Chris Madden took the lead on lap 31 and drove to victory
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series plunged into its final weekend of the 2019 season on Friday night in the Can-Am World Finals. Competitors took to The Dirt Track at Charlotte to contest a $12,000-to-win feature that would serve as the first event in a two-race weekend. At the end of the night it would Chris Madden who would celebrate in victory lane after he executed a mid-race pass on Jonathan Davenport to take the lead before cruising under the checkered flag.
Brandon Sheppard came into the weekend having already secured the WoO Late Models championship.
Josh Richards led the way in Group A qualifying and overall with a lap of 14.805 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval to beat out Ross Bailes, Chris Madden, Logan Roberson and Cade Dillard.
Jonathan Davenport proved to be fastest in Group B time-trials with an effort of 14.843 seconds to better the times of Scott Bloomquist, Steven Roberts, Kyle Hardy and Shane Clanton.
Josh Richards earned a place in the WoO Late Models redraw by winning the first heat race of the night ahead of Chris Ferguson and Brandon Sheppard while Ross Bailes took the night’s second preliminary over Cade Dillard and John Blankenship.
Chris Madden was the victor in the third heat over Darrell Lanigan and Ryan King with Jonathan Davenport taking the fourth heat ahead of Kyle Hardy and Don O’Neal.
Scott Bloomquist took the checkered flag in the fifth preliminary by beating out Shane Clanton and Joey Coulter just before Steven Roberts won the sixth and final heat of the night besting Jimmy Owens and Brian Birkhofer.
Tim McCreadie, Ricky Weiss and Hudson O’Neal won the three Last Chance Showdown races used to set the remainder of the starting lineup.
The WoO Late Models redraw placed Davenport on the pole with Bloomquist, Richards, Madden, Bailes and Roberts set to follow the 2019 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion to the green flag.
At the start of the 50-lap feature it was Davenport who bolted to the early lead. Madden slipped by Bloomquist to take second on the second lap with Richards and Roberts rounding out the top-5.
Roberts began to slip back as Ferguson passed by to move into the top-5 on lap 2 and Dillard went around the No. 111 to take sixth one circuit later.
The first yellow flag of the night waved on lap 7 when Boom Briggs experienced mechanical trouble. On the restart, Ferguson took fourth away from Richards just before the caution lights came on once again on lap 8 for a spin involving Lanigan and Brent Larson.
Bloomquist got by Madden to take the runner-up spot on the lap 8 restart while Davenport continued to show the way over the next several laps. At the same time, Sheppard began to move forward as he entered the top-10 from his 13th starting position.
On the 21st circuit Madden retook the second spot from Bloomquist and immediateluy closed in on the leader. Throughout the middle stretches of the race the top-3 of Davenport, Madden and Bloomquist would pull away from Ferguson and Dillard.
Madden made a strong bid for the top place on the leader board on lap 21 when he made a move to the inside of Davenport. However, the No. 49 car held the position until a caution flag waved on lap 31.
On the ensuing restart Madden bolted by Davenport to assume the lead of the race. Briefly the No. 0M car pulled away from his pursuers until slower traffic slowed his progress on lap 44. But Madden cut through the slower cars without incident and maintained his advantage.
Bloomquist got by Davenport for second late in the going but Madden proved to be too tough for the competition as he continued a strong second half of the 2019 season.
Click here to check out the live updates from this race, which were provided on InsideCirleTrack.com, to see the video of the three-division four-wide salute.
Feature Finish: 1. Chris Madden, 2. Scott Bloomquist, 3. Jonathan Davenport, 4. Chris Ferguson, 5. Cade Dillard, 6. Brandon Sheppard, 7. Shane Clanton, 8. Josh Richards, 9. Kyle Hardy, 10. Don O’Neal, 11. Steven Roberts, 12. Hudson O’Neal, 13. Dale McDowell, 14. Ricky Weiss, 15. Mike Marlar, 16. Ryan King, 17. Chase Junghans, 18. Tim McCreadie, 19. Joey Coulter, 20. Dennis Erb, Jr., 21. John Blankenship, 22. Darrell Lanigan, 23. Blake Spencer, 24. Ross Bailes, 25. Brian Birkhofer, 26. Jimmy Owens, 27. Dustin Mitchell, 28. Brent Larson, 29. Boom Briggs
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