BROWNSTOWN, Ind. — Devin Moran spent several years striving to win a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at Brownstown Speedway.
He checked that off his bucket list when he claimed the Indiana Icebreaker in 2024, and then 12 months later, he secured back-to-back victories by winning this year’s edition, which was worth an event-record $25,000, on Saturday night, leading all 50 laps.
Moran beat Ricky Thornton Jr. to the checkered flag by 1.118 seconds for the victory. Jonathan Davenport managed to repass Mike Marlar on the last lap, finishing in third place. Marlar took fourth. Josh Rice also executed a pass, getting by Daulton Wilson on the final lap to secure his second consecutive top-five finish in the series.
In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the fourth time this season, Moran expressed his affection for Brownstown Speedway as he and Thornton left Brownstown tied for the points lead.
“Baby, I love Brownstown,” said the Dresden, Ohio native who claimed his 19th career series win. “I love coming here. It was a hard-fought race the entire time. At the initial start, Garrett (Alberson) and JD were running the bottom, and I just made hay around the top in three and four. I had a really good race car, but I felt like they were on me the whole race this place is so hard to get separated from people. The lapped cars were all over the place, and there at the end, it started to get a little bottom dominate.”
Thornton, the defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion, was coming off of a win at Atomic on Friday. He briefly grabbed the lead on a lap-33 restart from Moran with a big slider in turn four, but Moran turned down the track to maintain his lead.
“I just got a good restart and I I knew I wasn’t going to pass Devin there. I was more going to slide Devin so that way JD couldn’t get by me. It was more defense for second than trying to win it. So, I felt our car was pretty good there finally once it went slick towards the end, and I could move around a little bit.”
Davenport rounded out the podium.
“No doubt we had a good race (with Marlar). He come up through there pretty good. We were probably a little soft on tires. I thought we would be better at the beginning of the race than Devin was, but he fired really well, he’s been really good here at Brownstown. We got good there during that long run which was kind of odd for our tire choice. But thereafter that caution, there was a lot of grit out in the middle of three and four so that’s why I picked the top on the restart.”
The finish:
Devin Moran, Ricky Thornton Jr., Jonathan Davenport, Mike Marlar, Josh Rice, Daulton Wilson, Tyler Bruening, Brandon Overton, Tyler Erb, Ross Robinson, Dan Ebert, Daniel Hilsabeck, Tripp Gerrald, Garrett Alberson, Michael Chilton, Spencer Hughes, Jason Jameson, Brandon Sheppard, Carson Ferguson, Christian Hanger, Brenden S,mith, Donald McIntosh, Cory Lawler, Seth Daniels, Hudson O’Neal, Camaron Marlar, Devin Gilpin, Clay Harris, Jared Bailey.
