ROSSBURG, Ohio — For the 10th time in his career, Jonathan Davenport has conquered Eldora Speedway.
Davenport, 40, of Blairsville, Ga., led the 30th running of the Dirt Late Model Dream green-to-checkered Saturday night to capture his third event crown.
The $100,030 triumph brings him up to 10 major event wins at the famed half-mile oval, counting the 2022 Eldora Million, the 2020 Intercontinental Classic, five World 100 globes and now his third Dream trophy.
“My race car was very, very good right there. It was about the best race car that I have had here up until about the last 25 laps,” Davenport said. “I’m sure everybody else was struggling at that point, too. I just got a little tighter than I needed to be since we moved so far down on the race track.
“Nothing is ever easy here, but I have had to work a whole lot harder to win here.”
Defending World of Outlaws CASE Late Model Series champion Bobby Pierce crossed the stripe second, marking a big recovery for his team after suffering mechanical failure while leading his prelim feature on Thursday night.
“I didn’t know exactly how our night was gonna go,” Pierce said. “I kinda was not really doubting how our finish would be, but I thought if we can get a top-five, that would be really good for us. So, to come home second is great.”
Brandon Overton finished third, with Hudson O’Neal and Chris Madden completing the top five.
The finish:
Feature (100 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[9]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[6]; 4. 71-Hudson O’Neal[2]; 5. 44-Chris Madden[4]; 6. 17M-Dale McDowell[19]; 7. B5-Brandon Sheppard[11]; 8. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[7]; 9. 2S-Stormy Scott[8]; 10. 111-Max Blair[21]; 11. 1G-Devin Gilpin[22]; 12. 99-Devin Moran[5]; 13. 3S-Brian Shirley[10]; 14. 1-Tim McCreadie[13]; 15. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 16. G4-Trent Ivey[16]; 17. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[23]; 18. 7-Ricky Weiss[24]; 19. 97C-Cody Overton[14]; 20. 12W-Ashton Winger[17]; 21. 40B-Kyle Bronson[12]; 22. 18D-Daulton Wilson[26]; 23. 9-Nick Hoffman[15]; 24. 11R-Josh Rice[20]; 25. 25-Shane Clanton[18]; 26. 18-Shannon Babb[25]
