Dale McDowell earned his fourth $10,000 paycheck of the 2018 season
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series sanctioned its second consecutive night of racing at Smoky Mountain Speedway on Saturday night. Georgia native Dale McDowell scored his fourth $10,000 victory of the season after leading all 50 laps of the feature on the Maryville, Tenn. track. This coming after the Shane McDowell racing team spent much of Friday night and the early part of Saturday replacing numerous parts and pieces that had been damaged in the Friday feature following a part failure.
Dakotah Knuckles led the way in qualifying when he turned in a 16.806 second effort around the 4/10 mile clay oval to beat out Chris Madden, Shanon Buckingham, Brandon Sheppard, Michael Chilton and McDowell.
Sheppard earned a position in the WoO Late Models by scoring the win in the first heat race of the night ahead of Knuckles, Chris Ferguson, Chase Junghans, Mike Marlar and David Breazeale.
Chilton would join Sheppard in the redraw with a chance to be awarded the pole position by taking the checkered flag in the second heat of the night over Madden, Devin Moran, Rick Eckert, Shane Clanton and Casey Roberts.
McDowell was the final entrant into the redraw by virtue of his win in the third heat race ahead of Buckingham, Brandon Overton, Tommy Kerr, Vic Hill and Brent Larson.
The redraw placed Sheppard on the pole with McDowell flanking him and Chilton starting from the third position.
Chub Frank won the lone Last Chance Showdown ahead of Stacy Boles, Tyler Erb and Robby Moses.
Madden(44) takes a look inside of McDowell early in the race
At the start of the 50-lap feature, McDowell used his outside front row starting position to his advantage and bolted to the early lead with Sheppard, Madden, Chilton and Buckingham trailing. On a track that became bottom groove dominant early on, the start would eventually determine the running order throughout much of the event.
A lap 2 caution for the slowing machine of Breazeale bunched the field and provided an opportunity for drivers to make moves on the restart and Madden did exactly that as he wrested the runner-up position away from Sheppard. At the same time, Buckingham and Chilton fought over the fourth spot just behind the lead trio.
During the race’s middle stages, McDowell and Madden pulled away from the pack and continued to run in close proximity of each other as Sheppard worked to fend of challengers Chilton, Buckingham and Knuckles as those cars remained in tight formation behind a slower machine.
Clanton(25) and Overton battle
A lap 26 caution brought out when the top-10 running car of Overton slowed on the track. This provided the leaders a reprieve from the slower traffic that would have been difficult to maneuver around on the bottom dominant racing surface.
Madden was able to draw near McDowell’s rear spoiler multiple times over the second half of the race but was never able to get a clear opportunity for a pass.
A lap 47 yellow flag for a flat tire on the Morgan Bagley car provided one last opportunity for the field to take a shot at McDowell but the No. 17m car was simply too strong on the restarts for anyone to draw close enough. Ultimately, the veteran driver known as ‘Mac Daddy’ outran the pack to the checkered flag to score the win.
McDowell triumphantly waves the checkered flag
Feature Finnish: 1. Dale McDowell, 2. Chris Madden, 3. Brandon Sheppard, 4. Michael Chilton, 5. Shanon Buckingham, 6. Dakotah Knuckles, 7. Shane Clanton, 8. Chase Junghans, 9. Mike Marlar, 10. Chris Ferguson, 11. Casey Roberts, 12. Rick Eckert, 13. Tommy Kerr, 14. Vic Hill, 15. Tyler Erb, 16. Chub Frank, 17. Stacy Boles, 18. Robby Moses, 19. David Breazeale, 20. Brent Larson, 21. Timothy Culp, 22. Devin Moran, 23. Morgan Bagley, 24. Brandon Overton
Another victory lane celebration for Shane McDowell Racing
