Brandon Overton
Every driver on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series wants to leave the track with an orange spoiler bolted to the rear of the car. However, only one driver can have that as the Midwest Sheet Metal Company Orange Spoiler is reserved for that one pilot who leads the series standings. Oddly enough, that coveted piece of body work is currently being carried on the car of a driver who is not a series regular … at least not yet.
While it should come as no surprise that Evans, GA native Brandon Overton has performed better than everyone else over the course of the first six races of the 2021 season, the way he has achieved that success is a bit of a departure from the norm. It is not unusual to see this two time and defending Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals champion pile up big win totals, but what might seem out of the ordinary is that this driver known for his hard charging style has acquired the points lead by posting remarkably consistent finishes.
The 29-year-old driver has scored one feature win so far this season in LOLMDS competition with that coming on Friday night at East Bay Raceway Park. But along with that lone triumph, Overton has three additional podium finishes and has never completed the race distance outside of the top-10.
Overton’s feature wins in 2020 were measured in the dozens. and while he was happy with solid results during SpeedWeeks prior to Friday night, winning was still at the forefront of his mind.
“We’ve got to make all the right calls,” Overton pointed out prior to his winning feature effort at East Bay. “We’ve gotten the lead early and ended up dropping down. We’re just trying to do what we can do to put ourselves in a position to win races. It takes a lot of luck. You’ve got to have a good car, but you’ve got to have a lot of luck too.”
Brandon Overton currently leads the lucas Oil standings
The No. 76 Wells Motorsports Longhorn Chassis has been fast throughout the night during each event. Overton has led his group in qualifying three times and was worse than 4th only once when he placed 18th in Group B on Thursday night. But most importantly in terms of starting positions for the main events, he has won his heat race on five separate occasions and only had to transfer out of a B-main once.
The driver knew that his strong runs would eventually lead to victory lane at some point.
“I said earlier that you’ve got to be lucky,” he declared from victory lane. “I just got the lead there at the right time right before it started streaking up. But I knew if I kept hanging around the top-3, I’d get us one by the end of the week. I was starting to feel like I was going to leave here without winning, but that wasn’t suiting well with me, so I’m glad we got it done.”
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Overton, who is in the process of building a new house for himself and his fiancée in Augusta, GA, says that the decision of whether or not to purse the full Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series schedule will be made later when he talks with team owner David Wells and his sons.
“I don’t know,” Wells said of pursuing a series championship in his post-race interview follow his Friday night win. “Me and the old boss man will sit down and see what we what we want to do.”
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