WAYNESVILLE, Ga. — Brandon Overton utilized a last-lap pass exiting turn four to barely edge Ricky Thornton Jr. at the finish line Saturday night at Golden Isles Speedway.
Overton earned $25,000 in the final night of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned Super Clean Super Bowl of Racing – presented by ICON Electric Vehicles.
Overton’s .056 seconds margin of victory at the finish line was one of the closest in series history. For the second night in a row Thornton suffered a late-race heartbreak to come home in second.
Tanner English finished third with Brandon Sheppard and Hudson O’Neal completing the top five finishers.
For the third night in a row Overton started from the pole and led the first 22 laps of the 60-lap event. Thornton, who started fourth, charged by Hudson O’Neal on lap 13 for second and then pursue Overton before grabbing the point from him on lap 23.
English, who started on the inside of the fourth row, moved into the runner-up slot behind Thornton on lap 33. A caution for a slowing Daulton Wilson on the frontstretch on lap 34 would bunch the field up. On the restart Overton got back by English for second and set his sights on Thornton.
With five laps to go to Thornton was holding a precarious lead over Overton as he was battling with cars at the tail end of the field. Overton started to move to the top of the and close the gap on Thornton as they took the white flag.
Overton with the momentum on the top as the duo exited off the final corner would make the winning pass against the outside retaining wall to steal the victory from Thornton.
“I got lucky tonight. Last night I stuffed it in the fence. When I sent it in there tonight, I made sure I had the back end pointed out and on the chip. It just worked out,” Overton explained. “I hate it for Ricky, but that’s what it takes lapped traffic sometimes to play a big part of it. I knew when he [Thornton] passed me I had to stay in second and I had to do a better job of managing my tires. I knew a Hail Mary was all I had. Ricky’s run well this week. I am so happy. I love this stuff.”
Thornton ended the week at Golden Isles with a third-place finish and a pair of runner-up finishes to maintain second place in the championship standings behind Overton.
“The bottom was really good. I wanted to stay stuck there and I thought I had enough gap to Dennis [Erb Jr.] and then they got to racing in front of him and it kind of slowed my pace down. I knew he [Overton] was going to throw a Hail Mary in three and four,” Thornton said. “My crew guys were telling me to move up. It was like one of those deals where I tried it once and it about destroyed the car. Congrats to Brandon. It stinks to lose another one here. But the good part is we have good speed going into the next two days at Bubba.”
English had his best run of 2023 coming home in third to round out the Big River Steel Podium. “It definitely feels like a win especially against those two guys. They are two of the toughest in the business. We have got to figure out how to get better. It’s feels like a rough month, but it’s only been a few weeks. We are turning it around.”
The finish:
Brandon Overton, Ricky Thornton Jr., Tanner English, Brandon Sheppard, Hudson O’Neal, Tim McCreadie, Jonathan Davenport, Mason Zeigler, Shane Clanton, Kyle Bronson, Earl Pearson Jr., Brian Shirley, Spencer Hughes, Jimmy Owens, Dennis Erb Jr., Garrett Alberson, Wil Herrington, Garrett Smith, Blair Nothdurft, Logan Roberson, Daulton Wilson, Jeff Choquette, Ross Robinson, Devin Moran, G.R. Smith, John Henderson.