Jonathan Davenport picked up a total of $35,000 for his Sunday night win
The six-race Keyser Manufacturing Wild West Shootout wound to a close on Sunday night at FK Rod Ends Arizona Speedway. At the end of the night in Queen Creek, AZ, it was Jonathan Davenport who came away as the winner of the most lucrative race in the mini-series. The Blairsville, GA driver earned $25,000 for his efforts in a race shown live by FloRacing.com.
Davenport also received a bonus of $10,000 for being the first driver to win three features during the Wild West Shootout.
Jonathan Davenport led the way in Group A qualifying with a lap of 15.102 seconds around the third-mile clay oval beating out Brian Shirley, Dustin Sorensen, Tyler Erb and Rodney Sanders.
Ricky Thornton Jr. was fastest in Group B time-trials with a lap of 15.088 to top Jimmy mars, Rusty Schlenk, Jason Papich and Mike Marlar.
Jonathan Davenport won a high speed first heat race of the night by outrunning Rodney Sanders, Mitch McGrath and Dustin Sorensen while Brian Shirley took the second heat ahead of Billy Moyer, Tyler Erb, and Tony Toste.
Ricky Thornton Jr. dominated the third heat by besting Mike Marlar, Garrett Alberson, and Jason Feger just before Jimmy Mars won the fourth and final heat in a close one over Bobby Pierce, Jason Papich, and Donny Schatz.
Chris Simpson and Rusty Schlenk won the two B-main races used to set the remainder of the starting grid.
The Wild West Shootout redraw established Brian Shirley, Jonathan Davenport, Ricky Thornton Jr., and Jimmy Mars as the first four starters.
At the start of the 50-lap feature it was Davenport shot to the early lead with Shirley, Thornton, Mars and Moyer in tow. But the action would be slowed soon into the race as Chase Allen slowed on lap 3 to bring out a caution.
On the lap 3 restart, Thornton took second away from Shirley with several tight battles playing out on the lightning fast speedway. Thornton kept Davenport in his sights, often looking underneath as the No. 49 ran the high line to keep the lead. The leaders encountered slower traffic for the first time on lap 14 which allowed Shirley to reel in the lead duo.
Thornton pulled up beside the leader when Davenport jumped the cushion on lap 22 but the veteran driver charged back away from his challenger on the high side.
A yellow flag waved at the halfway point when Sanders slowed with a blown tire. At that point, Davenport led Thornton, Shirley, Mars, Moyer, and Erb.
On the lap 25 restart, Erb shot up to fourth as Mars began to fade. Shirley then made a move forward as he passed by Thornton for second on lap 26. Thornton then fell into a battle for third with Erb until a caution flag was displayed to the field for a spin by Mars that collected Schatz.
A crash involving Marlar and Jared Landers on the restart immediately slowed the action again. On the next restart, Erb blasted up to second with a power move.
Shortly after that restart, Davenport began to motor away from his pursuers as he built a lead of more than two seconds. Meanwhile, Pierce made his presence known within the top-5 with less than 15 laps remaining.
Shirley, Pierce, and Moyer fought for positions 4-6 while Erb began to close on Davenport for the lead in traffic.
In the end, it was Jonathan Davenport who would sail under the checkered flag to score the win.
“It was tough, especially when you get to the lapped cars,” Davenport said in his post-race interview with FloRacing.com’s Dustin Jarrett. “When it gets like that it blows so much grit that it slows you down.When we were in clean air with nobody in front of us we finally got to show just how stout this No. 49 is. I’ve got to give this to my crew because they worked their tails off between the heat races and the feature. We made a couple of adjustments we hadn’t made all week and I think it really paid off.”
This was a new car just built late last fall.
“It feels so great to have a consistent car,” Davenport added. “Man, we were just battling last year to run in the top-10. This is awesome when you can have a bad night and run third. I almost had to learn how to race again up front.”
Feature Finish: 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Tyler Erb, 3. Ricky Thornton Jr., 4. Brian Shirley, 5. Bobby Pierce, 6. Billy Moyer, 7. Rusty Schlenk, 8. Johnny Scott, 9. Dustin Sorensen, 10. Jason Papich, 11. Chris Simpson, 12. Mitch McCrath, 13. Donny Schatz, 14. Tony Toste, 15. Garrett Alberson, 16. Jimmy Mars, 17. Mike Marlar, 18. Jared Landers, 19. Rodney Sanders, 20. Trevor Gundaker, 21. Chad Simpson, 22. Scott Ward, 23. Chase Allen, 24. Jason Feger
Respond to this post on Twitter by following @RichardAllenIDR and @MichaelRMoats or by liking the InsideDirtRacing.com Facebook page.
Also, NASCAR and pavement racing fans can check out InsideCircleTrack.
