It took five races but Jonathan Davenport did what many knew was inevitable when he earned his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season on Monday evening at Bubba Raceway Park. In yet another Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks thriller, the No. 49 car had to fight off a mid-race challenge from Dennis Erb Jr. then had to hold back a late run by Ashton Winger on the second night of the General Tire Winternationals.
The Longhorn Chassis driver from Blairsville, Georgia earned $10,000 for his efforts on the track located in Ocala, Florida in a race aired live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 39 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results:
Group A Results- 1. Ashton Winger(14.420), 2. Dennis Erb Jr., 3. Ricky Thornton Jr., 4. Max Blair, 5. Garrett Smith, 6. Garrett Alberson, 7. Mark Whitener, 8. Brian Shirley, 9. Matt Cosner, 10. Hudson O’Neal
Group B Results- 1. Earl Pearson Jr. (14.462), 2. Tyler Erb, 3. Jonathan Davenport, 4. Kyle Larson, 5. Brandon Overton, 6. Chase Junghans, 7. Dustin Walker, 8. Devin Moran, 9. Blake Spencer, 10. Wil Herrington
Heat 1 Results: 1. Ashton Winger, 2. Ricky Thornton Jr., 3. Matt Cosner, 4. Garrett Smith
Heat 2 Results: 1. Dennis Erb Jr., 2. Garrett Alberson, 3. Max Blair, 4. Hudson O’Neal
Heat 3 Results: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Earl Pearson Jr., 4. Tyler Bruening
Heat 4 Results: 1. Tyler Erb, 2. Chase Junghans, 3. Devin Moran, 4. Wil Herrington
B-main 1 Finish: 1. Tim McCreadie, 2. Jack Riggs, 3. Logan Roberson
B-main 2 Finish: 1. Kyle Bronson, 2. Blair Nothdurft, 3. Kyle Larson
Feature Re-cap: The 40-lap feature took the green flag with Davenport taking the lead with Winger, Tyler Erb, Dennis Erb Jr. and Overton trailing. A mishap just after the completion of the first laps damaged the cars of O’Neal, Herrington, Roberson, Larson, Sheppard, English and Riggs.
When the race went back to green it was Davenport who sailed out to the lead and began to immediately pull away from Winger, Tyler Erb, Dennis Erb Jr., and Overton. Thornton moved into challenge Overton for a top-5 position but Overton held on to the spot.
Davenport began to encounter slower traffic which allowed Winger to keep pace with Dennis and Tyler Erb closing in. On lap 19, Dennis Erb moved around Winger to take over the Runner-up position.
Dennis Erb and Winger cut into Davenport’s lead at the halfway point with traffic continuing to play a role in the action. Erb moved to the inside of Davenport to challenge for the lead on lap 24. Erb briefly led laps 25 through 27 as the top-2 cars ran side-by-side until Davenport went back to the top spot on lap 28.
A lap 37 caution for a spin by Nothdurft set up a run to the finish with Davenport leading Dennis Erb Jr., Winger, Tyler Erb and Thornton.
On the lap 37 restart, Winger moved to second and closed in to challenge Davenport until a yellow flag for a spin by Thornton brought out a caution with one lap to go. When the green and white flag waved, Davenport got away leaving Winger and Dennis erb to fight for second with Winger holding the position.
In the end, it was Davenport scoring his first LOLMDS win of the 2023 season.
Feature Results: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Ashton Winger, 3. Dennis Erb Jr., 4. Tyler Erb, 5. Devin Moran, 6. Tim McCreadie, 7. Chase Junghans, 8. Brandon Overton, 9. Max Blair, 10. Earl Pearson Jr., 11. Brian Shirley, 12. Tanner English, 13. Daulton Wilson, 14. Brandon Sheppard, 15. Garrett Smith, 16. Garrett Alberson, 17. Hudson O’Neal, 18. Matt Cosner, 19. Ricky Thornton Jr., 20. Tyler Bruening, 21. Kyle Bronson, 22. Ross Robinson, 23. Spencer Hughes, 24. Blair Nothdurft, 25. Logan Roberson, 26. Jack Riggs, 27. Wil Herrington, 28. Kyle Larson
Please consider also reading:
Ricky Thornton Jr. finds Lucas Oil victory lane on Sunday at Bubba
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