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April 9, 2025 — Two days after a nightmarish debut that included a disqualification and a wall-bending crash, Ashton Winger walked into Eldora Speedway’s victory lane for the first time in his career. The 26-year-old Georgian’s improbable win in Thursday night’s Baltes Classic preliminary feature not only turned his week around but also sent a clear message: the new Rocket XR2 is no lemon.
The drama began at Fairbury Speedway on Saturday, where Winger fielded the brand-new machine for the first time. He was disqualified for being light at the scales after a race that saw him smack the wall so hard it “knocked the front end over.” The Wingers patched the car overnight, but Sunday at Eldora turned into another fiasco: a handling issue forced them to scratch before turning a competitive lap. Father Gary Winger summed it up with a blunt acronym: “PONQ’ed — pissed off and quit.”
Thursday started no better. A dead battery kept Winger from the initial hot-lap session, and the father-son duo debated abandoning the XR2 altogether in favor of their trusty 4-year-old XR1. That older car had carried Winger to 10 wins and a 78-point lead in the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series standings this season. Yet they decided to stick with the new chassis.
Then, a three-hour rain delay bought them precious time. With the second hot-lap session pushed back to nearly 11 p.m., the Wingers methodically inspected every component of the trouble-prone XR2. Winger later admitted they had rushed to assemble the car before Fairbury, never even scaling it. “That’s why we were light,” he said.
Qualifying 16th in his group put Winger on the front row of his heat race, and the top-18 invert for the 25-lap feature handed him a prime starting spot. When the green flag dropped, he wasted no time, passing early leader Brian Shirley in traffic on lap 12. From there, he fended off challenges from Devin Moran and Brandon Sheppard to capture the $12,000 victory.
“I’m kind of in disbelief,” Winger said after the race. “I didn’t see myself getting into that position. It all worked out, and I’m really thankful for it.”
The win was no accident, according to those who know Winger’s history at Eldora. In June’s Dream 100, he drove from 19th to eighth before losing power steering around lap 60. He was running inside the top five at the time and believed a podium was within reach. “I’m not going to be that guy who says I would’ve beaten Bobby (Pierce),” Winger said, “but I really felt like we were good enough to run on the podium.”
Veteran observers note Winger’s style — aggressive but calculated — suits the high-speed, chaotic restarts at Eldora. “I tell everybody I love boring races, but I’m not in the middle of many of them,” he joked. “If you’re going to be good at anything … it feels good to be put in situations like that and be able to execute.”
The team has added extra help this week with Blade Kearns and Tennessee racer Kaede Loudy. For most of the season, it’s been just Winger and his father. “My dad usually comes and helps at night when he can. It’s definitely nice to have some help,” Winger said.
Winger’s rise has been shaped by veteran racers who watched him grow from a rambunctious kid into a respected competitor. He credits brothers Shane and Rusty Clanton, Shane and Dale McDowell, and Clint Smith. “Now I’m just the 26-year-old s---,” he said with a self-deprecating grin.
Since joining car owner Jeff Mathews late in 2022, Winger has built one of the strongest regional programs in dirt late model racing. With 10 wins in 32 starts this season — a 31.3% win rate — he sits atop the Hunt the Front standings. The Eldora triumph, while not a championship event, could be the confidence boost the XR2 needed.
“We had a lot of things go our way tonight, and I’m not blind to that fact,” Winger admitted. “But once I got into the open, I felt pretty comfortable. This track is so chaotic on restarts, and tonight everything just clicked.”
With the World 100 weekend still ahead, Winger has at least one major career milestone in the bag. And if the XR2 continues to behave, the “disbelief” might become the new normal.
