WOODSTOCK, Ga. — Jonathan Davenport won his first Dixie Shootout on Saturday night at the historic Dixie Speedway, taking the $15,000 first place prize.
Davenport led all 50 laps in winning his seventh Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event of the season. Brandon Overton finished in second followed by Chris Madden, Tim McCreadie and Earl Pearson Jr.
Davenport took the lead at the start of the race and was never seriously threatened during the race that was held in front of a packed house. Overton moved from fourth to second with 15 laps to go.
Overton, who was looking for his 29th overall win of the season, had two last shots at Davenport as a caution with six laps to go and one for Jimmy Owens’ flat tire as the drivers were heading to the checkered flag, but Overton could not get a run-on Davenport to try to steal the win. Overton fell .930 seconds behind Davenport at the checkers.
In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 57th time in his career, the three-time series champion was elated to get his first win in one of the most prestigious late model races in the Southeast.
“This one is for Jason Durham. He is a huge part of this deal; we definitely miss him,” Davenport said. “We worked at my house this week on the car and it’s the first time I have had a race car at my house or my shop. It’s kind of cool to come out here and set fast time, win my heat and the feature at a place I have never won at before.”
Overton came home in second after finishing just short of his first career Dixie Shootout victory. “Once I got to second, I knew something was wrong,” Overton said. “The tire was laying down really bad when we fired back up. I thought ‘I am going to have a flat and blow the whole deck out’ but we held on. Congrats to JD he did good. He just got out in front and that’s all it took. We never really got into any traffic there at the end so I could move around. We ran second against the best guys in the country.”
Madden, in his first race with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series this year, came home in third. “Those guys ahead of me, they have had the fastest cars in the country this year for sure,” Madden said. “This is their backyard; it takes a little more time for me to get over here. It was a great race tonight with all of these guys. The racetrack was great. We had a good car there for a little while and then we lost the right rear tire, and I was just holding on there.”
The finish:
Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Overton, Chris Madden, Tim McCreadie, Earl Pearson Jr., Michael Page, Hudson O’Neal, Kyle Bronson, Josh Richards, Jimmy Owens, Austin Horton, Tyler Erb, Joseph Joiner, Christian Hanger, Stormy Scott, Shane Clanton, Tyler Millwood, Spencer Huges, Ricky Thornton Jr., Matt Cosner, Cody Overton, Cla Knight, David Payne, Scott Bloomquist.