Davenport Dashes to Win at Attica

(Article and photo from Lucas Oil Media)

ATTICA, OH (September 2, 2016) Defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion Jonathan Davenport returned to his winning form by taking the feature event on Friday night at Attica Raceway Park. Davenport took the lead on lap 14 from Doug Drown, who had led the first 13 circuits.
Dennis Erb Jr. charged from his 12th starting spot to finish second. Doug Drown, the defending track champion at Attica, had the home track fans on their feet for the first part of the race. He eventually came home in third. New track record holder Darrell Lanigan was fourth, and Jimmy Owens; who won the first time the series raced at Attica finished fifth.
Davenport, who is currently second in the series points standings, had not finished the last three LOLMDS events, and was relieved to be back in Lucas Oil Victory Lane. “It feels good to be here again! I have to thank Kevin [Rumley] and my guys. They have worked their tails off the last two weeks. Everybody knows we haven’t been running well lately. We aren’t dead, and we are not done yet! We are just going to keep on working to find an edge,” said the 32-year-old racer.
 “Man what a race track this is! I just want to thank Troy Baird of Baird Transport, Elite Concrete, Mega Plumbing of the Carolinas, the Labontes back home at the shop and I also want to say we miss Lee Roy Rumley. He is not here tonight; he is back home building us a new motor.”

Drown bolted from his fourth starting spot to take the lead on the very first lap and held the top spot through the first 13 laps that was peppered with two cautions and a red flag during the first three circuits.
Davenport took advantage of lap-traffic to close the gap on Drown, making the pass for the lead on lap 14. Drown stayed close for a while, but eventually Davenport pulled away. Erb then charged from the outside of the sixth row, challenging Drown for second. The two went side-by-side for several laps as Erb was finally able to forge ahead of Drown on lap 41.
Erb; in his Vomac Truck Sales/J.R. McBride Leasing/Black Diamond Chassis; was happy with his performance. “It was a good run. To start where we did, the cautions helped us a lot tonight. The car was working very well on the bottom. To come up through there like we did was good for us, no doubt. The track was really racy and there were two grooves.”
Drown had the car that nearly pulled off the upset. “There was moisture coming up on the track. I thought I had picked the right tire early on. I was looking like a genius for the first part of the race, and then it went away a little bit. Once JD [Davenport] got out in front, it was hard to stay with him. He stayed up top and my car just couldn’t stick there. Dennis [Erb] came along and we had a good race as well. To run third with these guys makes us extremely happy,” said the driver of the Leroy Hall/Hall’s Auto Sales/Swartz.
Completing the top ten were Don O’Neal, Brandon Sheppard, Earl Pearson Jr., Matt Irey, and Devin Moran.
In preliminary action, Darrell Lanigan set the overall Miller Welders Fast Time (Group B) amongst the 28 entrants, with a lap of 14.187 seconds. Jonathan Davenport set the fastest time in Group A with a time of 14.209 seconds. Jonathan Davenport, Devin Moran, Darrell Lanigan, and Doug Drown won their respective heat races. Craig Vosbergen won the B-Main.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Race Summary
Friday, September 2nd, 2016
Attica Raceway Park – Attica, OH
Miller Welders Fast Time Group A: Jonathan Davenport / 14.209 seconds
Miller Welders Fast Time Group B: Darrell Lanigan / 14.187 seconds ***NEW TRACK RECORD***
Eibach Springs Heat Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): Jonathan Davenport, Don O'Neal, Steve Francis, Dave Hornikel, Craig Vosbergen, Mike Bores, Paul Stubber
FK Rod Ends Heat Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): Devin Moran, Jon Henry, Kyle Hardy, Casey Noonan, Scott Smith, Mathew Chapman, Matt Irey
Simpson Performance Products Heat Race #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): Darrell Lanigan, Jimmy Owens, Tim McCreadie, Ryan Markham, Timothy Culp, Cody Scott, Devin Shiels-DNS
QA1 Heat Race #4 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): Doug Drown, Earl Pearson, Jr., Dennis Erb, Jr., Scott Bloomquist, Brad Malcuit, Colton Flinner, Brandon Sheppard
Fast Shafts B-Main #1 Finish (12 Laps, Top 6 Transfer): Craig Vosbergen, Mike Bores, Matt Irey, Timothy Culp, Brad Malcuit, Mathew Chapman, Scott Smith, Colton Flinner, Paul Stubber-DNS, Cody Scott-DNS, Devin Shiels-DNS, Brandon Sheppard-DNS
Feature Finish (50 Laps):

FINISH	START	CAR #	DRIVER NAME	HOMETOWN	EARNINGS
1	1	6	Jonathan Davenport	Mount Airy, NC	$11,000
2	12	28E	Dennis Erb, Jr.	Carpentersville, IL	$6,200
3	4	240	Doug Drown	Wooster, OH	$3,500
4	2	15L	Darrell Lanigan	Union, KY	$3,550
5	6	20	Jimmy Owens	Newport, TN	$3,050
6	5	5	Don O'Neal	Martinsville, IN	$2,600
7	23	B5	Brandon Sheppard	New Berlin, IL	$2,200
8	8	1	Earl Pearson, Jr.	Jacksonville, FL	$2,100
9	19	36	Matt Irey	Mansfield, OH	$1,200
10	3	99m	Devin Moran	Dresden, OH	$1,100
11	18	15b	Mike Bores	Bellevue, OH	$1,075
12	14	5m	Ryan Markham	Ashland, OH	$1,050
13	9	15F	Steve Francis	Bowling Green, KY	$1,725
14	15	1N	Casey Noonan	Sylvania, OH	$1,000
15	17	8	Craig Vosbergen	Perth, W. Australia	$950
16	24	75	Colton Flinner	Allison Park, PA	$1,025
17	16	0	Scott Bloomquist	Mooresburg, TN	$1,800
18	11	21*	Kyle Hardy	Stephens City, VA	$875
19	10	39	Tim McCreadie	Watertown, NY	$1,550
20	21	79	Brad Malcuit	Strasburg, OH	$825
21	22	0	Mathew Chapman	Tecumseh, MI	$800
22	13	71	Dave Hornikel	Mansfield, OH	$800
23	20	C8	Timothy Culp	Prattsville, AR	$800
24	7	15H	Jon Henry	Ada, OH	$800

Race Statistics
Entrants: 28