Owens Three-Peats, Williamson Picks Up Second Win at Volusia Speedway Park
Wight in Super DIRTcar Series, Sheppard in Late Model claim DIRTcar Nationals Big Gator titles
BARBERVILLE, FL — Feb. 15, 2020 — For the third consecutive night, Jimmy Owens captured the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series main event at Volusia Speedway Park’s DIRTcar Nationals presented by Bozard Ford.
After a series of drivers battled for the lead early in the Feature on Saturday night, it was Kyle Bronson who emerged to set a blistering pace on the top side of the half-mile dirt oval. Owens managed to keep up with Bronson, and with 11 to go in traffic slid to the lead exiting Turn 4 and pulled away. Ricky Weiss followed Owens a couple laps later as Bronson’s machine just couldn’t maintain its momentum.
Owens, who had never won at Volusia until this week, finishes the DIRTcar Nationals on a three-race win streak.
“We set the car up for late in the race,” said Owens, of Newport, Tenn. “We were debating on changing it, not changing it. We had it jacked up and down two or three times and finally we just said let’s go with what we started with. It worked, we just bided our time and used patience and I knew once the track slicked off it would come to us.”
Weiss was second with Bronson, Darrell Lanigan and Brandon Sheppard rounding out the top five. For Sheppard, it was just enough to claim his second DIRTcar Nationals Late Model Week Big Gator Championship in as many years.
“It’s been a great speed weeks for us,” said Sheppard, of New Berlin, Ill. “We’ve been fast every night, we’ve been in contention every night. I wish we had a few more nights left. I think we got the car a little bit better tonight for Feature time, and in the Feature there it was about the best I’ve felt in the past couple of days. It’s good to leave here knowing that we got the car a little bit better before we left. … We’re definitely fortunate to get this Gator Championship, it feels really good.”
In the Super DIRTcar Series finale at Volusia, Mat Williamson charged to his second victory of the week, bookending the event with his win on Tuesday night. Williamson jumped out front on the initial start, held off Jimmy Phelps on a restart with 17 laps down and cruised to victory over Phelps, Matt Sheppard, Billy Dunn and Billy Decker.
Larry Wight, who won three consecutive Features during the week, finished sixth on Saturday night, good enough to clinch his third Big Gator Trophy (2015, 2019, 2020) as the Super DIRTcar Series champion at the DIRTcar Nationals presented by Bozard Ford.
“I think it’s a combination of good preparation, good car, good motor and a phenomenal crew, and having the family to back all that up and allow us to put in the hours and time at the track to come down here,” said Wight, of Phoenix, N.Y, who has won four of the past seven Super DIRTcar Series races going back to 2019. “The track kind of threw us for a loop tonight, we didn’t think it was going to get as slick. We thought the top would be better, so we tried to get the car freed up versus [Friday] night. I guess we should have left it just left it a little bit snugger.”
DIRTcar Nationals Race Report; Volusia Speedway Park; Feb. 15, 2020
World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series (50 Laps): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens [2][$10,000]; 2. 7-Ricky Weiss [3][$5,000]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson [7][$3,000]; 4. 29v-Darrell Lanigan [4][$2,500]; 5. 1-Brandon Sheppard [11][$2,000]; 6. 8-Kyle Strickler [1][$1,700]; 7. 0-Scott Bloomquist [13][$1,400]; 8. 25-Shane Clanton [9][$1,300]; 9. 39-Tim McCreadie [15][$1,200]; 10. 25z-Mason Zeigler [10][$1,100]; 11. 0M-Chris Madden [23][$1,050]; 12. 2e-Rick Eckert [16][$1,000]; 13. 6T-Tyler Erb [12][$950]; 14. 3s-Brian Shirley [17][$900]; 15. 28-Dennis Erb [14][$850]; 16. B1-Brent Larson [28][$110]; 17. 18-Chase Junghans [19][$770]; 18. 76-Brandon Overton [21][$750]; 19. 12-Ashton Winger [24][$730]; 20. 97-Cade Dillard [18][$700]; 21. 66c-Matt Cosner [26][$110]; 22. 4G-Kody Evans [27][$110]; 23. 99B-Boom Briggs [25][$110]; 24. 5-Mark Whitener [6][$700]; 25. 22-Gregg Satterlee [20][$700]; 26. 157-Mike Marlar [8][$700]; 27. 17M-Dale McDowell [22][$700]; 28. 49-Jonathan Davenport [5][$700]; 29. 6-Blake Spencer [29][$110]. Lap Leaders: Kyle Strickler – 1, Darrell Lanigan – 2-7, 9-14, Jonathan Davenport – 8, Kyle Bronson – 15-39, Jimmy Owens – 40-50. KSE Hard Charger Award: 0M-Chris Madden [+12].
Super DIRTcar Series (50 laps): 1. 88-Mat Williamson [2][$5,000]; 2. 98H-Jimmy Phelps [1][$2,500]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard [4][$1,500]; 4. 49-Billy Dunn [5][$1,000]; 5. 91-Billy Decker [7][$800]; 6. 99L-Larry Wight [3][$700]; 7. 42P-Pat Ward [10][$650]; 8. 4-Andy Bachetti [19][$600]; 9. 25R-Erick Rudolph [11][$550]; 10. 19-Tim Fuller [15][$500]; 11. 20-Brett Hearn [23][$475]; 12. 44-Stewart Friesen [6][$450]; 13. 7MM-Michael Maresca [8][$425]; 14. 44P-Anthony Perrego [16][$400]; 15. 19M-Jessey Mueller [9][$375]; 16. 21A-Peter Britten [24][$350]; 17. 30-Ronnie Johnson [21][$325]; 18. 3-Justin Haers [18][$300]; 19. 23-Kyle Coffey [13][$300]; 20. 111-Demetrios Drellos [28][$300]; 21. 83-Brian Swartzlander [12][$300]; 22. 46-Jeremy Smith [14][$300]; 23. 32-Jim Rasey [25][$300]; 24. 8-Rich Scagliotta [26][$300]; 25. 1G-Darwin Greene [17][$300]; 26. 30M-JoJo Watson [22][$300]; 27. 1-Billy Pauch [20][$300]; 28. 7-Rick Laubach [27][$300]. KSE Hard Charger Award: 20-Brett Hearn [+12].