CONCORD, N.C. – In a battle of dirt late model super heavyweights, Jonathan Davenport bested Brandon Sheppard during Friday’s World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series feature at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
Davenport, who started fourth, took the lead with less than 20 laps left and pulled away to the ninth series victory of his career. Overall, it was the 25th victory of the season for the native of Blairsville, Ga.
Ricky Weiss led the field to the green flag with Sheppard starting alongside him in second. Weiss led the first 11 laps before Sheppard used a big run on the top coming out of turn four to take the lead on lap 12.
Weiss hung in second for several laps with Davenport hounding him. Sheppard led through several cautions and restarts, with Weiss trying to challenge the leader while also trying to hold off Sheppard.
A restart with 18 complete finally allowed Davenport to dispatch Weiss for second before setting off in pursuit of Sheppard. Another quick caution for the slowing Austin Kirkpatrick led to another restart and Sheppard again held the lead as Davenport gave chase.
As laps clicked off Davenport began to inch closer to the back of Sheppard’s Rocket Chassis No. 1. On lap 32 Davenport got a massive run coming out of turn two and quickly closed the gap on Sheppard before diving under him into turn three to steal the lead.
Sheppard tried to stay close to Davenport, but once Davenport got clear he pulled away to a more than four second victory to wrap up the opening day of the World of Outlaws World Finals.
“I thought I was a little bit better than Brandon when he was behind the 7 car (Weiss),” Davenport said. “Once he got the lead I thought I wouldn’t get him because he had clean air. We had the lap cars and that slowed him up a little bit and that gave me just enough to where I could get a run on him.”
Sheppard settled for second, with Dennis Erb Jr., Tyler Erb and Weiss completing the top-five at the finish.
The finish:
Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Sheppard, Dennis Erb Jr., Tyler Erb, Ricky Weiss, Chris Ferguson, Josh Richards, Kyle Strickler, Max Blair, Chris Madden, Tyler Bruening, Jason Covert, Boom Briggs, Garrett Smith, Brent Larson, Ross Robinson, Jimmy Owens, Steven Roberts, Ryan Gustin, Nick Hoffman, Austin Kirkpatrick, Brandon Overton, Tim McCreadie, John Blankenship, Cla Knight.