Jonathan Davenport
Everything is looking good for Jonathan Davenport in terms of winning his second Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championship as that national tour prepares to contest its final four races of the 2018 season. The Blairsville, GA native currently holds a 215 advantage over defending title holder Josh Richards with the rest of the field further back. The driver known as “Superman” won his first series championship back in 2015.
One possible pitfall for Davenport could come from the way the LOLMDS distributes points following a feature race. The winner of a main event receives 200 points. However, there is the potential for a significant drop off should a driver do poorly in a particular race. The runner-up in Lucas Oil races receives 180 points while third takes 170 and fourth gets 160. From there, points are doled out in intervals of five all the way down to 26th place(which receives 75 points).
At worst, Davenport could lose 125 points on a single night should Richards win and the No. 49 machine finish 26th. Still, though, that would leave the Lance Landers-owned effort with a lead of 90 markers.
With all that said, for this championship battle to tighten up significantly Davenport would likely have to have at least two disastrous races out of these next four. At the same time, Richards would have to get hot and remain so in all the races left on the schedule.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will race on Saturday and Sunday nights of this upcoming weekend in Georgia at the Dixie Speedway and Rome Speedway in $12,000 and $10,000-to-win features respectively. The series will then travel to the Pittsburgh PA. Motor Speedway on the weekend of October 5-6 for a $20,000-to-win affair. And finally, the tour will conclude its business in the $100,000-to-win Dirt Track World Championship in Portsmouth, Ohio on the weekend of October 19-20.
The closest pursuer on the series will have to hope for Jonathan Davenport to open the door for them at some point over these next four races if Josh Richards or anyone else is to close the gap and make a run at stealing the trophy away from “The Fast 49”.
