Devin Moran fought of Jonathan Davenport for the victory
The Castrol FloRacing Night in America tour went to Atomic Speedway on Thursday night for its second event of 2021. At the end of an efficiently run show, it was Devin Moran who earned a hard fought victory on the Alma, OH track. The Dresden, OH driver earned $22,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 28 cars were signed in for competition.
Devin Moran led qualifying with a lap of 12.922 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay oval to beat out Jonathan Davenport, Tim McCreadie, Mike Marlar, Tyler Erb, and Freddie Carpenter.
Devin Moran topped Brandon Overton, Boom Briggs, Bobby Pierce, and Tyler Carpenter in the first heat race of the night.
Jonathan Davenport was the victor in the second heat over Freddie Carpenter, Hudson O’Neal, Josh Rice and Tanner English.
Tim McCreadie took the third and final heat over Tyler Erb, Kyle Bronson, Jared Hawkins, and Clint Keenan.
Jimmy Owens, Mike Marlar, Todd Brennan, and Ryan King transferred to the main event from the lone B-main race.
At the start of the 50-lap feature, it was Moran who went to the early lead with Davenport, Overton, Erb, and McCreadie trailing. O’Neal slipped by McCreadie to claim fifth on the second lap of the race.
The top-4 of Moran, Davenport, Overton, and Erb began to pull away from the pack by the fifth lap just before the first yellow flag of the night was displayed on lap 7 when Tanner English spun.
On the lap 7 restart, there was a chain reaction incident that collected Owens, King, Millwood, and Zeigler that immediately brought out the second caution of the feature. On the following restart, O’Neal moved to fourth while McCreadie and Erb fought over the fifth spot further back.
By lap 20, Davenport closed in on the rear spoiler of Moran as the lead duo worked through slower traffic. After a couple of mid-race restarts, Davenport and O’Neal exchanged slide jobs as they battled for the runner-up position.
Moran slipped away from a fierce battle among Davenport, Owens, Briggs, and O’Neal for the remaining positions in the top-5 following a lap 31 restart. Then on lap 35, Pierce blasted his way up to the third spot and set sail after Moran and Davenport.
Davenport used a slide job to take the lead from Moran on lap 38 then Moran used a crossover the regain the spot just before a caution flag waved for the slowing car of Erb.
Over the closing laps the top-3 of Moran, Davenport and Pierce ran in tight formation as they worked through slower cars while keeping the pressure on each other. Ultimately, Moran would fight off his challengers to score his second win valued at more than $20,000 of the 2021 season after having won the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series feature at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“God was looking out for me when we got that caution because JD got by me,” Moran said in his victory lane interview. “I couldn’t see Wylie(his brother and signal man) and I wasn’t running as hard as I should in three and four so luckily we got that caution. From then on I was just going as hard as I could over the last 20 or whatever. It was pretty freaking awesome to come down here and win. I haven’t won here in forever, it feels like. This is one of if not my favorite track.”
Feature Finish: 1. Devin Moran, 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Bobby Pierce, 4. Hudson O’Neal, 5. Boom Briggs, 6. Mike Marlar, 7. Jimmy Owens, 8. Josh Rice, 9. Todd Brennan, 10. Tyler Erb, 11. Ryan King, 12. Clint Keenan, 13. Doug Drown, 14. Brandon Overton, 15. Tyler Carpenter, 16. Tyler Millwood, 17. Tim McCreadie, 18. Kyle Bronson, 19. Freddie Carpenter, 20 Jacob Hawkins, 21. Mason Zeigler, 22. Tanner English
