Brandon Overton
One of the easiest reactions to have in sports when things don’t go your way is to blame the rules and the officials who enforce those rules. “The NFL overtime rule is stupid”; “The umpire’s strike zone was too narrow”; “The ref missed a critical block/charge call” are all commonly heard statements following a loss. And depending on the allegiances of fans, some will agree with those assessments and others will call the complainer a cry baby.
However, Brandon Overton chose to go a different route after a rule enforcement went against him and his Wells Motorsports team on Thursday night. Rather than blame the new ‘Droop Rule’ or curse Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series officials, the 30-year-old driver opted to accept responsibility and place the blame squarely on himself.
After qualifying for the opening night of the ‘Super Clean Super Bowl of Racing’ at the Golden Isles Speedway in Brunswick, Georgia, Overton’s No. 76 Longhorn Chassis was found to be in violation of a rule being enforced for the first time by the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. The regulation is meant to limit the amount of vertical travel in the left rear of the car. To check that, series tech director Steve Francis jacks the car up at the rear until the left rear tire is off the ground then he measures the height from the rear deck of the car to the ground.
The ‘Droop Rule’, which is employed by both national series as well as many regional tours, calls for that measurement from the rear deck to the ground to be 50 inches. The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series allows for a one-inch tolerance to account for unlevel ground on which the measurement might be taken.
Overton had just posted the fastest time in Group A qualifying on Thursday night but that effort was disallowed when his car did not meet the specified tolerance. As a result, the driver who was the talk of the Dirt Late Model world in 2021 had to start his heat race from the tail. “Big Sexy” was unable to race his way into the feature via his heat race or his B-main which left him on the sidelines for the $10,000-to-win main event.
After earning a redemptive win on Friday night at Golden Isles, Overton reflected on the previous evening.
“It is what it is,” Overton told InsideDirtRacing.com as his car was going through post-race technical inspection. “You know, it sucks. Redemption? Yeah, that’s cool. We came back. My guys work so hard on this thing and I kind of screwed them last night.”
Overton was congratulatory of Thursday night victor Devin Moran as he reflected back on the events that led to his qualifying time being negated.
“I’m not saying we would have won because Devin was really good and if anybody else is going to win, I’m glad it was him,” the Evans, Georgia driver declared. “But I didn’t even give them(his crew) a chance to win. That was my fault. I just missed it.”
The droop rule was initially put in use in 2018 by the Ray Cook-promoted Schaeffer’s Oil family of series. While the Lucas Oil tour isn’t checking each car’s droop in exactly the same way as Cook, Overton says he had initially accounted for the difference. He just got caught up in trying to get other aspects of his car right.
“I’ve raced a million Ray Cook races when the droop rule was in effect and they(LOLMDS) are doing it a little different than we’ve always done it and I adjusted for it before we came here,” Overton explained. “I got in the zone of trying to get all my shocks and springs set up and I just swapped and forgot that I didn’t have that one set. I didn’t know until after I qualified.”
Ultimately, Overton says he and his crew took it in stride and moved on.
“It’s racing, man. S**t happens and we’ll just carry on. Nobody threw a hissy fit or got pouty about it and that’s why I love all these guys that help me.”
That’s not a reaction we are used to hearing from athletes in other sports.
Brandon Overton finds redemption in Friday night Lucas win at Golden Isles
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