Every Lead Needed One More Answer: Five Winners Close August 15 at Vado

VADO, N.M. — Nobody won Saturday night the first time the race appeared to be theirs.

Jeremy DuBois had to control one final two-lap Super Truck restart. Cale Riggs had to rebuild after driving from 10th through traffic. Fifteen-year-old Jaydon Barnes had to choose the right lane while Daniel Blaeser erased the gap. Walton Kyle Jr. had to defend a late Pure Stock lead after one final yellow. Justin Allen had to complete two features—and answer Christy Barnett’s charge from 12th—before closing the night in X-Mod Victory Lane.

Not one of Vado Speedway Park’s five August 15 feature winners started from the pole. Together, they gained 22 positions. Across all 15 official podium finishers, 67 starting spots disappeared between green and checkered.

Those numbers explain how far the drivers traveled. The way they kept having to earn the same ground again explains the night.

DuBois finds the top and survives every reset

Jaden Manicki Gallivan controlled the opening run of the 20-lap Vado Speedway Super Truck feature. A caution with 14 laps remaining erased his advantage and presented the first decision of the feature.

Manicki Gallivan chose the bottom. DuBois lined up outside.

DuBois’s crew had already pointed him toward the upper lane. The No. 9 launched around the leader through Turns 1 and 2 and completed the pass at the stripe.

“The truck’s always been really good on the top this year,” DuBois said later in Victory Lane.

Taking the lead was only the beginning. A red flag with five laps remaining cooled every tire. Additional cautions and a separate multi-truck incident kept removing the space DuBois had built. By the time the field was ready for its final restart, the feature had become a two-lap shootout.

DuBois controlled the launch and gave the field no second opening. The victory was his second at Vado in 2026. Manicki Gallivan held second, Luis Esquivel charged from 11th to third, Jason Privette advanced from 13th to fourth, and Christy Barnett recovered from 12th to complete the top five.

The result also tightened the championship. Scott Kinney leads Barnett by 14 points, 1,114–1,100, after August 15.

Vado Speedway Super Truck Series — Official Top 5

Riggs turns 10th into win No. 13

Josh Jackson supplied the early Legends answer. He won the third heat from the pole, outran Riggs in qualifying and used the opening clean air to lead the feature.

Riggs started 10th.

The No. 96 erased the center of the field immediately, reached the lead fight and began changing lanes behind Jackson. Traffic compressed the leader’s route and supplied the opening Riggs needed. The two made brief contact during the fight, both recovered, and Riggs took command.

A caution with 12 laps remaining erased his new advantage. Another with nine to go brought the field back again. Each restart produced the same result: Riggs rebuilt the lead.

Kyle Burnette and Angel Garcia mounted deep charges of their own, making the entire podium a back-half takeover. Burnette drove from ninth to second, Garcia advanced from eighth to third, and Riggs completed the largest move of all—10th to first.

The victory was Riggs’s 13th in 15 Vado Legends feature starts this season. He leads Jeremiah Duff by 253 points in the championship standings.

Hulsey Racing INEX Legends — Official Top 5

Barnes makes the field chase his marks

At intermission, 15-year-old Jaydon Barnes was asked whether returning as the winner of Vado’s last completed 305 Sprint feature changed his approach.

“I’m just going to continue my race as a normal night and try to hit my marks and be good,” Barnes said before drawing the outside pole.

Then the field spent 20 laps trying to take those marks away from him.

Barnes led the opening lap before an early caution reset the White Sands Federal Credit Union POWRi 305 Winged Sprint Car field. Daniel Blaeser started seventh, found speed around the upper lane and turned the second half of the feature into a pursuit through traffic.

Blaeser showed the slider. Barnes crossed underneath and answered. Slower cars repeatedly occupied both lanes, shrinking the available windows until the leaders were making decisions one corner at a time.

Barnes cleared the final traffic cleanly. Blaeser clipped an infield marker while trying to close the gap and scrubbed away his remaining momentum. Barnes carried the No. 29 through the final two laps for his second consecutive completed-feature victory at Vado.

In Victory Lane, Barnes acknowledged an accidental squeeze during the fight, praised the slider-and-traffic battle, and explained that the backstretch video board helped him measure the pressure behind him.

The Goodyear, Arizona driver now owns two victories in seven Vado starts and sits third in the standings, only eight points out of second.

White Sands FCU POWRi 305 Winged Sprint Cars — Official Top 5

Kyle starts ninth twice and finishes the second charge

Walton Kyle Jr. started last in the eight-lap S.H. Automotive Pure Stock heat and passed seven cars to finish second.

That was the warning.

Kyle started the 15-lap feature ninth and worked forward while Joseph Lenger, Jimmy Marta and Justin Allen spent time inside the lead story. Allen established the bottom and reached the front, but a caution with six laps remaining placed the No. 24XXX directly in striking distance.

Allen protected the shorter route. Kyle committed to the upper lane, carried more speed through the center and repeatedly found stronger drive off Turn 4. The two raced top against bottom until Kyle put his nose ahead and completed the pass.

One final yellow interrupted the white flag and forced a green-white-checkered finish. This time Kyle owned the clean air. He controlled the restart and finished the charge.

“Stick it to the top and hammer down,” Kyle said, repeating Eric McNutt’s instruction before dedicating the victory to Larry Flores.

Ninth to second in the heat. Ninth to first in the feature. Two weeks after winning the Super Truck feature, Kyle added his first Vado Pure Stock victory of 2026 in only his third start in the division.

Robert Dominguez’s third-place finish and Kristen Denman’s fifth widened the championship margin from 37 points entering the night to 44, with Dominguez leading 1,349–1,305.

S.H. Automotive Pure Stocks — Official Top 5

Allen turns one runner-up finish into the final victory

Justin Allen entered the last feature only minutes after finishing second to Kyle in the Pure Stocks.

The previous race had also shown him where the speed was.

Allen started the 25-lap Hacienda Carpet and Tile X-Mod feature from the outside front row. He used the higher lane to take the lead from polesitter Dawson Manicki, while Mel Romero followed into second and began applying pressure through traffic.

Romero threw the slider. Allen crossed underneath and retained the lead. Behind them, Christy Barnett advanced from 12th and reached the lead trio.

A final caution with two laps remaining placed both challengers directly behind the No. 33. Allen chose the outside and controlled the launch. Barnett drove underneath Romero for second, but four corners were not enough to reach the leader.

Allen earned his first Vado X-Mod victory of 2026 in only his third feature start in the division. Barnett’s 12th-to-second charge extended her championship lead to 156 points over Deuce Teague. Romero completed the podium, Manicki recovered to fourth, and Josh Beyer finished fifth.

In Victory Lane, Allen explained that Kyle’s Pure Stock pass taught him where the X-Mod would be fastest. He also revealed the reason he had raced the Pure Stock in the first place: it was his daughter’s birthday wish.

Second in one division. First in the next. The final checkered flag of August 15 belonged to Justin Allen.

Hacienda Carpet and Tile X-Mods — Official Top 5

Official race-night rulings

The final results include two additional rulings from the August 15 program:

• Jerry Mosher’s No. 14 is listed as disqualified from POWRi 305 Heat 2 after failing to report to the scales.
• Donavon Flores’s No. 07 is listed 15th with a black flag in the X-Mod feature after race control ruled that contact occurred under caution. That ruling involved Flores’s No. 07, not Fito Gallardo’s No. 07X, which is listed separately as a DNF.

Neither ruling changed a feature winner or podium.

Heat race winners

• Vado Speedway Super Trucks: Jaden Manicki Gallivan, Cliff Evrage, Walton Kyle Jr.
• Hulsey Racing INEX Legends: Douglas Collins, Mike Money, Josh Jackson
• White Sands FCU POWRi 305 Winged Sprint Cars: Derek DeMartino, Robert Herrera, Bryce Archuleta
• S.H. Automotive Pure Stocks: Joseph Lenger
• Hacienda Carpet and Tile X-Mods: Christy Barnett, Chris Hooper, Fito Gallardo

Five different questions. The same second answer.

DuBois won the restart his crew saw coming. Riggs erased Row 5. Barnes defended his breakthrough through traffic. Kyle trusted the upper lane twice. Allen carried the lesson from one race directly into the next.

Five divisions asked five different questions. The common answer was not simply speed. It was the ability to do the work twice.

Five official winners gained 22 combined positions. Not one started from the pole.

The first move put each driver in position. The second answer sent them to Rio Grande Waste Services Victory Lane.

Next: Kids Bike Night on August 22

Vado Speedway Park returns Saturday, August 22, for Kids Bike Night with five divisions:

• Mendoza Law Firm A-Mods
• Extreme Landscaping Stock Cars
• Anthony Sosa Roofing Late Models
• Vado Speedway Super Truck Series
• Sunset Grill 360 Non-Winged Sprint Cars

Pit gates open at 4:00 p.m., front gates open at 5:00 p.m., and racing begins at 7:30 p.m.

General admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, military members and students, $5 for youth ages 5–16, and free for children 4 and under.

Buy tickets · August 22 event details