WHEATLAND, Mo. — Jonathan Davenport turned Night One of the 13th annual MLRA Spring Nationals into a runaway on Friday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Davenport, of Blairsville, Ga., trounced runner-up Garrett Alberson by 7.5 seconds in a race that wasn’t that close most of the way. He lapped all but seven opponents in the 27-car starting field and, with his ninth win at Lucas Oil Speedway since the 2023 Spring Nationals, earned $7,000.
The MLRA drivers will aim for a bigger payday on Saturday with $20,000 going to the winner of a 60-lap feature. Clearly, Davenport will be the man to beat.
“It was way better than I was, apparently,” Davenport said of his car, which he said was a bit of a handful in a Thursday-night practice session. “We wasn’t very happy with it last night and still had some bugs to work out of it.
“My guys put their heads together and worked really hard today. We didn’t know (because of rain) if we were going to get to race or not. The good Lord gave us a little extra traction and we needed it all. Hats off to the track crew because we got a lot of rain today.”
Davenport took the immediate lead and opened a 2.6-second cushion by lap five over Daniel Hilsabeck. That’s when caution flew as Dillon McCowan slowed to a stop in turn two for what would be the event’s lone caution.
The two-time Show-Me 100 winner picked up where he left off when action resumed. His lead over Hilsabeck was 3.1 seconds by lap 10 with Tony Jackson Jr. another 2.2 seconds back in third.
By that point, Davenport caught lapped traffic and weaved his way through it, continuing to pad his margin. His lead was a whopping 8.6 seconds over Jackson by the halfway mark on lap 20 which was equivalent to about a half-lap.
Davenport began to slow his pace a bit and Jackson drew within five seconds by lap 28. By the notion that Jackson – or anyone else – would catch the leader was dashed as Davenport suddenly picked up the pace and pushed his lead back in excess of eight seconds by lap 31.
“We kind of make this a tradition,” Davenport said. “We always build a new car after (Florida-Georgia) Speedweeks and we come here because we know we’re gonna get a great race track. We come here to test it and get ready for the Show-Me.”
Alberson, who started ninth, rallied into second by lap 34 but the Las Cruces, N.M. driver was nowhere close to the leader. He was able to finish three seconds clear of Jackson for second and came away hoping he can qualify better on Saturday to start closer to the front of the feature.
“I don’t know if anybody had anything for J.D. Just look at the lap times. I didn’t even see him for most of the race,” Alberson said. “I didn’t know if he was still out there or not.
“We missed a little bit tonight (in qualifying). We showed up and thought we had a good game plan and just didn’t hit the ground. I’m hoping we can be closer to where we need to be.”
Another who struggled in qualifying but who rallied strong in the feature was Ricky Thornton Jr., who came from 19th to fourth. Hilsabeck, after running second early, wound up fifth.
Davenport set fast time out of Group 2 qualifying with a lap of 15.266 seconds, just ahead of Group 1 leader Kayden Klatt’s 15.373.
Johnny Fennewald advanced from mid-pack to the lead before the halfway mark and went on to capture the Hickamo Super Stocks main event.
The finish:
Feature: 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[9]; 3. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[4]; 4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[19]; 5. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[3]; 6. 50C-Kayden Clatt[5]; 7. 15S-Clay Stuckey[7]; 8. 13-Dallon Murty[15]; 9. 32S-Chris Simpson[11]; 10. 15E-Laela Eisenschenk[17]; 11. 11-Jeff Herzog[14]; 12. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[6]; 13. 1XM-Aaron Marrant[23]; 14. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[21]; 15. 25B-Chevy Boyer[18]; 16. 3W-Brennon Willard[25]; 17. 3-Joey Smith[27]; 18. 8L-Matthew Larson[10]; 19. 11C-Sawyer Crigler[26]; 20. 51C-Dean Carpenter[22]; 21. 1E-Amelia Eisenschenk[20]; 22. 1/4J-Jaxon Ertel[16]; 23. (DNF) 78S-Steve Stultz[1]; 24. (DNF) 18-Chase Junghans[8]; 25. (DNF) 4TW-Tim Ward[12]; 26. (DNF) 10G-Don Geist[13]; 27. (DNF) 8-Dillon McCowan[24]
