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Erb evades Marlar & Davenport for Wednesday win; Nothdurft finishes 21st in field

From DirtOnDirt.com Staff Reports

GIBSONTON, FL (Feb. 7) - Powering around the outside of Jonathan Davenport and taking the lead for good on lap 27, fourth-starting Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, led the final 14 laps to top Wednesday's $7,000 second round of the 48th annual Wieland Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park. Leading twice for 21 laps (12-18, 27-40), Erb secured his 20th career full-field Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature victory and his sixth career Winternationals triumph.

Mike Marlar moved through the field on the high side and grabbed the runner-up spot on the final lap, nipping Davenport at the line by 0.204 of a second; Marlar crossed the checkers 2.653 seconds behind Erb. The second-starting Davenport, of Blairsville, GA, led three times for 18 laps (1-11, 19, 21-26) before rounding-out the podium finishers.

“I think I raced a little smarter today, you know I chased (Jonathan Davenport) and was real patient and finally got by him,” Erb explained. “On the (lap 18) restart, obviously they started running the top or something, to get such a really good run (on me). I just had to hunker down and fight back. That was a really good race. I can’t believe JD left the top open down there in (turns) one and two. That was fun, that’s East Bay, that’s how it’s supposed to be ... just kinda all over the place.”

Daulton Wilson led lap 20 before slipping to finish fourth. Twelfth-starting Dennis Erb, Jr. moved into fifth on the last lap and completed the top five.

Blair Nothdurft, of Renner, South Dakota, had another good run in his heat race, finishing second. He started seventh in the feature and finished 21st.

SUMMARY

Lucas Oil Late Model Series:

Feature (40 Laps): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[4]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[23]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 4. 18D-Daulton Wilson[3]; 5. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[12]; 6. 20-Jimmy Owens[6]; 7. 39-Tim McCreadie[18]; 8. 3S-Brian Shirley[19]; 9. 40B-Kyle Bronson[15]; 10. 10-Garrett Smith[24]; 11. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[16]; 12. 99-Devin Moran[8]; 13. 1-Hudson O'Neal[14]; 14. 174-Ethan Dotson[21]; 15. 14X-Wil Herrington[13]; 16. 7-Ross Robinson[5]; 17. 6-Clay Harris[11]; 18. 75-Daniel Adam[17]; 19. 71C-RJ Conley[20]; 20. 7T-Drake Troutman[22]; 21. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[7]; 22. 15K-Jensen Ford[1]; 23. 58-Garrett Alberson[9]; 24. 76-Brandon Overton[10]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 15K-Jensen Ford[1]; 2. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[3]; 3. 14X-Wil Herrington[4]; 4. 4-Amanda Robinson[6]; 5. 25-Tony Jackson Jr[5]; 6. 18-Chase Junghans[9]; 7. 7T-Drake Troutman[8]; 8. 19M-Spencer Hughes[2]; 9. 82B-Jason Milam[11]; 10. 25B-Mike Benedum[10]; 11. 51-Dean Carpenter[12]; 12. 07-Brian Ledbetter[13]; 13. 2*-Logan Hitt[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 18D-Daulton Wilson[2]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson[3]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley[5]; 5. 6T-Tim Dohm[4]; 6. 12R-Ryan Payne[8]; 7. 1Z-Logan Zarin[7]; 8. 96V-Tanner English[6]; 9. 21-Kenny Howell[12]; 10. 81J-Jack Riggs[9]; 11. 3-Brennon Willard[11]; 12. 15-Blake McClain[10]; 13. (DNS) 21M-Tre Martin

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7-Ross Robinson[1]; 2. 6-Clay Harris[2]; 3. 75-Daniel Adam[3]; 4. 71C-RJ Conley[6]; 5. 97-Cody Overton[7]; 6. S21-Seth Daniels[4]; 7. 214-Haiden Cowan[5]; 8. USA1-Chris Hawkins[8]; 9. 4S-Danny Snyder[12]; 10. 93-Cory Lawler[9]; 11. 42-Terry Casey[10]; 12. 48-Tim Lance[11]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 99-Devin Moran[3]; 3. 1-Hudson O'Neal[2]; 4. 157-Mike Marlar[4]; 5. 12-Ashton Winger[5]; 6. 187-David McCoy[7]; 7. 47W-Brandon Weigle[6]; 8. 66C-Matt Cosner[9]; 9. 31-Tyler Millwood[11]; 10. 33-Jeff Mathews[8]; 11. K&B-Kerry King[12]; 12. 71R-Rod Conley[13]; 13. (DNS) 111-Max Blair

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[1]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton[2]; 3. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[4]; 4. 81-Jason Riggs[5]; 5. 10-Garrett Smith[6]; 6. 17SS-Brenden Smith[7]; 7. 8-Dillon McCowan[9]; 8. 27-Michael Lake[8]; 9. 128-Kylan Garner[11]; 10. 29-Larry Grube[10]; 11. 69-Brandon Thirlby[12];

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 2. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[3]; 3. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 4. 174-Ethan Dotson[5]; 5. 99B-Boom Briggs[6]; 6. 6H-Ross Bailes[7]; 7. 9-Levi Yetter[12]; 8. 11C-Trevor Collins[10]; 9. 20B-Todd Brennan[11]; 10. B5-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 11. 30-Ryan Gustin[8]