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Nothdurft qualifies through B feature, finishing 15th behind two-time winner Davenport at Ocala

From Series Reports

OCALA, FL (February 6) – Jonathan Davenport secured his second consecutive Winter Nationals feature on Thursday night at Ocala Speedway, as the three-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion fended off Brandon Overton to capture the $10,000 victory.

The final results show that Davenport led all 40 laps, but Overton caught up to Davenport as they approached the white flag. However, he could never pass him to steal the win from his fellow Georgian, who triumphed by 0.538 seconds at the finish line. Kyle Bronson achieved his best series finish of the year, taking third, followed by Brandon Sheppard and Devin Moran, who rounded out the top five drivers.

In Lucas Oil victory lane for the 85th time in his career, Davenport was also victorious at Ocala for the fifth time in his career, the most all-time for any Late Model driver during Speedweeks at the egg-shaped track.

“He (Overton) made me more worried than I should have been. I didn’t know he was coming like that at the very end. It was kind of slimy around the bottom, so he just kept chasing it down and blowing it out. That was why I didn’t think we could move, and since I was in the front, I couldn’t tell what everyone else was doing. Once I got to the lapped cars, I didn’t think I could pass any on the outside. I think they finally rolled in a little of that slime through one and two. It was a little better through the middle, but it was kind of bumpy. As long as your car wouldn’t bounce too badly, I guess that was why he got that good run. Other than that, I was just blocking.”

Overton, in his return to the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series in 2025, was the third different driver to run second during the 40-lap race, joining Sheppard and Bronson in that category.

Bronson, looking for his first series win since taking the Silver Dollar Nationals in 2021, regained the third position on lap 33 to round out the podium.

Spencer Hughes, Ross Robinson, Tyler Bruening, Tanner English, and Dillon McCowan completed the top 10.

Two WISSOTA-area drivers made the feature. Renner, South Dakota’s Blair Nothdurft won his B feature and finished 15th in the A-main, while Lake Shore, Minnesota’s Dan Ebert finished 24th. Sun River, Montana’s Michael Leach, and Bloomer, Wisconsin’s Chad Mahder were not able to qualify through heat race or B feature action.

SUMMARY

Lucas Oil Late Models:

A-Main (40 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton[4]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 5. 99-Devin Moran[7]; 6. 19M-Spencer Hughes[5]; 7. 7-Ross Robinson[15]; 8. 16-Tyler Bruening[18]; 9. 96-Tanner English[13]; 10. 8-Dillon McCowan[12]; 11. 111-Max Blair[23]; 12. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[10]; 13. 1T-Tyler Erb[21]; 14. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[6]; 15. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[17]; 16. 71-Hudson O'Neal[25]; 17. 79-Donald McIntosh[19]; 18. 93-Carson Ferguson[27]; 19. 18D-Daulton Wilson[22]; 20. 58-Garrett Alberson[11]; 21. 15K-Wil Herrington[20]; 22. 3S-Brian Shirley[8]; 23. 5-Mark Whitener[16]; 24. 60-Dan Ebert[24]; 25. 22*-Drake Troutman[9]; 26. 9-Tim McCreadie[14]; 27. 17SS-Brenden Smith[26]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 19M-Spencer Hughes[2]; 3. 22*-Drake Troutman[3]; 4. 96-Tanner English[4]; 5. 5-Mark Whitener[6]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[7]; 7. 18D-Daulton Wilson[5]; 8. 93-Carson Ferguson[11]; 9. 60-Dan Ebert[9]; 10. 55C-Chad Mahder[12]; 11. 28B-Carson Brown[8]; 12. 81-Jason Riggs[10]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 2. 99-Devin Moran[3]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 4. 7-Ross Robinson[4]; 5. 16-Tyler Bruening[7]; 6. 11-Austin Smith[5]; 7. 17SS-Brenden Smith[9]; 8. 15K-Wil Herrington[8]; 9. 24-Tyler Wyant[11]; 10. C4-Freddie Carpenter[10]; 11. 18-Chase Junghans[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 3. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[3]; 4. 9-Tim McCreadie[6]; 5. 79-Donald McIntosh[4]; 6. 99B-Boom Briggs[5]; 7. 1T-Tyler Erb[7]; 8. 81J-Jack Riggs[8]; 9. 57-Matt Tifft[10]; 10. 09-Michael Leach[9]; 11. 000-Matt Nailor[11]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[2]; 2. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[4]; 4. 71-Hudson O'Neal[5]; 5. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[3]; 6. 111-Max Blair[7]; 7. 6-Clay Harris[8]; 8. 20-Jimmy Owens[6]; 9. 93L-Cory Lawler[9]; 10. 32J-Jason Jack[10]; 11. (DNS) 17Z-Seth Zacharias

B-Main 1 (10 Laps): 1. 5-Mark Whitener[1]; 2. 16-Tyler Bruening[2]; 3. 15K-Wil Herrington[8]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[9]; 5. 11-Austin Smith[4]; 6. C4-Freddie Carpenter[12]; 7. 55C-Chad Mahder[11]; 8. 18-Chase Junghans[14]; 9. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[3]; 10. 18D-Daulton Wilson[5]; 11. 17SS-Brenden Smith[6]; 12. 93-Carson Ferguson[7]; 13. 24-Tyler Wyant[10]; 14. (DNS) 28B-Carson Brown; 15. (DNS) 81-Jason Riggs

B-Main 2 (10 Laps): 1. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[2]; 2. 79-Donald McIntosh[1]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 4. 99B-Boom Briggs[3]; 5. 111-Max Blair[4]; 6. 6-Clay Harris[6]; 7. 93L-Cory Lawler[10]; 8. 20-Jimmy Owens[8]; 9. 57-Matt Tifft[9]; 10. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[14]; 11. 32J-Jason Jack[12]; 12. 000-Matt Nailor[13]; 13. 09-Michael Leach[11]; 14. (DNS) 81J-Jack Riggs