OCALA, Fla. — Jonathan Davenport secured his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing victory of the season on Wednesday at the Wieland Winter Nationals held at Ocala Speedway.
The Blairsville, Ga., native earned $7,000 for his 84th career series win.
Drake Troutman, who started in ninth place, traded positions with defending series champion Ricky Thornton Jr. for second in the final two laps, securing the runner-up spot at the finish.
Thornton finished third, while Tim McCreadie and Brandon Overton rounded out the top five.
Davenport started from the pole and took the lead as soon as the green flag dropped. In the first five laps, there were two caution flags while Overton maintained second place behind the three-time series champion. The final 24 laps ran without caution as Thornton, driving a new car, moved into second place, passing Overton on lap 18.
With traffic in front of the leader, Thornton was able to close the gap between himself and Davenport with ten laps to go. Meanwhile, Troutman had reached third by using the top line around the track, moving the G.R. Smith entry to third on lap 21.
As Davenport navigated through traffic, the battle for second place was heating up between Thornton and Troutman. The two swapped the second position a couple of times in the last two laps, with Troutman managing to edge out Thornton at the finish.
Davenport also became the first driver in six races this year to lead every lap in the main event, winning for the fourth time in his career at Ocala.
“The pace is so slow in turn four, and you feel like you’re crawling around the bottom,” Davenport said. “You feel like you’re spinning your wheels going around the top. We really didn’t know what to do. I saw Brandon (Overton) starting to run the top down here (in three and four) and start passing some cars. I got around a couple of lapped cars, and I kind of died a little bit because the outside of turn one is wider. I don’t know we still have a little bit of work to do. Man, we have been really consistent. I am just proud of my guys they have done a good job for me.”
Troutman got his best finish of the season, taking the runner-up spot in a hard-fought battle with Thornton.
“Man, I put my crew through the wringer last week at All-Tech,” Troutman said. “No, it’s pretty awesome you know we’ve got a pretty good car. The track was awesome tonight, and it widened out there. I hope we put on a good show for the fans and hopefully get a little bit better for tomorrow night.”
Thornton, who took Tuesday night’s race off to finish up his new Longhorn Chassis, was third.
“I need to get up on the wheel harder and longer I guess,” Thornton said. I” was just riding there behind (Brian) Shirley, and I messed up I think twice and let Troutman get by me and then I don’t know. We all got through traffic pretty good you could kind of move high or low, there at the beginning really didn’t know if I needed to be on the top of one and two or not. I tried it right away and lost a couple of spots. Overall, it was a great night, the first night on this thing. Hopefully, we can have a good run tomorrow and qualify well. Starting up front is kind of a premium here because everyone is really good, and the way the shape is here, you can really manipulate your car really well.”
The finish:
Jonathan Davenport, Drake Troutman, Ricky Thornton Jr., Tim McCreadie, Brandon Overton, Daulton Wilson, Hudson O’Neal, Ross Robinson, Mark Whitener, Max Blair, Tyler Erb, Dan Ebert, Kyle Bronson, Dennis Erb Jr., Blair Nothdurft, Brandon Sheppard, Brenden Smith, Garrett Alberson, Dillon McCowan, Brian Shirley, Cory Lawler, Carson Ferguson, Jack Riggs, Wil Herrington.
