RPW Exclusive: Restarts & Knowledge Played Factors In Justin Haers’ Runner-Up Wednesday At Volusia
Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – BARBERVILLE, FL – Restarts were the name of the game for Justin Haers on Wednesday night during the DIRTcar Nationals ’25 season opener for the Super DIRTcar Series.
Haers put together a complete night at one of his favorite race tracks, the Volusia Speedway Park. He timed quickest in hot laps, led the way in his group for time trials, won his heat race and drove from fourth starting spot in the 30-lap main event to finish a solid second place.
It was a near perfect way to kick off the four-race swing in the Sunshine State, but the multi-time Land of Legends Raceway champion had trouble figuring out which was the right line to run to get to the front.
“Restarts tonight were rather tricky,” Haers said. “One time, you needed to be on the outside and the next you needed to be on the bottom. It was just one of those deals that you needed to be in the right spot at the right time.”
Haers found himself in the hunt for the lead on multiple occasions but chose the wrong restart line on one of many cautions that plagued the feature on Wednesday which saw him forced to regroup and charge back forward.
“I was on the wrong end of the deal a couple of times,” he said. “Then I was lucky enough to claw my way back up and ultimately get back to second.”
Haers has had luck at the Barbersville, FL track in the past, visiting victory lane on two occasions and really enjoys racing here. Can the veteran lean on his past success this week to get up to speed quick?
“Not too, too much,” he said. “With the way these cars have changed with the suspension technology, what I had in 2017 or 2018 when we were real good here is way different than now. So, none of that really translates to now.”
However, Haers’ recent trip to the World Finals in November has helped him and his team get up to speed rather quickly at Volusia.
“We learned some stuff in Charlotte that we found pretty decent,” he said. “That’s why we came down here. We felt confident that we could be fast and so far it’s working.”
With restarts being so important on Wednesday night, one of the pivotal points of the feature was the back-and-forth battle between eventual winner Matt Sheppard and third place finisher Alex Yankowski.
The two squared off on multiple occasions, each trying to get the best of the other when starter Dave Farney would unfurl his green flag. That led to a lot of pushing and shoving between the no. 9s and the 84y which left Haers looking to pounce.
“I was just hoping that I didn’t get caught up in the stuff they had going on,” he said. “The problem was that Sheppard was leading the race and Alex was trying to get a jump on Matt. They were literally rubbing nerf bars before the initial start of the feature so I just wanted to steer clear if I could.”
How does this set Haers up for the rest of the week at Volusia? Does he feel like he’s got an idea on what to do to get his Phelps Cement Products no. 3 better so he can get a little gator before the DIRTcar Nationals is complete?
“Yea, I think so,” he said. “I believe the tracks each night will be pretty much the same. The biggest thing here is you have to unload and have speed. Tonight, we were able to do that so now we just need to keep up with the race track.”
