BRISTOL, Tenn. — Chris Madden led wire to wire to win the $50,000 XR Super Series Late Model feature Friday night at the Karl Kustoms Bristol Dirt Nationals at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Madden, of Gray Court, South Carolina, pulled away from the pack and nearly lapped half the field as he cruised to victory in the 50-lap race that included a who’s who of super late model dirt racing.
Veteran racer Dale McDowell finished second, Brandon Overton was third and one of last year’s feature winners, Jonathan Davenport, made a hard charge from back of the pack to finish fourth.
“Smokey” Madden finished with about a two-second lead over McDowell, but his No. 44 machine found the correct setup and was in a groove for the entire race.
“That thing was awesome, we could run top, bottom or the middle, it didn’t matter,” Madden said. “My race car was really balanced tonight. My adrenaline has been going harder today than normal. It was a good feeling all day to have. I just want to thank all my guys who work hard and just everyone who is a part of it at the shop. Most of all thank God, my family and this team that we have.”
In the final 10 laps McDowell moved from seven seconds behind to just inside of two when the checkered flag dropped but like the rest of the field he knew Madden had the car to beat.
“It was definitely a long run there, we were just hoping to get him back in sight,” McDowell said. “But Chris was good in qualifying and the heat race, so we knew he was going to be tough. He had a great car tonight.”
Third-place finisher Overton, who started 12th, was grinning during his media center session after the race.
“I’m thrilled with a third-place finish cause on these high-banked big tracks for some reason I just suck,” Overton said with a laugh. “It’s a tricky place; I just gotta put tonight in the memory banks and try to do better tomorrow night.”
Madden said the key to his victory was settling into the correct rhythm and being able to get around all of the lapped traffic unscathed.
“There’s a line where you can only run so conservative,” Madden said. “I found that spot where I could run and set my pace and not kill my race car and manage my tires. On a big track like this with this kind of speed you have to make sure to clear all the lapped cars.”
Brock Grunwold (Sport Mod) and Erik Stanton (Hobby Stock) also were feature winners in their respective divisions on Friday night.
The finish:
Chris Madden, Dale McDowell, Brandon Overton, Jonathan Davenport, Mike Marlar, Ricky Weiss, Jimmy Owens, Darrell Lanigan, Earl Pearson Jr., Joseph Joiner, Devin Moran, Scott Bloomquist, Kyle Strickler, Ashton Winger, Garrett Smith, Kyle Bronson, Christian Hanger, Dakotah Knuckles, Chris Ferguson, Tim McCreadie, Ricky Thornton Jr., Shane Clanton, Jensen Ford, Michael Chilton.