CONCORD, N.C. — When Jonathan Davenport gets out front at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, there’s usually no stopping him.
That trend continued Saturday night, when he won the 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series feature at Dave Smith Motors World Finals.
The win was Davenport’s ninth at World Finals and 20th of his career in World of Outlaws competition, tying him with Nick Hoffman and Brandon Overton for 13th on the all-time list. He also is tied with Donny Schatz as the winningest driver at the event across all three participating divisions.
Davenport came out of a Last Chance Showdown to finish 14th on Thursday, then was runner-up to Hoffman on Friday. On Saturday, he started on the front row alongside Dallon Murty, a Super Late Model rookie in his first trip to World Finals. Davenport got a strong start and gained enough ground through Turns 1 and 2 to clear Murty, who stayed close but never got a chance to capitalize on a mistake.
Bobby Pierce used a Lap 29 restart to take second from Murty and tried to pass Davenport, but Davenport never opened the door. Pierce finished second ahead of Murty, who recorded a new World of Outlaws career best in third. Brandon Overton was fourth and Trey Mills fifth.
“We were all a little worried about tire wear, obviously,” Davenport said. “Just being abrasive down here in the south, you always worry about that a little bit. But we cut our tires a certain way so they would mileage a little more. I just didn’t want to push too hard too early and kind of spin them off before the grip came back up. Just did that and tried to move around a little bit. I felt like a little bit higher was going to be a better line early, but I was bottoming out really bad. We went just a little bit too soft for the speed, I didn’t think it was going to be quite that fast. Then once it did start gripping back up, we could move back to the bottom there and really just back my corner up so I wouldn’t start bouncing so bad. That was the only thing I was worried about, just trying to find a smooth line so I wouldn’t be bouncing off the corner and spinning my tires.”
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 3. 13-Dallon Murty[1]; 4. 17-Brandon Overton[7]; 5. 14-Trey Mills[11]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin[6]; 7. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[12]; 8. 74X-Ethan Dotson[23]; 9. 9-Nick Hoffman[9]; 10. 8M-Max McLaughlin[13]; 11. 22-Chris Ferguson[3]; 12. 9M-Tim McCreadie[14]; 13. 5-Drake Troutman[20]; 14. 1-Tyler Erb[15]; 15. 40B-Kyle Bronson[22]; 16. 58V-Daulton Wilson[18]; 17. 44-Chris Madden[5]; 18. 19-Dustin Sorensen[26]; 19. 49M-Luke Morey[16]; 20. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[25]; 21. 55E-Eli Johnson[28]; 22. 8-Kyle Strickler[10]; 23. 09-Michael Leach[8]; 24. 81F-Jadon Frame[17]; 25. 11R-Josh Rice[21]; 26. T8-Steve Banal[24]; 27. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[27]; 28. 6-Hudson O’Neal[19]
