WHEATLAND, Mo. — Dillon McCowan waited his entire life to win his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature at Friday night’s Tribute to Forrest Lucas, on his home track of Lucas Oil Speedway.
The 22-year-old from nearby Urbana, a series rookie, needed only 24 additional hours for No. 2.
A two-time track champion as a teenager driving Modifieds, McCowan snatched the lead on lap 35 of the 50-lap, 20th annual CMH Diamond Nationals and held off Garrett Alberson for the victory, worth $25,000 and a diamond ring.
It was another improbable win for the kid who grew up watching the LOLMDS every time they rolled into Wheatland and dreamed of someday beating them.
“I thought my whole life of what I would say last night and I didn’t have time to prepare a speech for tonight,” McCowan said in victory lane as the fans roared their approval. His dad, Charlie, once again fell to his knees and kissed the dirt.
“I made a promise to my grandpa that I’d be winning Late Model races one day, I guess when I was knee high to a grasshopper,” McCowan said. “I’m glad we got to fulfill that promise.”
McCowan, who earned $41,000 for the two-night sweep, said he had no illusions about scoring a repeat. No one could have predicted such a storybook weekend. McCowan’s best previous series finish in 23 previous series events in 2026 was sixth.
“I just wanted to make the show,” McCowan said of Saturday night’s goal. “I said if we run top-10 it’ll be a good cap on the weekend. I guess it wasn’t a fluke deal.”
Even second-place Alberson, of Las Cruces, N.M., and third-running Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., said it was hard not to be happy for McCowan.
“He was good,” Alberson said. “They did a really good job and he drove the heck out of that thing.”
Overton, who led a race-high 33 laps, said he couldn’t run the bottom groove as well as McCowan.
“I want to win worse than anybody, but you can’t be upset Dillon McCowan wins,” Overton said. “That is bad-ass to see the excitement on his dad’s face and to see how pumped up they all are. I’ve been there and lived that same dream. I can relate to that.”
Overton took the lead from his pole-starting position with Jonathan Davenport in second as a pair of cautions in the first four laps plagued the race’s early rhythm.
McCowan, who started fifth, roared to second after the restart and soon was harassing Overton for the lead. With the race settling into a lengthy green-flag run, Overton couldn’t get more than one-half second away from McCowan. Then Davenport, the multi-time LOLMDS champion and three-time Diamond Nationals winner, found some extra speed and passed both McCowan and Overton on lap 19.
But Overton returned the favor the next time around with McCowan also clearing Davenport. At the halfway mark on lap 25 Overton led McCowan by .590 seconds with Davenport and Sheppard following as the leaders caught heavy lapped traffic.
Lap 30 ended the lengthy caution-free run, Overton’s margin over McCowan was .337 seconds at the time with Davenport 1.1 seconds behindr.
Davenport jumped the high line in turn three after the restart, hitting the wall and damaging the right-rear quarter panel of his car. Meanwhile, a multi-car incident on the other end of the speedway brought out the caution and Davenport pulled into the pits, calling it a night with 19 laps remaining.
McCowan grabbed the lead for the first time on lap 35 as he cleared Overton in turn three after pulling alongside coming off turn two.
“Brandon drove an awesome race. I guest he got tight down there in one and two that one time,” McCowan said. “Me and J.D. had a heck of a race too. Everybody raced real hard. I kept wanting to go to the top, but it’s probably a good thing them cautions came it. That probably kept me tamed down a little bit.
“I just tried to stay calm and run my race. Like I said last night, I didn’t care to run third. That would have been a win to me. I could have never dreamed we’d be standing out here in front of all these fans again.
“This is the most amazing weekend of my life.”
Alberson moved to second on lap 37, but McCowan began to pull away. He led by 2.2 seconds by lap 40. Just five laps from the checkered flag, caution No. 6 flew on lap 45 for debris, erasing McCowan’s 2.6-second lead over Albertson.
But no worries. McCowan handled the restart like a veteran and rolled to the finish, beating Alberson by 1.7 seconds.
Overton wound up third, Sheppard was fourth and Josh Rice fifth.
The finish:
Feature – 1. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[4]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 5. 11-Josh Rice[7]; 6. 6-Clay Harris[21]; 7. 18J-Chase Junghans[12]; 8. 40B-Kyle Bronson[17]; 9. 71-Hudson O’Neal[9]; 10. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[23]; 11. 111-Max Blair[10]; 12. 99-Devin Moran[16]; 13. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[18]; 14. 93-Carson Ferguson[6]; 15. 3S-Brian Shirley[24]; 16. 60-Dan Ebert[14]; 17. 15L-Payton Looney[11]; 18. 49-Jonathan Davenport[3]; 19. 17A-Austin Howes[19]; 20. 16-Tyler Bruening[13]; 21. 15-Clay Stuckey[15]; 22. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[8]; 23. 93O-Mason Oberkramer[20]; 24. 13-Dallon Murty[22]
