By Marty Czekala
DUNDEE, N.Y. – Zach Sobotka erased last year’s second-place run in the Hoag Memorial by putting the No. 38 on top.
The 2025 series champion and Empire Super Sprints champion fended off newly crowned two-time champion Dalton Herrick on a dramatic late restart, scoring his third CRSA victory of 2026 and a $4000 payday.
Sobotka’s win was his first Sprint Car victory at Outlaw since the 2020 Sportsman track champion moved from Sportsman mods to Sprint Cars full-time.
“Pretty cool to win here,” said Sobotka in victory lane. “Pretty much started my Sportsman career here. It’s cool to do it on this show.”
In the Elab Smokers Boutique Scramble Dash, Dalton Herrick and Zach Sobotka brought the field to green for the 25-lap, $4000-to-win feature. Herrick led lap one, but Sobotka slipped underneath in turns three and four on lap two to take the lead.
Sobotka stretched his lead to 2.1 seconds in lapped traffic while Herrick, Dan Craun and Spencer Burley battled for second.
Sobotka’s lead grew to 4.2 seconds before the first yellow on lap 13, when Friday night’s feature winner Dustin Sehn spun in turn two.
On the restart, Sobotka held off Herrick while 13th starting Jordan Thomas, Friday night’s Empire Super Sprints winner at Outlaw, cracked the top five for the first time.
Sobotka pulled away again and was closing in on his third win of the season, but with two laps remaining, Nick Webb spun in turn four and collected Dillon Paddock, bringing out the final yellow.
Sobotka ran a defensive line every lap to protect against a slidejob. Herrick kept building runs off the banking, but fell a few hundredths short as Sobotka earned his eighth career series win and tied Billy VanInwegen for 11th on the all-time wins list.
“I didn’t see him, but I heard him up there,” said Sobotka. “I heard him drive pretty much wide open there into three and I was contemplating my decision on rolling the bottom there because I knew he was going to roll the top. I felt good though on the bottom.”
For Herrick, simply starting Saturday’s event meant he would be crowned the CRSA Sprints champion. He would have loved to end the season with a win, but he climbed out in victory lane in cheerful spirits.
“That’s a great feeling,” said Herrick. “Just had to show up here and I’m super stoked about that. That one stings. We had a good car and could’ve used the money.”
When asked what more he needed, Herrick said: “I just needed the car a little better and maybe the driver needed to be a little better. I had a couple chances there coming out of two and if I could have just gotten a little better restart, if I could have shut the door on him getting into three, I think he would have had a hard time with me.”
More on Herrick will come in a later story, while this result closes out the 2026 CRSA season.
Rounding out the podium and earning Powdertech Powdercoating Hard Charger honors was 13th starter Jordan Thomas, who gained 10 spots to third. After steering arm problems in hot laps, Thomas recovered in his heat race and started mid-pack; in a 30-lap feature, he had a win within reach.
“Five more laps or maybe five more spots ahead, I don’t know,” said Thomas. “It was a good race. Steering arm put us behind the eight ball. We’re struggling with this motor, trying to figure it out. It’s got a skip and seems to be down on power, but I think we got it figured out there for the future. It was like having a new motor in the car and the car was really maneuverable.”
Dalton Herrick was the HotLap 3D fastest driver overall in timed hot laps, picking up $50 cash and a $25 HotLap 3D gift certificate.
31 drivers checked in this evening.
Our thanks to the drivers, teams and fans for a terrific 2026 season. CRSA looks forward to a great 2027 and is TBD on a banquet to celebrate the year.
A Main (25 Laps): 1. 38-Zach Sobotka[2]; 2. 29-Dalton Herrick[1]; 3. 79-Jordan Thomas[13]; 4. 18C-Dan Craun[3]; 5. 15B-Spencer Burley[5]; 6. 25G-Tyler Graves[15]; 7. 31C-Maverick Coffey[8]; 8. 28-Ron Greek[9]; 9. 99-Adam Depuy[19]; 10. 3-Denny Peebles[4]; 11. 25NG-Nolan Groves[6]; 12. D9-Dustin Sehn[10]; 13. 27W-Nick Webb[11]; 14. 10N-Nathan Pierce[14]; 15. 22-Eric Wise[18]; 16. 121-Steve Glover[12]; 17. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[22]; 18. 21W-Scott Wagner[21]; 19. 7H-Nicole Hoag[24]; 20. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[20]; 21. 21B-Dillon Paddock[23]; 22. 21-Blake Warner[16]; 23. 2A-Dave Axton[17]; 24. 18-Timmy Lotz[7]
B Main (10 Laps): 1. 21B-Dillon Paddock[1]; 2. 7H-Nicole Hoag[2]; 3. 3V-Zach Virkler[5]; 4. 73-Mike Bruce[3]; 5. 1NY-Mark Reynolds[8]; 6. 56-Andrew Turpin[4]; 7. 27B-Bryan Batzel[6]; 8. 22M-CJ Jones[7]; 9. (DNS) 66-Jordan Hutton
Elab Smokers Boutique Dash (6 Laps): 1. 29-Dalton Herrick[1]; 2. 38-Zach Sobotka[6]; 3. 18C-Dan Craun[4]; 4. 3-Denny Peebles[2]; 5. 15B-Spencer Burley[8]; 6. 25NG-Nolan Groves[3]; 7. 18-Timmy Lotz[7]; 8. 31C-Maverick Coffey[10]; 9. 28-Ron Greek[9]; 10. D9-Dustin Sehn[5]
Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1. 3-Denny Peebles[2]; 2. 31C-Maverick Coffey[4]; 3. 27W-Nick Webb[1]; 4. 25G-Tyler Graves[3]; 5. 99-Adam Depuy[5]; 6. 21B-Dillon Paddock[7]; 7. 3V-Zach Virkler[6]; 8. 1NY-Mark Reynolds[8]
Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1. 28-Ron Greek[1]; 2. 121-Steve Glover[2]; 3. 29-Dalton Herrick[4]; 4. 21-Blake Warner[3]; 5. 30-Kirsten Dombroski[5]; 6. 7H-Nicole Hoag[6]; 7. 27B-Bryan Batzel[7]
Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1. 38-Zach Sobotka[4]; 2. 18C-Dan Craun[2]; 3. 79-Jordan Thomas[6]; 4. 2A-Dave Axton[5]; 5. 21W-Scott Wagner[7]; 6. 73-Mike Bruce[1]; 7. (DNS) 66-Jordan Hutton
Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1. 18-Timmy Lotz[3]; 2. 15B-Spencer Burley[4]; 3. 10N-Nathan Pierce[2]; 4. 22-Eric Wise[6]; 5. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr[1]; 6. 56-Andrew Turpin[5]; 7. (DNS) 22M-CJ Jones
Qualifying 1 (2 Laps): 1. 31C-Maverick Coffey, 14.765[3]; 2. 25G-Tyler Graves, 14.770[2]; 3. 3-Denny Peebles, 14.820[4]; 4. 27W-Nick Webb, 15.062[1]; 5. 99-Adam Depuy, 15.220[8]; 6. 3V-Zach Virkler, 15.221[7]; 7. 21B-Dillon Paddock, 15.424[6]; 8. 1NY-Mark Reynolds, 15.603[5]
Qualifying 2 (2 Laps): 1. 29-Dalton Herrick, 14.373[3]; 2. 21-Blake Warner, 14.454[1]; 3. 121-Steve Glover, 14.916[2]; 4. 28-Ron Greek, 15.035[7]; 5. 30-Kirsten Dombroski, 15.259[4]; 6. 7H-Nicole Hoag, 15.307[5]; 7. 27B-Bryan Batzel, 15.504[6]
Qualifying 3 (2 Laps): 1. 38-Zach Sobotka, 14.563[3]; 2. 66-Jordan Hutton, 14.583[5]; 3. 18C-Dan Craun, 14.795[4]; 4. 73-Mike Bruce, 14.843[6]; 5. 2A-Dave Axton, 14.898[2]; 6. 79-Jordan Thomas, 15.091[1]; 7. 21W-Scott Wagner, 15.112[7]
Qualifying 4 (2 Laps): 1. 15B-Spencer Burley, 14.668[3]; 2. 18-Timmy Lotz, 15.015[1]; 3. 10N-Nathan Pierce, 15.306[6]; 4. 410-Jerry Sehn Jr, 15.643[7]; 5. 56-Andrew Turpin, 15.672[2]; 6. 22-Eric Wise, 15.813[5]; 7. 22M-CJ Jones, 16.845[4]
The CRSA Sprints are brought to you by A-Verdi Storage Containers. Associate sponsors include Pit Stop Convenience Stores, DisBatch Brewing Company, Stirling Lubricants, Dandy, Joe’s Garage, Westward Painting Company, Elab Smokers Boutique, iFreeze Storage & Distribution Center, Maguire Automotive Group, Powdertech Powdercoating, Ruggles World of Auto Body, PJC Business Ventures, Magsarus Ignitions, Hoosier Racing Tire, Bicknell Racing Products, Insinger Performance with their Stinger Race Fuel, My Race Pass and is owned and operated by Mike Emhof Motorsports.