Rob Yetman will start from the pole in Friday’s I Love NY 50 at Oswego Speedway after leading DIRTcar Pro Stock qualifying Wednesday with a 25.779-second lap. Twenty-one drivers secured places in the Super DIRT Week feature, with the remaining starting positions to be decided Friday.
Yetman, a five-time consecutive winner of the event from 2013 through 2017, will seek his first I Love NY 50 victory in nearly a decade, according to DIRTcar’s qualifying report. The Castleton driver said returning to the pole was emotional after spending time away from the seat.
Luke Horning qualified second, followed by David Stickles, Shane Playford, Bastien Caron and Denis Gauvreau in the Super Six. Those six hold the first six positions in the 50-lap feature’s starting lineup.
Three heat winners claim feature spots
Dakota Sharp won the first 10-lap heat after moving past Horning following a first-lap pileup and taking the lead from Gauvreau on Lap 2. Sharp led the rest of the race. Devon Camenga, last year’s I Love NY 50 winner, finished second, with Gauvreau third. Kyle Hoard, Andrew Graves and Kim Duell also advanced from the heat.
Caron led the second heat and won by about three seconds over Chucky Dumblewski. Caron had already earned the fifth feature starting position in qualifying. DIRTcar said he needs only to start Friday’s race to clinch his first Pro Stock Series championship. Dumblewski, JJ Courcy, Ken Schrader, Pete Stefanski and Rich Crane took the other transfer places.
Sid Harmer Jr. won the third heat after a first-lap contest with Caden Dumblewski. Harmer took the lead on the second circuit, held it through a Lap 5 restart and secured his first Super DIRT Week feature start since 2019. Dumblewski, Dominic Stone, Tyler Bushey and Tommy Lizotte also qualified from that heat.
Final positions remain open
The I Love NY 50 starting lineup has 21 confirmed drivers. DIRTcar says positions 22 through 30 will be determined by a pair of Last Chance Showdowns and provisionals Friday, ahead of the feature at Oswego Speedway.
DIRTVision is scheduled to stream the racing. The qualifying report did not give an exact start time for the I Love NY 50.
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