From lucasdirt.com
LOCUST GROVE, AR (August 20, 2022) – It was Jonathan Davenport’s night, winning the COMP Cams Topless 100 Presented by Nutrien Ag Solutions for the first time in his career.
Davenport held off a hard charging Hudson O’Neal and Dale McDowell to win the richest late model race in the history of Batesville Motor Speedway – a $50,000 payday in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and COMP Cams Super Dirt Series Presented by Lucas Oil co-sanctioned event.
O’Neal was looking to become the first back-to-back winner in the history of the crown jewel event that began in 1993. He climbed from the 16th starting spot to finish second, 1.120 seconds behind the winner. McDowell came home in third, with Tim McCreadie finishing fourth, and Brandon Sheppard in his first Topless 100 start since 2015 rounding out the top five finishers.
The win was especially meaningful to the three-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion as his car owners Lance and Darla Landers call Batesville home. It was one year ago when Davenport lost a last-lap shootout with O’Neal who won the race after the two swapped the lead four times on the final lap. This year history nearly repeated itself as O’Neal and McDowell had climbed to with one-car length of Davenport in the race for the lead when a caution came out with six laps to go in the race. Davenport was able to fight off the two and come home with his first Topless 100 title.
In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 64th time in his career, Davenport can know check one more bucket list race off of his impressive resume. “That was lot closer than I wanted it to be. I guess Hudson [O’Neal] came from way back, so congratulations to him. I couldn’t quite run the top as good down there in three and four. I never really went all the way out there. There was a whole lot of flats. I didn’t want to run over a rock and get a flat leading it. I just kept moving around little-by-little. Thanks to Mooney [Starr] and his whole staff here, I mean what a turnaround from last night.”
“I see the cushion was pushed all the way to the wall, I don’t believe I have ever seen that at this place. Like I said I never wanted to go up there and tear my stuff up so I kind of paced myself. I was just trying to keep my tires under me and if one of those late cautions would come out, I still had the stuff to go with. Man, this is so awesome, thanks to Lance and Darla Landers for giving me this opportunity, this one is special,” said the winner.
O’Neal earned a $20,000 payday for second, but for a moment he thought he might make history by winning in back-to-back years. “I felt like I stood a better chance when we were racing before that caution. Once that caution came out, he has a good clean air car. I knew it was going to be hard and slim to none to get by him unless he would have made a mistake or if I could have put together a couple of good laps who knows. We will take a second from where we started. We have kind of struggled here all weekend and at these types of tracks in general. I feel like we made some good progress here this weekend. We still need to get a little better to start winning these things.”
McDowell, who won the race in 2004, took home $10,000 for third. “It seems the long runs are better for me. We were able to get to him [Davenport] in traffic, that was the real hope we had, but once the caution came with six laps to go and he got back in the clear it’s just hard to do anything. The track raced awesome. You could race all over it tonight.”
The winner’s Lance and Darla Landers-owned, Double L Motorsports, Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Nutrien Ag Solutions, Spartan Mowers, ASC Warranty, Bilstein Shocks, VP Race Fuels, Midwest Sheet Metal, Mark Martin Automotive, and Mega Plumbing of the Carolinas.
Completing the top ten were Jimmy Owens, Spencer Hughes, Garrett Alberson, Earl Pearson Jr., and Kyle Beard.
COMP Cams Topless 100 Presented by Nutrien Ag Solutions Finish (100 Laps):
See the full story and results:
Photo: lucasdirt.com
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