Dennis Erb Jr. ended a seven-year winless streak with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series on Monday Night by winning the 30-lap Wrisco Industries Winternationals Presented by Lucas Oil main event at East Bay Raceway Park. Erb’s last Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and East Bay win both came in February of 2015 when he drove a C.J. Rayburn Race Cars entry.
Erb recovered from a slow start in the feature as he faded to fifth after starting on the outside front row by taking the lead on lap 19 from Brandon Overton.
Hudson O’Neal, the Monday Night winner a year ago at East Bay, finished in second followed by Tim McCreadie, Shane Clanton, and Stormy Scott.
Overton took the lead at the start of the race with O’Neal and Devin Moran trailing. Moran vaulted by O’Neal taking second on lap four as he set his sights on Overton. Overton and Moran are the only two drivers to win more than once this year on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series tour. Suddenly Erb started to gain momentum after dropping to fifth; he stormed back to second on lap 11 and battled with Overton for the race lead. Erb grabbed the point on lap 19, a lead which he held to the finish but not without some tense moments.
Overton, who fell from the lead started to make moves using the top line of the track. Overton passed O’Neal to regain the second position on lap 25, but just as Overton had Erb in his sights he smacked the turn two wall, ending his night.
For the 49-year-old second-generation racer from Illinois, it was his ninth career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory and his seventh career win at East Bay. “It feels really good to get back to victory lane here. We have struggled here in the past for a while. We run pretty good here tonight. I fell back a little bit but then our car started working real good and I was battling for the lead. I can’t thank everybody enough for their support. I want to thank Mark Richards and Steve Baker for their help.”
“To get back down here and pick up another win is just a really good feeling. I would like to dedicate this win to C.J. Rayburn. I ran many races in his cars down here, it hurts not having him here this year. This win tonight is for him. I just tried to hit my marks there at the end, I knew I had a strong field behind us. The longer the race went the better my car was, and I didn’t want to see the cautions there at the end. At least we were able to hang on there.”
O’Neal was able to close on Erb towards the end of the race but cautions toward the end of the race kept O’Neal behind Erb at the finish. “We will take a second from how our night started. We were able to get up there to Dennis a couple of times and then a caution would come out or lapped traffic was up there. So, we will give it another shot tomorrow. Congratulations to him (Erb), Heather and Dennis do a heck of a job, I am happy they got this one.”
McCreadie, the defending series champion, rounded out the podium after starting in 11th. “The restarts were tough; my car didn’t have instant grip. So, the last little but of the race I just tried not to mess up. I messed up one lap and Devin (Moran) got by me, and he showed me where I should be doing the whole time as far as getting through one and two.”
The winner’s Rocket Chassis is powered by a Vic Hill Racing Engine and sponsored McBride Mack, Vomac Truck Sales, Performance Rod and Custom, Keyser Manufacturing, VP Fuels, and Ideal Ready Mix.
Completing the top ten were Ricky Thornton Jr., Devin Moran, Tyler Erb, Brandon Sheppard, and Jimmy Owens.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Race Summary
Wrisco Industries Winternationals Presented by Lucas Oil
Monday, February 7th, 2022
East Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL
Allstar Performance Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Brandon Overton / 14.990 seconds (overall)
Fast Time Group B: Dennis Erb Jr / 15.661 seconds
Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 2. 89-Ashton Winger[4]; 3. 7T-Drake Troutman[5]; 4. 25-Shane Clanton[3]; 5. 1G-Ryan King[7]; 6. 0J-Jake O’Neil[6]; 7. 99-Kyle Hardy[2]; 8. 503-Jason Miles[11]; 9. 0K-Freddie Carpenter[8]; 10. 16H-Clinton Hersh[9]; 11. 27M-Michael Lake[12]; 12. 19M-Jason Hiett[10]
Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[8]; 2. 81E-Tanner English[1]; 3. 111V-Max Blair[2]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson[5]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 6. J8-Jadon Frame[7]; 7. 93M-Mason Oberkramer[4]; 8. 10-Garrett Smith[9]; 9. KB0-Kerry King[11]; 10. 97-Cody Overton[6]; 11. 0G-Deshawn Gingerich[10]; 12. 3-Brennon Willard[12]
Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 9-Devin Moran[3]; 2. 39-Tim McCreadie[2]; 3. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 4. 66C-Matt Cosner[5]; 5. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[4]; 6. 44B-Colten Burdette[7]; 7. 17SS-Brenden Smith[9]; 8. 1ST-Johnny Scott[8]; 9. 119-Chad McClellan[6]; 10. 27-Joe Denby[11]; 11. 4G-Bob Gardner[10]
Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr[1]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[3]; 3. 18J-Chase Junghans[5]; 4. 48-Colton Flinner[4]; 5. 1T-Tyler Erb[6]; 6. 11AC-Trevor Collins[11]; 7. 2X-John Henderson[9]; 8. 0H-Dale Hollidge[8]; 9. 20B-Todd Brennan[10]; 10. 6T-Tim Dohm[2]; 11. 94-Jason Miller[7]; 12. 3B-Billy Boyd Sr[12]
eBay Motors Heat Race #5 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 16-Tyler Bruening[1]; 2. 18D-Daulton Wilson[2]; 3. 6S-Blake Spencer[3]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[5]; 5. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[6]; 6. 4-Kody Evans[4]; 7. 7-Ross Robinson[8]; 8. 22R-Will Roland[7]; 9. 151-Kyle Lear[9]; 10. 31-Ken Monahan[12]; 11. 5*-Bryant Dickinson[11]; 12. 9G-Larry Greer[10]
Super Clean Heat Race #6 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 2S-Stormy Scott[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 3. 11-Spencer Hughes[2]; 4. 2D-Dan Stone[5]; 5. 11R-Josh Rice[7]; 6. 212-Josh Putnam[4]; 7. 58W-Mark Whitener[6]; 8. 81-Jason Riggs[8]; 9. 26JR-Jimmy Sharpe Jr[10]; 10. 1Z-Logan Zarin[9]; 11. 6B-Adam Boyd[11]
Fast Shafts B-Main #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 25-Shane Clanton[1]; 2. 1G-Ryan King[4]; 3. 66C-Matt Cosner[3]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 5. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[6]; 6. 0J-Jake O’Neil[7]; 7. J8-Jadon Frame[8]; 8. 3S-Brian Shirley[5]; 9. 1ST-Johnny Scott[15]; 10. 17SS-Brenden Smith[12]; 11. 97-Cody Overton[20]; 12. 44B-Colten Burdette[9]; 13. 16H-Clinton Hersh[19]; 14. 0G-Deshawn Gingerich[23]; 15. 503-Jason Miles[13]; 16. 0K-Freddie Carpenter[16]; 17. 27-Joe Denby[21]; 18. 3-Brennon Willard[26]; 19. 19M-Jason Hiett[25]; 20. 4G-Bob Gardner[24]; 21. KB0-Kerry King[17]; 22. 99-Kyle Hardy[10]; 23. 27M-Michael Lake[22]; 24. 10-Garrett Smith[14]; 25. 119-Chad McClellan[18]; 26. (DNS) 93M-Mason Oberkramer
UNOH B-Main #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 48-Colton Flinner[1]; 2. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 3. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[5]; 4. 2D-Dan Stone[3]; 5. 4-Kody Evans[8]; 6. 58W-Mark Whitener[12]; 7. 212-Josh Putnam[9]; 8. 7-Ross Robinson[11]; 9. 11AC-Trevor Collins[7]; 10. 0H-Dale Hollidge[13]; 11. 26JR-Jimmy Sharpe Jr[18]; 12. 31-Ken Monahan[20]; 13. 9G-Larry Greer[26]; 14. 1Z-Logan Zarin[21]; 15. 20B-Todd Brennan[16]; 16. 6B-Adam Boyd[24]; 17. 151-Kyle Lear[17]; 18. 22R-Will Roland[14]; 19. 1T-Tyler Erb[4]; 20. 11R-Josh Rice[6]; 21. 2X-John Henderson[10]; 22. 3B-Billy Boyd Sr[25]; 23. 5*-Bryant Dickinson[23]; 24. (DNS) 81-Jason Riggs; 25. (DNS) 6T-Tim Dohm; 26. (DNS) 94-Jason Miller
Berry Barn Strawberry Dash Presented by DirtonDirt.com (8 Laps, Winner Transfers): 1. 66C-Matt Cosner[1]; 2. 212-Josh Putnam[8]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[3]; 4. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[5]; 5. 2D-Dan Stone[2]; 6. 0J-Jake O’Neil[7]; 7. (DNS) 58W-Mark Whitener; 8. (DNS) 4-Kody Evans
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series PR
