Overton, Roberts emerge as SoNats winners on drama filled night at the Taz

The entire Southern Nationals mini-series offered up a great deal of excitement and drama and the finale on Saturday night at Tazewell Speedway certainly contributed to that as the night was filled with intense competition and doubt in both the outcome of the race and the series championship throughout the evening. When all was said and done, Brandon Overton came away from the track located in upper east Tennessee with his fifth series victory and a check for $10,000.

At the same time, Casey Roberts compiled nine very consistent finishes over the two-week stretch of the series to come away as the Southern Nationals champion for the second time in his career. He was rewarded with a check for $5,300 from the Ray Cook-promoted tour for his efforts.

Ivedent Lloyd, Jr. was fastest in qualifying among the 23 cars entered in the series finale as he posted a time of 11.813 seconds around the third-mile clay oval to beat out Dale McDowell, Michael Chilton, Chad Ogle and Donald McIntosh.

The drama began during qualifying as Roberts, who entered the night with the points lead, crashed hard into the turn two wall on his attempt. The car was badly damaged and the driver emerged from the vehicle favoring his right arm. However, the Blount Motorsports crew quickly went to work unloading and preparing the backup, which they had ready by the start of the first heat race.

Ogle earned the pole for the feature by winning the first heat race of the night ahead of Lloyd, Steve Smith, Roberts and Aaron Ridley.

McDowell would start the main event from the outside of the front row by virtue of his win in the night’s second preliminary race over McIntosh, Overton, Vic Hill and Cla Knight while Chilton claimed the third and final heat of the night ahead of Eric Wells, Kenny Collins, Carder Miller and Craig Vosbergen.

McDowell bolted to the lead at the drop of the green flag for the 53-lap feature with Ogle, Chilton, Lloyd and Wells trailing. By the second lap the battle for position in the back half of the top-10 was on as McIntosh, Smith and Roberts fought over sixth. On lap 5 Roberts moved by Smith to take seventh and on the next circuit he swept by McIntosh to grab sixth.

A lap 7 incident involving Brad Skinner and Kenny Collins brought out the first yellow flag of the feature. On the restart, Chilton moved into the runner-up spot while Wells seized fourth.

McDowell led and looked as if he might be on his way to the same type of performance that earned him a win in the season opener at Wythe(VA) Raceway in the early going, which could have also netted him the series championship if he were to finish at least three positions in front of Roberts. But as is often the case at Tazewell, slower traffic would play a big role.

Chilton tracked the leader down as the two moved in and around those who they were attempting to lap, at times going two and three-wide in order to get around the slower machines. However, contact between the two left McDowell with a flat tire and brought out the second caution of the race on lap 22.

Chilton inherited the lead while McDowell was forced to rejoin the action at the tail of the field.

When green flag racing resumed McIntosh forced himself into the picture as he took second away from Wells on lap 27. During that same green flag stretch, Roberts moved up to fourth in the running order.

A pair of cautions on laps 30 and 31 for a flat tire on Smith’s car and wall contact for Hill slowed the action but also set up a dramatic run to the finish.

Overton had climbed to third on the lap 30 restart then made a big move on the lap 31 green flag that not only got him second place but also launched toward the lead. On lap 32 the No. 76 car took to the high side and sailed past Chilton to take the lead.

However, the race was far from decided at that point as Chilton fought back to regain the top spot on the leader board as he and Overton wrestled with slower traffic. At the same time, McDowell was moving his way back through the field as he broke into the top-5 late int he going.

Overton charged back on Chilton and made an aggressive move to retake the lead on lap 49 that caused both cars to bounce off the outside wall. However, both continued on but it would be Overton who won the race to the checkered flag to get the victory.

Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Donald McIntosh, 3. Michael Chilton, 4. Casey Roberts, 5. Dale McDowell, 6. Eric Wells, 7. Forrest Trent, 8. Craig Vosbergen, 9. Ryan King, 10. Chad Ogle, 11. Ivedent Lloyd, Jr., 12. Ross Bailes, 13. Dakotah Knuckles, 14. Cla Knight, 15. Aaron Ridley, 16. Eric Webber, 17. Brian Smith, 18. Steve Smith, 19. Vic Hill, 20. Carder Miller, 21. Mitchell Burke, 22. Kenny Collins, 23. Brad Skinner