After the Checkers
Instant reaction, analysis of J.D.'s Golden Isles win
By Kevin Kovac
DirtonDirt senior writer
Jonathan Davenport's first visit to victory lane in 2026. (heathlawsonphotos.com)
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (March 4) — Instant reaction and analysis from Wednesday’s Wieland Winternationals opener at Volusia Speedway Park, a $7,000-to-win Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event won by Jonathan Davenport (RaceWire):
MOMENT OF TRUTH: A race night’s most pivotal move doesn’t always come during the feature event. It can occur much earlier in the program — like on Wednesday at Golden Isles when Jonathan Davenport’s flag-to-flag 30-lap victory was born from his spectacular heat performance. Rebounding from a poor qualifying time, Davenport vaulted forward from the fifth starting spot in the prelim to run down and overtake polesitter Ricky Thornton Jr. for a triumph that gave him the pole for the headliner. “We got lucky just being able to move around starting a little back (in the heat),” Davenport said. There was still more slick driving that Davenport had to do in the feature — specifically in the opening circuits when he knew his harder right-rear tire choice (a 3-compound) meant he had to withstand the early assaults thrown his way by rivals using softer, quicker-firing 2-compound rubber — but he handled it with aplomb for his first checkered flag of 2026.
STILL SHINING: Need more evidence that Hudson O’Neal is deserving of his No. 1 ranking in the DirtonDirt Top 25 poll? He offered it on lap 19 of Wednesday’s feature with a breathtaking move that will go down as one of the best anyone’s pulled off during this year’s Georgia-Florida Speedweeks. I was standing in the middle of the infield, watching Brian Shirley, Brandon Sheppard and Devin Moran battle for second place, when suddenly I saw the eighth-starting O’Neal’s SSI Motorsports No. 71 catch the trio. The 25-year-old then exploded past them all in a stirring burst, going outside Moran off turn two and then splitting Shirley and Sheppard entering turn three. While O’Neal didn’t have enough time left to run down Davenport, he did cut nearly two-and-a-half seconds off his deficit in the closing laps en route to finishing second. I asked O’Neal afterward if successfully going from fifth-to-second in a single lap gave him some extra satisfaction in a loss and he replied in the affirmative, though he also noted that his daring maneuver could have gone wrong as well. “Whenever it doesn’t (work),” he said, “that’s when you’re the meme on Facebook.”
NO BREAKTHROUGH: Ricky Thornton Jr. was ready to bust out of his Speedweeks doldrums after setting fast time Wednesday — or at least it seemed so, right? Everyone was anticipating a return to his winning form, but the struggles that have plagued him came back in his heat race. Thornton not only ceded the lead in his prelim to Davenport but also watched Brandon Overton and Brenden Smith pass him on the final circuit, dropping him to a fourth-place finish that relegated him to the 13th starting spot in the feature. After the heat I asked Thornton’s crew chief, Anthony Burroughs, if a mechanical problem had caused Thornton’s slide backward, but he said it just was a bad lap that cost him. “That’s Speedweeks this year,” Burroughs said, acknowledging the frustrating season-opening stretch for RTJ and the Koehler Motorsports team. Thornton was never a factor in the feature, finishing a quiet 13th.
BRIEF FLOURISH: For one fleeting moment in Wednesday’s feature, I started to think I’d be writing a feel-good story about Brian Shirley ending his Speedweeks misery with his first-ever Lucas Oil Series victory. He looked ready to reach that rarified air when he ducked underneath Davenport on lap four rounding turns one and two. But the next circuit Shirley slipped high in turn two, lost ground to J.D. and never threatened the eventual winner again. Shirley ultimately slipped to a seventh-place finish and admitted afterward that the challenge he threw at Davenport was really fool’s gold. He bolted a soft 2-compound tire on his car’s right-rear in the hope he could shoot by Davenport early in the feature “and it just didn’t play out.”
STAT OF THE NIGHT: Davenport’s victory gave him at least one Speedweeks win for a fourth straight season, the longest streak of his career. His 23 Speedweeks triumphs rank sixth all-time and he’s earned them over 10 winning years, including two occasions when he’s won three years in a row (2014-16 and 2018-20).
