BARBERVILLE, Fla. — When Chris Madden was announced as the driver of the newly-formed Infinity Chassis house car program fielded by Wells Motorsports, not even he could have imagined the partnership would have gotten off to the start that it did.
From the moment they unloaded at Volusia Speedway Park for DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals, the No. 44 team were the ones to beat. In Wednesday’s practice night, Madden was the fastest man on the property with a lap faster than the official track record. When it mattered on Thursday, he was fastest overall in qualifying and dominated his heat race.
Once feature time rolled around, Madden led all 35 circuits on his way to the 40th win of his career with the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision at the same track where he won his first two decades ago.
“It’s awesome, you couldn’t ask for a better day today,” Madden said. “David and Eric [Wells] and his family, everybody at Infinity Chassis, what an awesome race car they sent me down here with. Couldn’t ask for anything any better.”
Madden initially got the lead from second-starting Nick Hoffman on the outside on the opening lap, but it wouldn’t be long until his first close call of the night. Twelve laps in, a broken oil pump belt caused Tristan Chamberlain to slow directly in front of the leaders, forcing Madden to take evasive action to avoid a race-ending collision.
The ensuing green-flag run saw Hoffman find his stride, and with four laps remaining, the No. 9 was side-by-side with Madden. Hoffman briefly led through Turns 1 and 2 before Madden pulled the crossover and found another gear, quickly pulling away with the laps winding down.
As Madden was coming off Turn 4 to the checkered flag, Jake Timm spun to the inside wall to create a green-white-checkered finish. Madden remained unfazed though, and drove two more flawless laps to earn his first win since a Southern Nationals triumph at Volunteer Speedway last July.
“Obviously, starting up front is very important,” Madden said. “Was able to get by Nick there on the start, I knew he was going to be very good. He got by me there, I got extremely tight, couldn’t enter where I needed to be entering. Nick caught me there and got by me, and then I just got up on the wheel and let her rip.”
Hoffman settled for second to open his season, while Brandon Sheppard, Dennis Erb Jr. and Ricky Thornton Jr. rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (35 Laps): 1. 44-Chris Madden[2]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman[1]; 3. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[6]; 4. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[10]; 5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[13]; 6. 19-Dustin Sorensen[4]; 7. 111-Max Blair[11]; 8. 1-Tyler Erb[26]; 9. 32-Bobby Pierce[12]; 10. 8-Kyle Strickler[7]; 11. 17M-Dale McDowell[19]; 12. 76-Brandon Overton[8]; 13. 7M-Donald McIntosh[3]; 14. 9M-Tim McCreadie[18]; 15. B1-Brent Larson[5]; 16. 15-Clay Stuckey[21]; 17. 19R-Ryan Gustin[14]; 18. 79-Cory Hedgecock[16]; 19. 22*-Drake Troutman[23]; 20. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[9]; 21. 58V-Daulton Wilson[27]; 22. 1Z-Logan Zarin[28]; 23. 74X-Ethan Dotson[17]; 24. 49-Jake Timm[24]; 25. 99B-Boom Briggs[15]; 26. 114-Jordan Koehler[22]; 27. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[25]; 28. 81-Jason Riggs[20]
