Jonathan Davenport’s season included multiple big-money victories, but the dirt late model star most remembers a pair of races that got away.
“The two biggest moments that stand out are when I got passed with three to go at Charlotte for $50,000 and then I got passed with 12 to go at the Show-Me 100,” he told SPEED SPORT. “I felt like I gave two of them away that we should’ve won. At those two times I was still driving a little protective … from then on, I wanted to make sure that I got around lapped cars as fast as I could and try not to give up another one for the rest of the year.”
Although he had won a few times by that point, his competition perhaps didn’t know what it had awakened in the driver — fittingly known as “Superman” — by keeping him from winning those races in the spring at The Dirt Track at Charlotte and Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo.
Davenport, a native of Blairsville, Ga., is a three-time champion with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, but this year he and his Double L Motorsports team barnstormed the country, showing up with their Nutrien Ag Solutions/ASC Warranty/Spartan Mowers No. 49 car at the sport’s most prestigious events throughout the year.
The wins included both the Eldora Million and Davenport’s fifth World 100 title at Eldora Speedway in Ohio, his first victories in the Topless 100 at Batesville Motor Speedway in Arkansas and the Late Model Knoxville Nationals at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway, the North/South 100 at Florence Speedway in Kentucky, and the Silver Dollar Nationals at I-80 Speedway in Nebraska.
Altogether, Davenport racked up 23 wins on the season. Many of them came with eye-popping winner’s checks.
After tackling the grueling Lucas Oil schedule for multiple years, Davenport was looking for an opportunity to spend a little more time with his young son, Blane, and wife Rachel. Plus, when the dirt late model schedules were announced at the end of 2021, they featured multiple shows paying $40,000 to win or more across a variety of series, making the choice to focus on chasing big checks even easier.
“We felt like if we could take a little bit more time off and get a little bit more prepared each week, when the bigger shows came around we’d have a little bit fresher equipment than the guys running up and down the road,” Davenport said. “Our team would be a little more fresh. If you can’t have something, if you stay away from it a week or two, you almost want it a little bit more. So instead of just getting in a routine of (being at) the race track every week, we tried to change it up a little bit and it definitely worked out.”
The idea of chasing wins as opposed to good finishes in a year-long points battle also allowed Davenport and his team to be more aggressive in every area — ranging from setups to tire choice to Davenport’s driving style.
The 39-year-old racer’s talent has made him one of the faces of the dirt late model world over the last decade, and he’s competed for household names in the sport like Barry Wright, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Rumley and G.R Smith. He won his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championship for K&L Rumley Enterprises during a dominant 2015 campaign.
Since the 2018 season, he’s driven for Arkansas- based Double L Motorsports headed by Lance Landers, a businessman who is a co-owner at Mark Martin Automotive among other endeavors. He’s also long had a presence in the dirt racing world and his sons Jared and Gavin are accomplished drivers.
Davenport won both the 2018 and ’19 Lucas Oil titles with Landers and is on an old-school, handshake deal with the team. He credits both Landers’ commitment to the organization and their friendship as keys to success.
“We’re best friends; we talk on the phone all the time whether it’s about racing or deer hunting or trading cars, hunting property or whatever it may be,” Davenport said. “I look at him as maybe not a second father figure, but just one of my best friends that comes from an older generation than me.”
Throughout his career, Davenport’s teams have also been known to be filled with creative minds whose innovative setups have helped propel their cars to countless checkered flags. The Landers outfit has proven to be more of the same, with Davenport crediting crew chief Jason Durham and crew members Vinny Guliani and Tyler Bragg for hitting on the right combinations for the constantly evolving and sophisticated machines.
After starting a bit slow by the team’s lofty standards during Speedweeks, they soon adapted to the rules and setups necessary for success this season.
“You have to surround yourself with good people,” Davenport said. “And the better people I surround myself with, the easier my job looks. But what also comes with that is the added pressure of having to perform when I have such a great team. But they don’t put pressure on me because I don’t put pressure on them. As long as we all do our job and we’re doing the best we can, then the results will come. It’s just a matter of time.”
June’s Eldora Million — the follow-up to the 2001 event won by Donnie Moran — is the result that stands out most to Davenport this year. It does so for good reason, the winner’s prize was $1,002,022.
“When it was announced last year I went ahead and circled that one on my calendar,” Davenport said. “We saved a car just for that race. We put a lot of time and effort into that one event.”
However, he notes that getting his first Topless 100 win for Landers in his Batesville hometown was also special, as was his first win in the Late Model Knoxville Nationals at one of the nation’s most historic tracks.
Davenport is a humble superstar who never seems to get too high or too low. It’s a trait that has served him well in the grueling dirt late model world, where races come fast and go by in a flash. Along the way, he’s earned the nickname “Superman,” a fitting moniker for his on-track accomplishments, if not his personality.
He says he doesn’t know exactly where it came from, but at one time Helton Graphics handled the wraps for his race cars, and the company’s proprietor, Jeff Helton, often incorporated the Man of Steel’s logo. As a result, the famed Superman “S” began showing up on Davenport’s cars and the nickname stuck.
Legend goes that it first came to prominence during an event at Tri-County Race Track in Brasstown, N.C., when the promoter offered an extra $10,000 if front-row qualifiers started the feature from the rear. Davenport methodically drove through the field before a flat tire relegated him to the back of the pack for a second time.
He then made his way back to the front and suffered suspension damage while trying to pass for the lead.
“Some people say that’s where it really originated from, but I don’t know,” Davenport said. “Some announcer called me that and it just started sticking.”
He doesn’t seem to have any strong feeling about the nickname, but appreciates that kids at the race track like it and hopes it keeps parents bringing them back. In 2017, Davenport also began his now trademark celebration of standing atop his car with steering wheel in hand. It was in direct response to his quiet demeanor.
“Everybody used to always give me hell about not ever doing anything in victory lane,” Davenport said. “I’m not a big bragger, I don’t get excited much, I’m a pretty low-key guy. So, when I won the World there in 2017 everybody had kind of written me off. Said I couldn’t drive, I just had a bad year and I decided just to do something a little bit different. I’d never got up on the roof of my car, I’d never waved the checkered flag, I never really did anything. So that was just something kind of low-key for me but still a way to celebrate.”
He’s low-key in his private life, too. Recently he and his wife bought a ranch near their home in Belton, S.C., where they’ve been working on renovating the property.
Davenport is the type of driver and individual who lets his accomplishments speak for themselves. But while he might not show it much, he’s proud of both his staggering number of race wins and his championships.
“They all have their own special meanings in different ways,” he said. “In some of the 100-lap races you have to be really smart and conserve your equipment early in the race and put yourself in position, and in some places, you’ve just got to be pretty much all out all the time. To win the championship, you have to be there all year. You’ve got to be consistent.”
He’s proven himself a master not only behind the wheel, but in getting into the proper mindset that will achieve each goal. That trait was on display throughout his historic campaign.
Perhaps there was a little Kryptonite early in the year, but for most of the season, Superman was flying.
Superman’s List: Big-Money Victories
Date Location Money Won
April 23 All-Tech Raceway, Ellisville, Fla. $50,000
June 4 West Virginia Motor Speedway, Mineral Wells, W.Va. $50,000
June 9 Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio $1,002,022
July 24 I-80 Speedway,Greenwood, Neb. $53,000
Aug. 6 Cedar Lake Speedway, New Richmond, Wis. $50,000
Aug. 13 Florence Speedway, Union, Ky. $75,000
Aug. 20 Batesville Motor Speedway, Batesville, Ark. $50,000
Sept. 10 Eldora Speedway, Rossburg, Ohio $55,000
Sept. 18 Knoxville Raceway, Knoxville, Iowa $50,000