Brandon Overton has now won six of ten SoNats features
With just three races remaining on what has been a grueling two-week tour so far, the competitors on the Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals Series pulled into Crossville Speedway on Thursday evening to take another step toward the end of their midsummer run. When the dust had settled it was series points leader Brandon Overton who claimed his sixth tour win with the victory. The Evans, GA driver left the Crossville, TN track $3,500 richer for his efforts.
The top-5 from each qualifying group would be locked into the feature.
Donald McIntosh led the way in Group A qualifying with a lap of 13.058 seconds around the third-mile track beating out Cory Hedgecock, David Payne, Jensen Ford and Tyler Millwood.
It was Brandon Overton who proved to be fastest in Group B time-trials with a time of 12.984 seconds topping Ross Bailes, Chris Madden, Pearson Lee Williams and Riley Hickman.
Logan Roberson won the lone B-main of the night ahead of Dalton Polston, Jadon Frame and Heath Hindman.
Overton immediately began his run of domination when the green flag waved to start the 35-lap feature with McIntosh, Bailes, Hedgecock and Madden in his wake. The No. 76 machine was already pulling away from the pack by lap 3 while Hedgecock was in the process of taking third away from Bailes.
A lap 7 restart provided Hedgecock with an opportunity to gain another spot as he moved around McIntosh to claim second. Madden seized the chance to burst through the open door by taking third from McIntosh.
Madden and Hedgecock swapped the second position twice on the following laps with Madden eventually gaining the spot by the end of the seventh lap.
A lap 11 restart saw both Hedgecock and Bailes get by Madden to assume the third and fourth places in the running order. Further back, Williams entered the top-5 by taking fifth away from McIntosh.
Also on lap 14, Madden again passed by Hedgecock to retake third.
Two laps later, Bailes spun in turn three following contact between his car and that of Madden as those two fought over the second position. During the caution for that incident, Bailes pulled alongside Madden to express his obvious displeasure.
***Following the race there was a brief verbal confrontation between the two which can be seen on my @RichardAllenIDR Twitter timeline***
During the second half of the event the top-4 of Overton, Hedgecock, Madden and McIntosh ran in tight formation briefly before Overton was able to pull away. The final move of the race came on lap 30 when Madden went around Hedgecock to grab third.
However, Overton would go unchallenged as he sailed under the checkered flag for the victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Chris Madden, 3. Cory Hedgecock, 4. Donald McIntosh, 5. Tyler Millwood, 6. Ross Bailes, 7. Brett Wyatt, 8. Riley Hickman, 9. Pearson Lee Williams, 10. Jake Knowles, 11. David Payne, 12. Jadon Frame, 13. Kenny Cobble, 14. Jensen Ford, 15. Logan Roberson, 16. Heath Hindman, 17. Dalton Polston, 18. Craig Greer
