Maryville, IL — Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill. (Super Late Models) and Gary Cook Jr. of Deer Creek, Ill. (Modifieds) maintained their respective leads in the UMP DIRTcar Racing national points standings released Thursday by organization officials.

Erb, a 36-year-old who is bidding to win the UMP DIRTcar Summer Nationals and national points crowns for an unprecedented third consecutive season, added four points to his lead from the previous week over Jason Feger of Bloomington, Ill. In races run through July 27, Erb held a 35-point edge over Feger (2,704-2,671).

The top-two drivers in the national Super Late Model standings – now more than 200 points ahead of third-place Kevin Weaver of Gibson City, Ill. – ran head-to-head four times last week in Monster Midwest Tour action.

Feger was the biggest winner, capturing A-Mains on July 23 at Charleston (Ill.) Speedway and July 25 at Kamp Motor Speedway in Boswell, Ind. The ‘Highside Hustler’ also scored a second-place finish to Erb on July 26 at Vermilion County Speedway in Danville, Ill., but his 19th-place outing on July 24 at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway was a hiccup that hurt him versus Erb’s consistency.

In addition to his Vermilion County score, Erb registered runner-up finishes at Farmer City and Kamp and a sixth-place run at Charleston.

Cook, meanwhile, saw his national Modified points lead over Randle Sweeney of Clifty, Ky., shrink by 11 points from the previous week’s rankings. Cook’s lead over Sweeney through July 27 sat at 76 points (2,315-2,239).

Both Cook and Sweeney, who have reached the 30-race threshold for Modified drivers to begin replacing their worst finishes/points nights, enjoyed strong weeks. Cook won features on July 22 at Quad Cities Raceway in East Moline, Ill., July 24 at Kankakee (Ill.) County Speedway and July 25 at Fairbury (Ill.) American Legion Speedway, while Sweeney was victorious on July 24 at Paducah (Ky.) International Raceway and July 25 at Soggy Bottom Raceway in Morgantown, Ky., and finished second on July 26 at Windy Hollow Speedway in Owensboro, Ky.

Other UMP DIRTcar national points leaders through July 27 included Tait Davenport of West Paducah, Ky. (Pro Late Models), Jimmy Cummins of Waterloo, Ill. (Sportsman), Chad Boone of Owensboro, Ky. (Limited Modifieds), Rick Thomas of Koehler, Ill. (Stock Cars), Bill May of Muskegon, Mich. (Factory Stocks) and Joe Reed of Decatur, Ill. (Sport Compacts).

Log on to www.dirtcar.com for more information on UMP DIRTcar Racing and to view complete points standings for all divisions.

UMP DIRTcar Racing National Points Standings (as of July 27, 2009):

Super Late Models (driver/points/races counted):

1. Dennis Erb Jr. 2704 40
2. Jason Feger 2671 40
3. Kevin Weaver 2464 40
4. Rusty Schlenk 2463 40
5. Randy Korte 2408 36
6. Steve Sheppard Jr. 2380 40
7. Ryan Unzicker 2328 40
8. Mike Hammerle 2212 40
9. Brandon Sheppard 2143 40
10. Frankie Heckenast 2108 40
11. Shannon Babb 1975 33
12. Jon Henry 1868 33
13. Eric Smith 1865 32
14. Richie Hedrick 1754 40
15. Michael Kloos 1748 36
16. Brian Ruhlman 1738 30
17. Daren Friedman 1701 30
18. Jason McBride 1601 40
19. Mark Voigt 1601 32
20. Joe Harlan 1600 31

Modifieds (driver/points/races counted):

1. Gary Cook Jr. 2315 30
2. Randle Sweeney 2239 30
3. John McCaul 2156 30
4. Jeff Leka 2092 30
5. Mike Spatola 2082 30
6. Kent Robinson 2071 30
7. Todd Sherman 2060 30
8. Tim Hancock 2019 30
9. Devin Gilpin 2011 30
10. Clint DeMoss 1963 30
11. Clayton Miller 1920 30
12. Vance Wilson 1889 30
13. Jeremy Nichols 1886 30
14. Jeff Babcock 1879 29
15. Lance Dehm 1797 26
16. Bobby Bittle 1790 29
17. Chad Osterhoff 1772 30
18. Troy Marciniak 1765 30
19. Mary O’Neal 1647 25
20. Nick Allen 1645 27

Pro Late Models (driver/points/races counted):

1. Tait Davenport 1869 27
2. Caleb Ashby 1856 30
3. Bobby Dauderman 1723 28
4. Dustin Griffin 1593 28
5. Rylan Dagg 1552 28
6. Bobby Martintoni 1493 27
7. Matt Liner 1450 26
8. Nick Bauman 1449 22
9. Josh Harris 1312 22
10. Daniel Heck 1261 21

Sportsman (driver/points/races counted):

1. Jimmy Cummins 1742 25
2. Clayton Perry 1712 25
3. Troy Clark 1506 25
4. Greg Kimmons 1425 23
5. Brad Cummings 1380 24
6. Greg Amick 1328 23
7. Russell Eilers 1323 19
8. Alan Magner 1218 20
9. Brian Williams 1155 18
10. Chad Weinrick 1138 21

Limited Modifieds (driver/points/races counted):

1. Chad Boone 1700 25
2. Jeff Brooks 1406 25
3. Jonathan Smith 1082 17
4. Scotty Oliver 1078 19
5. Josh Tyler 979 19
6. Shelli O’Bryan 960 19
7. Jansen Morris 954 16
8. Chris Buhler 951 16
9. John Paul Talkington 923 17
10. Justin Riley 899 17

Stock Cars (driver/points/races counted):

1. Rick Thomas 1799 25
2. David Hurst 1676 25
3. Joel Funk 1632 25
4. Dave Mannise 1619 25
5. Steve Ewing 1617 25
6. Larry Russell Jr. 1604 25
7. Ervin Turner 1599 25
8. Chris Fisher 1591 25
9. Stacy Tretter 1458 22
10. Brandon Roundtree 1442 25

Factory Stocks (driver/points/races counted):

1. Bill May 1628 25
2. Justin Schuler 1248 22
3. Dan Wilson1 1066 17
4. Tony Weinrick 1003 21
5. Paul Tenbrink 995 16
6. Nate Tarte 972 23
7. Loren Peterson 918 16
8. Jim Scout 912 13
9. Robbie Sternberg 876 17
10. Dennis Ponder 852 13

Sport Compacts (driver/points/races counted):

1. Bob Zbinden 1910 25
2. Joe Reed 1843 25
3. Eric Wisher 1657 25
4. Michael Rittenberry 1476 23
5. C.J. Rector 1427 24
6. Richard Ashby 1356 24
7. Cook Crawford 1350 25
8. Monty Edwards 1273 22
9. Eric Wilson 1266 21
10. Justin Suhre 1264 22