Since the beginning of Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks two Dirt Late Model chassis brands have held a strangle hold on the victory lanes at Golden Isles Speedway, East Bay Raceway Park, Bubba Raceway Park and Volusia Raceway Park. That is, until Thursday night.
After the first eleven races sanctioned by the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, UMP and the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, it had been a driver sitting behind the wheel of either a Longhorn Chassis or a Rocket Chassis that had taken the checkered flag as the winner of each feature race. However, Dale McDowell’s triumph on Thursday night in the WoO Late Models sanctioned race at Volusia ended that run of dominance by those two brands as his Sweet-Bloomquist Race Car sailed across the finish line ahead of the pack.
Dale McDowell was the first race winner during SpeedWeeks to not be driving a Longhorn or Rocket
During the past off-season, Shane McDowell Racing, which builds the No. 17m cars driven by Dale McDowell, relocated from its shop situated on the campus of NASCAR’s Richard Childress Racing in Welcome, NC to a facility adjacent to Scott Bloomquist’s Team Zero garage in Mooresburg, Tenn. The move united the two most prominent teams that employ that particular type of chassis, no doubt with the intention of sharing information among the two racing organizations.
Both showed strength on Thursday at Volusia as Bloomquist set the overall fast time in qualifying and won his heat race before driving to a fifth place result in the main event. McDowell, who missed the feature all together on Wednesday night, started from 15th on Thursday but drove his way to the front of the field and took the lead on lap 42 before roaring to a $10,000 victory.
Prior to last night, Jonathan Davenport had scored four feature wins for Longhorn while Brandon Overton, Kyle Bronson and Tim McCreadie had posted one win each for the chassis brand owned by former NASCAR champion Bobby Labonte. Longhorn had won five consecutive races prior to McDowell’s victory. Josh Richards and Brandon Sheppard had taken two checkered flags each for Rocket during the course of Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks.
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Chris Madden
In other news from Thursday night at Volusia Raceway Park, two drivers who do not drive Longhorns or Rockets but who did look to be in contention for a feature win were taken out in the same incident.
Jason Jameson in his Swartz Race Car was fourth fastest in his qualifying session then went on to win the second heat race. That heat race win put Jameson in the WoO Late Models redraw where he drew the outside of the front row as his starting spot for the feature.
Chris Madden in his Barry Wright Race Car was the fastest qualifier in Group B and went on to win his heat race. He secured the pole for the main event in the redraw.
Jameson was shuffled back through the top-5 in the 50-lap feature as Madden fought among the likes of Brandon Sheppard, Scott Bloomquist and Shane Clanton. However, Jameson moved to the high groove as the race progressed and began to make up ground.
While Madden and Bloomquist wrestled for the runner-up position, Jameson moved high in hopes of passing both. As the racers came off of turn four to complete lap 22, the cars of Madden and Jameson came in contact with each other sending Jameson’s No. 12 into the outside wall causing heavy damage.
After his car came to rest, Jameson emerged from the cockpit with steering wheel in hand. As the cars circulated back around under caution, the driver hurled said steering wheel at Madden’s machine.
When interviewed moments later by Blake Anderson of DirtonDirt.com and DirtVision.com, Jameson declared, “He knows what happened. It’s a shame a guy like him races as dirty as he does. He knew I was out there.”
Jason Jameson(12), seen here racing last year with Mike Marlar, had his car damaged in an incident with Madden
Ultimately, both Madden and Jameson were forced to retire from the race due to the damage done to their cars. Madden, a regular on the WoO Late Models tour finished 25th while Jameson was credited with a 27th place result.
After the race, Madden told DirtonDirt.com that he did not know Jameson was that close and the contact was purely accidental.
