WAYNESVILLE, Ga. — Jonathan Davenport scored his first win at Golden Isles Speedway since February 6, 2016, on Wednesday night, leading all 30 laps of the Wieland Winter Nationals feature for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing.
The victory marked Davenport’s fifth career win at Golden Isles. He led a hard-charging Hudson O’Neal across the finish line in a caution-free feature — the third such race of the season for the series.
Davenport held more than a three-second lead for much of the second half of the race until O’Neal trimmed the advantage to just over a second in the closing laps. Brandon Sheppard, who was seeking his first win at Golden Isles, finished third, followed by Devin Moran. Max Blair earned the Hoker Trucking Hard Charger of the Race honors, finishing fifth after starting 12th.
The win was the 93rd Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory of Davenport’s career. The Blairsville, Georgia native and three-time series champion captured his first Golden Isles win in 10 years and his first victory of the 2026 season.
“It was my first lap led of the year,” Davenport said. “It just feels like we could never get any air on the front of this car. I started on the front row in Arizona, but we could never get the start we needed and just didn’t have the car to come back to the front. My guys gave me an awesome car tonight, and this one is definitely for them. We wrecked that car on Thursday at Ocala, and they worked their tails off and drove a lot more miles than they should have to fix it.”
“The race car was awesome tonight. They’ve done a great job widening the track back out, especially going into turn one. They took a lot of the cup out of turn two, so we didn’t have to run up there as much and could let the bottom come in a little bit. The biggest difference was tires — Hudson and I were a little different from the other guys up front. I knew I needed to get the lead and get some clean air.”
O’Neal, who will enter Thursday night’s action as the Midwest Sheet Metal points leader, charged from eighth to finish second.
“More than anything, I was following those guys on the bottom, and I felt like I was better than them running sixth or seventh, wherever I was,” O’Neal said. “So I moved to the top and started passing a few of them. Then I got back down behind (Mark) Whitener and kept trying to peek under him, but I couldn’t quite make it work. I think that was when the top finally cleaned off a little bit, and we started making really good time up there.”
“I was able to move around, and I thought the race track turned out awesome. We could race all over it with different tire choices — from the softer tires on the inside to literally rubbing the right-rear tire on the wall.”
Sheppard rounded out the podium.
“We finished tonight — that’s all I’m going to say,” Sheppard said. “The last few nights at Ocala, we had some unfortunate situations, and we had a really fast car there. The track was awesome tonight, our car was really fast, and we had another consistent night.”
In the companion Crown Vic feature, Brody Collins of Hilliard, Florida, led all 15 laps for the victory. Collins inherited the pole position when his father, Johnny, scratched from the feature due to mechanical issues.
Results
Wieland Winter Nationals Feature Finish (30 Laps):
Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Earnings
1 – 1 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – $7,000
2 – 8 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $3,500
3 – 4 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $2,000
4 – 3 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $1,500
5 – 12 – 111 – Max Blair – Centerville, PA – $1,400
6 – 11 – 1T – Tyler Erb – New Waverly, TX – $1,300
7 – 2 – 3S – Brian Shirley – Chatham, IL – $1,200
8 – 7 – 5 – Mark Whitener – Middleburg, FL – $1,100
9 – 6 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – $1,000
10 – 5 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $950
11 – 10 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $900
12 – 14 – 97 – Cody Overton – Thomson, GA – $850
13 – 13 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – $800
14 – 16 – 10 – Garrett Smith – Madison, GA – $750
15 – 9 – 19M – Brenden Smith – Dade City, FL – $725
16 – 18 – 28 – Dennis Erb Jr – Carpentersville, IL – $700
17 – 15 – 76N – Blair Nothdurft – Renner, SD – $700
18 – 23 – 13 – Dallon Murty – Chelsea, IA – $700
19 – 17 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – $650
20 – 21 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – $625
21 – 19 – 55 – Benji Hicks – Mount Airy, NC – $625
22 – 24 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $600
23 – 22 – 40B – Kyle Bronson – Brandon, FL – $600
24 – 20 – 16B – Ross Bailes – Clover, SC – $600
