Jonathan Davenport (center), Brandon Overton (left), and Dale McDowell (right) made up an all Georgia podium on Saturday night in Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series action at Florence Speedway. Photo: LOLMDS/Twitter
Jonathan Davenport rolled to his second career victory in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series North/South 100 on Saturday night at Florence Speedway in Union, Kentucky.
The Blairsville, Georgia racer earned an event record $75,000 for the win to go along with his 2015 event victory.
Defending race winner Brandon Overton of Evans, Georgia tried to close the gap in the final five laps, coming to within two car lengths of Davenport. However, Davenport would prevail by a 1.017 second advantage.
Dale McDowell made it an all Georgia podium. The Chickamauga, Georgia driver ran in second for several laps before finishing in third. Ricky Thornton, Jr. came home in fourth, with Mike Marlar in fifth.
Davenport and Chris Madden started on the front row of the event. Unfortunately, Madden’s night would end before a lap was scored as a broken J-Bar entering turn four eliminated him from the race.
Back underway, Davenport would cruise out to a commanding lead. Lapped traffic came into play as McDowell was closing the gap before a caution on lap 56 cleared traffic for the race leader. On the restart Overton was able to get by McDowell for second, as Davenport was already starting to pull away from the field.
Overton and McDowell slowly started to reel in Davenport as the leader was encountering heavy traffic in the closing laps. Davenport was able to hold his line to cross the finish line for his second straight Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series crown-jewel event.
“We just made one adjustment from last night,” said Davenport. “Our car was pretty good, but we just needed one thing to work on. We talked about it all day and that one little adjustment made the difference. These Longhorn Chassis react to the smallest of adjustments that you make on them. At the end it got so slow and slick. I was trying to smash the gas less and less. I saw 76 (Overton) on the board and I knew he was probably getting closer to me. So, I moved up a lane. We were able to get through lapped traffic good again tonight.”
Zack Dohm, Tim McCreadie, Chris Ferguson, Ricky Weiss, and Bobby Pierce rounded out the top 10.
Up next, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series returns to action on Friday, August 19 at Arkansas’ Batesville Motor Speedway. Visit LucasDirt.com for more information.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Florence Speedway – Union, KY
North/South 100 – August 13, 2022
1. 49-Jonathan Davenport
2. 76-Brandon Overton
3. 17M-Dale McDowell
4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton, Jr.
5. 157-Mike Marlar
6. 17D-Zack Dohm
7. 39-Tim McCreadie
8. 22F-Chris Ferguson
9. 7W-Ricky Weiss
10. 32-Bobby Pierce
11. 46-Earl Pearson, Jr.
12. 9-Devin Moran
13. 1T-Tyler Erb
14. 11-Spencer Hughes
15. 1-Brandon Sheppard
16. 71-Hudson O’Neal
17. 23-Cory Hedgecock
18. 58-Garrett Alberson
19. 18D-Daulton Wilson
20. 7-Ross Robinson
21. 20-Jimmy Owens
22. 7R-Kent Robinson
23. 11R-Josh Rice
24. 12-Jason Jameson
25. 44M-Chris Madden
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