Jonathan Davenport
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series has been on a bit of a hiatus since leaving Georgia and Florida back in February. Now, the national touring Dirt Late Model tour is set to hit the track again this weekend with events at Ohio’s Atomic Speedway and Indiana’s Brownstown Speedway. The month off since their last race has given those competitors who were struggling a chance to regroup while those who ran well during SpeedWeeks have no doubt used their time to refine that which was already working well.
Count among those drivers and teams that fit into the category of running well in the deep south that of Jonathan Davenport and his Lance Landers-owned operation. The Blairsville, Georgia native believes that his team is set up for a season of success after a reunification with former crew members.
The 34-year-old driver feels as if the pieces are in place to make a strong run toward the LOLMDS title in 2018. Davenport is familiar with crew chief Jason Durham and engineer Kevin Rumley as well as the Longhorn Chassis the team will employ while the No. 49 is getting its power from Durham Racing Engines.
“I think so,” Davenport replied when asked if he felt as if he had found a comfort zone. “I’m back in a car I’m really comfortable with. I’m back with a crew chief I’ve had before, and of course, my old crew chief is our engineer here. We’re all comfortable on this team. The only thing that’s really different for me is our engine package and I know they’re great because a lot of people run them. They’ve been great so far and I don’t see any problems with them.”
Confidence abounds for Davenport and his team after they won a total of four features during Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks. The current leader of the Lucas Oil standings was in position to claim the gator trophy during the DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park but an accident in the final race of that mini-series proved costly.
“It does,” Davenport answered when asked if his efforts in the early season have inspired confidence. “I was a little skeptical of what we could do right out of the box. I mean everything looked good on paper but you’ve got to have the results to back it up with. We did that. The toughest win to get is the first one but we got it. Then we progressed and got a couple more. Our first and foremost goal is to get Lucas Oil points and get a championship.”
Jonathan Davenport’s No. 49 Longhorn
Davenport spoke with InsideDirtRacing.com prior to the Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series sanctioned event at Cherokee Speedway. The driver pointed out that his team was free to experiment in a race that was not part of their championship aspirations. But, he also acknowledged that there were limits as to how much experimentation his team was willing to do.
The race served as a proving ground for a new machine after the car used in Georgia and Florida was given to teammate Gavin Landers.
“You can’t get too far out of your comfort zone,” the 2015 LOLMDS champ stated. “This is a brand new car that we’ve never run. We wanted to run it before a Lucas race so we’d have some laps on it to get familiar with the car and the changes on it so we can be sure it reacts the same as the others. We’ll build a new car this week. The car we ran all through Florida, we gave it to Lance’s son(Gavin), and he ran it last night for the first time. We’re just getting acclimated with our new equipment so we’ll be ready when we get back to the Lucas races.”
Davenport was quick to praise team owner Lance Landers as well as primary sponsor Crop Production Services.
“He really has,” Davenport said when asked if Landers had provided all his team needs to be competitive. “I mean we’ve got the same stuff a lot of other people have but it’s just good to have a team owner who knows what it takes and he’s not afraid to give it to us. Gavin had to have a car because he’s going to race in the Comp Cams deal. Now we’ve got two new cars. I’ve got to thank Lance Landers and also Steve Martin with Crop Production Services. Steve is actually the one who called me first for Lance and got the ball rolling in this direction.”
