(September 11, 2026) — Chase Dietz continued his career best season by collecting his 20th feature victory of the year Friday night with the Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing Series Friday night at Port Royal Speedway.
Dietz traded the lead with fellow Pennsylvania driver Ryan Smith three times during the 25-lap main event, holding off Smith by just 1.057 seconds at the finish.
After the race Dietz was happy to return to victory lane after a recent bout of bad luck had seen him lose races in the closing stages or be involved in incidents that took him out of contention.
“It’s a badass group of guys here,” as Dietz was quick to credit his team for keeping morale up while going through a recent rough streak of races. “We’ve been on a couple weeks here of just a string of bad luck and stuff. “
Ryan Smith led the opening three circuits of the feature event while Dietz quickly moved up from fourth starting position to the second spot by lap two. Two laps later Dietz drove by Smith to the lead with Smith right on his back bumper.
In an extremely close call Dietz had to squeeze between the fence and the pair of cars driven by Casey Jedrzejek and Kody Lehman between turns one and two, bumping the fence in the process, but maintaining the lead as the caution flag appeared.
During the restart Smith was able to hang with Dietz and take the lead back on lap nine. That lead was short lived though as Dietz was able to drive back by Smith on lap 10.
After a caution flat for Danny Dietrich’s car ending up backwards in turns one and two Dietz continued to lead Smith. With five laps to go Dietz and Smith were side by side for the lead through slower traffic with Daison Pursley closing in on them quickly in third position.
The red flag appeared as Dietz was coming to the white flag when Brian Brown’s car suffered a left rear tire failure and got upside down between turns one and two and landed on Logan Wagner’s car with both machines suffering heavy damage. Despite the ferocity of the accident both drivers were able to walk away under their own power.
After the restart Dietz pulled away and was never seriously challenged for the victory over Smith, Bob Weikert Memorial winner Giovanni Scelzi, Pursley, and Justin Whittall from 15th starting position.
After the main event Dietz was glad to put some of his misfortune in recent weeks behind him leading into the Tuscarora 50 on Saturday.
“It’s great to have some momentum, and honestly, the season we’ve been having has it’s been incredible. To pick up national series wins with High Limit, let alone what we’re able to do with the Outlaws early in the year, it’s amazing. It’s been a storybook year.”
Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing
Port Royal Speedway
Port Royal, Pennsylvania
Friday, September 11, 2026
Capital Custom Trailers Qualifying Flight A (2 Laps)
1. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 15.570[9]
2. 69K-Ryan Smith, 15.618[19]
3. 23-Chase Dietz, 15.650[14]
4. 88-Tanner Thorson, 15.765[23]
5. 9R-Chase Randall, 15.795[2]
6. 71R-Logan Rumsey, 15.810[18]
7. 4-Kasey Kahne, 15.864[21]
8. 67-Justin Whittall, 15.868[12]
9. 12-Brent Shearer, 15.872[17]
10. 22-Doug Hammaker, 15.888[1]
11. 13-Tanner Holmes, 15.888[22]
12. 21-Brian Brown, 15.908[20]
13. 26-Justin Peck, 15.915[28]
14. 48-Danny Dietrich, 15.945[4]
15. 35-Buddy Schweibinz, 16.007[13]
16. 7BC-Tyler Courtney, 16.008[29]
17. 88W-Austin McCarl, 16.031[16]
18. 66-Ryan Newton, 16.056[8]
19. 17GP-Brock Zearfoss, 16.074[10]
20. 19M-Brett Strickler, 16.097[25]
21. 18J-JT Ferry, 16.140[11]
22. 10C-Matt Campbell, 16.148[3]
23. 17B-Steve Buckwalter, 16.187[15]
24. 20T-Ryan Taylor, 16.230[6]
25. 11T-Michael Walter, 16.255[7]
26. X-Robbie Kendall, 16.457[5]
27. 27S-Dylan Cisney, 16.491[26]
28. 10W-Jake Waters, 17.009[24]
29. 99-Devin Adams, [27]
Capital Custom Trailers Qualifying Flight B (2 Laps)
1. 77-Giovanni Scelzi, 16.067[10]
2. 5-Kasey Jedrzejek, 16.110[13]
3. 24-Rico Abreu, 16.145[8]
4. 9-Daison Pursley, 16.197[25]
5. 10-Ryan Timms, 16.201[6]
6. 39M-James McFadden, 16.214[22]
7. 1A-Cameron Smith, 16.239[19]
8. 24D-Danny Sams III, 16.249[4]
9. 42-Sye Lynch, 16.254[5]
10. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr, 16.266[7]
11. 55-Kerry Madsen, 16.268[18]
12. 71-Parker Price Miller, 16.281[23]
13. 22E-Nash Ely, 16.336[3]
14. 8-Lance Dewease, 16.371[14]
15. 20-Brady Bacon, 16.371[17]
16. 19-Brent Marks, 16.403[28]
17. 11A-Austin Bishop, 16.405[2]
18. 55W-Logan Wagner, 16.493[24]
19. 39-Lucas Wolfe, 16.563[9]
20. 11-TJ Stutts, 16.576[16]
21. 51-Freddie Rahmer, 16.607[11]
22. 47K-Kody Lehman, 16.634[20]
23. 38-Jordan Strickler, 16.741[27]
24. 98-Ricky Peterson, 16.743[15]
25. 1K-Kelby Watt, 16.771[26]
26. 55M-Domenic Melair, 16.801[12]
27. 67X-JJ Loss, 16.870[1]
28. 11Z-Zach Newlin, 17.133[21]
TJ Forged Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 23-Chase Dietz[1]
2. 13-Tanner Holmes[6]
3. 9R-Chase Randall[2]
4. 87-Aaron Reutzel[4]
5. 4-Kasey Kahne[3]
6. 26-Justin Peck[7]
7. 17GP-Brock Zearfoss[10]
8. 35-Buddy Schweibinz[8]
9. 12-Brent Shearer[5]
10. 88W-Austin McCarl[9]
11. 27S-Dylan Cisney[14]
12. 18J-JT Ferry[11]
13. 11T-Michael Walter[13]
14. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[12]
15. 99-Devin Adams[15]
DMI Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 88-Tanner Thorson[1]
2. 71R-Logan Rumsey[2]
3. 67-Justin Whittall[3]
4. 21-Brian Brown[6]
5. 69K-Ryan Smith[4]
6. 48-Danny Dietrich[7]
7. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[8]
8. 66-Ryan Newton[9]
9. 22-Doug Hammaker[5]
10. 19M-Brett Strickler[10]
11. 10C-Matt Campbell[11]
12. 20T-Ryan Taylor[12]
13. 10W-Jake Waters[14]
14. X-Robbie Kendall[13]
BR Motorsports Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 10-Ryan Timms[2]
2. 24-Rico Abreu[1]
3. 1A-Cameron Smith[3]
4. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[4]
5. 55-Kerry Madsen[6]
6. 42-Sye Lynch[5]
7. 22E-Nash Ely[7]
8. 51-Freddie Rahmer[11]
9. 39-Lucas Wolfe[10]
10. 20-Brady Bacon[8]
11. 11A-Austin Bishop[9]
12. 1K-Kelby Watt[13]
13. 38-Jordan Strickler[12]
14. 67X-JJ Loss[14]
Rod End Supply Heat Race #4 (8 Laps)
1. 39M-James McFadden[2]
2. 9-Daison Pursley[1]
3. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[5]
4. 19-Brent Marks[8]
5. 71-Parker Price Miller[6]
6. 24D-Danny Sams III[3]
7. 55W-Logan Wagner[9]
8. 5-Kasey Jedrzejek[4]
9. 8-Lance Dewease[7]
10. 98-Ricky Peterson[12]
11. 55M-Domenic Melair[13]
12. 11-TJ Stutts[10]
13. 47K-Kody Lehman[11]
14. 11Z-Zach Newlin[14]
C-Main (8 Laps)
1. 88W-Austin McCarl[1]
2. 20-Brady Bacon[2]
3. 19M-Brett Strickler[3]
4. 27S-Dylan Cisney[5]
5. 98-Ricky Peterson[4]
6. 11A-Austin Bishop[6]
7. 20T-Ryan Taylor[11]
8. 1K-Kelby Watt[10]
9. 47K-Kody Lehman[16]
10. 18J-JT Ferry[9]
11. 11-TJ Stutts[12]
12. 11T-Michael Walter[13]
13. 11Z-Zach Newlin[20]
14. 38-Jordan Strickler[14]
15. 10W-Jake Waters[15]
16. 10C-Matt Campbell[7]
17. 55M-Domenic Melair[8]
18. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[17]
19. 67X-JJ Loss[18]
20. X-Robbie Kendall[19]
21. 99-Devin Adams[21]
FK Rod Ends Dash (7 Laps)
1. 9-Daison Pursley[1]
2. 69K-Ryan Smith[4]
3. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[2]
4. 23-Chase Dietz[3]
5. 87-Aaron Reutzel[8]
6. 88-Tanner Thorson[5]
7. 10-Ryan Timms[6]
8. 39M-James McFadden[7]
Winters Performance B-Main (12 Laps)
1. 26-Justin Peck[3]
2. 12-Brent Shearer[1]
3. 48-Danny Dietrich[5]
4. 5-Kasey Jedrzejek[2]
5. 55W-Logan Wagner[10]
6. 42-Sye Lynch[4]
7. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[9]
8. 17GP-Brock Zearfoss[7]
9. 66-Ryan Newton[13]
10. 8-Lance Dewease[16]
11. 22-Doug Hammaker[15]
12. 39-Lucas Wolfe[14]
13. 20-Brady Bacon[18]
14. 24D-Danny Sams III[6]
15. 22E-Nash Ely[8]
16. 88W-Austin McCarl[17]
17. 35-Buddy Schweibinz[11]
18. 51-Freddie Rahmer[12]
Interstate Batteries A-Main (25 Laps)
1. 23-Chase Dietz[4]
2. 69K-Ryan Smith[2]
3. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[3]
4. 9-Daison Pursley[1]
5. 67-Justin Whittall[15]
6. 24-Rico Abreu[10]
7. 13-Tanner Holmes[9]
8. 1A-Cameron Smith[12]
9. 9R-Chase Randall[13]
10. 10-Ryan Timms[7]
11. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[14]
12. 71-Parker Price Miller[20]
13. 88-Tanner Thorson[6]
14. 87-Aaron Reutzel[5]
15. 48-Danny Dietrich[23]
16. 71R-Logan Rumsey[11]
17. 12-Brent Shearer[22]
18. 26-Justin Peck[21]
19. 19-Brent Marks[16]
20. 55-Kerry Madsen[18]
21. 4-Kasey Kahne[19]
22. 5-Kasey Jedrzejek[24]
23. 21-Brian Brown[17]
24. 55W-Logan Wagner[25]
25. 47K-Kody Lehman[26]
26. 39M-James McFadden[8]