BARBERVILLE, Fla. — Tim McCreadie made one thing clear on Saturday night at Volusia Speedway Park – he plans on being a part of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision championship conversation all year long.
Last season, the primary reason he wasn’t in contention down the stretch was his poor start to the year, as the Briggs Transport team didn’t reach victory lane until May. McCreadie was determined to not let that happen again, and he only needed three nights to finish the job and score his first win of the year at DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals.
“I’ve said this before, I love winning at Volusia,” McCreadie said. “Whether it’s now, whether it’s here during Cup week, I love racing at Volusia. I wish it was up where New York was, I’d probably still be racing weekly.”
Early in the 50-lap contest, Ryan Gustin wasted no time jumping out to a sizeable lead and commanded the first 20 laps. But McCreadie was busy hustling his way through the field from the 10th starting spot, and with 20 laps on the board he had ran down the “Reaper.” McCreadie soon set sail from the rest of the pack, but a Lap-34 restart gave Gustin another shot.
With McCreadie rolling the bottom and Gustin ripping the high side, the two remained door-to-door for laps on end. But a slider with 14 to go put McCreadie on top, and he never relinquished the lead from there on his way to his third World of Outlaws win at the “World’s Fastest Half Mile.”
“This place is different and you’ve got to build a balance,” McCreadie said. “Last night, I couldn’t steer on the bottom even though I was there the whole time. We worked on that tonight and the track kind of came to us. Felt like I was a sitting duck, but I moved back to the middle and I didn’t hear nobody anymore, so it must have been good.”
Brandon Sheppard moved up to second late to clinch the Sunshine Nationals championship, while Dennis Erb Jr., Gustin and Drake Troutman completed the top five.
The finish:
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 9M-Tim McCreadie[10]; 2. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[6]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[7]; 4. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 5. 22*-Drake Troutman[12]; 6. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 7. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[18]; 8. 76-Brandon Overton[2]; 9. 9-Nick Hoffman[20]; 10. 6-Hudson O’Neal[5]; 11. 44-Chris Madden[4]; 12. 58V-Daulton Wilson[8]; 13. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[19]; 14. 7M-Donald McIntosh[16]; 15. 5-Mark Whitener[9]; 16. 1-Tyler Erb[25]; 17. 49-Jake Timm[24]; 18. 19-Dustin Sorensen[23]; 19. 114-Jordan Koehler[22]; 20. 1Z-Logan Zarin[15]; 21. 40B-Kyle Bronson[11]; 22. 97-Cody Overton[21]; 23. 14-Trey Mills[26]; 24. 11R-Josh Rice[17]; 25. 11S-Allen Styck[13]; 26. 55E-Eli Johnson[27]; 27. B1-Brent Larson[14]
