Overton Tops Owens For Eldora Stream Prelim Win
Overton Tops Owens For Eldora Stream Prelim Win
No one was more disappointed after Thursday's 23rd place finish at Eldora than Brandon Overton, so he did something about it.
No one on the Wells & Sons Motorsports team was more disappointed than the driver himself following a disheartening 23rd-place finish in Thursday’s preliminary feature at Eldora Speedway. So the driver — Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga. — did something about it. A day after he was forced to pit when a damaged radiator caused the engine in his Longhorn Chassis to overheat with just to two laps remaining while running in the third position, Overton gained a measure of redemption.
Watch the Eldora Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational June 4-6 on FloRacing
Overton drove by leader Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., on a lap-20 restart and led the final 10 laps to win Friday’s $10,000 Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational prelim feature. He pulled away to win by 1.774 seconds, while Owens, who led laps 12-20 after starting fifth, settled for second. Polesitter and early leader Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., finished third after pacing the first 11 laps.
Watch the feature replay from Night #2 at Eldora:
Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, finished where he started in the fourth and Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., the night’s fast qualifier, improved one position to complete the top five in the event that will help set the starting lineups for Saturday’s $50,000-to-win Stream Invitational heat races.
“It’s awesome. I can’t thank David and Eric (Wells) enough for giving me the opportunity to drive this thing,” said Overton after climbing from his car parked on Eldora’s victory lane stage. “We’ve had a really fast car for the past month and just bad luck just keeps getting us. We’re just gonna keep working and keep pushing through it. This is a different car today. Longhorn by Wells, man this thing is awesome. Thanks Eric for everything you do back at the shop, his whole family, all my other sponsors.”
Arguably one of the sports hottest drivers since returning to action following the shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Overton picked up his eighth win of the season and second career Eldora preliminary feature triumph. He had to overcome a driver who’s not only been equally as hot this season, but one who was also rebounding from a tough outing on Thursday as well.
Catch up with the top three after Friday's prelim:
While Overton finished 23rd Thursday, Owens, who has six victories on the season, was 24th, the first driver out the race. But some 24 hours later, their fortunes had turned and they found themselves battling each other for a victory.
Both had to first get by McDowell, however, who pulled away early and led the first 11 laps before a caution on lap 10 closed the gap and allowed the second-running Owens to pull alongside for the restart. McDowell led lap 11, but Owens dove to the bottom entering turn one and slipped in front exiting turn two to lead lap 12.
“I drove in there and got a good run off turn four there and went in under Dale and bottomed out real bad and caused him to have to check up and probably cost him a spot or something,” said Owens. “I apologize for that. But man it’s hard racing. It’s a wide racetrack.”
McDowell said the caution was the culprit.
“I don’t think I needed that caution,” said McDowell. “I was a little tight, so I needed the whole racetrack to turn. Those guys … congratulations too Brandon. He and Jimmy both have been on fire this year, so if I can run right there with them, I can make adjustments. They’ve raced a little bit … quite a bit more than we have. I think we can make adjustments and if things go our way we’ll get this Ez-Go hot rod up there closer to the front and can hopefully make it count.”
Once he dispatched McDowell, Owens began to pull away. Dropping McDowell to third, Overton grabbed second on lap 14 and began cutting into Owens’s lead. He was still closing when the caution waved on lap 20. On the double-file restart, Owens chose the bottom, leaving Overton the top side, which couldn’t have worked out better for Overton.
Click here for full Feature results from the Eldora Dirt Late Model Stream
“Man I was just smiling,” Overton said. “I couldn’t get going on the bottom, so he gave me the top and I got me a good run. I really wasn’t that good. The whole time I was kicking myself in the butt. I made some changes right before the feature and I don’t know how much we won by but I wasn’t that good … kinda tight (entering the corner). But it all worked out for us. Like I said, he gave us that outside line on that restart and we just played the cards we were dealt and come out on top.”
Like McDowell earlier, Owens would have rather not seen the caution.
“We had a really, really good car all night long … had a good car all weekend,” said Owens. “But man those takeoffs just killed me. We’ve got a little stumble we’ve got to take care of. That way we can get fired off a little better on the takeoffs.”