ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Tyler Erb earned his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season on Friday night at Muskingum County Speedway.
The reigning series rookie-of-the-year took the lead from Jonathan Davenport on lap 44 and withstood a caution flag with two laps to go for the victory.
Erb becomes the 12th different winner this year on the Lucas Oil tour.
Devin Moran finished in second, followed by Jonathan Davenport, Tyler Carpenter, and Hudson O’Neal.
Davenport started on the pole amd was hindered from running away with the first portion of the race, as four cautions came out within the first nine laps of the race. The race finally saw a long green flag stretch, and Davenport encountered heavy traffic quickly.
Erb and several other drivers closed the gap on him, bringing chase as they maneuvered through the field of lap cars. Davenport held the point for the first 43 laps of the race until Erb passed him in traffic a lap later.
Moran was able to also slip past Davenport on the same lap to gain the runner-up spot.
With the win at Muskingum County, Erb becomes the 13th different winner in 14 appearances by the series at the Moran family-promoted facility.
“I want to thank all of my crew. This deal is tough, it’s not easy,” Erb said in victory lane. “In all honestly, I think we have had a better year as far as being consistent than last year. We are going to keep digging, we want to get that orange (point leader) spoiler before the end of the year.
“This is almost one of my home tracks, I’ve stayed with Devin [Moran] several times. I have made many laps here with Donnie [Moran] to help me get better, but this is the first time I have turned competitive laps here. It seems like I’ve made 10 million laps here,” Erb added. “I just want to thank the Moran family for everything they have done for me. This was my home shop for a while. This is just awesome.”
Moran was pleased with his runner-up finish before his hometown fans.
“The track was pretty good; it’s been 95 degrees all week. I was kind of hoping JD and Tyler would get into each other. I was going to roll around the top or diamond off the corner,” Moran said. “Congrats to Tyler, he’s been like my brother for like the last four years. He’s never raced here, but people don’t realize he’s made a lot more laps than a lot of those other guys here tonight. I thought I might have had a chance with that last caution, but he [Erb] was so much better on the restarts.”
Davenport, the three-time and reigning series champion, came home in third after leading the most laps during the race.
“When I got to those couple of lap cars, they moved up to the top where I was running which was the fast line to be in,” he explained. “Even so, we had a really good car tonight. I think it’s the best finish we have ever had here, so we will take it and move on to Portsmouth tomorrow night.”
The finish:
1. Tyler Erb, 2. Devin Moran, 3. Jonathan Davenport, 4. Tyler Carpenter, 5. Hudson O’Neal, 6. Jimmy Owens, 7. Steve Casebolt, 8. Tanner English, 9. Billy Moyer Jr., 10. Kyle Bronson, 11. Earl Pearson Jr., 12. Shanon Buckingham, 13. Josh Richards, 14. Tyler Bruening, 15. Jason Jameson, 16. Doug Drown, 17. Shane Clanton, 18. Michael Norris, 19. Mike Marlar, 20. Tim McCreadie, 21. Todd Brennan, 22. Stormy Scott, 23. Mitch Caskey, 24. Jason Riggs, 25. Shane McLoughlin, 26. Kyle Hardy.