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Moran knocks down first win at All-Tech Friday night in defense of last year’s title

From series reports

LAKE CITY, FL (February 20) – Defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion Devin Moran delivered a dominant performance Friday night, leading all 50 laps to win the Winter Nationals at All-Tech Raceway.

Moran’s first series victory of the season came in a caution-free main event that lasted just over 17 minutes. The Dresden, Ohio native was so strong that he lapped up to the eighth-place car by the time he took the checkered flag.

Clay Harris matched his career-best series finish with a runner-up effort after starting eighth, while Brandon Overton rounded out the podium in third. Brandon Sheppard finished fourth, with Hudson O’Neal completing the top five.

Of those WISSOTA-area drivers on hand at All-Tech who made the feature, Dan Ebert finished 11th.

Moran secured the 25th Lucas Oil victory lane appearance of his career. He held a lead of more than five seconds at one point and ultimately crossed the finish line 1.944 seconds ahead of Harris.

“We have been just working and working,” Moran said. “I feel like we made the right changes — we just didn’t know because we’re doing some things that are a little unknown to us — and it was really, really good. This Longhorn Chassis … we showed up with this car last week at Volusia, and we just had to work on it. It wasn’t the car’s fault — it was just something we needed to figure out.”

“I looked at the scoreboard and it still said 26 laps to go, and I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ I could maneuver really well. They were throwing those crumbs off the bottom, and I could run that middle really well. This place is so tricky. With the way the dirt is, if you get too sideways, you feel like you’re going to spin out — you’ve just got to drive it like you’re on asphalt. It’s Florida, baby — I love it.”

Harris rebounded from Thursday night’s disappointment — when a potential second-place finish slipped away after contact with the turn two wall — to secure his runner-up finish on Friday.

“I didn’t quite send it in as hard as yesterday. I was a little more patient tonight,” Harris said. “Those last five laps I was driving as hard as I could on the bottom. I ran him (Moran) down a little bit, but those lapped cars were hard to get by. The off-season really helped us because it gave us more time to be prepared. We have all the motors we need for this year, I believe.”

Overton, who led 15 laps on Thursday night, advanced from the 10th starting position to finish third.

“I just knew what not to do after my heat race,” Overton said. “I guess I turned the knobs the wrong way or something. I’m not quite as good as I need to be, but at least we’re going forward. This is All-Tech — it’s just the craziest place. Congrats to Clay and Devin; they do a heck of a job.”

SUMMARY

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series:

A-Main (50 Laps): 1. 99-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 6-Clay Harris[8]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[10]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 5. 71-Hudson O'Neal[12]; 6. 5-Mark Whitener[4]; 7. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[18]; 8. 79-Cory Hedgecock[5]; 9. 111-Max Blair[11]; 10. 11-Josh Rice[25]; 11. 60-Dan Ebert[13]; 12. 3S-Brian Shirley[14]; 13. 93-Carson Ferguson[6]; 14. 58-Garrett Alberson[23]; 15. 15K-Cody Overton[15]; 16. 13-Dallon Murty[7]; 17. 40B-Kyle Bronson[26]; 18. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[19]; 19. 388-Jackson Hise[17]; 20. 81F-Jadon Frame[20]; 21. 44-Chris Madden[2]; 22. 24-Tyler Wyant[9]; 23. 7-Ross Robinson[16]; 24. 77-Preston Luckman[21]; 25. 31-Tyler Millwood[22]; 26. 93L-Cory Lawler[24]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Devin Moran[3]; 2. 79-Cory Hedgecock[2]; 3. 24-Tyler Wyant[1]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[7]; 5. 388-Jackson Hise[6]; 6. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[8]; 7. 40B-Kyle Bronson[9]; 8. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[5]; 9. 11-Josh Rice[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 2. 13-Dallon Murty[2]; 3. 111-Max Blair[3]; 4. 15K-Cody Overton[7]; 5. 77-Preston Luckman[5]; 6. 32J-Justin Weaver[8]; 7. 58-Garrett Alberson[6]; 8. 09-Michael Leach[4]; 9. C4-Freddie Carpenter[9]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 44-Chris Madden[2]; 2. 93-Carson Ferguson[3]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley[4]; 5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[5]; 6. 81F-Jadon Frame[9]; 7. 19M-Brenden Smith[8]; 8. 6B-Adam Boyd[10]; 9. 93L-Cory Lawler[6]; 10. 15-Clay Stuckey[7]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 5-Mark Whitener[2]; 2. 6-Clay Harris[3]; 3. 71-Hudson O'Neal[1]; 4. 7-Ross Robinson[4]; 5. 31-Tyler Millwood[7]; 6. 8-Dillon McCowan[6]; 7. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[8]; 8. 12R-Ryan Payne[9]; 9. 16-Tyler Bruening[5]

B-Main 1 (10 Laps): 1. 388-Jackson Hise[1]; 2. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[3]; 3. 77-Preston Luckman[2]; 4. 11-Josh Rice[9]; 5. 58-Garrett Alberson[6]; 6. 40B-Kyle Bronson[5]; 7. 32J-Justin Weaver[4]; 8. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[7]; 9. 09-Michael Leach[8]; 10. C4-Freddie Carpenter[10]

B-Main 2 (10 Laps): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 81F-Jadon Frame[3]; 3. 31-Tyler Millwood[2]; 4. 19M-Brenden Smith[5]; 5. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[6]; 6. 8-Dillon McCowan[4]; 7. 93L-Cory Lawler[9]; 8. 6B-Adam Boyd[7]; 9. 15-Clay Stuckey[11]; 10. (DNS) 12R-Ryan Payne; 11. (DNS) 16-Tyler Bruening