Saturday, May 9, 2026 — Mother’s Day Weekend Under the Lights
Mother’s Day weekend at Vado Speedway Park did not come wrapped in a bow.
It came with slick clay, loaded right-rears, hard restarts, deep-field charges, a few heart-stopping moments, and five feature winners who all had to earn it in completely different ways.
Early in the night, the surface was honest but touchy — a little slimy on entry, forgiving only if drivers rolled the center and stayed patient on exit. By feature time, the racetrack had widened out, turn four became the truth serum, and the whole place started asking the same question:
Could you let the race come to you?
Because the drivers who forced it paid for it.
The drivers who adapted moved forward.
And the drivers who stayed calm when the clay got mean ended up in Rio Grande Waste Services Victory Lane.
Most importantly, after the big moments in the Stock Car feature, the drivers involved were reported okay.
Then the racing got back to doing what Vado does best — writing stories under the desert sky.
🏁 Anthony Sosa Roofing Late Models
Arturo Ordonez Turns the Heat Check Into a Statement
The Late Models opened feature racing with no hiding place.
Eight cars. Heavy horsepower. A changing surface. And a class where every missed mark shows up fast.
Keko Perez started from the pole and controlled the opening rhythm, but the race changed quickly. Jose Saenz had early trouble, the cautions came out, and the Choose Cone gave drivers a chance to show where they thought the grip really lived.
That’s when Arturo Ordonez went to work.
Driving the #51 and already carrying momentum from two straight Late Model wins, Ordonez treated this one like a heat check with consequences. He moved from seventh to the lead, protected the bottom when he needed to, searched for the right grip through three and four, and then made clean air count.
Behind him, Luke Vargas kept showing why his Pure Stock success is translating upward. The young Las Cruces driver was smooth, composed, and right where he needed to be, finishing second in a Late Model race that punished overdriving. Luke Solis stayed in the fight as well, bringing the #99 home third.
Top 3:
- Arturo Ordonez #51 — El Paso, TX
- Luke Vargas #777 — Las Cruces, NM
- Luke Solis #99 — El Paso, TX
Ordonez did not steal this one.
He read it, timed it, and took it.
Three straight Late Model wins. Different car. Same message.
🛻 Johnstone Supply Super Trucks
Christy Barnett Goes 10th to 1st the Hard Way
The Super Trucks never pretend to be gentle.
Big bodies. Heavy suspension. Tight exits. And on this racetrack, one rushed throttle pedal could turn a good night sideways in a hurry.
Billy Roy Harris had the early command, Luis Esquivel kept applying pressure, and Scott Kinney stayed right in the conversation. But the story was building behind them.
Christy Barnett started tenth.
That meant no clean path, no free air, and no easy climb. She had to pick through traffic, wait for lanes to open, and create momentum where most drivers were just trying to survive. When the front pack got busy, Barnett pounced — first moving into the fight, then pulling off the kind of two-for-one move that only works when confidence and timing show up together.
Once she got to the lead, Esquivel made her work for it late. He closed the gap, kept the pressure honest, and made the final lap matter.
But Barnett did what Barnett does at Vado.
She gave him no room, no gift, and no mistake.
Top 3:
- Christy Barnett #44 — El Paso, TX
- Luis Esquivel #7 — El Paso, TX
- Scott Kinney #13 — Las Cruces, NM
From tenth to first in a Super Truck feature is not a cruise.
It is a wrestling match.
And Barnett walked out of it with another clinical masterpiece.
🚗 S.H. Automotive Pure Stocks
Kristen Denman Makes Mother’s Day Weekend Her Moment
The Pure Stocks gave the night its emotional center.
This class does not let drivers cover mistakes with horsepower. Every pass has to be built. Every lane has to be protected. Every restart matters because momentum is the whole currency.
Robert Dominguez looked strong early, trying to take back the kind of race that slipped away the week before. Caleb Smith worked the high side and kept asking questions. Rudy Ramirez stayed close enough to matter.
But as the race tightened, the turning point came from pressure.
Dominguez had to choose which threat to block. Smith was charging. Denman was waiting. And when the door cracked open, Kristen Denman stepped through it.
From seventh on the grid, Denman stayed composed while the race got messy around her. Then, when the final laps arrived, she had the #48 in position to finish the job.
And on Mother’s Day weekend, with her kids and crew cheering her on, Kristen Denman secured her first-ever feature win at Vado Speedway Park.
Top 3:
- Kristen Denman #48 — Las Cruces, NM
- Rudy Ramirez #2R — El Paso, TX
- Caleb Smith #02C — Las Cruces, NM
Some wins are fast.
Some wins are loud.
This one felt earned in the chest.
Seventy-two feature starts at Vado, and the breakthrough came on Mother’s Day weekend.
That is not just a result.
That is a memory.
🧱 Extreme Landscaping USRA Stock Cars
Josh Cain Survives the Stock Car War
The Stock Cars did not ease into anything.
From the opening laps, this feature had elbows out and consequences attached. Three-wide racing showed up immediately, the slick started taking names, and then Sherman Barnett — 90 years young and still tougher than most — took a hard wall ride that stopped the field under red.
All drivers were reported okay, and that mattered more than anything.
When the race resumed, Brian Kleine looked strong after winning The Shed Dash earlier in the night, Cale Riggs applied pressure, and Rob Moseley tried to make the high side work when most of the field was married to the bottom. But the dry slick had teeth. It bit veterans, rookies, and anyone who asked too much of the car at the wrong time.
Then Josh Cain started coming.
From 13th, Cain kept digging, kept positioning, and kept forcing the leaders to make decisions. Late in the race, he and Cale Riggs turned the front of the field into a test of nerve. Cain worked inside, Riggs fought to hold the lane, and then the race ended in another red when Riggs went up and over.
Again, the good news came first: Riggs was okay.
The finish was declared under checkered-red, and Josh Cain had done it — 13th to first in one of the wildest Stock Car features of the season.
Jonathan Burton was another monster storyline, charging from 16th to second. Mingo Jauregui completed the podium with a steady third-place run through a race that was anything but steady.
Top 3:
- Josh Cain #3J — Rio Rancho, NM
- Jonathan Burton #00 — Las Cruces, NM
- Mingo Jauregui #47 — El Paso, TX
This was not clean and tidy Stock Car racing.
This was a desert dogfight — dry slick, heavy traffic, red flags, survival, and one driver who refused to stop coming forward.
🏎️ Mendoza Law Firm USRA Modifieds
Devon Jobin Breaks Through From 12th
The Modifieds got the four-wide salute, and then the saluting stopped.
After that, it was all business.
Royal Jones started up front. Lucas Ward fired early and looked strong. Hunter Sandy was hunting. Christy Barnett was applying pressure. Robert Adams kept throwing the car into places most drivers were scared to test. John Neal Reid stayed in the mix. Lance Mari kept waiting for his lane to show up.
But as the 25-lapper stretched out, Devon Jobin became the name nobody could ignore.
Starting 12th, Jobin did not panic when the race got crowded. He did not need to win the first five laps. He kept the car underneath him, worked the bottom with patience, and let the race come back into his hands.
When Ward hit traffic and Barnett began pressuring the lead battle, Jobin found his moment. He got underneath, made the pass, and suddenly the #81 out of Alamogordo was not chasing the story anymore.
He was the story.
Late cautions stacked the field back up and gave everyone one last chance. Robert Adams was there. John Neal Reid was there. Lance Mari took the big swing up top for a podium spot. But Jobin nailed the restart, protected the bottom, and finished the job.
First-ever A-Mod feature win at Vado Speedway Park.
From 12th.
In one of the toughest fields of the night.
Top 3:
- Devon Jobin #81 — Alamogordo, NM
- John Neal Reid #37 — Loving, NM
- Lance Mari #19SB — El Centro, CA
And don’t let the podium hide the other charges: Carlos Ahumada Jr. went from 23rd to fifth, and Ricardo Olague Jr. climbed from 22nd to seventh.
The Modifieds closed the night the way they should — fast, tense, and full of names you’ll want circled next week.
💰 The Shed Stock Car Dash
Before the Stock Car feature turned into a full-on war, Brian Kleine handled business in The Shed Dash.
Kleine took the win in the UNO machine, with Loren East second and Mingo Jauregui third. Four laps, no room to waste, and a clean little shot of pride before the main event chaos arrived.
Top 3:
- Brian Kleine #UNO — Las Cruces, NM
- Loren East #86 — Roswell, NM
- Mingo Jauregui #47 — El Paso, TX
📓 Notebook Names for Next Week
Write these down before the clay cools:
Carlos Ahumada Jr. — 23rd to 5th in the Modifieds
Jonathan Burton — 16th to 2nd in the Stock Cars
Josh Cain — 13th to 1st in the Stock Cars
Devon Jobin — 12th to 1st in the Modifieds
Christy Barnett — 10th to 1st in the Super Trucks
Ricardo Olague Jr. — 22nd to 7th in the Modifieds
Luis Esquivel — 9th to 2nd in the Super Trucks
Kristen Denman — 7th to 1st in the Pure Stocks
Arturo Ordonez — 7th to 1st in the Late Models
That is a lot of cars coming from deep.
That is a lot of momentum moving through the field.
And that is exactly why you do not leave early at Vado.
🌵 The Night in Review
May 9, 2026 was Mother’s Day weekend at Vado Speedway Park — but the racing was not soft.
It was slick.
It was technical.
It was emotional.
It was tough on equipment, tougher on decision-making, and unforgettable when the big moments hit.
We saw a first-time Vado winner in Kristen Denman.
We saw Christy Barnett remind the Super Truck field who they still have to deal with.
We saw Arturo Ordonez put the Late Models on notice again.
We saw Josh Cain survive a Stock Car feature that felt like a battlefield.
And we saw Devon Jobin turn a 12th-place start into a career-marker Modified win.
That is the thing about this clay cathedral in the borderland:
It does not just give you races.
It gives you chapters.
And on Mother’s Day weekend, Vado wrote another one worth talking about all week.
