WHEATLAND, Mo. — “Superman” indeed was again super, completing a sweep of the 13th annual MLRA Spring Nationals on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Jonathan Davenport led all 50 laps – one night after pacing all 40 in the main event – and outdistanced runner-up Ricky Thornton Jr.
Davenport, of Blairsville, Ga., earned $20,000 a night after taking a $7,000 win in his Double L Motorsports Longhorn chassis.
This one was more challenging than the preliminary-night win, when Davenport’s winning margin was more than seven seconds, as Thornton made it interesting as he zipped through the field from his 18th starting position. But in the end, it was all Davenport.
“Ricky got up through there. He’s had a tough weekend for sure, but he’s really, really good,” said Davenport, who led all 90 laps during the two wins. It was the two-time Show-Me 100 champion’s 10th feature win at Lucas Oil Speedway since the spring of 2023.
Davenport said he will return to Wheatland for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Show-Me 100, May 21-23, with some extra confidence after the MLRA Spring Nationals success.
“We’ve got a really good notebook here,” Davenport said. “We’ve kind of made it a tradition to bring a car here to get prepared for that race. This is an awesome facility and we love coming
Just as he did Friday night, Davenport grabbed the lead at the drop of the green, though fellow front-row starter Tony Jackson Jr. stayed close through the early going with Davenport just a half-second in front through 10 laps.
Davenport and Jackson already were passing lapped cars by that point with the first caution waving on lap 11 as Chris Simpson slowed with a flat tire while running third. The restart saw Davenport use clean air to extend his lead to two seconds by lap 17 over Jackson with Garrett Alberson moving into third. Alberson got around Jackson on lap 21 for second.
Trevor Gundaker spun on lap 23 to bring out caution No. 2 as Davenport led Alberson by 3.1 seconds, followed by the ninth-starting Dalton Murty and Jackson. Thornton’s surge from 18th continued as he claimed second on lap 27, going around Alberson. As Thornton and Alberson battled, Davenport was able to open a three-second lead by lap 30.
Davenport struggled a bit with lapped traffic and Thornton rallied within 1.5 seconds with 10 laps to go. That was the same margin when caution flew on lap 43 as Jeff Herzog slowed with a flat tire and Dillon McCowan, who was running fourth, came to a stop in turn two.
That gave Thornton a shot with seven laps remaining, but Davenport zipped away on the restart and opened a 10-car-length lead in just two laps. He kept pulling away and completed the sweep, prevailing over Thornton by 2.5 seconds at the checkers.
“I was trying to pace myself,” Davenport said of the final half of the race. “We really hurt tires more in the heat races today than we did yesterday. I was little worried about that, so I was pacing myself there and trying to keep a safe distance.
“Just hats off to my crew. Once again, they did a phenomenal job.”
Alberson settled for third with Tyler Wolff driving from 19th to fourth and Matthew Larson taking fifth.
Johnny Fennewald took the lead from race-long pacesetter Terry Schultz with one lap to go and held off Mike Striegel to win the Hickamo Super Stock feature for the second straight night.
The finish:
Feature – 1. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[18]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[5]; 4. 4W-Tyler Wolff[19]; 5. 8L-Matthew Larson[8]; 6. 13-Dallon Murty[9]; 7. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[12]; 8. 43-Derrick Stewart[21]; 9. 3W-Brennon Willard[6]; 10. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[2]; 11. 1T-Tucker Cox[14]; 12. 11-Jeff Herzog[4]; 13. 11C-Sawyer Crigler[17]; 14. 25B-Chevy Boyer[11]; 15. 50C-Kayden Clatt[15]; 16. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[13]; 17. 15S-Clay Stuckey[16]; 18. 78S-Steve Stultz[24]; 19. 3-Joey Smith[26]; 20. (DNF) 15E-Laela Eisenschenk[7]; 21. (DNF) 8-Dillon McCowan[10]; 22. (DNF) 23-Chad Walter[22]; 23. (DNF) 32S-Chris Simpson[3]; 24. (DNF) 1XM-Aaron Marrant[20]; 25. (DNF) 1/4J-Jaxon Ertel[25]; 26. (DNF) 4TW-Tim Ward[23]
