Three of the most successful drivers in dirt Late Model racing over the past half-decade added another Gator to their collections Wednesday night, as Ricky Thornton Jr., Jonathan Davenport and Brandon Overton won a trio of DIRTcar Late Model Features at Volusia Speedway Park.<\/p>\n
The victories established those competitors as the ones to beat in the race for the Big Gator as the Late Model portion of\u00a0Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals<\/em> reached its halfway point. Thornton leads the way by 20 points over Davenport and 40 points over Overton with three nights of World of Outlaws Late Models competition on tap for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n FEATURE 1<\/strong><\/p>\n By Nick Graziano<\/em><\/p>\n Ricky Thornton Jr. entered the 5<\/span>4th<\/span> Annual Federated Auto Parts <\/span>DIRTcar<\/span> Nationals<\/span> with two Gator trophies from 2022 and 2024. After Wednesday night, he\u2019s doubled the size of his collection and is the current leading candidate for the Big Gator title.<\/p>\n Like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, Thornton mimicked his Tuesday night performance in the first DIRTcar Late Model Feature of the evening at Volusia Speedway Park. He started on the pole and kept the afterburners on all race long, keeping the field behind him by a second or more every lap.<\/p>\n Kyle Bronson got the closest to giving Thornton a challenge, however that was on the initial start, entering Turn 1 as the two drivers entered the corner side-by-side. Thornton high. Bronson low. The top lane prevailed for the No. 20RT car, catapulting Thornton ahead of the field.<\/p>\n Behind him, Bronson had to switch from offense to defense. Max Blair, who hasn\u2019t finished outside the top 10 in his last three races at Volusia, crept closer to the orange No. 40B car every lap.<\/p>\n But before a battle could brew, the first caution of the night came out on Lap 8 for a wounded Carson Ferguson machine.<\/p>\n On the restart, Thornton continued his march out front. But it was a different story for Bronson. A poor launch to the green flag caused him to lose second to Blair and third to Cade Dillard. That proved to foreshadow his future as he slowed with an issue later in the race.<\/p>\n The second caution of the night on Lap 9 brought the field back together and, again, set up another rocket launch on the restart for Thornton. Behind him, Blair suffered a poor start this time, losing second to Dillard and third to Daulton Wilson.<\/p>\n But with the race going green for the final 11 laps, Blair was able to pull Wilson back in and resecure the final podium spot.<\/p>\n Thornton took the victory with a 1.4 second lead over Cade Dillard and padded his point lead in the hunt for his first Big Gator championship.<\/p>\n \u201cWe unload to win every night,\u201d Thornton said. \u201cIf the driver does his job\u2026 my crew is doing their job. As Iong as I don\u2019t screw up, we\u2019ll have a good shot (at the Big Gator title). We\u2019ve been really good the last couple days. I could run across the bottom and up top, kind of do whatever I needed to.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I could run hard for two or three laps and then kind of slow my pace down and really just kind of saved my right rear.\u201d<\/p>\n Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 97-Cade Dillard[2]; 3. 111-Max Blair[3]; 4. 18D-Daulton Wilson[10]; 5. 25-Shane Clanton[14]; 6. 17SS-Brenden Smith[15]; 7. 20-Jimmy Owens[7]; 8. 99B-Boom Briggs[13]; 9. 28-Dennis <\/span>Erb<\/span> Jr[11]; 10. 81-Jason Riggs[9]; 11. 12-Ashton Winger[12]; 12. 11B-Stacy Boles[17]; 13. 14R-Reid Millard[19]; 14. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 15. 22*-Drake Troutman[6]; 16. 93-Carson Ferguson[5]; 17. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[18]; 18. 114-Jordan Koehler[8]; 19. 000-Matt <\/span>Nailor<\/span>[16]; 20. 22-Daniel <\/span>Hilsabeck<\/span>[20]; 21. 79-Kyle Bryant[21]<\/span><\/p>\n FEATURE 2<\/strong><\/p>\n By Matt Skipper<\/em><\/p>\n Despite Jonathan Davenport\u2019s finishing inside the top five in every Super Late Model race at Volusia Speedway Park in 2025, he had yet to park his car in Victory Lane.<\/p>\n That stat changed Wednesday night with the Blairsville, GA driver getting his first Federated Aut<\/span>o Parts <\/span>DIRTcar<\/span> Nationals<\/span> golden Gator trophy since 2018.<\/p>\n Ethan Dotson and Davenport led the field to the green flag for the 20-lap Feature, with Dotson jumping out to the early lead, gaining 1.6 seconds over Davenport.<\/p>\n \u201cSuperman\u201d flipped the script when Dotson got caught in lap traffic that blocked both lanes and helped him get back into contention for the lead at the halfway mark.<\/p>\n With Dotson\u2019s No. 74X ASD Motorsports entering loose conditions in Turn 3, Davenport ripped his No. 49 up to the cushion to pass by the Bakersfield, CA driver with seven laps remaining.<\/p>\n Davenport managed to get by the lap traffic while Dotson was mired in competition with Devin Moran for his position. The Dresden, OH driver took the opposite route of passing Dotson by using the bottom of Turns 1 and 2 for his chance to chase down Davenport.<\/p>\n Before Davenport crossed the line with the checkered flag waiting, a caution for Jake Timm gave Moran and Dotson one final effort to steal the win.<\/p>\n The last restart saw Davenport hit his marks to perfection by extending to a half-second lead that prevented Moran from performing a \u201cHail Mary\u201d slide job and winning his second-careerDIRTcar<\/span> Nationals<\/span> Feature.<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018Dang it,\u2019\u201d Davenport said. \u201cThat was on a harder tire on the front, and I think we made a mistake on the car. We tightened it up and running on a hard tire, then it was too tight really for how fast it was, and then it was on the wrong tire.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had two wrongs make a right on that deal, but lap traffic worked in my hand. Ethan got a little loose off (Turn 4) and I had a run off the top. I just happened to go to the top that lap, so it was time to just drive, it never did slow down at all.\u201d<\/p>\n Moran finished second, and Winfield, TN driver Mike Marlar passed Dotson on the restart for the final step on the podium.<\/p>\n Feature 2 (20 Laps): 1. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 2. 99-Devin Moran[5]; 3. 157-Mike <\/span>Marlar<\/span>[3]; 4. 74X-Ethan Dotson[1]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley[11]; 6. 1T-Tyler <\/span>Erb<\/span>[7]; 7. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 8. 1-Brandon Sheppard[9]; 9. 19-Dusti<\/span>n Sorensen[13]; 10. 19R-Ryan <\/span>Gustin<\/span>[6]; 11. 44-Chris Madden[10]; 12. 09-Michael Leach[8]; 13. 16-Tyler <\/span>Bruening<\/span>[12]; 14. 18-Chase <\/span>Junghans<\/span>[16]; 15. 6-Michael Chilton[15]; 16. 59-Trey Mills[18]; 17. 14W-Dustin Walker[19]; 18. 75-Daniel Adam[14]; 19. 49-Jake<\/span> Timm[17]; 20. 57-Michael Norris[20]<\/span><\/p>\n FEATURE 3<\/strong><\/p>\n By Spence Smithback<\/em><\/p>\n Entering Wednesday\u2019s portion of Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals<\/em>, Brandon Overton had done everything except win a race so far in 2025.<\/p>\n But after six top fives, \u201cBig Sexy\u201d finally parked his No. 76 car in Victory Lane in the third Feature of the night at Volusia Speedway Park.<\/p>\n After setting Quick Time in his group, Overton started on the pole and quickly broke away from second-starting Garrett Alberson to take the early lead.<\/p>\n The gap quickly got up to a second and a half before Overton caught the tail of the field prior to the halfway mark. The traffic did not turn out to be a serious hindrance though, as a slowing Tyler Wyant brought out the caution flag.<\/p>\n The restart was a replay of the initial start, as Overton immediately powered away from the pack. He only got to enjoy the advantage for two laps as Nick Hoffman blew his right-rear tire with seven to go to rerack the field once again.<\/p>\n One more solid jump was all Overton needed, as he drove away to victory by half a straightaway over brother Cody Overton, who got around Alberson in the final dash to the finish for second.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just steadily working on it,\u201d Overton said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve got the best crew in the pits. They just keep putting their heads together and working on it and giving me a better piece night in and night out.\u201d<\/p>\n Feature 3 (20 Laps): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 2. 2-Cody Overton[8]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 4. 96-Tanner English[3]; 5. 9M-Tim McCreadie[10]; 6. 5-Mark Whitener[5]; 7. 60-Dan Ebert[6]; 8. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[11]; 9. 8M-Dillon McCowan[13]; 10. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[4]; 11. 81J-Jack Riggs[16]; 12. B1-Brent Larson[15]; 13. 43-Derrick Stewart[7]; 14. 11-Austin Smith[19]; 15. 93L-Cory Lawler[18]; 16. 24-Tyler Wyant[17]; 17. 8-Kyle Strickler[14]; 18. 9-Nick Hoffman[12]; 19. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[20]; 20. 71-Hudson O’Neal[9]<\/p>\n The final three nights of\u00a0Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals<\/em> will see the World of Outlaws Late Models hit the track for three nights of racing on Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 13-15. Get your tickets by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n