MARYVILLE, Tenn. — Brandon Overton knew he let a sure victory — what would have been his third straight Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series triumph — slip through his fingers Friday at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C. Through no fault of his own, Overton’s flat tire while leading on the last lap dropped him from first to fourth and cost the Evans, Ga., driver $9,250 — the difference between the $12,000 winner’s check that Ross Bailes received and the $2,750 that Overton received for limping his Wells & Sons Motorsports Longhorn Chassis home in fourth place.
On Saturday there was no limping home. Dogged by Brandon Sheppard’s furious pursuit, Overton made all the right moves as he picked his way through lapped traffic over the final 10 laps of the 60-lap Mountain Moonshine Classic at Smoky Mountain Speedway and kept Sheppard just out of reach as he raced to a $15,000 victory. Overton crossed the line a full second ahead of Sheppard, of New Berlin, Ill., to earn his third Lucas Oil Series victory of the season and sixth of his career.
“Man it feels good. That’s how it’s been going though, I have a bad night and then I get me one,” said Overton in victory lane. “So, hell, if I’m gonna win one this weekend, I rather get the 15 grand.”
The third-starting Overton took the lead from Sheppard on lap 27 and then repelled the advances of the Rocket Chassis house car driver late in the race for his ninth victory of 2020 and his fifth five-figure payday of the season. He’s won three of the last four Lucas Oil Series features.
Sheppard, who led laps 1-26 from the pole, settled for second, but had to fend off fellow front-row starter Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn. Owens grabbed second from Sheppard on a lap-29 restart, but conceded the spot back with 20 laps remaining and finished third. Fifth-starting Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., finished fourth, his fourth top-five of the year, and Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., improved one spot to finish fifth in one of his most consistent outings of the season.
After Overton built a lead of a much as 3 seconds, Sheppard, with Owens in tow, methodically cut into the advantage. With five laps remaining, Sheppard caught Overton and took a peek to his inside in turn two, but Overton drove back by on the outside. Lap 56 was a replay of lap 55, except Owens had joined the fray as well.
“Man, when you’re racing against that competition right there,” said Overton, nodding to Sheppard’s big blue hauler parked just across the pit aisle, “it ain’t over ’til it’s over. They’re so good. They know where to go. They know everything that I know. Anything that I think I got an advantage on and do something a little different, they even know that too. They’re just so good. When you’re out front it’s a crap shoot. They’re gonna go whichever way you don’t and that’s what makes it so tough.”
Feeling like the fastest way around the 4/10-mile oval was at the top, Overton stuck to the line he’d ran for most of the race, even though he was getting mixed signals as he flashed down the backstretch.
“If (Overton) would’ve passed me on the outside and won the race, I would’ve felt like (dumb),” said Overton. “So I moved up. I see him down there in (turns) one and two and I mean, I really couldn’t pass Devin (Moran) without sliding him and I was trying not to slide him because I didn’t want to get in a crappy situation and let Brandon pass us.
“So I just tried to stay as tight as I could and I figured if I could keep him in the left of my eye there, I knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the momentum leaving the corner. So even if he showed me the nose I could still out drag race him down the straightaway. So I’m just trying to use my head as much as I could.
“It’s hard because I was really going, ‘Should I move down? Should I go up? Should I move down? I didn’t really know what to do. Down that backstretch there’s so many guys signaling, you don’t know which one’s which because you go by them so fast. Like I said, one time I saw everybody going, up up up and the next time everybody was like, down down down, and I’m like, I don’t even know where my guy’s at.”
Sheppard said if given a choice, he’d prefer to be the hound early in the race rather than the rabbit.
“Man, I hate leading early in those races,” he said. “We were really good in the bottom and I caught lapped traffic and I knew at some point the track would move up a little bit or something, but it kinda got to where it was pretty even all the way across there at the end and it made for a really good race, a really close race.
“It was a lot of fun out there. (Overton) did a really good job and Jimmy (Owens) did too. It was a nice fun, clean race. I missed the bottom down there in (turns) one and two on one lap and he got by me there and that’s what cost us right there. He got the lead from me and we ended up getting it back and when we were messing around in lapped traffic and stuff, I missed the bottom down there in (turns) one and two and kinda gave it away there.”
Owens, who had a perfect view of the battle for the lead, was there if either Overton or Sheppard slipped, but couldn’t quite find the speed he needed to make a run at the lead.
“It was a heck of a show. I enjoyed being a part of it,” said Owens. “I wish we would’ve been a little more … just about a car length farther up. Everybody got to swap the lead back a little bit, but this Ramirez Motorsports Rocket is just really, really on the rail here in the last month or so.”
Notes: With his sixth career series win Brandon Overton moved passed Dan Schlieper of Sullivan, Wis., on the tour’s all-time win list. Overton is now tied with Matt Miller, Scott James, Jared Landers and Hudson O'Neal. … Jimmy Owens maintained his Lucas Oil Series points lead. Owens took the lead from Tim McCreadie on Friday and is back atop the series standings for the first time since Aug. 31, 2014 when he held a 25-point advantage over Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind. Owens lost the points lead to O’Neal on Sept. 20, 2014 at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway. … For the second night in a row a flat tire doomed McCreadie, of Watertown, N.Y. He said early contact from “the No. 7” (Ricky Weiss) cut down his left rear tire. … Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., struggled with carburetor problems early and had to take a provisional to make the main event. He improved 11 spots in the feature after starting 23rd. … Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., last year’s series winner at Smoky Mountain, pitted on lap seven with mechanical issues. … Jay Scott of Fayetteville, Tenn., the 2018 Southern All Stars champion, made his first career Lucas Oil Series start, finishing 24th. … Among drivers not advancing to the main event: Chris Ferguson, John Blankenship, Vic Hill, Logan Roberson, Tyler Millwood and Nick Hoffman.
