BRANDON, S.D. — Jonathan Davenport led all 40 laps to win the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing Friday night event at Huset’s Speedway.
Davenport had to hold off a charging Brandon Sheppard after a caution with six laps to go for his first win at Huset’s, worth $10,000.
The race was the second of three nights of action in the 15th annual Silver Dollar Nationals Presented by MyRacePass.
Sheppard, who restarted fifth after the race’s only caution with 34 laps scored, moved to the outside of the track after seeing most of the race run around the bottom of the third-mile oval, to finish second by 0.194 seconds.
Ricky Thornton Jr. finished third. Devin Moran, who won the Thursday night race, finished fourth, with Hudson O’Neal rounding out the top five.
“I’m not one to sugarcoat things, but that was pretty dull until Brandon (Sheppard) got on the wheel,” Davenport said. “I wasn’t really sure where to go; Cory (Fostvedt) was pointing me up, but I wasn’t sure if it was down there or somewhere else, so I was just trying to block. It got pretty rough on the bottom, but overall, we were just good enough to hang on.”
Sheppard’s late race heroics just about paid off in the final five laps with his fifth-to-second-place run.
“At that point, you don’t know what’s going to happen. From my perspective, it’s been a one-lane track at the bottom the whole race,” Sheppard said. “I knew at some point it would move up. It actually developed a few ruts, and I think that kept the bottom wet enough for us to stay fast down there. While we were racing, it was just blowing enough crumbs up top that we never had an early caution to lay it down and really pack it in, allowing others to run up there, especially those forced to do so by starting on the outside. When we went green, you don’t have anything left to lose – send it in there, and it felt really good. I knew there were only six laps to go, so I pushed it as hard as I could for those six laps, but we just came up a little short.”
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport (3); 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard (5); 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr (4); 4. 99-Devin Moran (1); 5. 71-Hudson O’Neal (8); 6. 58-Garrett Alberson (2); 7. 28-Dennis Erb Jr (6); 8. 18D-Daulton Wilson (13); 9. 22*-Drake Troutman (9); 10. 76-Brandon Overton (10); 11. 32-Bobby Pierce (7); 12. 79-Donald McIntosh (17); 13. 6-Clay Harris (19); 14. 17SS-Brenden Smith (21); 15. 76N-Blair Nothdurft (11); 16. 1T-Tyler Erb (14); 17. 60-Dan Ebert (18); 18. 19M-Spencer Hughes (23); 19. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck (22); 20. 93L-Cory Lawler (16); 21. 93-Carson Ferguson (12); 22. 3S-Brian Shirley (20); 23. 74X-Ethan Dotson (15); 24. 18-Jesse Sobbing (24).
