Jonathan Davenport in Bristol Motor Speedway victory lane
By Jonathan Davenport’s standards, 2020 was not a great season. One of Dirt Late Model racing’s most prolific winners over the past decade took five checkered flags during the course of the coronavirus-plagued campaign. And even though those wins did include a $50,000 victory at Eldora Speedway, the 37-year-old driver is used to finishing first much more often.
Davenport won three out of four races this past weekend bringing his 2021 season win total to eight triumphs. Among those wins are a $50,000 payday at Bristol Motor Speedway and another $21,000 at Tazewell Speedway.
‘The Fast 49’ began winning immediately in 2021 when his team made the decision to compete in the Wild West Shootout in Arizona this past January but the victory pace briefly slowed down during Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks.
Following Sunday’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win at Port Royal(PA) Speedway, Davenport was asked about already having won more races by April 18th than he won all of last year.
“That’s crazy,” the three-time LOLMDS champion replied. “We were just in a slump last year. We went to Arizona and found some speed. We went to Florida and struggled but now I think we’ve almost figured out why we struggled down there.”
Jonathan Davenport’s No. 49 Longhorn
Davenport points to some differences between this year and last that have helped to improve performance.
“I’ve got to thank everybody for coming together and helping,” Davenport declared. “Kevin Rumley is helping and Bilstein Shocks, that’s the only big change we’ve made. Longhorn built some new cars. They all went to work back at the shop and it’s been working out so far. We’ve got Longhorns in the top-3 all over the country right now so we’ve got to keep that pace up.”
After winning the inaugural Castrol Flo Racing Series event at West Virginia’s Tyler County Speedway, Davenport expressed his optimism for the remainder of the season.
“It’s really huge,” the driver known as Superman said in his post-race interview. “We weren’t very good last week at Bristol but we think we found a problem. If we can ever get that problem figured out while we’re having it, we’re going to have a hell of a year because I still think a little bit of the gremlins were on us tonight. We’re just fighting a few issues but once we get them figured out, it’s going to be a hell of a year.”
While predicting a season similar to that of 2015 might be a tough call. However, it does appear as if Jonathan Davenport could be in for big win totals and significant amounts of cash as his team has opted to pursue the biggest races rather than follow one particular tour.
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