enigma of how a Tour Modified worked on that track, as did many other drivers. At South Boston and Richmond, Ogle was collected in two incidents that were not his fault. But at Nashville, Ogle figured everything out and put all the pieces together to pick up his first win of the season and move into second place in the overall season standings, 14 points behind Todd Liston. "I've had some bad luck thus far in the season," Ogle said in his post race interview. "It was nice to come out here and win, but I'll say this, this is one of the toughest wins I have had possibly ever. There was just no let up. It was tense and tight the whole night." The race saw 11 caution flags for 23 laps and took 1 hour and 46 minutes to complete, making it one of the longest races the drivers will run all season.

Points leader Liston saw his hopes for a win dashed when he was collected midway through the race. His car was still drivable, but the incident meant that Liston was relegated to driving around the rest of the night to lessen the damage of his points lead. And it paid off. With heavy attrition throughout the night, there were only 18 cars still running at the end of the race which had 26 entries. Liston came home in 9th place scoring his fourth Top 10 of the season.

Darryl Wineinger came home in 2nd place challenging Ogle in the waning laps of the race. "My car was good on longer runs tonight," Wineinger said in his post race interview. "This track is one of those tracks that will eat your tires up and I was pretty conservative with them throughout my stints tonight," Wineinger said. Wineinger finished .308 seconds behind Ogle.

Ryan Pittman rounded out the podium bringing his car home in 3rd. Pittman battled hard for many laps with Rex Hoyle until the two cars collided on lap 276. Pittman got a nose under Hoyle but got his car loose and tapped the rear of Hoyle which was all it took to bring the cars together. Pittman's car was not damaged much from the incident and he stayed out while most of the other drivers, Ogle included, pitted. When the green flag flew for the last time there were 17 laps to go and Pittman did not have the tires to hold off a charging Ogle and Wineinger.

The Series takes a break for a month before coming back to Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway for a much shorter 100-lap sprint race on Tuesday, May 20th, followed by a visit to Thompson Motorsports Park on May 27th, and a second visit to South Boston Speedway on June 3rd.

Bianchi Repeats at Richmond

Bianchi's YesterYear Racing's Tour Modified car.

Last year's YesterYear Tour Modified Richmond race was twice the distance as the 2025 version, but in the end it didn't matter because the result was the same. Brian Bianchi took the checkered flag in Richmond for the second straight year to win the River City 100 at "The Action Track." In addition, Bianchi is on a two-race win streak having won Round 2 at the SoBo 150 on March 25.

For most of the race it did not look like Bianchi was in typical form. After qualifying 8th, Bianchi settled in and looked to be locked into tire saving mode. Early and mid-race cautions brought strategy into the race as some drivers like Tom Ogle, who was Hubble's prediction to win the race, pitted and took tires, while other drivers stayed out.

As the laps began to tick off and the race moved into the final third of the event, Bianchi began to lose touch with the leaders. With 7 laps to go Jerry Isaacs got his car loose coming off of turn 4 and collided with Rex Hoyle. Ogle had a great run coming off of turn 4 and tried to "split the middle" to pass both cars by going between them, but the gap closed quickly and the three cars came together and brought out the fourth and final caution of the race. This put Ryan Pittman seemingly in the "driver's seat" to win the race. But with only 4 laps remaining and the race still under caution, Pittman bizarrely pitted for tires baffling the capacity crowd in attendance at Richmond Raceway. When Pittman rejoined, it was obvious the race was going to end on a natural green/white checkered finish giving Pittman no time to break in his new tires and threaten the leaders.

With Pittman now out of the hunt for the win, Bianchi inherited the lead. When the checkered flag flew Bianchi had saved enough in his tires to hold off a charging Darryl Wineinger and Brian Johnson. "I certainly wasn't the fastest on the track tonight. My teammate Rex Hoyle really deserved to win, but he got caught up in some stuff there at the end. Sometimes being lucky and being in the right place at the right time pays off," Bianchi said in his post race interview.

With Round 3 in the books Todd Liston still has the points lead with three top 10 finishes in the first 3 races. Jeffery Hardin is 6 points behind Liston in second, while Brian Johnson holds third 9 points back of Liston.

The Series heads to Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in two weeks where the drivers will re-run the 1966 Flameless 300, one of the most famous races ever held at Nashville Fairground Speedway due to what happened the previous year in 1965.

Worst to First: Bianchi Prevails at SoBo

Bianchi's #14 YesterYear Racing™ Tour Modified stock car.

Round #2 of the 2025 YesterYear Racing™ Tour Modified Series was always going to be a learning experience for the drivers. Only once in the 2024 season did the Series visit a true bull ring. It was Hickory Motor Speedway during race two of 2024. Tuesday night's race saw 29 cars line up to tackle the famed Virginia bull ring and the fans were treated to a dandy of a show.

Defending series champion Brian Bianchi saw his 2025 campaign get off to a slow start in Round #1 at Daytona. After spinning through the infield, Bianchi miscalculated and ran out of fuel finishing in 29th place in a field of 30 cars. To make matters worse, Daytona was a double points race which meant Bianchi was in a hole and needed a solid run at a South Boston track that is known for wearing out tires and trying driver patience.

Bianchi qualified near the front and was fortunate to stay out of trouble when leader and pole winner Jerry Isaacs got collected by some lapped cars coming together right in front of him. This set up a lengthy battle between BRL driver Todd Liston and Bianchi over the course of the rest of the race. In the end Bianchi was able to get by Liston who's car was on "skates" after burning up much of his right-side tires from leading most of the race. "I was very conscious of saving my tires throughout the entire race," Bianchi said in the post-race interview. When asked about his outing, Liston said he was also worried about tires. "I knew tires were going to be key and when Jerry wrecked it put me in front. It is always difficult to run out front on a track like this and save tires. You want to keep a good pace, but don't want to use your right-sides up. That balance is hard to manage when leading," Liston said in the post-race interview.

Liston isn't too bummed though. With two 3rd place finishes in the first two races, he is the Series points leader. "Consistency can pay off in the end," said Race Director Allen Wannamaker in a post-race chat. "Terry Labonte was always my favorite stock car driver back in the day. I liked how he raced. He rarely won, but he stayed out of trouble and his race craft and situational awareness was unmatched," Wannamaker said.

The Series will take a week off before heading to "The Action Track" for Round #3. "Richmond Raceway will be a good next stop for us. We raced Round #3 there last year. There is more space for drivers to maneuver, and so we should see some good side-by-side racing. We visited this track last year and Brian (Bianchi) won it. We'll see what happens," said Wannamaker.