SPRING VALLEY, Minn. —– Devin Moran survived a wild 25-lap preliminary feature on Thursday night at Deer Creek Speedway to earn his second Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season.
Moran took the lead on lap 12 when the first and second place running cars of Daulton Wilson and Bobby Pierce were forced pit side. Wilson suffered a flat tire while leading and Pierce hit the turn-four wall.
Jonathan Davenport finished second, followed by Brandon Sheppard, Tim McCreadie, and Tyler Erb.
Piece, who started from the pole led the opening lap until Wilson, who was seeking his first career win in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series picked up the lead on the second lap.
Wilson and Pierce ran first and second until lap 11 when Wilson slowed with a right rear flat tire and Pierce developed issues after slamming into the turn four wall while racing the lead.
Wilson would pit for a new tire, but Pierce kept going as he was the new leader of the race. On the restart to begin lap 12 Pierce slowed bottling up the field as he would exit the track with right-rear axle issues on his car.
Moran then picked up the lead of the race and pulled away from Davenport to take a 2.66 second advantage at the checkers.
Moran, who started fifth picked up the eighth win of his Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series career.
“The Double Down Motorsports Longhorn car was phenomenal tonight. This Deer Creek, it has owed me a win since about 2017. I about had one then. I hadn’t really been back except one time since and what a phenomenal racetrack, phenomenal facility and it’s going to be a lot of fun racing all weekend,” Moran said.
Davenport, who is seeking his first NAPA Gopher 50 win on Saturday night, was one of the three different race leaders came home in second.
“I guess I needed one more person to fall out of the race to be able to win tonight. Daulton had bad luck and the 32 went sliding when the caution came out, he hit the wall pretty hard he must have broken an axle or something,” Davenport said. “The previous restart Devin got by me. He was a little bit better than we were. He was a lot different on tires than we were. We were trying some different things for the big race on Saturday. Last year we were really good in the prelims and then we struggled in the big race. Everything we did last year just doesn’t seem to cut the mustard this year.”
Sheppard, driving the Kevin Rumley-owned entry, rounded out the Big River Steel Podium in third.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you know I have got big shoes to fill in this thing, but the car was really good all night. Kevin and the guys gave me a great race car. I messed up a little bit there in the heat race, but we salvaged a really good run.”
The finish:
Devin Moran, Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Sheppard, Tim McCreadie, Tyler Erb, Chris Madden, Hudson O’Neal, Max Blair, Dustin Sorensen, Spencer Hughes, Garrett Alberson, Chris Simpson, Jake Timm, Mike Marlar, Brandon Overton, Earl Pearson Jr., Chad Simpson, Dillon McCowan, Daulton Wilson, Garrett Smith, Bobby Pierce, Shane Clanton, Stormy Scott, Ricky Thornton Jr.