Brandon Overton cruised to his fourth straight SoNats win
The Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals staged its fourth race in four nights on Sunday evening at Cochran Speedway. At the end of an evening of racing it was series points leader Brandon Overton who scored the victory in Cochran, GA to give him four consecutive series wins and a total of five triumphs so far on the 2020 tour. The Evans, GA driver earned $3,500 from a race shown live by DirtonDirt.com.
The top-5 from each qualifying group would be locked into the feature
Ross Bailes proved to be fastest in Group A qualifying with a lap of 14.126 seconds around the clay oval beating out Brandon Overton, Cla Knight, John Henderson and Jimmy Sharpe Jr.
Chris Madden led the way in Group B time-trials with a time of 14.552 seconds to top Michael Page, Donald McIntosh, Steven Roberts and Jake Knowles.
Mark Whitener won the lone B-main of the night ahead of Wil Herrington, John Baker, Tyler Millwood, Pearson Lee Williams, J.R. Moseley, Frank Ingram, Parker Martin, Ahnna Parkhurst, Dalton Polston and Jody Knowles.
At the start of the 35-lap feature it was Bailes who went to the early lead with Madden, Overton, Page and Knight trailing. Knight took fourth away from Page on lap 3 to make a move toward the front of the field.
A lap 4 caution for a multi-car incident slowed the pace which set up the race deciding move on the ensuing restart. Overton used the bottom lane to shoot past both Madden and Bailes to take over the lead of the race.
Madden would get by Bailes for second on lap 5 but Overton was already setting sail at the front of the field.
With the front runner continuing to put distance between himself and the pack, Page and Bailes fought over the third position on lap 8.
Even among slower traffic Overton was able to maintain his significant advantage until a lap 25 yellow flag allowed the field to catch up. Following the restart Overton went unchallenged while Madden, Page and Bailes battled for positions 2 through 4. At the same time, Baker, McIntosh and Knight were embroiled in a fierce fight for 5th through 7th.
But at the end the race belonged to Overton as he sailed under the checkered flag for the victory.
***Michael Page finished second but was docked two positions for an infraction found in post-race tech***
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Chris Madden, 3. Ross Bailes, 4. Michael Page, 5. John Baker, 6. Donald McIntosh, 7. Cla Knight, 8. Tyler Millwood, 9. John Henderson, 10. Mark Whitener, 11. Pearson Lee Williams, 12. Steven Roberts, 13. Parker Martin, 14. Ahnna Parkhurst, 15. Jody Knowles, 16. Frank Ingram, 17. J.R. Moseley, 18. Dalton Polston, 19. Wil Herrington, 20. Jimmy Sharpe Jr., 21. Jake Knowles
