GAFFNEY, S.C. (Sept. 2) — Nothing Brandon Overton does this season should come as a surprise any longer.

But the manner in which the 30-year-old superstar from Evans, Ga., won Thursday night’s 60-lap Rock Gault Memorial at Cherokee Speedway? Well, it was certainly deserving of special recognition.

Racing on an abrasive, largely one-lane racetrack that made passing difficult, Overton still managed to shoot around the outside of Blairsville, Ga.’s Jonathan Davenport to grab the lead on lap 49. Then he survived a late-race outbreak of flat tires that took out several contenders — including second-place Davenport with four circuits remaining — by tip-toeing through the corners to conserve his own fading right-rear shoe just long enough to claim the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series event’s mammoth $40,000 top prize.

“I thought I had enough (tire left), but they kept blowing ‘em and I wasn’t gonna take no chance,” Overton said of the race’s nerve-racking final laps. “I just backed up (in hopes of babying his Longhorn Chassis to the checkered flag).”

Overton oh-so-smoothly negotiated the 4/10-mile oval following the lap-56 restart, keeping Chris Madden at arm’s length to defeat the Gray Court, S.C., driver by 0.536 of a second. Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., finished third in a quiet advance forward from the ninth starting spot, sixth-starter Trent Ivey of Union, S.C., placed fourth and NASCAR Cup Series regular season champion Kyle Larson of Elk Grove, Calif., was fifth after starting from the pole position and leading laps 1-32.

Davenport, who led laps 33-48, finished 19th after losing the runner-up spot on lap 56 to a right-rear tire that went flat because it was completely bald.

Overton started fourth in his David Wells-owned mount and immediately settled into third, behind Larson’s K&L Rumley Enterprises Longhorn and the third-starting Davenport’s Double L Motorsports Longhorn. He spent the race’s first half running as conservatively as possible to keep tread on his right-rear tire.

While Overton made some attempts to challenge the pacesetters by vacating the line of rubber on the inside and running higher on the track, he did it more as a strategic move. He didn’t have especially high hopes that the approach would work.

“It is what it is, you know?” Overton said. “You gotta race out there, and you gotta play chess. You gotta sit there and wait on when to go. I moved up early, and I was wanting them to get up (the track) and then I could get in the rubber and maybe pass them that-a-way, but nobody did. They all stayed on the bottom.”

Overton found space underneath Larson through turns one and two on lap 33 to snatch second place mere moments after Davenport pulled off a similar move on Larson in turn three to assume command. He tested a higher groove behind Davenport for several circuits before tucking back into the rubber when Madden drew close with less than 20 laps remaining.

Then came the A-main’s first caution flag, on lap 47 when teenager Bryson Harper slowed with a flat right-rear tire. When the race restarted, Overton, who chose the outside in the Delaware double-file alignment, located a sliver of traction above the rubber and used it to swing around Davenport for the lead off turn four heading to lap 49.

It proved to be Overton’s winning move, and its success surprised him and Davenport.

“I thought I saved enough to roll out and pass them guys right there out of the rubber,” Overton related, before adding that when he actually pulled it off, “I said, ‘Damn, my race car’s either really, really good, or their tires and s— are wore out.’”

Davenport, 37, tipped his cap to Overton, whose 22nd overall victory of 2021 moved him two wins ahead of J.D. in their personal checkered-flag battle.

“Congratulations to Brandon. He done a helluva job once again,” Davenport said having second place slip through his fingers with the finish so close. “I couldn’t believe he actually passed me on the top there. He must’ve been far enough ahead of the third-place guy where he could move around a little bit and find a little bit more rubber up there. But he did a good job.”

Overton handled four restarts between laps 50 and 56 to secure his fourth WoO triumph of the season and the 17th of his career. The victory was his seventh this year that paid $20,000 or more — topped, of course, by his pair of six-figure Dream wins in June at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, and his $50,000 North-South 100 score on Aug. 14 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky. — and continued his nearly perfect ’21 record at Cherokee, where he also earned $10,000 for a Southern All Star Series win on March 7 and $7,500 for an Ultimate Southeast success on May 30.

“I love coming here, seeing all these people,” said Overton, whose only loss this season at Cherokee was a third-place finish in a WoO semi-feature on March 26, the night before the Rock Gault Memorial was rained out on its original date. “They (the fans) all came and talked to me today and we appreciate every one of you.

“I want to thank everybody at Cherokee and the World of Outlaws for putting a race like this on,” he added. “Forty-thousand dollars is a lot of money for guys who race in this region. Hell, that’s a good payday, so just thankful for (the Scott Childress-promoted track), thankful for all the people in the grandstands tonight.”

Madden, 46, inherited second place when Davenport pitted but wasn’t able to mount a serious bid for the lead over the final four circuits. The WoO regular had his mind more focused on preserving a $15,000 runner-up finish at his home track with right-rear tires giving out.

“We put ourself in position there,” said Madden, who started fifth. “We just needed to finish the race. We knew tire wear was gonna become an issue and it definitely did. We couldn’t have had many more restarts there and you would’ve had a lot of flats.

“But we managed to make it go 60 like we needed to do and got us a good finish tonight.”

The 49-year-old Owens was also relieved to make it to the finish with air in the right-rear tire of his Ramirez Motorsports XR1 Rocket car.

“We just took our time early in the race because we knew we wouldn’t have a lot of tire left at the end,” said Owens, who earned $10,000. “We had a pretty decent car. We made a whole lot of adjustments and was a whole lot better there in the feature than we was in the heat race.”

All five of the event’s caution flags came between laps 47 and 56 and were caused by drivers slowing with flat right-rear tires. After Harper triggered the first slowdown on lap 47, subsequent yellows came on lap 50 for Dillon Brown; lap 52 for Tim McCreadie (as he ran fourth); lap 54 for Ryan Gustin; and lap 56 for Davenport.

Notes: Overton’s victory pushed his 2021 first-place earnings to a whopping $542,575. … Overton’s previous WoO triumphs this season came on Feb. 12 at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., and June 25-26 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa. ($6,000 preliminary feature and $30,000 Firecracker 100). … Chris Ferguson moved to third when Davenport headed to the pits on lap 56, but moments later Fergy limped to the infield as well with a flat right-rear tire. ... WoO points leader Brandon Overton was relegated to a B-main after contact from Trent Ivey at the start of his heat cut his left-rear tire and had to use a provisional to start the feature, but attrition helped him climb to a 10th-place finish. He remained a commanding 162 points ahead of Madden in the standings with eight races remaining as he seeks his third straight and fourth overall series title. … Michael Brown stopped on the track twice during the feature’s pace laps to tighten his seatbelts. He went on to finish 18th. … The 15-year-old Harper also had trouble during the pace laps; he had to change a flat right-rear tire before the green flag flew. … Just three of eight WoO regulars — Madden, Gustin and Tyler Bruening — transferred to the feature through a heat or B-main. Sheppard and Dennis Erb Jr. took points provisionals and Ricky Weiss used an emergency provisional; Boom Briggs declined an emergency provisional while Brent Larson had to sit out his first WoO A-main of the season because he wasn’t eligible for an emergency spot. … Jimmy Sharpe Jr. scratched from the B-main due to brake problems. ... The feature's checkered flag flew at midnight.