Ocala Speedway
I-95 North (and red dirt) appeals more to Overton
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Brandon Overton leads the way at Ocala. (mikerueferphotos.photoreflect.com)
OCALA, Fla. (Feb. 28) — Brandon Overton believed he and his Riggs Motorsports No. 76 team had done everything right through the opening six races of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series season across All-Tech Raceway and Ocala Speedway. They topped their qualifying group five times. They won five heat races and finished no worse than second in the other.
So when Overton held a convincing lead in Saturday’s seventh race of the season at Ocala — setting a blistering pace and slicing through lapped traffic while Hudson O’Neal stayed glued to his rear bumper — it seemed he was finally on his way to his first national touring victory on Florida dirt outside Volusia Speedway Park and East Bay Raceway Park.
Then, under a lap-37 caution, the Evans, Ga., driver noticed his right-rear tire starting to go soft.
“I felt it kind of going down a little bit. I’m like, ‘Surely I ain’t having a flat after I made it three-quarters of the damn race,’ ” the 34-year-old Overton said. “But yeah, I started wiggling around, and I could feel it on the wheel back there, so I pulled in and changed it.
“I guess I just ran something over, I don’t know, a piece of debris or something,” he added. “It had a big-ass slice in it.”
Less than 15 laps away from what would’ve been his first Lucas Oil feature victory of the 2026 season instead turned into Overton parking his race car with three circuits remaining on lap 48, settling for a 17th-place finish. Because the Lucas Oil Series counts a driver’s best five finishes among Speedweeks points events — and because Overton already has finishes of fourth, third, second and sixth with three more races upcoming at his favorite track, Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., this Thursday-Saturday — there was no need to risk tearing up his equipment.
“It kind of knocks all the wind out of your sails when you get back there,” Overton said of restarting at the tail of Saturday’s field at Ocala, where he climbed only to 16th from laps 37-47 before pulling in. “It’s almost impossible to get back up there. Just rode around for a little bit, and they were trying to kill each other back there. So finally said I had enough and just pulled in.”
Up to that point, tires weren’t Overton’s main concern. He was more focused on making sure he didn’t risk a catastrophic part failure.
“Really, I was just driving hard for a lap, making sure I didn’t get slid. And then I’d get into protect mode trying not to blow a motor up,” he said. “I mean, we’re bouncing all the way around there. Really, it was my race to lose. I ain’t saying I would’ve done it, jumped the cushion or push in three and four was probably their only shot, or the lapped cars bottling us or something. Yeah, it was, try not to do something stupid in lapped traffic.”
All things considered, losing out on Saturday’s would-be $25,000 victory — which would have also been Overton’s first Lucas Oil triumph in 42 races since his May 2 victory at Circle City Raceway in Indianapolis, Ind. — didn’t crush his spirits. He’s been impressively consistent since his four-victory surge Jan. 30 at Needmore Speedway in Norman Park, Ga., Feb. 6-7 sweep of Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga., and Feb. 9 on DIRTcar Nationals opening night at Volusia.
Showing perhaps the most early race speed of anyone at two of his most challenging tracks, All-Tech Raceway and Ocala Speedway, has Overton optimistic heading into four straight nights of action at Golden Isles Speedway — a place where he’s won four of the last eight Lucas Oil events and finished no worse than fourth over that span.
“Our car’s fast, I’m proud of my guys. They bust their ass,” Overton said. “We have a good team, everyone’s upbeat. That’s more what I’m proud of, like we have speed, we’re fast. We’ve been to all these tracks down here, and pretty much every night we’ve sat on the pole (and) won a heat. That’s the biggest thing. We have speed. Of all the places we’re going to, Brunswick is my favorite. Yeah, I’m ready to get it on four days up there.”
At the rate his competitors are going — Hudson O’Neal, Brandon Sheppard and Devin Moran, all winners among the first seven Lucas Oil events — there’s a little more urgency for Overton to keep pace. Although it’s way too early to stress about the standings, Overton already finds himself 140 points behind the red-hot leader in O’Neal and 100 markers behind Moran, who was third or better in every Ocala event.
Sometimes, it takes a little good fortune — circumstances outside Overton’s control — to help push him over the edge.
“We always say, when you lose ‘em like that, it always pays you back,” Overton said. “We watched Sheppard lose one the other night here (Monday at Ocala when he slipped up in traffic and lost the feature to Moran), and hell, he got it back the next day (when Kyle Bronson broke out of the lead). Yeah, we’ll get one back down the road.”
Anything short of at least one victory Wednesday-Saturday at the 4/10-mile Golden Isles oval would feel like a missed opportunity.
“It’s hard to win anywhere, but that’s our goal. Obviously we wanna all of them,” Overton said. “But I do love Brunswick. I’m more comfortable there. I’m not comfortable here (at Ocala). Well, not that I’m uncomfortable. It’s just a different style of racing. All-Tech is real tricky and kind of just hard. A lot of s--- goes through my brain because I’m trying to set it up and drive it. So it makes it tough on me.
“Brunswick is just home. It’s red dirt. It’s where I’m good at,” he added. “We just need to go take advantage of it.”
