OCALA, Fla. — Devin Moran continued his winning ways with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing, capturing the 30-lap $7,000 Wieland Winter Nationals main event on Tuesday night at Ocala Speedway.
Moran took the lead on lap 24 from Brandon Overton, who had led the first 23 laps, as the Dresden, Ohio, driver secured his 17th career series victory.
Overton, who fell back to third on a restart with five laps remaining, managed to get around Jonathan Davenport with two laps left. He then closed in on Moran at the end, finishing .0264 seconds behind.
Davenport secured the podium in third. The rest of the top five consisted of Carson Ferguson and Hudson O’Neal.
In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the second time in his career at Ocala and the second consecutive time this season, Moran recalls his early-week successes in previous years at Easy Bay.
“Just like for the Winternationals at East Bay, I felt I was really good the first night, so bringing that over to Bubba’s place is awesome, and taking his money is great too,” Moran explained. “As I mentioned earlier tonight, I thought the track would be pretty good, and it did seem good. Turns out, one and two finally started to come in once it slowed down. He (Overton) finally caught lapped traffic, which threw him off a bit. I’ve watched a lot of film and seen how to take different lines here to gain speed. I tried them all and finally found one that worked. It was really cool to get the first win of the week here. I wish it was a points night, but that’s alright. We’ll take the money and get ready for the rest of the week.”
Overton led unchallenged for the first 20 laps of the race until traffic started to play a part as a long stretch of green flag racing allowed Moran and Davenport to make it a three-way battle for the top spot.
“I was just trying to outsmart them on that restart,” Overton said. “I figured he (Moran) would go to the bottom in turns one and two, but he went to the top on that restart, which really threw me off. I just wheelied and pushed and got back behind JD, and I was able to enter a little lower than everyone else in three. We had a good enough car to win. I just got too close to the lapped car and spun the tires leaving turn two. It was just one of those nights when running second felt better than being out front. So, we’ll take it; we are making gains every day.”
Davenport created an exciting three-car battle before the caution flag waved with 25 laps completed. He briefly took second place when Overton slipped up the track on the restart, but Overton managed to pass him again on the final lap.
“I thought I had passed Overton before the caution, but they said I wasn’t ahead of him that lap,” Davenport explained. “We had a great race there. They got a bit held up in lapped traffic and I caught up to them. I found the top down on that end and we were just a little better. We tried something new tonight, but I don’t think it worked as well. We know what we need to do to improve for tomorrow and the rest of the week. It’s sunny in Florida, and it’s 80 degrees; we’re all having a good time down here.”
The finish:
Devin Moran, Brandon Overton, Jonathan Davenport, Carson Ferguson, Hudson O’Neal, Tyler Erb, Max Blair, Will Herrington, Tim McCreadie, Jimmy Owens, Kyle Bronson, Drake Troutman, Dillon McCowan, Garrett Alberson, Mark Whitener, Carson Brown, Brenden Smith, Ross Robinson, Brandon Sheppard, Jack Riggs, Daulton Wilson, Brian Shirley, Clay Harris, Spencer Hughes.
