Brandon Overton earned $10,000 for his second Tarheel 50 triumph
The Schaeffer’s Oil Fall Nationals Series staged its third race of 2020 on Thursday evening at Tri-County Race Track as part of a big two-race weekend for the Ray Cook-promoted mini-series. At the end of the night, it was Brandon Overton who left the Brasstown, NC facility as the winner of the Tarheel 50 for the second consecutive year and with the first place payout of $10,000.
Kenny Collins led the way in Group A qualifying with a lap of 12.477 seconds around the quarter-mile clay oval to beat out Donald McIntosh and Dale McDowell.
Brandon Overton proved to be fastest in Group B time-trials with an effort of 12.346 seconds topping David Payne and Shane Clanton.
The top-3 from each qualifying group then went to a dash race to set the first three rows of the feature starting lineup.
Brandon Overton earned the pole for the feature by winning the dash ahead of Shane Clanton, Donald McIntosh, David Payne, Dale McDowell and Kenny Collins.
Casey Roberts took the first heat race of the night by outrunning Will Roland, Levi Hicks, Drew Deaver, Craig Greer and Kip Cochran.
It was Ricky Weiss who grabbed the checkered flag in the second preliminary ahead of Vic Hill, John Eller, Will Harris, Johnny Cloer and Jason Berrong.
At the start of the 53-lap feature it was Clanton who charged to the early lead with Overton, Payne, McIntosh and McDowell trailing. it didn’t take long on the tight bullring for the lead machines to encounter slower traffic. Just three laps into the affair, Clanton found himself lapping cars with Overton closing to his rear spoiler.
McDowell made an early move as he got by McIntosh on lap 5 to claim fourth. However, a lap 8 caution for a spin by Craig Greer slowed the pace and provided the leaders with a brief reprieve from traffic.
Weiss moved forward on lap 12 when he took fifth away from McIntosh. Further back, Hill and Roberts went three-wide with a slower car as the fought for the sixth spot. Contact between those three competitors left Roberts with a flat tire and body damage which caused him to drop out of the race.
As the race moved into its second half, Overton intensified the pressure on Clanton as they raced for the lead. Another yellow flag waved on lap 32 when Eller’s car came to a stop in turn three. Third-running Payne came on the scene with nowhere to go and slapped the prone car with his own right rear causing significant damage.
Payne then began to fade following the lap 32 restart as McDowell, Weiss and McIntosh all passed by.
Overton continued to hound Clanton as the laps clicked away. Finally on lap 47 as the lead duo worked through slower traffic, Overton saw his opportunity and maneuvered his car between those of Clanton and the slower machine to grab the race lead.
From that point, Overton sailed to the checkered flag to score the win.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Shane Clanton, 3. Dale McDowell, 4. Ricky Weiss, 5. Donald McIntosh, 6. Vic Hill, 7. Levi Hicks, 8. David Payne, 9. Will Roland, 10. Matthew Nance, 11. John Eller, 12. Joey Standridge, 13. Johnny Cloer, 14. Casey Roberts, 15. Kip Cochran, 16. Drew Deaver, 17. Craig Greer, 18. Kenny Collins, 19. Tegan Evans, 20. Gabe Wilson, 21. Will Harris, 22. Jason Berrong
