Helping others pays off, just ask Cole Falloway. He has helped competitor Tyler Nicely in the past. For the DIRTcar Nationals, Nicely returned the favor, crew chiefing for Falloway. That led to Falloway earning five wins and placing third in points. Not bad for a driver who had never competed at Volusia Speedway Park before.
The two drivers live only 5 minutes apart from each other in Owensboro, Kentucky. They both use Elite Chassis for their cars and Mullins Race Engines for the steam under the hood.
During the off-season, Nicely had knee surgery and his doctors have not cleared him to race yet. However, they said nothing about Nicely being a crew chief.
“We did so well because Tyler was crew chief,” Falloway said. “He’s raced so much that it helped a ton having him there. He had great notes on Volusia. At Volusia, he was all eyes on everything, even with a bad knee in a brace.”
More than 100 modifieds competed in the DIRTcar Nationals. The drivers come from all over and include those with NASCAR starts, such as 2024 Xfinity Series champ Justin Allgaier, four-time Truck series champ Matt Crafton, Ken Schrader and Kenny Wallace.
“Everyone is on top of their game there,” said Falloway. “Tough drivers. Really good cars. Most of them I have raced against somewhere at some point in the previous season, however.”
Cole Falloway, despite never racing at Volusia before, travels often. He competes at tracks from Missouri to North Carolina. His biggest win last year came at Bedford Speedway in Pennsylvania. He scored $10,000 in the D.J. Troutman Memorial there.
Falloway plans to help Nicely as he ventures into dirt late model racing in 2025. In turn, don’t be surprised if you see Nicely help Falloway once again as Falloway chases modified races.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
