Jimmy Owens earned his 78th career LOLMDS win
After weather interfered with Friday night’s planned show, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series returned to All-Tech Raceway on Saturday night to conclude its time in the General Tire Winter Nationals at that Lake City, Florida facility. When all was said and done, it was Jimmy Owens who claimed the winner’s trophy. The driver from Newport, Tennessee earned $15,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by MavTV.
A total of 44 cars were signed in for competition.
Devin Moran was fastest in Group A qualifying with a lap of 16.645 seconds around the half-mile clay oval topping Ashton Winger, Chris Madden, Jimmy Owens and Dennis Erb Jr.
Brandon Sheppard proved to be quickest in Group B time-trials after he toured the track in 17.281 seconds to outperform Jonathan Davenport, Ricky Thornton Jr., Tyler Bruening and Tyler Erb.
Devin Moran would start the feature from the pole by virtue of his win in the first heat ahead of Carson Ferguson, Chris Madden and Dennis Erb Jr. then Jimmy Owens took the second preliminary over Kyle Bronson, Tim McCreadie and Earl Pearson Jr.
Tyler Erb earned an outside front row starting position for the main event by winning the third heat ahead of Brandon Sheppard, Mark Whitener and Ricky Thornton Jr. while Tyler Bruening was the winner of the fourth heat besting Jonathan Davenport, Brian Shirley and Hudson O’Neal.
Daulton Wilson and Jake O’Neil won the two B-main races used to set the remainder of the starting grid for the feature.
At the start of the 50-lap feature it was Erb who immediately went to the front with Moran, Bruening, Owens and Sheppard in his tire tracks. Bruening charged by Moran to take the runner-up spot on the second circuit. But a lap 3 caution for a spin by O’Neil would briefly slow the action.
On the lap 3 restart, Moran moved back to second and set off after Erb. Whitener then entered the top-5 soon after the resumption of green flag racing. Further back, Owens and Whitener battled for fourth. But another yellow flag was displayed to the field on lap 7 when Madden’s machine pulled up lame with a flat tire.
Moran took the lead on the restart pushing Erb back to second while Owens jumped around Bruening to take third. Owens then moved in to challenge Erb for second but another caution for O’Neil slowed the pace on lap 9.
Defending series champion McCreadie blasted all the way to third on the lap 9 re-fire while Owens moved up to challenge Moran. However, the fifth running car of Bruening spun on lap 11 to cause another yellow flag.
McCreadie’s rise continued on the lap 11 restart as he grabbed second behind Moran. Sheppard also moved forward by taking fourth with Davenport moving into the top-5. McCreadie then chased Moran down and took the top spot on the leaderboard on lap 15.
McCreadie began to slip away from the pack as the race approached halfway as Sheppard and Davenport fought for fourth. But Moran chased McCreadie down and those two drivers exchanged the lead between laps 28 and 31. Owens then closed in on that battle and wrested second from Moran on lap 35.
With 12 laps remaining, Owens and Moran renewed their fight by exchanging second twice with McCreadie just ahead in heavy traffic. Moran slipped back around Owens on lap 40 for second.
Owens took to the high side and passed by both Moran and McCreadie to claim the lead in traffic. Davenport was also on the move as he passed Moran for third.
In the end, four-time series champion Owens sailed under the checkered flag to earn his first win of the 2022 season. It was his 78th career Lucas Oil victory.
Feature Finish: 1. Jimmy Owens, 2. Tim McCreadie, 3. Jonathan Davenport, 4. Devin Moran, 5. Brandon Sheppard, 6. Ricky Thornton Jr., 7. Ashton Winger, 8. Joseph Joiner, 9. Tyler Erb, 10. Shane Clanton, 11. Brandon Overton, 12. Brian Shirley, 13. Chris Madden, 14. Hudson O’Neal, 15. Spencer Hughes, 16. Earl Pearson Jr., 17. Tyler Bruening, 18. Kyle Bronson, 19. Stormy Scott, 20. Daulton Wilson, 21. Garrett Alberson, 22. Carson Ferguson, 23. Dennis Erb Jr., 24. Mike Marlar, 25. Mark Whitener, 26. Jake O’Neil, 27. Ross Robinson
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