Jimmy Owens (center) scored the victory in Saturday night’s Late Model Knoxville Nationals for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Knoxville Raceway Brandon Sheppard (left) finished in second, with Hudson O’Neal (right) in third. Photo: LOLMDS Media / Twitter
Jimmy Owens became just the second driver in the history of the Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals to win the $40,000 event in back-to-back years. The 47-year-old Tennessee veteran did the trick on Saturday night at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway.
Owens joins fellow Volunteer State driver Mike Marlar as the only drivers in the 16-year-history of the crown jewel event to win in consecutive years.
Owens took the lead from Brandon Sheppard on lap 86 and held off one final charge from Sheppard coming off of turn four to take the win. Sheppard finished in second with Hudson O’Neal charging from the back after making two pit stops to Owens and Sheppard on the podium. Devin Moran, in his first start in the Knoxville finale, finished in fourth with Kyle Bronson coming from his 20th starting position to round out the top five drivers.
Polesitter Shane Clanton of Zebulon, Georgia grabbed the lead at the start of the event with fellow front-row starter Darrell Lanigan running in second. Those two ran 1-2 for the first 44 laps of the race until Sheppard was able to get by Lanigan after a lap 44 caution.
Clanton led the first 55 circuits of the race until a restart on lap 56 allowed Chris Madden to become the first car to lead other than Clanton. Madden was seeking his first Knoxville win after being absent from the speedway for nearly 12 years.
Once in front, Madden started to pull away from Clanton. Clanton slowed on lap 72 with a broken axle, bringing his night to an end. On the restart, Sheppard became the third different leader of the race as he zipped around the top to take over the lead from Madden.
Like Madden did before him, Sheppard was pulling away from the field. However, the race for the top spot was far from over. Owens took second on lap 80 from Madden in swift fashion but was still several car lengths behind Sheppard. With 20 laps remaining, Owens found the momentum he was looking for, and with that rally he began slicing into Sheppard’s huge lead.
The laps were winding down in rapid-fire fashion, and Owens was ready to pounce. He darted under Sheppard with 14 laps to go and wrestled the lead away. Sheppard was not done though. Owens had to battle traffic in front of him and Sheppard was able to make one last-lap ditch effort to steal the win from Owens, but came up just short at the finish line.
Owens started 18th and made history in event as no other driver has ever started that deep in the pack and managed a victory.
“We had a really good car,” Owens said. “We had to be married to that top way more than I wanted to, but our tires fired up and we got going really well. We chased Sheppard down in lapped traffic and we had one opportunity to get by him, so we took it the best we could. On that last lap I could hear him (Sheppard). I didn’t know if he was above me or below me. I figured if he was below me, he couldn’t get around me so I just scooted down the track a little bit to kill his line coming off of turn four and I thought, well heck if it’s going to be a drag-race, maybe we can beat him to the line.”
Sheppard finished in second, with Hudson O’Neal in third, Devin Moran in fourth and Kyle Bronson in fifth.
Chris Madden, Stormy Scott, Ricky Weiss, Earl Pearson, Jr. and Frank Heckenast, Jr. rounded out the top ten.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Knoxville Raceway – Knoxville, IA
Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals – September 14, 2019
| 1 | 18 | 20 | Jimmy Owens | Newport, TN | $40,800 |
| 2 | 9 | 1S | Brandon Sheppard | New Berlin, IL | $20,000 |
| 3 | 16 | 71 | Hudson O’Neal | Martinsville, IN | $10,700 |
| 4 | 17 | 1d | Devin Moran | Dresden, OH | $9,550 |
| 5 | 20 | 40B | Kyle Bronson | Brandon, FL | $8,200 |
| 6 | 4 | 0m | Chris Madden | Gray Court, SC | $7,000 |
| 7 | 23 | 2s | Stormy Scott | Las Cruses, NM | $7,200 |
| 8 | 3 | 7w | Ricky Weiss | Headingley, MB | $6,000 |
| 9 | 15 | 1 | Earl Pearson, Jr. | Jacksonville, FL | $6,300 |
| 10 | 21 | 99JR | Frank Heckenast, Jr. | Frankfort, IL | $5,000 |
| 11 | 12 | 32s | Chris Simpson | Oxford, IA | $4,500 |
| 12 | 2 | 29 | Darrell Lanigan | Union, KY | $4,000 |
| 13 | 24 | 49 | Jonathan Davenport | Blairsville, GA | $4,600 |
| 14 | 10 | 0 | Scott Bloomquist | Mooresburg, TN | $3,400 |
| 15 | 5 | 1T | Tyler Erb | New Waverly, TX | $4,000 |
| 16 | 22 | 50 | Shanon Buckingham | Morristown, TN | $3,900 |
| 17 | 14 | 28 | Dennis Erb, Jr. | Carpentersville, IL | $3,100 |
| 18 | 8 | 16T | Tyler Bruening | Decorah, IA | $3,000 |
| 19 | 28 | 18J | Chase Junghans | Manhattan, KS | $2,900 |
| 20 | 25 | 15B | Brian Birkhofer | Muscatine, IA | $2,800 |
| 21 | 1 | 25 | Shane Clanton | Zebulon, GA | $2,700 |
| 22 | 19 | 32P | Bobby Pierce | Oakwood, IL | $2,600 |
| 23 | 27 | 18 | Shannon Babb | Mowequa, IL | $2,500 |
| 24 | 6 | 20RT | Ricky Thornton Jr. | Sedgwick, KS | $2,500 |
| 25 | 11 | 14 | Josh Richards | Shinnston, WV | $3,300 |
| 26 | 7 | 5 | Don O’Neal | Martinsville, IN | $2,500 |
| 27 | 26 | 39 | Tim McCreadie | Watertown, NY | $3,500 |
| 28 | 30 | 21 | Billy Moyer | Batesville, AR | $2,500 |
| 29 | 13 | 1c | Chad Simpson | Mt. Vernon, IA | $2,500 |
| 30 | 29 | 21JR | Billy Moyer, Jr. | Batesville, AR | $3,400 |
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