Jonathan Davenport scored the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory on Saturday night at Batesville Motor Speedway. Photo: LOLMDS/Twitter
It was Jonathan Davenport’s night, winning the COMP Cams Topless 100 at Arkansas’ Batesville Motor Speedway for the first time in his career on Saturday.
The Blairsville, Georgia speedster held off a hard charging Hudson O’Neal and Dale McDowell to win the richest late model race in the history of Batesville Motor Speedway – a $50,000 payday in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and COMP Cams Super Dirt Series co-sanctioned event.
O’Neal was looking to become the first back-to-back winner in the history of the crown jewel event that began in 1993. He climbed from the 16th starting spot to finish second, 1.120 seconds behind the winner. McDowell, from Chickamauga, Georgia, came home in third, with Tim McCreadie finishing fourth, and Brandon Sheppard in his first Topless 100 start since 2015 rounding out the top five.
The win was especially meaningful to Davenport, as his car owners Lance and Darla Landers call Batesville home. It was one year ago when Davenport lost a last-lap shootout with O’Neal, who won the race after the two swapped the lead four times on the final lap.
This year history nearly repeated itself as O’Neal and McDowell had climbed to with one-car length of Davenport in the race for the lead when a caution came out with six laps to go in the race. Davenport was able to fight off the two and come home with his first Topless 100 title.
In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 64th time in his career, Davenport can know check one more bucket list race off of his impressive resume.
“That was lot closer than I wanted it to be,” said Davenport after recording his 64th career series victory. “I guess Hudson (O’Neal) came from way back, so congratulations to him. I couldn’t quite run the top as good down there in three and four. I never really went all the way out there. There was a whole lot of flats. I didn’t want to run over a rock and get a flat leading it. I just kept moving around little-by-little. Thanks to Mooney (Starr) and his whole staff here, I mean what a turnaround from last night.”
Jimmy Owens, Spencer Hughes, Garrett Alberson, Earl Pearson, Jr., and Kyle Beard rounded out the top 10.
The Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series returns to action on Friday, August 26 at Pennsylvania’s Port Royal Speedway. For more information, visit LucasDirt.com.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Batesville Motor Speedway – Batesville, AR
Topless 100 – August 20, 2022
1. 49-Jonathan Davenport
2. 71-Hudson O’Neal
3. 17M-Dale McDowell
4. 39-Tim McCreadie
5. 1-Brandon Sheppard
6. 20-Jimmy Owens
7. 11-Spencer Hughes
8. 58-Garrett Alberson
9. 46-Earl Pearson, Jr.
10. 86B-Kyle Beard
11. 18D-Daulton Wilson
12. 93-Mason Oberkramer
13. 1T-Tyler Erb
14. 1R-BJ Robinson
15. 90-Brian Rickman
16. 20RT-Ricky Thornton, Jr.
17. 10G-Garrett Smith
18. 777-Jared Landers
19. 2S-Stormy Scott
20. 21-Billy Moyer, Jr.
21. 7P-David Payne
22. 7-Ross Robinson
23. 14M-Morgan Bagley
24. 2-Tyler Stevens
25. 21M-Billy Moyer, Sr.
26. 76-Brandon Overton
27. 97-Cade Dillard
28. 12-Scott Crigler
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