Dale McDowell collected $4,000 at Boyd’s on Saturday night
The Southern Nationals Bonus Series made its way to the Boyd’s Speedway on Saturday night and Dale McDowell emerged as the winner after all the dust had settled on the Ringgold, Georgia facility. The home state driver collected the $4,000 first prize on the track located just outside of Chattanooga, Tenn. that he co-owns with businessman and racer David Duplissey.
McDowell began the night by setting fast time in Group A qualifying and overall with a lap of 14.651 seconds around the third-mile clay oval. Cory Hedgecock placed second in this group, which earned a position in the dash race that would ultimately set the first two rows of the starting grid for the feature event.
David Payne proved to be the fastest in Group B when he posted a lap of 14.748 seconds. He would be joined by Donald McIntosh out of this group in the dash race.
Hedgecock grabbed the pole for the feature by winning the dash ahead of McDowell, McIntosh and Payne.
Jared Landers, Jason Croft, Jonathan Davenport and Tod Hernandez won the heat races used to set the remainder of the field for the main event.
At the start of the 40-lap feature, McDowell went to the early lead from his outside front row starting spot with Hedgecock, McIntosh, Payne and Davenport following closely behind. Within just two laps, the ‘Mac Daddy’ had pulled away to a lead of five car lengths while Davenport sought to move himself in the running order by challenging Payne for the fourth position.
Davenport’s fellow Lucas Oil Late Model Series competitor, Landers, also went to work on Payne and wrested the fifth spot away from the defending Southern Nationals Bonus Series champ on the eighth circuit.
A caution flag waved on lap 13 for the smoking car of Tim Busha which set a restart that would provide McIntosh with an opportunity to move forward. On that ensuing restart, McIntosh worked his way around Hedgecock to seize the runner-up position while McDowell again moved away from the pack.
By the second half of the event, the track became bottom dominant with the tightest competition on the speedway between Hedgecock, Davenport and Landers for third.
The race’s second and final yellow flag was displayed on lap 36 for the slowing machine of Jason Welshan. However, no one was able to seriously challenge McDowell over the final four laps as the No. 17m Warrior Race Car cruised to the victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Dale McDowell, 2. Donald McIntosh, 3. Cory Hedgecock, 4. Jonathan Davenport, 5. Jared Landers, 6. Randy Weaver, 7. Jason Croft, 8. Jason Hiett, 9. Aaron Ridley, 10. David Payne, 11. Tod Hernandez, 12. Dylan Ames
