Jonathan Davenport became the first four-time winner this season on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series tour. The three-time series champion led flag-to-flag to win the Optima Batteries Clash at the Mag Presented by Big River Steel on Friday Night at Magnolia Motor Speedway. The event was co-sanctioned with the COMP Cams Super Dirt Series.
Mississippi racer Michael Arnold turned in his best career run in the LOLMDS as he finished second to the winner. Jimmy Owens was third followed by Kyle Bronson and Mike Marlar. With forecast models calling for up to an inch of rain on Saturday, track and series officials made the decision to alter the weekend schedule with the event finale being moved to tonight.
Davenport and Owens ran one-two for the first 35 laps of the race until Arnold moved into second, breaking up the duel. A caution with six laps to go gave Arnold one last shot at Davenport, but Davenport pulled away to win by 1.8 seconds.
In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 54th time in his career, Davenport is now two-for-two with his brand-new Longhorn Chassis. “Once we got to lapped traffic, I was okay with the yellows. These guys are so good behind me I was afraid somebody as going to burn in another groove. I spun my tires on the next to last restart and I screwed Jimmy [Owens] up a little. I may have cost him a second-place finish. I might be kind of picky where we run this car at the rest of the season, it’s a good piece.”
Arnold was elated with his podium finish. “It feels really good, I really didn’t expect a second place finish tonight! I was hoping for a top-five, but this is just awesome.”
Owens was happy with finishing third after a rough night on Thursday. “The crew busted their tails getting the back-up car ready for tonight and it was pretty good. We qualified well; we were just a little short in the feature. I felt like if we got into traffic I was pretty good, especially if it stayed green for a while. I thought I could run Jonathan down if the race had stayed green, but it just didn’t go our way.”
The winner’s Lance Landers/Double L Motorsports Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Nutrien Ag Solutions, ASC Warranty, Spartan Mowers, Bilstein Shocks, VP Fuels, Lucas Oil Products, Fatheadz Eyewear, and Midwest Sheet Metal.
Completing the top ten were Earl Pearson Jr., Michael Page, Tim McCreadie, Hudson O’Neal, and Shane Clanton.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series PR
