Brandon Overton scored his first SoNats win of 2020
After kicking off its 2020 12-race campaign in Tennessee on Friday night, the Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals headed northeast to Wythe Raceway for its second event on Saturday evening. Defending series champion Brandon Overton left the Rural Retreat, VA track with the winner’s trophy and a paycheck valued at $10,053 in a race broadcast live by DirtonDirt.com.
Dale McDowell proved to be the fastest in in Group A qualifying and overall by turning a lap in 16.526 seconds around the half-mile clay oval to top Chris Madden, Brandon Overton, Cory Hedgecock and Tyler Millwood.
Ross Bailes set quick time in Group B time-trials with a lap of 16.651 seconds to better the efforts of Donald McIntosh, Vic Hill, Trent Ivey and Kyle Hardy.
Chris Madden reigned over the night’s first heat race by finishing ahead of Dale McDowell, Brandon Overton, Mark Whitener and Cory Hedgecock.
Ross Bailes won the second preliminary over Donald McIntosh, Vic Hill, Kyle Hardy and Chris Ferguson.
At the start of the 53-lap feature it was Madden who blasted to the early lead ahead of Bailes, McDowell, McIntosh and Hill. McDowell then wrested second away from Bailes on the second lap and set off in pursuit of Madden.
Hardy charged into the top-5 on a lap 3 restart as he passed by both Overton and Hill to grab fourth. Then Overton began to charge as he passed by Hill for fifth on lap 4 then moved around Hardy and Bailes to assume the third position. Following the No. 76, Hedgecock took fifth away from Hardy as well.
Overton continued to move forward as he claimed the runner-up position away from McDowell on lap 17. Hedgecock brought out a caution on lap 20 when his car lost a drive shaft to end what looked to be a promising run.
Just after the lap 20 restart Overton surged ahead of Madden to grab the lead while McDowell and Bailes fought over third just behind the lead duo.
Overton looked to be on cruise control until the closing laps of the race when Madden suddenly drove up to the rear spoiler of the No. 76 car. On the last lap Madden was able to briefly draw alongside of Overton in turns three and four but Overton powered away t claim the win.
It was Overton’s 14th career Southern Nationals triumph.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Chris Madden, 3. Dale McDowell, 4. Ross Bailes, 5. Donald McIntosh, 6. Kyle Hardy, 7. Mark Whitener, 8. Chris Ferguson, 9. Tyler Millwood, 10. Trent Ivey, 11. Jake Knowles, 12. Pearson Lee Williams, 13. Corey Gordon, 14. Ryan Crane, 15. Cory Hedgecock, 16. Vic Hill, 17. Jensen Ford, 18. Rick Utsman, 19. G.R. Smith, 20. Daniel Baggerly
