Brandon Overton now leads the Southern Nationals standings
The Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals reached its halfway point on Friday night by contesting the sixth of its twelve scheduled races at Needmore Speedway. At the end of the night home state hero Brandon Overton grabbed the checkered flag at the Norman Park, GA facility. The Evans, GA driver took home $10,053 for his victory in a race shown live by DirtonDirt.com.
Overton took the lead in the series standings with his win combined with trouble for previous leader Chris Madden.
Ross Bailes set the mark in Group A qualifying with a lap of 14.548 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay oval to beat out Brandon Overton, Chris Madden, John Henderson and Kyle Bridges.
Donald McIntosh topped Group B time-trials by turning a lap in 14.659 seconds to outperform Mark Whitener, Cla Knight, Wil Herrington and Tyler Millwood.
Ross Bailes claimed the first heat race of the night by beating out Chris Madden, John Baker and Michael Page while Brandon Overton took the second preliminary over John Henderson, Russell Brown Jr. and Tristan Sealy just before Mark Whitener won the fourth heat ahead of Wil Herrington, Pearson Lee Williams and Dalton Polston.
Brian Connor won the lone B-main used to set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
At the start of the 53-lap feature it was McIntosh who went to the lead with Bailes, Overton, Whitener and Madden in his wake. Madden got by Whitener for fourth on the second circuit with Millwood following through the hole.
Whitener regained fifth from Millwood on lap 4 with the top-5 of McIntosh, Bailes, Overton, Madden and Whitener spacing out as the laps clicked off.
McIntosh caught the tail of the field on lap 7 which allowed Bailes to close in. On the ninth lap Bailes was able to slip by McIntosh to grab the race lead. And while those two cars fought for the lead the machines driven by Overton and Madden closed in.
Overton got by McIntosh to take the runner-up position on lap 12. While battling for position at the back of the top-5, Whitener got into the rear of Madden’s car sending both cars spinning on lap 14.
Series officials opted to allow Madden to return to the fourth spot while Whitener went to the tail of the field.
McIntosh went back to second on the lap 14 restart with Henderson jumping up to fourth and Millwood sweeping into fifth. Bailes bean to pull away from his pursuers until, for the third night in a row, he suffered a flat tire bringing out a yellow flag.
On the ensuing restart, Madden spun following contact with Herrington sending the series points leader to the pit area for repairs.
After multiple attempts to get the race restarted the top-4 of McIntosh, Overton, Page and Baker broke away from the rest of the pack. On lap 37 the No. 76 of Overton made a move to the outside in turns three and four to grab the lead away from McIntosh as they battled in traffic. At the same time, Baker took third away from Page.
Overton maintained control of the race over the closing laps despite two late race cautions, eventually sailing under the checkered flag for the victory.
It was Overton’s second consecutive win on the Southern Nationals Series and his third overall in 2020.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Donald McIntosh, 3. John Baker, 4. Michael Page, 5. Pearson Lee Williams, 6. Ross Bailes, 7. Chris Madden, 8. Jake Knowles, 9. Russell Brown, 10. Wil Herrington, 11. John Henderson, 12. Cla Knight, 13. Dalton Polston, 14. Tristan Sealy, 15. Parker Martin, 16. Matthew Nance, 17. Larry Harrod, 18. Mark Whitener, 19. Tyler Millwood, 20. Colby Boyette, 21. Brian Connor, 22. Matt Dooley
