7/26/2025
GLSS-Great Lakes Super Sprints
Thiel Navigates Traffic and Cautions for GLSS Win at I-96
Lake Odessa, MI - When ‘The Big Wheel’ unloads at I-96 Speedway, he already has it in his mind that something is probably not going to go his way. Friday night with the MacAllister CAT Great Lakes Super Sprints Presented by PERFIT & ARP, everything went exactly his way.
Max Stambaugh and Chase Dunham led the 20-car field to the green flag, whittled down from the 29 cars on the property. Stambaugh led the opening two laps before Dunham put his No.66 to the point. While Dunham looked strong out front, lapped traffic allowed Thiel to close in quickly. On lap 10, the No.51 was out front.
The race was far from over from that point, as Thiel had been in that position many times before; out front dominating a GLSS event, when something takes the win away. Behind him though, the battle to be in the top five was fierce, with Dustin Daggett, Stambaugh, Devin Dobie, Dunham, and Keith Sheffer, Jr, all fighting to stay in the top five.
Daggett appeared to have the perfect car in traffic, coming from 9th to second in under 10 laps. By the time he got to the runner-up spot, Thiel had a 2.8-second advantage. With eight laps to go, the gap was erased when Jay Steinebach came to a stop down the backstretch.
On the restart, Daggett pulled to Thiel’s inside in turn one, but the top was too good, and Thiel pulled away down the backstretch and seemed to be on his way to victory lane. A caution flag with six laps to go for Sheffer set up another restart.
Thiel had no issue on the start, however, and went on to collect his first career GLSS win and finally earned some redemption at I-96 Speedway.
“I-96 in general for me has just been a knife in my back,” Thiel said in victory lane. “We’ve had really really good runs back in the day, and then dumb stuff just happened. I knew I had some unfinished business when I signed up with this [Ragged Edge Racing] team, and we struggled a little bit a few times coming here, and we worked really really hard to make sure when we came back [we] not only win but go prove a point, mainly to ourselves.”
Daggett held on for the second spot and was very excited about the speed he found in his car that night in, which was actually the car Andy Teunessen had been driving. Daggett joked on the front stretch that he “didn’t think Andy is getting his car back.”
The next event for the MacAllister CAT Great Lakes Super Sprints is Saturday night at Crystal Motor Speedway. Gates open at 4:00 PM with Racing set to begin at 7:00 PM.
Michigan CAT A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 51-Scotty Thiel[4]; 2. 85-Dustin Daggett[9]; 3. 71H-Max Stambaugh[1]; 4. 87XS-Skyler Evans[6]; 5. 17-Jared Horstman[17]; 6. 15-Ryan Turner[7]; 7. X-Mike Keegan[11]; 8. 66-Chase Dunham[2]; 9. 23-Devon Dobie[3]; 10. 7C-Phil Gressman[16]; 11. 6-Ryan Coniam[14]; 12. 10S-Jay Steinebach[13]; 13. 49-Brian Ruhlman[15]; 14. 14-Keith Sheffer Jr[5]; 15. 49T-Gregg Dalman[18]; 16. 77E-Ashton VanEvery[20]; 17. 16-Ryan Ruhl[8]; 18. 38-Chase Ridenour[19]; 19. 31-Jac Nickles[10]; 20. 20I-Kelsey Ivy[12]
Article Credit: Zach Hiser
Submitted By: Zach Hiser
