GAFFNEY, S.C. — Brandon Overton found himself in a unique position during Friday night’s World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series round at Cherokee Speedway.
He lost the lead to Daulton Wilson on lap one, forcing him to step back, regroup, and calculate his next move.
A caution on lap 14 gave Overton another shot at Wilson — one he wouldn’t let slip away. Overton used a lap car as a pick to thunder around the North Carolina driver, en route to winning the third annual Mike Duvall Memorial.
Overton had to search to find his best option on the race track before he could make another attempt at the lead.
“[Wilson] was good; I just kind of got back there to see where I’m better, or I’m worse,” Overton said. “He was just slidin’ up and kind of blocking my momentum, so I couldn’t really roll past him. So, I told myself just slow down and maintain.
“I think I seen [Brandon] Sheppard underneath me one time, and I was just like if I don’t go, he’s going to pass me, and I didn’t want him to get by me if the caution come out.”
Seeing Sheppard was the catalyst of Overton’s ascension to the lead, but it wouldn’t be the last time he’d deal with lap traffic.
Sheppard started to reel in Overton during the Feature’s closing stages, but Overton’s experience at Cherokee helped him prevail for his fifth World of Outlaws win of the season and 18th of his career.
It was his 27th late model victory this season.
“I tried to pass them on the bottom a couple times, and they go in there and slide up, so I didn’t want to hang wide, so I just made sure that I didn’t make a mistake,” Overton said. “Like if I wanted to go past them, I needed to pass them or, I needed to box [Sheppard] in.”
Three-time and defending Series champion Brandon Sheppard finished second, his 32nd top-five of the season.
“We had a pretty good car there; it’s just super hard to pass, especially that 76 car he’s been good all year,” Sheppard said. “We’ve ran second at this place quite a few times in seems like so we’re definitely itching to get a win here. But like I said, our car is really good, so hopefully, we can finish off the year strong and with a good head of steam going into next year.”
Sheppard’s runner-up finish means he’s mathematically secured his third consecutive series championship and fourth overall, tying Josh Richards for the most all-time.
Early race leader Daulton Wilson finished third, his best finish with World of Outlaws.
“I got out front and led some laps, and it’s not a matter of if it’s when here when you get into the lap traffic, and you’re the leader,” Wilson said. “You can’t get off the bottom, you know it’s coming, but to get outrun by the top two drivers in the country it says a lot for us and our program, and we’re just going to keep building on it and hopefully next time we come out on top.”
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps)-1. 76-Brandon Overton [1][$10,000]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard [4][$6,000]; 3. 18D-Daulton Wilson [2][$3,500]; 4. 22-Chris Ferguson [5][$2,800]; 5. 44-Chris Madden [14][$2,500]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin [7][$2,300]; 7. 16W-Ben Watkins [3][$2,200]; 8. 79-Ross Bailes [8][$2,100]; 9. 24D-Michael Brown [12][$2,050]; 10. 88-Trent Ivey [10][$2,000]; 11. 1D-Brent Dixon [6][$1,600]; 12. 6-Dillon Brown [15][$1,400]; 13. 16-Tyler Bruening [13][$1,200]; 14. 28-Dennis Erb [17][$1,100]; 15. 17B-David Breazeale [11][$1,050]; 16. 421-Anthony Sanders [18][$1,000]; 17. 7-Ricky Weiss [21][$1,000]; 18. 78-Thomas Robinson [16][$1,000]; 19. 2-Dennis Franklin [22][$1,000]; 20. 91-Dan Breuer [20][$1,000]; 21. B1-Brent Larson [23][$1,000]; 22. 8-Kyle Strickler [9][$1,000]; 23. 42-Doug Sanders [24][$1,000]; 24. 99B-Boom Briggs [19][$1,000] Hard Charger : 44-Chris Madden[+9]