FAIRBURY, Ill. — Devin Moran regained the lead from Jason Feger on lap 45 and won the FALS Spring Shootout presented by Titan Industries on Saturday night at Fairbury Speedway.
Moran collected $30,000 for his second Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season.
Moran, who won the track’s signature event, the Prairie Dirt Classic in 2018, held off Ricky Thornton Jr., the defending PDC champion for the win. Brandon Sheppard took third, followed by Feger and Jonathan Davenport.
Moran started on the outside of the front row and took the lead at the start of the 60 lap-race.
Mike Marlar grabbed second behind Moran at the start as he trailed last year’s runner-up in the championship points for the first 16 circuits until Feger, who started sixth took over second from Marlar on lap 17.
Feger was not done yet and after reaching second took just two more laps to get the lead passing Moran on lap 19.
Feger, who entered the race with three career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victories used the outside line to try and extend his lead out over Moran, and Sheppard who had climbed to third.
The trio of Feger, Moran, and Sheppard ran that way until Moran was able to regain the point from Feger on lap 45.
Thornton then started to get going, after running outside the top five for several laps. The current championship point leader, who was looking for his fourth series win in a row, moved into the second spot as Feger fell to fourth behind Sheppard.
Moran stayed glued to the bottom of the track as the race went with a long stretch of green flag racing to the end. Thornton made a last-ditch effort on the final circuit but came up 0.760 seconds short of Moran at the finish.
It was Moran’s 10th career victory with the Lucas Oil late models.
“I was trying to be patient and save my tires a little because he was running the top,” said Moran after seeing Feger pass him for the lead. “I saw there was 25 to go and I knew it was time to go, I knew I needed to get by him. Feger didn’t move down, and thank goodness, because it worked out for us. It’s hard to lead here when you see the 20rt (Thornton) behind you on the scoreboard, but fortunately for me I was able to stay on the bottom, I wasn’t going to move from there.”
Thornton finished second.
“If I could have won my heat race, I might have had a better shot at the win,” he said. “I didn’t fire off as good as I needed to and it kind of took me a while to get going. We just slowly and methodically worked our way forward. There for a while I thought Feger was going to win the thing; he took off like a rocket there. Congrats to Devin; his stuff has been really good.”
Sheppard was third.
“They were all single file around the bottom, and I figured I could give it a whirl once at least. I think I could have been more aggressive at the beginning of the race. I had a pretty good balanced car all night long.”
The finish:
Devin Moran, Ricky Thornton Jr., Brandon Sheppard, Jason Feger, Jonathan Davenport, Mike Marlar, Nick Hoffman, Tim McCreadie, Mike Harrison, Cody Overton, Kyle Bronson, Gordy Gundaker, Max Blair, Tyler Erb, Allen Weisser, Bobby Pierce, Garrett Alberson, Carson Ferguson, Shannon Babb, Tanner English, Hudson O’Neal, Daulton Wilson, Ross Robinson, Jimmy Owens, Brenden Smith, Chris Simpson, Drake Troutman, Brian Shirley.