Jimmy Owens added yet another gator trophy to his collection on Saturday night
The final night of the DIRTcar nationals played out on Saturday night at Volusia Speedway Park with a World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series event. For the third consecutive night it would be Jimmy Owens who left the Barberville, FL facility with the winner’s paycheck valued at $10,000.
Brandon Sheppard was crowned at the DIRTcar Nationals week-long champion for the Super Late Model division.
Scott Bloomquist set the quick time in Group A qualifying and overall with a lap of 15.769 seconds around the .425-mile clay oval to beat out Jimmy Owens, Brian Shirley, Jonathan Davenport, Mark Whitener and Chase Junghans.
Kyle Strickler proved to be the fastest in Group B time-trials with a mark of 15.972 seconds to better the efforts of Darrell Lanigan, Dale McDowell, Mike Marlar, Mason Zeigler and Kyle Bronson.
Scott Bloomquist was the victor in the night’s first he race after he beat Ricky Weiss, Mark Whitener and Shane Clanton to the finish line then Jimmy Owens claimed the second preliminary ahead of Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Sheppard and Tim McCreadie.
Bloomquist was docked three finishing positions, however, after his car was found to not conform with WoO Late Models quarter panel height regulations in his post-heat race tech inspection.
It was Darrell Lanigan who grabbed the checkered flag in the third heat over Mike Marlar, Mason Zeigler and Dennis Erb Jr. just before Kyle Strickler scored the final heat race win of the night by beating out Kyle Bronson, Tyler Erb and Rick Eckert.
Brian Shirley won the first Last Chance Showdown race of the night ahead of Chase Junghans and Brandon Overton and Cade Dillard won the second LCS over Gregg Satterlee and Dale McDowell.
The WoO Late Models redraw placed Strickler on the pole with Owens, Weiss, Lanigan, Davenport, Whitener, Bronson and Marlar lining up in order on the starting grid.
At the start of the 50-lap feature, it was Stickler who briefly went to the early lead with Lanigan, Davenport, Bronson and Owens following. Lanigan wasted no time as he swiped the lead from Strickler on the second circuit.
Strickler then began a fall through the running order as Davenport, Bronson and Owens took turns passing by the pole sitter.
Lanigan encountered slower traffic on lap 7 which allowed Davenport to close quickly. One lap later Davenport swept by Lanigan to take the race lead. But Lanigan would fight back and retook the led on lap 9.
A lap 10 caution flag waved for the slowing car of Blake Spencer. Under that yellow the second running Davenport pulled into the pit area and retired from the race.
When the race re-fired Bronson got around Lanigan to assume the race lead on lap 14. Lanigan pulled back up to challenge on lap 20 as the lead duo raced three-wide with a slower car in the middle until Bronson emerged from that battle with the lead still in hand.
Following a lap 24 restart the winner of the previous two night’s, Owens, went to second and set off in pursuit of the race leader. That pursuit would continue for several laps until Owens caught Bronson in traffic on lap 35 then made his move for the lead with 11 laps remaining.
From that point there would be no stopping the ‘O Show’ as he began to pull away. Weiss also got by Bronson for second on lap 43.
Owens having “the best SpeedWeeks I’ve ever had” earned his third consecutive victory at Volusia Speedway Park.
Feature Finish: 1. Jimmy Owens, 2. Ricky Weiss, 3. Kyle Bronson, 4. Lanigan, 5. Brandon Sheppard, 6. Kyle Strickler, 7. Scott Bloomquist, 8. Shane Clanton, 9. Tim McCreadie, 10. Mason Zeigler, 11. Chris Madden, 12. Rick Eckert, 13. Tyler Erb, 14. Brian Shirley, 15. Dennis Erb Jr., 16. Brent Larson, 17. Chase Junghans, 18. Brandon Overton, 19. Ashton Winger, 20. Cade Dillard, 21. Matt Cosner, 22. Kody Evans, 23. Boom Briggs, 24. Mark Whitener, 25. Gregg Satterlee, 26. Mike Marlar, 27. Dale McDowell, 28. Jonathan Davenport, 29. Blake Spencer
