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Nothdurft nets a top-10 behind winner Moran at Volusia

From DirtOnDirt.com Staff Reports

BARBERVILLE, FL (February 16) – Fighting off a mid-race challenge from early leader Cade Dillard, second-starting Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, led the final 26 laps to claim Friday's $16,000 fifth round of the 53rd annual Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park. Moran earned his third career gator trophy at the Barberville, Fla., oval — his second this week — along with his 13th career World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series full-field feature victory.

“I felt like (crew member) Chuck (Kimble) was giving me a little more of a (stick signal) gap there before that (lap-38) caution,” Moran said. “I said, ‘You gotta be kidding me,’ because I felt really, really bad. I felt like I was losing a ton of time on both ends (of the track), I couldn’t find the right balance. The track just got way slicker than we thought, but we figured out how to make it happen again.”

Fourth-starting Chris Madden moved into the runner-up spot on a lap-34 restart and trailed Moran for the final seven laps, finishing 0.267 of a second back. Seventh-starting Bobby Pierce trailed Moran from laps 23-33 before giving way to Madden and settling for third; Pierce was crowned the week-long DIRTcar Nationals point champion and awarded $3,000 following the cancellation of Saturday's finale.

Max Blair was fourth, while Brandon Sheppard improved four positions and completed the top-five finishers.

Rochester, Minnesota’s Dustin Sorensen was 16th from 26th at the start, while Brent Larson, of Lake Elmo, Minnesota, completed his charge from 23rd to 17th.

SUMMARY

WoO Late Models:

Feature (40 Laps): 1. 99-Devin Moran[2]; 2. 44-Chris Madden[4]; 3. 32-Bobby Pierce[7]; 4. 111-Max Blair[16]; 5. B5-Brandon Sheppard[9]; 6. 16-Tyler Bruening[6]; 7. 1-Hudson O'Neal[12]; 8. 5-Mark Whitener[11]; 9. 76-Blair Nothdurft[13]; 10. 3S-Brian Shirley[19]; 11. 97-Cade Dillard[1]; 12. 97C-Cody Overton[17]; 13. 19R-Ryan Gustin[20]; 14. 20-Jimmy Owens[18]; 15. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[15]; 16. 19-Dustin Sorensen[26]; 17. B1-Brent Larson[23]; 18. 30-Todd Cooney[24]; 19. 18D-Daulton Wilson[14]; 20. 114-Jordan Koehler[10]; 21. 22*-Max McLaughlin[27]; 22. 6JR-Parker Martin[28]; 23. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[8]; 24. 9-Nick Hoffman[5]; 25. 66C-Mason Zeigler[21]; 26. 14W-Dustin Walker[25]; 27. 17M-Dale McDowell[22]; 28. 157-Mike Marlar[3]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 44-Chris Madden[1]; 2. 16-Tyler Bruening[2]; 3. B5-Brandon Sheppard[4]; 4. 76-Blair Nothdurft[3]; 5. 97C-Cody Overton[11]; 6. 66C-Mason Zeigler[7]; 7. 89-Mike Spatola[10]; 8. 25-Mike Benedum[12]; 9. 14JR-Jason Fitzgerald[9]; 10. 40B-Kyle Bronson[6]; 11. 7-Drake Troutman[5]; 12. 6JR-Parker Martin[8]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard[1]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman[2]; 3. 5-Mark Whitener[3]; 4. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[4]; 5. 18-Chase Junghans[5]; 6. 3S-Brian Shirley[7]; 7. 11-Austin Smith[6]; 8. 1T-Tyler Erb[9]; 9. 99T-Dylan Thompson[12]; 10. 19-Dustin Sorensen[11]; 11. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[8]; 12. 12-Ashton Winger[10]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Devin Moran[2]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 3. 114-Jordan Koehler[3]; 4. 18D-Daulton Wilson[4]; 5. 20-Jimmy Owens[5]; 6. 39-Tim McCreadie[7]; 7. B1-Brent Larson[9]; 8. 23-David Breazeale[10]; 9. 22*-Max McLaughlin[6]; 10. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[12]; 11. B2-Brian Booze[11]; 12. 1Z-Logan Zarin[8]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 3. 1-Hudson O'Neal[4]; 4. 111-Max Blair[5]; 5. 17M-Dale McDowell[6]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin[2]; 7. 30-Todd Cooney[7]; 8. 174-Ethan Dotson[8]; 9. 4-Amanda Robinson[10]; 10. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[9]; 11. 14W-Dustin Walker[11]