MIDDLEBOURNE, W. Va. — Jonathan Davenport raced to a convincing 55th annual Hillbilly Hundred victory on Sunday night at Tyler County Speedway.
The three-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion took the lead on lap 17 from Daulton Wilson and went unchallenged the rest of the way for his second career win in America’s oldest dirt late model crown jewel event. Davenport’s triumph was worth $30,000.
Wilson, who led the first 16 laps of the race from his pole starting spot finished in second earning a $15,000 payday. Brandon Overton, the 2018 winner of the race was third with Ricky Thornton Jr. taking fourth and Hudson O’Neal rounding out the top five.
Davenport in Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 72nd time in his career notched his second biggest win of the 2023 racing season only behind the Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora in June.
“One time they [lapped traffic] were four-wide in front of me there and I was thinking I am just going to have to ride here for a while,” Davenport said. “We got into a couple of lapped cars there I didn’t really mean to. The racing line is so sensitive right here to get off the corner good you really have to turn in and once you’re under somebody you really can’t do it so it kind of pushes. My guys really stepped up and did a really good job for me, we all put our heads together all day today. We kind of wanted to go in a different direction. We have been o.k. we’ve slowly been getting better. We just felt like we needed to try some new stuff.”
Wilson, who led feature laps both at Portsmouth and Tyler County this weekend continued his recent run of solid finishes, coming home in the runner-up position.
“We’ve had a really good car all weekend. We have had a really good year we’ve gotten better as the season went on, maybe we will finish up there before too long. I wanted it to stay green we were on harder tires than he [Davenport] was, earlier in the race I just couldn’t maneuver like he could. Once the racetrack cleaned up a little bit, I felt like I was pretty good.”
Overton was third. “Lapped traffic was a challenge tonight. We were o.k. in the beginning, me and Daulton got to racing with some lapped cars and one of them kind of ricocheted off the wall and got me in the right front. I was just glad to finish. I thought I was going to have a flat, but JD and Daulton just checked out on us there. Like I said we are trying to get better and still try and hang on for this fourth spot in points.”
The finish:
Jonathan Davenport, Daulton Wilson, Brandon Overton, Ricky Thornton Jr., Hudson O’Neal, Tim McCreadie, Jacob Hawkins, Spencer Hughes, Devin Moran, Max Blair, Logan Roberson, Garrett Alberson, Colten Burdette, Tyler Erb, Braeden Dillinger, Brandon Weigle, Garrett Smith, Shane Hitt, Cody Rogers, Earl Pearson Jr., Ross Robinson, Mason Zeigler, Boom Briggs, Daniel Hill, Michael Lake.