William Byron, Wilson Motorsports Roll To Slinger Nationals Win

It's the sixth win in a row and six of seven overall for this group.

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Make that six in a row for William Byron and Donnie Wilson Motorsports.

This time, it’s yet another marquee Super Late Model victory as they laid claim to the 43rd annual Slinger Nationals at Slinger Super Speedway at Wisconsin.

Ultimately, the race came down to the one driver that hadn’t abused his equipment throughout the race as the Cup Series championship contender methodically hung around the top-five throughout the race as various drivers took their turns beating and banging for the lead throughout the final 110 laps.

When leaders Ty Majeski and Luke Fenhaus began door slamming each other inside 20 to go, Byron was able to drive to the outside around of each contender and managed the gap the rest of the way to add Slinger to a ridiculously successful 2022 resume.

Clyde Hart Memorial 100 at New Smyrna
Easter Bunny 150 at Hickory
North South Super Late Model Challenge at Nashville
Money in the Bank 150 at Berlin Raceway

And it’s all building to his return to Five Flags Speedway and the Snowball Derby this December.

"I never would have imagined that," Byron said in Victory Lane. "Three of them, I feel like a lot of things had to go right for us. It's worked out somehow, crazy."

This is probably one of those races too, especially considering Byron became only the second driver to win the race in his first appearance at Slinger Super Speedway behind the legendary Alan Kulwicki.

"I was really slow off the truck yesterday, running 11.70s and the fast guys were running .30s so I just had to keep working at it," Byron said. "I started to get better at some things and work on some bad habits. Once the race started, and I kind of had to start racing some guys, a lot of things started to come together. It just took a while."

A while is relative consider that Bubba Pollard came to Slinger and missed the show his first time here before winning in 2017. It’s a unique bullring that presents a lot of challenges and favors the veterans and the weekly Wisconsin racers.

Speaking of the Wisconsin racers, typically known for their finesse and discipline, this time offered a slugfest for one of the biggest races of the year and its $20,000 prize.

Jacob Nottestad led the first rain plagued 88 laps before getting passed by Majeski on that restart. Nottestad ran into the back of Majeski and proceeded to door slam the two-time winning with the expectation that rain could end the race just past the halfway point.

That wasn’t the case, but then Fenhaus took his turn roughing up Majeski in the closing laps and it arguably cost both of them the race as Byron quickly caught and passed both due to the theatrics. Fenhaus, the defending winner, started to gain on Byron over the final five but ran out of time.

"Yeah, some beating and banging for 100 laps is what that was," Fenahus said. "Congratulations to the Donnie Wilson guys. They executed and William is a hell of a driver, for sure. It sucks to race Ty that way, but he would have done the exact same for 20 grand."

Also making his debut in the event was Derek Thorn who survived to a podium in a car prepared by Slinger regular Steve Apel.

"Those guys started to beat and bang but I'm just proud of these guys, Steve Apel, Mike Keen, and everyone who put this partnership together and we just survived," Thorn said. "Sucks I couldn't chase the leaders down, but we were in contention and that's all you can really ask for."

Austin Nason finished fourth, while Matt Kenseth drove from the back of the field via a past winner's provisional to finish fifth, ahead of Stephen Nasse tying his career best run in the event.

Carson Kvapil spent the first half of the race inside the top five but sparked coming out of the halfway break and pulled off the track. Majeski pulled off the track in the closing laps after getting pushed around outside of the top-five as everyone battled for the win.

43^rd Annual Slinger Nationals
Slinger Super Speedway
July 12 2022