Brandon Overton Claims First Win of the Year

TAMPA, FL – Current Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Championship Point Leader Brandon Overton picked up his first win of the season on Friday Night at East Bay Raceway Park. Overton grabbed the lead from Tim McCreadie on the 27th lap and went on to claim his eighth career series win. A spirited battle for the lead consumed over half the race with more than five different race leaders.

Tyler Bruening started 11th and charged to second at the finish for his best career LOLMDS finish.  McCreadie came home in third followed by 21st starting Devin Moran, and Shane Clanton.

Brian Shirley started on the pole and led the first eight laps until Jimmy Owens took over the lead, but a few laps later Shirley regained the point. Shirley stayed in front until lap 26 when Mike Marlar took over the lead. Marlar’s lead was short-lived as he held the lead for just one circuit until McCreadie charged ahead after a restart. McCreadie could not hold off Overton who charged around him with 22 laps to go.

Overton, in Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the fourth time, became the sixth different winner in six LOLMDS events in 2021. “After the heat race, I said this one is going to require a lot of luck. I got the lead at the right time. I knew if I just kept hanging around the top three that I would get a win before the end of the week. I started to feel like I was going to leave here without winning and that wasn’t going to sit well with me.”

Bruening was elated on the podium with his highest finish in LOLMDS competition. “We have been really good, but we’ve gotten tangled up in some stuff that wasn’t our doing this week. We have had some really good speed. Now it’s up to the me to put it all together as the driver, because this car is fantastic. Thanks to my dad [Greg] and Marshall Green at Capital Race Cars. I am thrilled to be up here on the podium.”

McCreadie had his best finish of the 2021 campaign as he rounded out the podium. “We have all been chasing our tails all week and we’ve just been behind in our plans. We had a good run tonight, so that’s cool. We just need to be a bit better.”

The winner’s Wells Motorsports Longhorn Chassis is powered by Clements Racing Engines and is sponsored by Allstar Concrete, Crossfit Overton, Garnto Southern, EZGO, Big Dog Stump and Tree, R.W. Powell Construction, Hurst Construction, Dirt Mafia, Clean Way Clearing and Grading, and ATC Site Construction.

Completing the top ten were Mark Whitener, Hudson O’Neal,  Earl Pearson Jr., Billy Moyer, Jr., and Josh Richards.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Race Summary
Wrisco Industries 45th Annual Winter Nationals – Presented by Lucas Oil
Friday, January 29, 2021
East Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL

Allstar Performance Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Brian Shirley / 14.548 seconds
Fast Time Group B: Brandon Overton / 14.673 seconds (overall)

Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 2. 39-Tim McCreadie[3]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[2]; 4. 81-Jason Riggs[5]; 5. 49-Jonathan Davenport[8]; 6. 1ST-Johnny Scott[7]; 7. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 8. 6S-Blake Spencer[12]; 9. 94M-Jason Miller[10]; 10. C4-Freddie Carpenter[11]; 11. 29-Larry Grube[9]; 12. 14R-Jeff Roth[13]; 13. 48-Colton Flinner[6]

Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 99B-Boom Briggs[2]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 4. 14-Josh Richards[3]; 5. 33-Jeff Mathews[7]; 6. 12D-Doug Drown[6]; 7. 14G-Joe Godsey[5]; 8. 8-Kyle Strickler[8]; 9. 1G-Ryan King[9]; 10. 8A-Rob Anderzack[10]; 11. 51-Dean Carpenter[12]; 12. 4B-Richie Edwards[13]; 13. 311-Ken Monahan[11]

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 25-Shane Clanton[1]; 2. 16-Tyler Bruening[3]; 3. 385-Mark Whitener[2]; 4. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[4]; 5. 44H-Dave Hess Jr[6]; 6. 58-Ross Bailes[12]; 7. 0G-Deshawn Gingerich[9]; 8. 3W-Brennon Willard[10]; 9. 18X-Michael Page[11]; 10. KB0-Kerry King[13]; 11. 311A-Ashton Winger[5]; 12. 00H-Wil Herrington[8]; 13. 54-David Breazeale[7]

Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 2. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[6]; 3. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[7]; 4. 71-Hudson O’Neal[4]; 5. 22-Gregg Satterlee[9]; 6. 111-Steven Roberts[2]; 7. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[12]; 8. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr[5]; 9. 20B-Todd Brennan[8]; 10. 995-Manny Falcon[13]; 11. 14B-John Baker[10]; 12. 4S-Danny Snyder[11]; 13. 2X-Devin Dixon[3]

MyRacePass Heat Race #5 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[2]; 2. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[7]; 3. 81E-Tanner English[3]; 4. 9-Devin Moran[4]; 5. 66C-Matt Cosner[6]; 6. 212-Josh Putnam[8]; 7. 27J-Joe Denby[12]; 8. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[9]; 9. 00S-Jesse Stovall[11]; 10. 40C-Joel Callahan[10]; 11. 18J-Chase Junghans[5]; 12. (DNS) 6B-Adam Boyd; 13. (DQ) 1T-Tyler Erb[1]

Fast Shafts Heat Race #6 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 2S-Stormy Scott[3]; 3. 11H-Spencer Hughes[4]; 4. 0E-Rick Eckert[2]; 5. 7R-Ross Robinson[5]; 6. 6T-Tim Dohm[7]; 7. 2D-Dan Stone[9]; 8. 36-Matt Irey[11]; 9. 111M-Matthew Lux[8]; 10. J8-Jadon Frame[10]; 11. 18S-David Seibers[12]; 12. 24D-Michael Brown[6]

LINE-X B-Main #1 Finish (12 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[3]; 2. 14-Josh Richards[2]; 3. 1ST-Johnny Scott[5]; 4. 81-Jason Riggs[1]; 5. 40B-Kyle Bronson[7]; 6. 12D-Doug Drown[6]; 7. 8-Kyle Strickler[10]; 8. 14G-Joe Godsey[8]; 9. 48-Colton Flinner[19]; 10. 51-Dean Carpenter[16]; 11. 4B-Richie Edwards[18]; 12. 311-Ken Monahan[20]; 13. C4-Freddie Carpenter[13]; 14. 8A-Rob Anderzack[14]; 15. 33-Jeff Mathews[4]; 16. 14R-Jeff Roth[17]; 17. 29-Larry Grube[15]; 18. 1G-Ryan King[12]; 19. 94M-Jason Miller[11]; 20. 6S-Blake Spencer[9]

UNOH B-Main #2 Finish (12 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[2]; 2. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 3. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[8]; 4. 22-Gregg Satterlee[4]; 5. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr[10]; 6. 00H-Wil Herrington[17]; 7. 3W-Brennon Willard[9]; 8. 111-Steven Roberts[6]; 9. KB0-Kerry King[13]; 10. 0G-Deshawn Gingerich[7]; 11. 58-Ross Bailes[5]; 12. 44H-Dave Hess Jr[3]; 13. 20B-Todd Brennan[12]; 14. 18X-Michael Page[11]; 15. 54-David Breazeale[19]; 16. (DNS) 995-Manny Falcon; 17. (DNS) 311A-Ashton Winger; 18. (DNS) 14B-John Baker; 19. (DNS) 2X-Devin Dixon; 20. (DNS) 4S-Danny Snyder

Wrisco Industries B-Main #3 Finish (12 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 9-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 0E-Rick Eckert[2]; 3. 7R-Ross Robinson[4]; 4. 6T-Tim Dohm[6]; 5. 66C-Matt Cosner[3]; 6. 36-Matt Irey[10]; 7. 40C-Joel Callahan[13]; 8. 2D-Dan Stone[8]; 9. 111M-Matthew Lux[12]; 10. 18S-David Seibers[16]; 11. 24D-Michael Brown[18]; 12. 27J-Joe Denby[7]; 13. 212-Josh Putnam[5]; 14. (DNS) 6B-Adam Boyd; 15. (DNS) 1T-Tyler Erb; 16. (DNS) J8-Jadon Frame; 17. (DNS) 18J-Chase Junghans; 18. (DNS) 76B-Blair Nothdurft; 19. (DNS) 00S-Jesse Stovall

Lucas Oil Feature Finish (50 Laps):

Race Statistics
Entrants: 77
Lap Leaders: Brian Shirley (Laps 1 – 7); Jimmy Owens (Lap 8 – 12); Brian Shirley (Laps 13 – 25); Mike Marlar (Lap 26); Tim McCreadie (Laps 27 – 28); Brandon Overton (Laps 29 – 50)
Wrisco Feature Winner: Brandon Overton
Arizona Sport Shirts CJC – Presented by DirtOnDirt Feature Winner: n/a
Brandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: Brandon Overton
Margin of Victory: 0.947 seconds
Cautions: Kyle Strickler (Lap 20); Debris (Lap 24); Bobby Pierce (Lap 26); Frank Heckenast Jr., Jonathan Davenport, Chase Junghans, Tanner English (Lap 29); Mason Zeigler, Chase Junghans (Lap 31); Frank Heckenast Jr. (Lap 31)
Series Provisionals: Kyle Bronson, Earl Pearson Jr.
Fast Time Provisional: n/a
Series Emergency Provisionals: Kyle Strickler, Gregg Satterlee, Chase Junghans, Wil Herrington
Track Provisionals: n/a
Berry Barn Pole Award: Brian Shirley
Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Brandon Overton, Tyler Bruening, Tim McCreadie
Penske Shocks Top 5: Brandon Overton, Tyler Bruening, Tim McCreadie, Devin Moran, Shane Clanton
Optima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Earl Pearson Jr. (Advanced 18 Positions)
Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Brandon Overton
Hot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Brandon Overton (22 Laps)
Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Brandon Overton
Eibach Springs Rookie of the Race: n/a