Big Sexy Brandon Overton Takes Night Two Of Dirt Late Model “Stream” At Eldora

Story By: JORDAN DELUCIA / DIRTCAR – ROSSBURG, OH – Just one night after parking it behind the wall while running on the podium of Eldora Speedway’s Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational Thursday preliminary Feature, Brandon Overton found himself parking it in Victory Lane Friday night on the back of a stellar performance – one worthy of a $10,000 check and 500 valuable points in the “Every Lap Matters” event format.

Last night, the young Georgian’s chances for a solid finish were dashed when a chunk of mud went through his radiator in the final laps as he was chasing down the leaders, running a strong race in third. But an incredible effort by his Wells Motorsports crew to make repairs and regroup for a terrific follow-up performance Friday night was exactly what the team needed for a confidence booster going into the 67-lap, $50,000-to-win finale Saturday night.

“Our car’s been really good, it’s been balanced. If I don’t screw it up, we’ll be there at the end,” Overton told broadcast pit reporter Ben Shelton about his chances for the $50,000 check in Victory Lane.

Night #2 of everyone on the track grounds wishing the loyal Eldora fans could join them proved to only motivate the drivers to top the intensity level versus the night previous. And with three different leaders over the course of the 30-lap contest, they certainly did just that.

Dale McDowell, the 2014 Dirt Late Model Dream winner, kicked things off from the pole as the green flag dropped and jetted out to a solid lead over runner-up Jimmy Owens. The first caution was thrown with 10 laps in the books for the 2019 World 100 winner Jonathan Davenport, who took his Double L Motorsports #49 behind the wall with overheating issues.

Owens’ big moment came on Lap 12 after the restart, as he wound-up his Ramirez Motorsports #20 on the high side and threw it hard into turn 1 underneath McDowell in a bid for the lead. It was successful, but a close shave as the two nearly came together in the process.

“I got a good run off of Turn 4 there and went in under Dale and bottomed-out real bad, caused him to have to check-up,” Owens said.

McDowell’s slowed momentum opened the door to a third-running Overton, who immediately took advantage and dove underneath The Mac Daddy down the backstretch the very next lap to take second.

“I don’t think I needed that caution. I was a little tight, so I needed the whole racetrack to turn,” McDowell said of his challenges after surrendering the lead.

Back out front, Owens continued to lead, but Overton was slowly reeling him in. Another caution flag waved for Eldora track record holder Chris Ferguson, and the field was restacked for one final restart with just 10 laps remaining.

Overton got the best restart he had all weekend to Owens’ outside and it paid off. He got the jump off of Turn 4 and maintained the slight advantage down the backstretch to take the lead for good, while Owens was left wishing he could have a do-over.

“We’ve had a great car all weekend, but those takeoffs have been killing me. We’ve got a little stumble we need to take care of, that way we can get fired off a little better on the takeoffs,” Owens said.

The top three settled back in line as Overton led the field back to the checkered flag untouched for his first marquee Eldora Late Model victory since September 2017.

“It all worked out for us. [Owens] gave us the outside on that restart, we played the cards we were dealt and came out on top,” Overton said.

Owens came across the line in second while McDowell hung on for third. The Shane McDowell Racing #17m has seen a lot of great finishes in recent marquee events at The Big E, and Dale’s certainly setting himself up for yet another one with a great podium finish Friday night.

“[Overton] and Jimmy both have been on fire this year, so if I can right there with them, we can make adjustments. They’ve raced quite a bit more than we have, so I think we can make adjustments and if things go our way, we’ll get this EZ-GO hotrod up there closer to the front and hopefully make it count,” McDowell said.

The Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational action continues from Eldora Speedway Saturday night with the 67-lap, $50,000-to-win finale for the DIRTcar Late Models! Keep it locked to the DIRTcar social media channels for live updates and colorful content throughout the night.

RESULTS

A-Feature – (30) Laps – 1. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[5]; 3. 17m-Dale McDowell[1]; 4. 9-Devin Moran[4]; 5. 14-Josh Richards[6]; 6. 1-Brandon Sheppard[12]; 7. 18x-Michael Page[15]; 8. 40b-Kyle Bronson[10]; 9. 18-Chase Junghans[2]; 10. 25z-Mason Zeigler[23]; 11. 0m-Chris Madden[8]; 12. 32p-Bobby Pierce[17]; 13. 7r-Kent Robinson[14]; 14. 7-Ricky Weiss[20]; 15. 18b-Shannon Babb[21]; 16. 12-Ashton Winger[13]; 17. 50-Shanon Buckingham[18]; 18. 16-Jason Jameson[9]; 19. 39-Tim McCreadie[16]; 20. 8-Kyle Strickler[19]; 21. 32-Chris Simpson[11]; 22. 7m-Donald Mcintosh[7]; 23. 22-Chris Ferguson[22]; 24. 49-Jonathan Davenport[24]

Qualifying – 1. 14-Josh Richards, 15.502; 2. 32p-Bobby Pierce, 15.522; 3. 20-Jimmy Owens, 15.562; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard, 15.590; 5. 50-Shanon Buckingham, 15.647; 6. 40b-Kyle Bronson, 15.672; 7. 22-Chris Ferguson, 15.682; 8. 9-Devin Moran, 15.688; 9. 76-Brandon Overton, 15.701; 10. 18-Chase Junghans, 15.745; 11. 2-Nick Hoffman, 15.766; 12. 17m-Dale McDowell, 15.775; 13. C9-Steve Casebolt, 15.793; 14. 7r-Kent Robinson, 15.806; 15. 32-Chris Simpson, 15.807; 16. 28-Dennis Erb Jr., 15.808; 17. 12-Ashton Winger, 15.809; 18. 7m-Donald Mcintosh, 15.809; 19. 0m-Chris Madden, 15.838; 20. 39-Tim McCreadie, 15.843; 21. 21jr-Billy Moyer Jr, 15.844; 22. 18b-Shannon Babb, 15.847; 23. 18x-Michael Page, 15.879; 24. 99jr-Frank Heckenast Jr., 15.879; 25. 16-Jason Jameson, 15.895; 26. 17-Zack Dohm, 15.905; 27. 25-Shane Clanton, 15.913; 28. 83-Scott James, 15.922; 29. 8-Kyle Strickler, 15.924; 30. 25f-Jason Feger, 15.941; 31. 72-Michael Norris, 15.967; 32. 55-Jeep Van Wormer, 16.018; 33. 91-Rusty Schlenk, 16.021; 34. 25z-Mason Zeigler, 16.089; 35. 0e-Rick Eckert, 16.099; 36. 49-Jonathan Davenport, 16.110; 37. 1t-Tyler Erb, 16.346; 38. 20rt-Ricky Thornton Jr., 16.435; 39. 7-Ricky Weiss, 16.468; 40. 0-Scott Bloomquist, 16.487; 41. 22s-Gregg Satterlee, 16.565; 42. 95-Jerry Bowersock, 16.891; 43. 29v-Darrell Lanigan, 99.991; 44. 1p-Earl Pearson, Jr., 99.992; 45. 81e-Tanner English, NT; 46. C4-Freddie Carpenter, NT; 47. 21-Billy Moyer, NT; 48. 28c-Tyler Carpenter, NT

Heat #1 – (10) Laps – Top 4 Transfer – 1. 14-Josh Richards[3]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton[5]; 3. 16-Jason Jameson[7]; 4. 12-Ashton Winger[1]; 5. C9-Steve Casebolt[2]; 6. 8-Kyle Strickler[8]; 7. 1t-Tyler Erb[10]; 8. 50-Shanon Buckingham[4]; 9. 22s-Gregg Satterlee[11]; 10. 21jr-Billy Moyer Jr[6]; 11. 91-Rusty Schlenk[9]; 12. 81e-Tanner English[12]

Heat #2 – (10) Laps – Top 4 Transfer – 1. 7m-Donald Mcintosh[1]; 2. 18-Chase Junghans[3]; 3. 40b-Kyle Bronson[4]; 4. 7r-Kent Robinson[2]; 5. 18b-Shannon Babb[6]; 6. 32p-Bobby Pierce[5]; 7. 17-Zack Dohm[7]; 8. 25z-Mason Zeigler[9]; 9. 20rt-Ricky Thornton Jr.[10]; 10. 95-Jerry Bowersock[11]; 11. 25f-Jason Feger[8]; 12. C4-Freddie Carpenter[12]

Heat #3 – (10) Laps – Top 4 Transfer – 1. 0m-Chris Madden[1]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[5]; 3. 32-Chris Simpson[2]; 4. 18x-Michael Page[6]; 5. 7-Ricky Weiss[10]; 6. 22-Chris Ferguson[4]; 7. 0e-Rick Eckert[9]; 8. 25-Shane Clanton[7]; 9. 72-Michael Norris[8]; 10. 2-Nick Hoffman[3]; 11. 29v-Darrell Lanigan[11]; 12. 21-Billy Moyer[12]

Heat #4 – (10) Laps – Top 4 Transfer – 1. 9-Devin Moran[4]; 2. 17m-Dale McDowell[3]; 3. 1-Brandon Sheppard[5]; 4. 39-Tim McCreadie[1]; 5. 28-Dennis Erb Jr.[2]; 6. 49-Jonathan Davenport[9]; 7. 99jr-Frank Heckenast Jr.[6]; 8. 0-Scott Bloomquist[10]; 9. 55-Jeep Van Wormer[8]; 10. 1p-Earl Pearson, Jr.[11]; 11. 83-Scott James[7]; 12. 28c-Tyler Carpenter[12]

B-Feature #1 – (12) Laps – Top 3 Transfer – 1. 8-Kyle Strickler[3]; 2. 18b-Shannon Babb[2]; 3. 25z-Mason Zeigler[6]; 4. 17-Zack Dohm[4]; 5. 1t-Tyler Erb[5]; 6. 22s-Gregg Satterlee[7]; 7. 21jr-Billy Moyer Jr[9]; 8. 20rt-Ricky Thornton Jr.[8]; 9. 91-Rusty Schlenk[11]; 10. 95-Jerry Bowersock[10]; 11. C9-Steve Casebolt[1]; 12. 25f-Jason Feger[12]; 13. 81e-Tanner English[13]; 14. C4-Freddie Carpenter[14]

B-Feature #2 – (12) Laps – Top 3 Transfer – 1. 7-Ricky Weiss[1]; 2. 22-Chris Ferguson[3]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport[4]; 4. 28-Dennis Erb Jr.[2]; 5. 0e-Rick Eckert[5]; 6. 99jr-Frank Heckenast Jr.[6]; 7. 25-Shane Clanton[7]; 8. 55-Jeep Van Wormer[10]; 9. 72-Michael Norris[9]; 10. 1p-Earl Pearson, Jr.[12]; 11. 2-Nick Hoffman[11]; 12. 0-Scott Bloomquist[8]; 13. 83-Scott James[14]; 14. 29v-Darrell Lanigan[13]; 15. 21-Billy Moyer[15]; 16. 28c-Tyler Carpenter[16]