OCALA, Fla. — Devin Moran repeated his performance from one year ago, capturing the opening night of the Wieland Winter Nationals at Ocala Speedway on Tuesday night.
The caution-free 30-lap feature took just eight minutes to complete.
Moran, the defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion, took the lead on lap 14 from racelong leader Brandon Sheppard and went on to pace the final 16 circuits, earning his fourth career victory at Ocala.
Sheppard, who was seeking his first Ocala win since 2017, finished second, followed by Clay Harris, Brandon Overton and Hudson O’Neal.
Moran earned $7,000 for his 26th series victory.
“No, honestly, Sheppy took off hard there. The dirt’s not hard, but it’s definitely a little gritty. I feel like you build a little bit of heat, so I was just trying to bide my time,” Moran said. “I know how this place is when you get to lapped traffic, and if you can maneuver, you’re going to be really good. My guys provided me with a Longhorn Chassis that could move anywhere on the race track, on either end. So, it was really cool.”
Regarding his second win of the season — both coming in caution-free features — Moran discussed his approach to long green-flag runs.
“Honestly, I’ve always been better on long green-flag runs. I’m able to find a rhythm and places on the track where I can make speed, and that’s what I did the whole race,” he said. “When you have a car you can maneuver through traffic, it’s so fun. If you have one you can’t, it just makes it tough. Bubba (Clem) and those guys did a great job giving us a track you could move around on. I just love being in Florida for the month.”
Sheppard, who set overall fast time and won his heat race, was looking to complete a clean sweep of the night but settled for the runner-up finish.
“I think we had a really fast car capable of winning the race,” Sheppard said. “Congrats to Devin — he did a really good job there. I pretty much gave it away in lapped traffic. I was trying to figure out where I could pass those guys because I hadn’t passed anyone yet. I went to the top one lap, and Devin was on me and made the most of it.”
Harris, who scored two podium finishes last week at All-Tech Raceway, finished third.
“It’s a lot more fun when you can run up front to start off the year,” Harris said. “We definitely struggled last year — switching cars, switching teams — and I didn’t have much crew help at the beginning of the season. We’ve got a good team this year, good equipment, and good cars. I could run the bottom and kind of maintain, but I couldn’t really make the top work — it would just fall off.”
Wieland Winter Nationals Feature Finish (30 Laps):
Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Earnings
1 – 2 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $7,000
2 – 1 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $3,500
3 – 3 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $2,000
4 – 6 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $1,500
5 – 11 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $1,400
6 – 5 – 3S – Brian Shirley – Chatham, IL – $1,300
7 – 4 – 58V – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – $1,200
8 – 9 – 1T – Tyler Erb – New Waverly, TX – $1,100
9 – 7 – 111 – Max Blair – Centerville, PA – $1,000
10 – 20 – 22* – Drake Troutman – Hyndman, PA – $950
11 – 13 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – $900
12 – 8 – 19M – Brenden Smith – Dade City, FL – $850
13 – 10 – 28 – Dennis Erb Jr – Carpentersville, IL – $800
14 – 12 – 76N – Blair Nothdurft – Renner, SD – $750
15 – 17 – 40B – Kyle Bronson – Brandon, FL – $725
16 – 16 – 11 – Josh Rice – Crittenden, KY – $700
17 – 15 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $700
18 – 14 – 77 – Preston Luckman – Coos Bay, OR – $700
19 – 21 – 13 – Dallon Murty – Chelsea, IA – $650
20 – 18 – 10 – Garrett Smith – Madison, GA – $625
21 – 24 – 15K – Cody Overton – Thomson, GA – $625
22 – 22 – 7 – Ross Robinson – Georgetown, DE – $600
23 – 23 – 12M – Ryan Montgomery – Fairmont, WV – $600
24 – 19 – 81F – Jadon Frame – Winchester, TN – $600
