Devin Moran earns Big Gator trophy from DIRTcar Nats

Devin Moran ad the prized DIRTcar Nationals troph

Story and photo from World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series

With the help of a Florida couple, Moran made the trip to Florida for a career week

CONCORD, N.C. – A trip to Volusia Speedway Park for the 50th DIRTcar Nationals wasn’t initially on Devin Moran’s 2021 itinerary. His new gator-wide smile signified his joy of that change.

Moran, 26, of Dresden, OH, claimed his first DIRTcar Nationals Big Gator championship on Saturday after an impressive display of consistency through the five rounds of Late Model races. If it wasn’t for a broken driveshaft on Wednesday, he could’ve finished on the podium in each event – he had finishes of third, second, 31st, first (his first Volusia win) and second.

“It’s pretty cool,” Moran said about claiming his first Big Gator title. “It’s pretty unexpected, to be honest. At the start of the week, we weren’t even planning on coming down here. Then to run top three even night, except for that one DNF, which I think we had a shot to win, it just gives us a lot of confidence… To start out the year the way we have, it’s been a lot of fun and like I said, it gives us a lot of confidence.”

If it wasn’t for Florida-residents Terry and Marry Ann Wright – who have been friends with Moran’s car owner for a while – Moran and his team would’ve skipped the prestigious event. They’ve been trying to get the team to come down for a couple of years and this year helped make it affordable for them, Moran said.

“I’m glad they did because it definitely paid off,” he added.

Bobby Pierce was his closest competitor in the championship hunt going into the final race – before Saturday’s event was canceled due to rain. He entered the night only nine points behind Moran and was on track to cut into that lead after setting Slick Woody’s Quick Time and starting on the outside pole of the Feature.

However, as fate would have it, he suffered a motor issue and the team was unable to get a new one in before the Feature started. Pierce hoped in Reid Millard’s car for the Feature but pulled in early and was unable to finish, unofficially handing the Big Gator championship to Moran who finished second that night. He earned his first golden gator trophy the night before.

Defending Big Gator champion and three-time defending World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series champion Brandon Sheppard finished second in over Big Gator points.

“Like I said, it’s so unexpected,” Moran said. “First of all, with us not coming and then winning the whole week. It sucks with what happened with Bobby that he had to change motors and couldn’t… It’s a bummer that he couldn’t race. But we had a really consistent fast car all week. It’s a special thing to take home this gator with as unexpected as it was.”

UP NEXT

The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series, on Friday, March 5, will return to Duck River Raceway Park in Lewisburg, TN.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision.

FULL BIG GATOR POINTS

place	#	Fullname	8-Feb	9-Feb	10-Feb	11-Feb	12-Feb	TOTAL
1	9	Devin Moran	70	75	25	80	75	325
2	32	Bobby Pierce	60	80	26	75	28	269
3	1	Brandon Sheppard	55	65	36	55	45	256
4	40B	Kyle Bronson	65	42	41	37	70	255
5	8	Kyle Strickler		44	80	65	55	244
6	76	Brandon Overton	53	55	24	26	80	238
7	OE	Rick Eckert	49	47	43	36	60	235
8	16	Tyler Bruening	47	30	55	49	51	232
9	58	Ross Bailes	44	40	53	44	41	222
10	28	Dennis Erb Jr	31	41	35	60	53	220
11	7	Ricky Weiss	29	53	49	53	34	218
12	29V	Darrell Lanigan	43	60	37	29	49	218
13	44	Chris Madden	30	43	21	51	65	210
14	14	Josh Richards	51	32	47	28	47	205
15	O	Scott Bloomquist	26	45	45	43	35	194
16	5	Mark Whitener	75	36	19	25	38	193
17	3S	Brian Shirley	45	38	60	20	27	190
18	97	Cade Dillard	41	29	38	31	44	183
19	18	Chase Junghans	42	28	32	40	39	181
20	20RT	Ricky Thornton Jr	28	51	70	30		179
21	17M	Dale McDowell	32	34		70	42	178
22	99B	Boom Briggs	37	23	42	38	36	176
23	25	Shane Clanton	31	33	31	47	32	174
24	56	Tony Jackson Jr	22	31	44	39	37	173
25	39	Tim McCreadie	80	49	23	20		172
26	20	Jimmy Owens	40	29	65	35		169
27	71	Hudson O’Neal		70	75	23		168
28	B1	Brent Larson	27	37	20	41	40	165
29	72	Mike Norris	39	27	33	21	43	163
30	54	David Breazeale	34	23	28	45	30	160
31	19R	Ryan Gustin	31	20	51	24	33	159
32	33	Jeff Mathews	30	26	22	42	26	146
33	14B	John Baker	25	39	34	24	23	145
34	6	Blake Spencer	24	24	30	32	31	141
35	7R	Ross Robinson	29	25	40	22	24	140
36	76N	Blair Nothdurft	28	35	18	20	26	127
37	31	Tyler Millwood	27	28	22	21	27	125
38	2	Dan Stone	38	24	39	22		123
39	14G	Joe Godsey	26	27	20	19	25	117
40	6JR	Parker Martin	35	27	18	34		114
41	OS	Ryan Scott	25		27	33	29	114
42	89	G.R. Smith	25	21	19	22	23	110
43	12	Ashton Winger	30	21	29	19		99
44	21	Billy Moyer Jr	33	22	22	21		98
45	42	Chad Finley	23	26	19	27		95
46	3W	Brennon Willard	24	25	21	23		93
47	3	Mike Collins	27	24	17	23		91
48	7F	Jason Fitzgerald	26	25		25		76
49	11	Josh Rice	28	29	18			75
50	25C	Donnie Chappell	29	28	16			73
51	14M	Reid Millard	24	23			25	72
52	1st	Johnny Scott				24	24	48
53	11H	Spencer Hughes		26	20			46
54	14	Gordy Gundecker			21	25		46
55	8	Nick Allen	23	20				43
56	7MM	Michael Maresca	36					36
57	6H	Clay Harris			17			17