Brandon Overton earned his biggest payday of 2022
In 2021, Brandon Overton won numerous races that came with monster paychecks. However, this season had not been so good to the driver of the No. 76 Wells Motorsports car… until Saturday night in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned Gopher 50 at Deer Creek Speedway.
The Longhorn Chassis driver from Evans, Georgia was awarded $50,000 for his efforts in the race held at the 3/8 mile Spring Valley, MN track shown live by MavTV Plus/FloRacing.com.
The top-16 starters were set based on points awarded during Thursday and Friday night preliminary races.
Feature Lineup: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Chris Madden, 3. Brandon Overton, 4. Tim McCreadie, 5. Mike Marlar, 6. Johnny Scott, 7. Brandon Sheppard, 8. Ricky Weiss, 9. Jimmy Owens, 10. Ricky Thornton Jr., 11. Tyler Erb, 12. Brent Larson, 13. Earl Pearson Jr., 14. Kyle Strickler, 15. Tyler Bruening, 16. Hudson O’Neal
*Jonathan Davenport and Chris Madden accepted a challenge to drop back to the 11th and 12th starting positions. They would receive an additional $25,000 should either win from the sixth row.*
B-main 1 Finish: 1. Stormy Scott, 2. Shane Clanton, 3. Ryan Gustin
B-main 2 Finish: 1. Garrett Alberson, 2. Chad Simpson, 3. Spencer Hughes
Feature Re-cap: When the green flag waved over the 75-lap feature it was McCreadie who went to the early lead ahead of Overton, Marlar, Scott and Weiss. By the fourth lap Madden had advanced to the 8th position while Davenport was mired back in 12th. At the same time, McCreadie and Overton began to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.
Overton moved in on McCreadie at lap 13 and those two drivers swapped the lead multiple times over the next few circuits with Overton holding the lead when a lap 20 caution for Gustin slowed the action.
On the lap 20 restart, Marlar shot to the race lead ahead of Overton while Owens blasted up to third. Overton regained the race lead on lap 23 when he passed by Marlar. Soon after green flag racing had resumed, the top-5 cars of Overton, Marlar, Owens, McCreadie and Erb were running all over the track as they mixed it up for positions.
Owens passed fellow Tennessean Marlar for second on lap 28. However, Marlar would retake that position on lap 42. Madden had moved up to 7th on lap 43 as Overton began to pull away from the field.
Owens began to fade back and ultimately brought out a caution with a flat tire on lap 54 with Overton leading Marlar, McCreadie, Madden and Erb.
Just after the lap 54 restart, Madden moved to third as he and Marlar fought for position. Madden broke away from Marlar and set off after front runners Overton and McCreadie. On lap 62, the top-3 of Overton, McCreadie and Madden ran in nose-to-tail formation as they approached slower traffic with the win hanging in the balance.
Madden took the runner-up spot away from McCreadie on lap 72 just before a yellow flag waved just as Madden began to challenge Overton.
Overton was able to fight back the challengers behind him and sail on to his biggest win of 2022.
Feature Results: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Chris Madden, 3. Tim McCreadie, 4. Mike Marlar, 5. Ricky Weiss, 6. Tyler Erb, 7. Ricky Thornton Jr., 8. Daulton Wilson, 9. Jonathan Davenport, 10. Brent Larson, 11. Hudson O’Neal, 12. Earl Pearson Jr., 13. Garrett Alberson, 14. Shane Clanton, 15. Tyler Bruening, 16. Jimmy Owens, 17. Stormy Scott, 18. Johnny Scott, 19. Chad Simpson, 20. Brandon Sheppard, 21. Spencer Hughes, 22. Kolby Vandenbergh, 23. Daniel Hilsabeck, 24. Steve Stultz, 25. Kyle Strickler, 26. Ryan Gustin, 27. Ross Robinson
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