SEVEN CHAMPIONS CROWNED DURING LAS VEGAS’ NIGHT OF FIRE

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA (June 20, 2026) – The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway crowned seven champions and lit up the night sky with Saturday’s annual Night of Fire. Jeffrey Peterson of Grand Terrace, Calif. won the NASCAR Star Nursery Late Model championship and earned his 13th feature win of the season. The season’s best crowd was entertained by nine main events plus the skid plate race and the Ewing Bros. Drag a Boat race. Photo by Behind the Neon Media

2025 champion Cody Brown started on the pole for the first Late Model race, part of Twin 51-lap features in honor of Kyle Busch. Peterson started third but made quick work of the field and took the lead on lap three. Kyle Keller tried to use the high lane on a restart to no avail and Peterson held serve.

Jeffrey Peterson darted off to his 13th consecutive victory by 2.9 seconds and the 2026 championship, with Brown coming home second. Keller won a battle with RJ Smotherman for third. Christian Bazen rounded out the top-five.

The second 51-lap feature under the lights was inverted by ten and would be the race to end Peterson’s winning streak. Multiple cars collided and were sideways at the start, gathering up Peterson with front end damage in turns one and two to end his weekend early.

Smotherman took control of the feature with Keller in hot pursuit. A caution flag on lap 16 gave Keller an opening to take the lead. Smotherman then took advantage of a lap 39 restart to drive back into the top spot. Keller crossed over to the inside of Smotherman and re-took the position on lap 41. Smotherman was not deterred, driving back to Keller’s bumper for a bump and run to lead lap 42. The move was ultimately the decisive maneuver in the close battle.

RJ Smotherman led the final 10 laps for victory to close the 2026 points paying season for the NASCAR Star Nursery Late Models with Keller settling for second after the exciting battle. Amilleo Thompson finished third followed by Bazen and Donald Witkowski.

Kyle Jacks won his fifth NASCAR Street Stock feature of 2026 to finish off a championship-winning campaign. His teammate Bill Paddack, Jr. hounded him throughout the first half of the contest but Jacks kept the point. Jacks eventually drove to a 1.485-second advantage at the checkered flag followed by Paddack, Don Geary, Adam Simon, and Mike McKearn. Michael Miller led the Factory Stock action in seventh while Rob Pfaffly won the Factory Stock championship.

Kyle Jacks also prevailed in the NASCAR Modified feature, leading his brother Sam by 2.617 seconds after 30-laps of open wheel action. Sam Jacks won the war, however, for the 2026 championship on the strength of three victories this season. Jimmy Petrie rounded out Saturday’s podium finishers followed by Doug Hamm in fourth and Scott Ozborn in fifth.

New Mexico’s Sean Salazar enjoyed a walk-off performance in the INEX Terrible’s Legends, earning his third win of the season to finish off a competitive championship battle. Tanner Ash and Daniel O’Donnell finished second and third in the feature, with O’Donnell second in the standings and Ash in third. The familiar podium of season-long foes were chased on Saturday by Andrew Hitchock and Ryan Ford in the 25-lap feature.

California’s Bory Molina also took the NASCAR Mini Stocks championship with a walk-off victory in the season finale. Incoming points leader Ben Williams and Kaycee Frost collided in turn two, causing significant race ending damage for Williams at the start of the feature.

Molina capitalized, soaring from ninth position into the lead by lap three. Molina won his fourth feature of the season and led Bobby Ozman for a Golden State one-two finish. Austin Tognotti finished third followed by Melissa Lurkins, and Jeff Wahrer.

Austin French of Las Vegas won the 15-lap Bandolero feature ahead of Casey Piplic and Beau Paddack, while Dylan Mancini’s fourth place finish was enough to wrap up the INEX Terrible’s Bandolero championship. Madalinn White won the second group Bandolero feature.

The Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway takes a summer break until October 2 when the speedway hosts the Star Nursery Battle at the Bullring featuring CARS Tour West and ARCA Menards Series West racing. Tickets and info at www.lvmsbullring.com

Las Vegas Motor Speedway Night of Fire Results – June 20, 2026

NASCAR Star Nursery Late Models

LLM Feature 1 (51 Laps): 1. 51-Jeffrey Peterson[3]; 2. 88X-Cody Brown[1]; 3. 12K-Kyle Keller[4]; 4. 24-RJ Smotherman[2]; 5. 43B-Christian Bazen[5]; 6. 14-Amilleo Thomson[7]; 7. 77-Johnny Spilotro[8]; 8. 20-Donald Witkowski[6]; 9. 14A-Jacob Anderegg[12]; 10. 6-AJ Hintsala[14]; 11. 11-David Quartaro[10]; 12. 77J-Chris Jackson[11]; 13. 44-Dave Campoverde[13]; 14. 88-Donna Gunther[15]; 15. 97-Ryder Juarez[9]

LLM Feature 2 (51 Laps): 1. 24-RJ Smotherman[7]; 2. 12K-Kyle Keller[8]; 3. 14-Amilleo Thomson[5]; 4. 43B-Christian Bazen[6]; 5. 20-Donald Witkowski[3]; 6. 88X-Cody Brown[9]; 7. 11-David Quartaro[11]; 8. 44-Dave Campoverde[13]; 9. 14A-Jacob Anderegg[2]; 10. 6-AJ Hintsala[1]; 11. 88-Donna Gunther[14]; 12. 97-Ryder Juarez[15]; 13. 77J-Chris Jackson[12]; 14. 51-Jeffrey Peterson[10]; 15. 77-Johnny Spilotro[4]

NASCAR Modified

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 41-Kyle Jacks[5]; 2. 29-Sam Jacks[4]; 3. 1-Jimmy Petrie[6]; 4. 4X-Doug Hamm[2]; 5. 0Z-Scott Ozborn[7]; 6. 7B-David Boardman[9]; 7. 77-Todd Beach[8]; 8. 34+2-Kayli Peterson[3]; 9. (DNS) 10-Damien Harrison

NASCAR Street / Factory Stocks

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 4-Kyle Jacks[2]; 2. 60-Bill Paddack Jr[4]; 3. 45-Don Geary[3]; 4. 1-Adam Simon[1]; 5. 64-Mike McKearn[6]; 6. 69-Vinny Raucci Sr[8]; 7. 96XF-Michael Miller[11]; 8. 11-Rob Pfaffly[10]; 9. 12-Kyle Turner[9]; 10. 09F-Bobby Schumacher[12]; 11. 48-Mason Sargent[5]; 12. 88-Donna Gunther[7]; 13. (DNS) 8-Carl Duryee

NASCAR Mini Stocks
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 71M-Bory Molina[9]; 2. 18-Bobby Ozman[10]; 3. 29-Austin Tognotti[4]; 4. 24L-Melissa Lurkins[7]; 5. 11-Jeff Wahrer[6]; 6. 33-Luis Rivera[5]; 7. 9-Noah Cobillas[3]; 8. 21X-John Robichaud[11]; 9. 18E-Nathan Phillips[1]; 10. 24-Ben Williams[8]; 11. 21-Kaycee Frost[2]; 12. (DNS) 23-Mike McIntyre

INEX Terrible’s Legends

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 17SP-Sean Salazar[4]; 2. 11YL-Tanner Ash[5]; 3. 11-Daniel O’Donnell[2]; 4. 24H-Andrew Hitchcock[1]; 5. 25M-Ryan Ford[9]; 6. 711-Tripp Goodrich[10]; 7. 54SP-Caitlyn Ford[8]; 8. 27M-Kevin Terrell[11]; 9. 23-Spencer Gallagher[7]; 10. 68YL-Connor Podloski[3]; 11. 42-Stephen Bazen[6]

INEX Bandoleros

Group 1 Feature (15 Laps): 1. 9-Austin French[3]; 2. 74-Casey Piplic[2]; 3. 7-Beau Paddack[4]; 4. 17M-Dylan Mancini[6]; 5. 57-Broxton Campos[10]; 6. 88-Celine Spurlock[9]; 7. 77-Evan Johnson[7]; 8. 17S-Chase Schilling[12]; 9. 7B-Dominic West[13]; 10. 27-Cyrus Spurlock II[8]; 11. 25-Hayden Piplic[11]; 12. 7X-Jeff Connors[5]; 13. 57E-Braxton Garcia[1]; 14. 13-Madalinn White[15]; 15. 5TT-Aubrey Cheadle[16]; 16. 15-Quinn Piplic[18]; 17. 17-Betty Paddack[17]; 18. 8-Nikki Churchill[14]; 19. 11-Auroara Pfaffaly[19]

Group 2 Feature (12 Laps): 1. 13-Madalinn White[2]; 2. 5TT-Aubrey Cheadle[3]; 3. 15-Quinn Piplic[5]; 4. 17-Betty Paddack[4]; 5. 8-Nikki Churchill[1]; 6. 11-Auroara Pfaffaly[6]

2026 LVMS Bullring Schedule (Subject to Change)

Oct. 2 – Star Nursery Battle at The Bullring featuring CARS Tour West and ARCA Menards Series West

Nov. 14 – CARS Tour West