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Dustin Sorensen (Tyler Rinken Photo)

Several former WISSOTA racers make first night feature at Volusia; Larson eighth in Crates

By Spence Smithback
World of Outlaws

BARBERVILLE, FL (January 24) - They say if you don’t win the show, be the show. But if you’re Ryan Gustin at the DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals, you do both.

Moments after “The Reaper” crossed the line at Volusia Speedway Park to claim the 11th World of Outlaws Late Models win of his career, the engine under the hood of the No. 19R machine started to turn sour. With smoke billowing out from every corner of the car, Gustin crossed the scales to officially become the first winner of the new season.

“It was obviously running hot,” Gustin said in victory lane. “Smoke was pouring out on the backstretch and they said keep going, so we burned her down and it paid off. I’m glad there weren’t many more laps; I don’t know how many laps the old girl had left in her.”

Of the upper Midwesterners on hand for action at Volusia, several made the feature. Rochester, Minnesota’s Dustin Sorensen was scored 18th, Lake Elmo, Minnesota’s Brent Larson was credited with a 19th-place finish, Sun River, Montana’s Michael Leach was 26th and Lake Shore, Minnesota’s Dan Ebert finished 29th.

Earlier in the night, Gustin claimed the quick time award and won his heat to make the redraw, where he pulled the outside of the front row to start next to pole award winner Nick Hoffman.

A brilliant start gave Gustin the early lead, but a multi-car pileup on the backstretch quickly erased his advantage. On the following restart, Hoffman nailed the first set of corners to regain the top spot, and went to work on building a gap.

Hoffman maintained the lead for the next 15 laps until he jumped the cushion in turn two, allowing Gustin to move in, to his inside. That kicked off a back-and-forth tussle for the lead, with both drivers taking their turns at sliders through slower traffic.

It all came to an end for Hoffman just past halfway though, as he squeezed his No. 9 under Gustin entering turn one, lost the back end and went around to bring out the caution.

When the race went back green, Gustin found Ethan Dotson and Jonathan Davenport on his tail in second and third. A perfect restart allowed Gustin to extend a sizeable advantage over both of them with the laps ticking down.

Davenport got within four-tenths of Gustin in the closing stages, but slid up over the cushion exiting turn four, which gave Gustin the opportunity he needed to drive away to the win.

Friday’s event marked Gustin’s first World of Outlaws start with new crew chief Cody Mallory on the wrenches, and they’ve already proven themselves to be a lethal duo capable of beating dirt Late Model racing’s best.

“Cody came on here and he’s completely redone this thing,” Gustin said. “Whole different unit than what we’ve had. This thing is just in the race track, fun to drive.”

In the final run to the checkers, Davenport got close enough to notice the trouble brewing under Gustin’s hood, but wasn’t able to pull off the winning move for his first Volusia win in seven years.

“Congratulations to Ryan there, they did a great job,” Davenport said. “Saw his motor was running hot and I was pulling up beside him like ‘Man, don’t burn that thing down, go ahead and give us one here.’ But anyway, it just wasn’t our day.”

Rounding out the podium was Cody Overton with a career-best third-place finish. It certainly didn’t come easy, as the second-year Outlaw drove up from his 23rd starting spot to take home hard-charger honors as well.

“I was kind of doubting myself after qualifying, I was like ‘Maybe I just can’t drive,’” Overton said. “My car owner [Dave Steine] has a lot of faith in me, he has spent tons and tons of money and I’m super thankful for him. This is a new car to me, my notebook has got one page in it. We’re going to take these notes and grow from there.”

Ethan Dotson kicked off his bid for Rookie of the Year by finishing fourth, good enough for Friday’s Rookie of the Race honors. Tim McCreadie completed the top five in his first World of Outlaws start in the Boom Briggs-owned No. 9M.

In the CRUSA Late Model feature, there was a lone representative from WISSOTA country on hand to make feature action. Matthew Larson, of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, started eighth on the grid of Feature 2 and finished in eighth.

SUMMARY

WoO Late Models:

Feature (35 Laps): 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin[2]; 2. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[3]; 3. 2-Cody Overton[23]; 4. 74X-Ethan Dotson[5]; 5. 9M-Tim McCreadie[17]; 6. 22*-Drake Troutman[13]; 7. 1-Brandon Sheppard[8]; 8. 40B-Kyle Bronson[25]; 9. 9-Nick Hoffman[1]; 10. 3S-Brian Shirley[11]; 11. 97-Cade Dillard[16]; 12. 76-Brandon Overton[6]; 13. 93-Carson Ferguson[10]; 14. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 15. 16-Tyler Bruening[21]; 16. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[24]; 17. 17SS-Brenden Smith[18]; 18. 19-Dustin Sorensen[12]; 19. B1-Brent Larson[26]; 20. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[27]; 21. 14W-Dustin Walker[28]; 22. 1T-Tyler Erb[14]; 23. 8-Dillon McCowan[29]; 24. 157-Mike Marlar[20]; 25. 11-Austin Smith[30]; 26. 09-Michael Leach[19]; 27. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[7]; 28. 111-Max Blair[9]; 29. 60-Dan Ebert[15]; 30. 71-Hudson O'Neal[22]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 2. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[2]; 3. 22*-Drake Troutman[5]; 4. 09-Michael Leach[8]; 5. 5-Mark Whitener[7]; 6. 8-Dillon McCowan[3]; 7. 81-Jason Riggs[4]; 8. B1-Brent Larson[9]; 9. 109-Nick Johnson[10]; 10. 12-Ashton Winger[6]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 111-Max Blair[2]; 3. 60-Dan Ebert[4]; 4. 71-Hudson O'Neal[6]; 5. 44-Chris Madden[8]; 6. 388-Jackson Hise[5]; 7. 99B-Boom Briggs[7]; 8. 59-Dillard Hatchett[10]; 9. 93L-Cory Lawler[9]; 10. 43-Derrick Stewart[3]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 2. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 3. 9M-Tim McCreadie[4]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson[3]; 5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[5]; 6. 28B-Carson Brown[6]; 7. 75-Daniel Adam[7]; 8. 59M-Trey Mills[8]; 9. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[9]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 74X-Ethan Dotson[3]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard[5]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[1]; 4. 157-Mike Marlar[6]; 5. 2-Cody Overton[8]; 6. 11-Austin Smith[2]; 7. 14W-Dustin Walker[10]; 8. 18D-Daulton Wilson[4]; 9. 23-Beckham Malone[7]; 10. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[9]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[2]; 2. 93-Carson Ferguson[1]; 3. 97-Cade Dillard[4]; 4. 16-Tyler Bruening[6]; 5. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[5]; 6. 99-Devin Moran[3]; 7. 7-Ross Robinson[8]; 8. 81J-Dale McDowell[7]; 9. 11B-Stacy Boles[9]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 9-Nick Hoffman[2]; 2. 19-Dustin Sorensen[1]; 3. 17SS-Brenden Smith[5]; 4. 20-Jimmy Owens[7]; 5. 49-Jake Timm[6]; 6. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[9]; 7. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[3]; 8. 96-Tanner English[8]; 9. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]

B Feaature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 09-Michael Leach[1]; 2. 71-Hudson O'Neal[2]; 3. 5-Mark Whitener[3]; 4. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 5. 44-Chris Madden[4]; 6. 388-Jackson Hise[6]; 7. 59-Dillard Hatchett[10]; 8. B1-Brent Larson[9]; 9. 93L-Cory Lawler[12]; 10. 109-Nick Johnson[11]; 11. 99B-Boom Briggs[8]; 12. 43-Derrick Stewart[14]; 13. 81-Jason Riggs[7]; 14. 12-Ashton Winger[13]

B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 2. 2-Cody Overton[4]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 4. 28B-Carson Brown[5]; 5. 18D-Daulton Wilson[10]; 6. 59M-Trey Mills[9]; 7. 75-Daniel Adam[7]; 8. 11-Austin Smith[6]; 9. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[11]; 10. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 11. 23-Beckham Malone[12]; 12. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[13]; 13. 14W-Dustin Walker[8]

B Feature 3 (10 Laps): 1. 16-Tyler Bruening[1]; 2. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[3]; 3. 99-Devin Moran[5]; 4. 7-Ross Robinson[7]; 5. 49-Jake Timm[4]; 6. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[6]; 7. 20-Jimmy Owens[2]; 8. 11B-Stacy Boles[11]; 9. 81J-Dale McDowell[9]; 10. 40B-Kyle Bronson[12]; 11. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[8]; 12. 96-Tanner English[10]

CRUSA Late Models:

Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 16S-Sam Seawright[4]; 2. 01S-Robert Smith[8]; 3. 99-Kyle Hardy[13]; 4. 7J-Dalton Jacobs[12]; 5. 23M-Beckham Malone[6]; 6. 15-Marty Massey[9]; 7. 42-Steven Stratton Sr[15]; 8. 7T-Tyler Thomason[7]; 9. 87C-Jarrod Carey[3]; 10. 16W-Wesley Scott[16]; 11. 59-Brian Wooldridge[19]; 12. 96-Sean Reagan[18]; 13. (DNF) 19X-Mark Page[17]; 14. (DNF) 2S-Layton Sullivan[1]; 15. (DNF) 16-Caleb Gay[11]; 16. (DNF) 7-Corey Neil Jr[10]; 17. (DNF) 51-Mack McCarter[2]; 18. (DNF) 14AJ-AJ Miller[5]; 19. (DNF) 67S-Garret Stewart[14]

Feature 2 (20 Laps): 1. 131-Matt Herlong[2]; 2. 126-Kaede Loudy[3]; 3. 07-Hayden Cardwell[6]; 4. 18X-Michael Page[7]; 5. 18B-Austin Yarbrough[13]; 6. 18-David Showers Jr[4]; 7. 44-Kam Boyd[1]; 8. 8-Matthew Larson[8]; 9. B2-Brian Booze[17]; 10. 515-Bubba Roling[12]; 11. 49-Mario Gresham[9]; 12. 31S-Tim Swartz[16]; 13. 4G-Kale Green[11]; 14. 57-Landon Zakalowski[18]; 15. 119-Joe Belkey[10]; 16. (DNF) 17P-Rob Pitcher[15]; 17. (DNF) 00M-Monte Skinner[5]; 18. (DNF) 14Y-Dale Young[19]; 19. (DNF) 3-Luke Bennett[14]

Feature 3 (20 Laps): 1. 111-Demetrios Drellos[4]; 2. 2-Trynt Lloyd[9]; 3. 00-Ethan Wilson[8]; 4. 21-Nathan Bray[2]; 5. 30-Curtis Glover[1]; 6. D8-Dustin Linville[3]; 7. 257-Skylar Marlar[10]; 8. 86-Wil Herrington[11]; 9. 7A-Corey Almond[6]; 10. 39W-Brandon Wells[14]; 11. 67-Gregory Carrico[7]; 12. 23-Toby Sims[12]; 13. 20-Owen Osteen[13]; 14. 71C-Davy Cline[18]; 15. 18C-Miles Cook II[5]; 16. (DNF) 28L-Austin Leamon[16]; 17. (DNF) 24-Payton Stevenson[19]; 18. (DNF) 118-Jared Delk[15]; 19. (DNF) 1X-Ethan Whitis[17]

Feature 4 (20 Laps): 1. 5-Mark Whitener[1]; 2. USA1-Jimmy Thomas[10]; 3. 44P-Kole Platt[4]; 4. 721-Mikey Kopka[12]; 5. 28-Jake Rainey[5]; 6. 6-Dillon Brown[7]; 7. 611-Koulten Herbert[11]; 8. 52-Cody Karl[9]; 9. 2C-Zack Carley[8]; 10. 94-Holden Allen[16]; 11. 12C-Chase Giddens[6]; 12. 54T-Tuck Trentham[2]; 13. 17C-Jamie Maurice[15]; 14. 18I-Jason Intoppa[13]; 15. (DNF) 69-Wyatt Boyd[17]; 16. (DNF) 89-Timmie Harrelson[18]; 17. (DNF) 11-John Ownbey[3]; 18. (DNS) 35-Christian Augspurger