By Kasey Kreider
(Thumbnail Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)
As a party within a race – or maybe the other way around depending on who you ask – the Labor Day Shootout is always the most-anticipated racing weekend of the season at Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. The on-track festivities kicked off in earnest on Saturday evening with some full-throttle action on the Winged Night of the Labor Day Shootout presented by Germania Band Club of Manheim.
One of Labor Day weekend’s most dominant drivers in recent memory added two more wins to his tally on Saturday night, as “The Rocketman” Jason Swavely did his best “Superman” impression by winning both the Border Magic 270 and Yeti Fence Sportsman Shootout A-Mains. Swavely was forced to settle for second in the EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600s, however, as the glory in that race instead went to Matt Warner, who collected his first Labor Day Shootout win. Trevor Waegel also scored a maiden victory in the Gretna Graphics 125/4 Strokes, leading only the final lap en route to the biggest win of his career.
EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600
A new format was debuted for the 2026 Labor Day Shootout and utilized on Saturday night for both the Winged 600 and 270 divisions. In those classes, drivers would compete in group time trials to start off the evening. Afterwards, the entire field of entries was given the option to pick their starting spot in any heat race that they desired based on the order in which they qualified. From there, a passing points format was used to determine the starting lineup for the 30-lap A-Mains.
2025 Wingless 600 track champion and this year’s Hyper Racing 600 Speedweek champion Dominic Schmidt clocked the fastest lap among the 46 cars in time trials, but elected to start on the pole position for the first heat race, putting him at the front but negating the opportunity for him to garner extra passing points if he had taken the victory from deeper in the starting lineup.
The risky strategy ended up working pretty well for Schmidt, as he won the heat race from the pole. That effort gave him 100 points and would end up being the second-highest score of any driver in the heat races.
But the only driver to score more points was Pine Grove native Matt Warner, who after timing second-fastest in qualifying, elected to start fourth in the second heat race. While Warner could only drive up to a second-place result, that run still netted 103 points in the passing points matrix, putting him on pole for the 30-lap feature.
Although Warner held the top spot at the start of the race, it was Schmidt who made the early move into clean air shortly after the green flag dropped. The Groff Motorsports pilot crossed over Warner’s machine coming out of turn 4 to complete the opening lap, and set sail around the top groove of the speedway over the first green-flag run of the race.
For much of the A-Main, it was Schmidt in the top spot with Warner occupying the runner-up place. Most of the moving and shaking took place behind those two drivers, as former Shootout winners Bradley Brown and Jason Swavely made their way up the order and challenged for podium spots.
Although Warner threw a few sliders at Schmidt on some mid-race restarts, the No. 3 stayed in control as the laps wound down. With just eight circuits remaining, Schmidt had a lead of over one second on Warner and seemed poised to capture his first Winged 600 win, and his first Labor Day Shootout triumph.
But heartbreak struck at that point, as the engine let go on Schmidt’s machine as he exited turn 2. As Schmidt quickly dove for the infield, the race stayed green, and Warner found himself in clean air with a five-car length gap over Swavely.
Warner hit his marks to perfection over the closing laps, and pulled away from the three-time track champion Swavely over the final sprint to the finish. Warner put the Dave Ulrich-owned M2 Bearings No. 98 Hyper Chassis in the Clyde’s winner’s circle for the second time in 2026, but Saturday’s victory was Warner’s first with a wing on at the speedway.
Swavely came home with a runner-up finish from eighth, while Gunnar Pio charged all the way from 22nd at the drop of the green flag to round out the podium. Brown finished in fourth, and New York’s Nick Fauci also came out of a B-Main to round out the top five.
Results:
1. 98-Matthew Warner[1]; 2. 14-Jason Swavely[8]; 3. 25-Gunnar Pio[23]; 4. 23-Bradley Brown[13]; 5. 95F-Nicholas Fauci[24]; 6. 76-JT Bierman[10]; 7. 71-Brian Kramer[3]; 8. 72-Jesse Maurer[6]; 9. 15P-Christopher Panczner[11]; 10. 14X-Cole Gerber[25]; 11. 707-Jax Wittmer[15]; 12. 9G-Grady McGrew[5]; 13. 01M-Aden Myers[12]; 14. 11H-Holden Eckman[26]; 15. 3G-Dominic Schmidt[2]; 16. 11-Connor Fetrow[20]; 17. 57C-Cooper Fritz[18]; 18. 28A-Charlie Allaband[7]; 19. 2L-Luke Hess[19]; 20. 15D-Matthew Donley[9]; 21. 11X-Logan Falini[22]; 22. 10L-Lukas Kostic[16]; 23. 13-Ben Freels[14]; 24. 3-Ryan Groff[17]; 25. 1F-James Fries[4]; 26. (DQ) 17-Brent Ely[21]
DNQ: 44-Caden Gobrecht; 30F-Peyton Faust; 81G-Giancarlo Ramessar; 1S-William Simco; 96-Zach Jurcik; 51-Chris Gerhart; 14Z-Tony Zajonczkoski; 35B-Bentley Countryman; 15Q-Quinn Llewellyn; 26-Corey Schmuck Jr; 28J-Archer Jumper; 05-Chase Bouchelle; 29SR-Brayden Benjamin; 19C-Michael Ciccone; 28-Brent Shearer; 06-Vincent Gaudiosi; 11R-Tommy Rinck; 7J-Cyle Johnson; 99G-Gordon Greenlaw; 5C-Grady Rinehart
Matt Warner picked up his second career win at Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway on Saturday night, pocketing the $1,000-to-win Labor Day Shootout in the EVO Fuel Injection Winged 600s. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)
Border Magic 270
Utilizing a similar format to the Winged 600s, it was John Maurer – winner of both 125/4 Stroke Labor Day Shootouts in 2025 – who was fastest in time trials among the 36 entries for Saturday’s Border Magic 270 event.
Maurer elected to start fifth in the first heat race and turned in a strong effort to finish in second, giving him 108 points. However, that effort was one-upped by Jason Swavely, who was the second-fastest qualifier on the night but carved from fifth to the victory of heat race number two.
That performance gave Swavely 120 points, and put him on pole position for the 30-lap A-Main. It was Swavely and last year’s Winged 270 Shootout winner Alex Swift who shared the front row the main event, with the 2023 track champion breaking out to a strong early lead over the opening stages of the race.
While Swavely and his Schenck Racing No. 92 RTS Chassis looked almost untouchable in clean race track, lapped traffic gave an opportunity for Swift to quickly erase the gap that had existed between the two leaders. Swift even made a brief bid for the lead, racing inside of Swavely on the 13th lap before Swavely crossed him over and held onto the advantage.
Unfortunately, Swift’s car would lock up and come to a stop in turn 3 just a lap later, foiling the New Jersey driver’s bid for back-to-back wins. As the race ran into its second half, Swavely’s new challenge came in the form of Billy Logeman, who was still searching for an elusive first Labor Day Shootout win in the 270 class.
Swavely, Logeman, and Maurer all ran nose-to-tail through lapped traffic until a crucial caution flag waved with just three laps remaining. With slower cars up ahead no longer being a factor, Swavely seemed to be in prime position to complete the dominating effort. A great final restart by Logeman kept the Fleetwood driver honest, but it was Swavely flashing under the finish line first to capture his third Winged 270 Labor Day Shootout win in the last four years.
Logeman and Maurer rounded out the podium, while 2026 track champion Nick Skias and Jarid Kunkle completed the top five. The Border Magic Hard Charger Bonus went to ninth-place finisher Brandon Heist, as he advanced 10 positions from the 19th starting spot on the grid.
Results:
1. 92-Jason Swavely[1]; 2. 27O-Billy Logeman[4]; 3. 82-John Maurer[3]; 4. 3-Nick Skias[6]; 5. 25S-Jarid Kunkle[7]; 6. 18-Dylan Devault[9]; 7. 27T-Michael Rutherford[5]; 8. 11R-Tommy Rinck[10]; 9. 4R-Brandon Heist Sr[19]; 10. 1J-Toby Blumenshine[13]; 11. 1X-Brent Shearer[18]; 12. 39M-Austin Mieczkowski[14]; 13. 5-Bret Cronrath[21]; 14. 88M-Richie Hartman[11]; 15. 1L-Logan Hess[22]; 16. 16-Dan Lane Jr[12]; 17. 77-Michael Kreiser[15]; 18. 11X-Josh Anderson[17]; 19. 29J-Jacob Neff[26]; 20. 89-Rilynn Hannula[23]; 21. 32-Michael Hoffmaster[20]; 22. 2R-Bradley Brown[8]; 23. 28-Kyle Lindsey[25]; 24. 5A-Anthony Yerger[24]; 25. 15-Alex Swift[2]; 26. 19-Matt Fernsler[16]
DNQ: 96W-Chase Walker; 24J-Maxx Johnson; 29-Steve Simmons; 2T-Doug Pearson; 8S-Mike Skias; 21D-Dave Williams; 23B-Eddie Mort; 30-Ryan Heckman; 11H-Chason Hauck; 31M-Noah Merkey
Jason Swavely posed with Ms. Motorsports 2026 — Haley Gesullo — after winning his third Border Magic Winged 270 Labor Day Shootout. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)
Yeti Fence Sportsman
With a couple of top two finishes already in the bucket, Jason Swavely put the cherry on top of his night by claiming the checkers in Saturday’s 30-lap Shootout for the Yeti Fence Sportsman class, marking Swavely’s sixth Labor Day Shootout triumph in that division alone.
It initially looked as if the race would be Brandon Heist’s to lose, as the two-time Shootout winner paced the way for the first nine laps of the feature and had easily pulled away from the rest of the pack. But under a lap 10 caution period, an issue on Heist’s No. 99 forced him to pull into the infield and retire the car, handing the lead to Swavely.
Swavely led the final 21 laps from the point and was uncontested all the way to the finish, putting the Mike Rice-owned No. 2x RTS Chassis back into the winner’s circle for the second year in a row. The victory marked Swavely’s 15th Labor Day Shootout win of his career spanning across all of the speedway’s divisions.
Making his first start of the year at the Clyde and running his first race behind the wheel of a new car, former 125 track champion Darren Miller came home with an extremely impressive second-place finish. Miller held off Billy Logeman in the closing laps for that runner-up place, while Toby Blumenshine and Bret Cronrath made up the rest of the top five.
Results:
1. 2X-Jason Swavely[3]; 2. 20-Darren Miller[5]; 3. 97-Billy Logeman[4]; 4. 1A-Toby Blumenshine[9]; 5. 5-Bret Cronrath[6]; 6. 77-Michael Kreiser[2]; 7. 11H-Chason Hauck[11]; 8. 30-Ryan Heckman[7]; 9. 23K-Matt Fernsler[12]; 10. 31-Tyler Martin[14]; 11. 0-Charles Chance III[10]; 12. 2T-Doug Pearson[16]; 13. 21D-Dave Williams[18]; 14. 26-Corey Schmuck Jr[17]; 15. 3S-Charles Hellinger[19]; 16. 99-Brandon Heist Sr[1]; 17. 94-Dallas Sanders[15]; 18. 5A-Anthony Yerger[8]; 19. 17-Masen Stapleton[13]; 20. 9R-Mason Ruffner[20]
Taking his second win of the night, Jason Swavely charged to the checkers to capture the Yeti Fence Sportsman Labor Day Shootout. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)
Gretna Graphics 125/4 Stroke
With 10 laps remaining in Saturday night’s Shootout for the Gretna Graphics 125/4 Stroke division, Trevor Waegel found himself running in the fifth position, seemingly out of contention for a podium – much less a win. But especially on Labor Day weekend, it’s never over until it’s over, and the Paulsboro, NJ driver put himself in the right place at the right time to capitalize on some misfortune for other drivers and tally his first Labor Day Shootout victory.
Dave Schroeder started from pole position for the 30-lap A-Main and was the first of four different leaders during the feature. On the fifth circuit, Schroeder surrendered the top spot to Seth Gregory, who was hoping to sweep the night after timing fastest in time trials and winning his heat race.
Gregory had the dominant car and seemed to be on cruise control in search of his first Labor Day Shootout win. But when Gregory’s engine let go with six laps remaining, the entire complexion of the race changed. Justin Harrington – who had started the race eighth – inherited the lead, with Schroeder running in second and Waegel having just passed Asher Kempton prior to the caution flag to put himself in third.
Harrington had put on a determined drive through the pack and pulled away from the field on the next restart, while Waegel made a critical pass on Schroeder to elevate into the runner-up place. Still, Harrington took the white flag and was just one lap away from a long-awaited first Labor Day Shootout triumph. But the yellow lights would flicker on for a car stopped on the backstretch, and as it turned out, that caution flag would doom the hopes for the two-time track champion.
As Harrington attempted to throttle up through the restart zone ahead of the one-lap dash to the finish, his car didn’t take off and eventually stalled in turn 3. The heartbreak for Harrington made the passes that Waegel had made well worth it, as the driver of the HRS Design & Promotions No. 44s RTS Chassis suddenly was in the top spot and one lap from victory.
Despite the chaotic nature of the race’s closing moments, Waegel left no doubt about his win over the last lap, as he thundered around the clay and sped under the finish line capturing the biggest victory of his career so far.
Behind Waegel, Asher Kempton came home with a second-place finish, making his way onto the podium from 12th at the start of the race. Schroeder finished in third, with Brent Shearer pocketing the fourth spot. And Gary Waegel – Trevor’s dad – completed a great night for the entire family by coming home in the fifth position.
Results:
1. 44S-Trevor Waegel[3]; 2. 23-Asher Kempton[12]; 3. X-Dave Schroeder[1]; 4. 75-Brent Shearer[6]; 5. 44X-Gary Waegel[5]; 6. 15-Mitchell Gibson[9]; 7. 3H2-Holly Harting[11]; 8. 14P-Michael Pitts[16]; 9. 24K-David Kirkner[7]; 10. 17-Aspen Groff[15]; 11. 14X-David Gibson[13]; 12. 18D-Dylan Devault[4]; 13. 14-Seth Gregory[2]; 14. 3H-Corey Harting[10]; 15. 5R-Brandon Heist Jr[17]; 16. 112-Dylan Yeingst[14]; 17. 68-Kevin Jones[18]; 18. (DQ) 76-Justin Harrington[8]
Trevor Waegel seized his opportunity and grabbed the checkered flag of Saturday night’s Labor Day Shootout in the Gretna Graphics 125/4 Stroke class. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Knappenberger Photos)
The Labor Day Shootout continues at Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 6 with the running of the Wingless Night of the event. The 600s, 270s, 125/4 Strokes, and Junior Sprints will all take the wings off for what promises to be a hair-raising night of action. Gates open at 3 p.m., with group time trials beginning the on-track action at 5 p.m. Grandstand admission is $15, and live streaming coverage will be provided by The Cushion for those who are unable to attend.