Columbus, MS (June 18, 2021) – 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
Race Summary
Clash at the Mag
Friday, June 18th, 2021
Magnolia Motor Speedway – Columbus, MS
Allstar Performance Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Jonathan Davenport / 14.039 seconds (overall)
Fast Time Group B: Brian Rickman / 14.335 seconds
Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 4A-Michael Arnold[3]; 3. 25-Shane Clanton[2]; 4. 2S-Stormy Scott[4]; 5. 66C-Matt Cosner[5]; 6. 33K-Ray Kulhanek[9]; 7. 10B-David Breazeale[6]; 8. 99F-Clay Fisher[7]; 9. 7P-David Payne[10]; 10. G4-Shelby Sheedy[8]; 11. (DNS) 7C-Dillon Crim
Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[2]; 2. 40B-Kyle Bronson[1]; 3. 18X-Michael Page[4]; 4. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 5. 36-Logan Martin[5]; 6. 1C-Chad Thrash[8]; 7. 33S-Scott Dedwylder[6]; 8. 86-Kyle Beard[7]; 9. 33W-Terry Wilson[9]; 10. 48M-Mike Myers[10]
Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[2]; 2. 90-Brian Rickman[1]; 3. 11H-Spencer Hughes[3]; 4. 39-Tim McCreadie[7]; 5. 212-Josh Putnam[4]; 6. 71-Hudson O’Neal[9]; 7. R5-Hunter Rasdon[8]; 8. 12J-Jamie Elam[6]; 9. 86R-Rick Rickman[10]; 10. 6R-Robbie Stuart[5]; 11. (DNS) 3B-Luke Bennett
Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 3. 44D-Dalton Cook[4]; 4. 1BJ-BJ Robinson[6]; 5. 14M-Morgan Bagley[5]; 6. 14-Josh Richards[7]; 7. 16S-Sam Seawright[8]; 8. 54D-Dane Dacus[9]; 9. 12C-Scott Crigler[3]; 10. (DNS) 18P-Brayden Proctor
LINE-X B-Main #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 36-Logan Martin[2]; 2. 1C-Chad Thrash[4]; 3. 33K-Ray Kulhanek[3]; 4. 66C-Matt Cosner[1]; 5. 86-Kyle Beard[8]; 6. 33S-Scott Dedwylder[6]; 7. 10B-David Breazeale[5]; 8. 99F-Clay Fisher[7]; 9. 33W-Terry Wilson[10]; 10. 7P-David Payne[9]; 11. G4-Shelby Sheedy[11]; 12. 48M-Mike Myers[12]; 13. (DNS) 7C-Dillon Crim
UNOH B-Main #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[3]; 2. 14M-Morgan Bagley[2]; 3. 14-Josh Richards[4]; 4. 212-Josh Putnam[1]; 5. 54D-Dane Dacus[8]; 6. R5-Hunter Rasdon[5]; 7. 86R-Rick Rickman[9]; 8. 12C-Scott Crigler[10]; 9. 16S-Sam Seawright[6]; 10. 12J-Jamie Elam[7]; 11. 6R-Robbie Stuart[11]; 12. 18P-Brayden Proctor[12]; 13. (DNS) 3B-Luke Bennett
Clash at the Mag Friday (50 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 4A-Michael Arnold[5]; 3. 20-Jimmy Owens[3]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[7]; 5. 157-Mike Marlar[4]; 6. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[2]; 7. 18X-Michael Page[11]; 8. 39-Tim McCreadie[14]; 9. 71-Hudson O’Neal[18]; 10. 25-Shane Clanton[9]; 11. 1C-Chad Thrash[19]; 12. 2S-Stormy Scott[13]; 13. 36-Logan Martin[17]; 14. 86-Kyle Beard[25]; 15. 14-Josh Richards[22]; 16. 1T-Tyler Erb[15]; 17. 14M-Morgan Bagley[20]; 18. 33K-Ray Kulhanek[21]; 19. 66C-Matt Cosner[23]; 20. 90-Brian Rickman[6]; 21. 10B-David Breazeale[24]; 22. R5-Hunter Rasdon[26]; 23. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[8]; 24. 1BJ-BJ Robinson[16]; 25. 11H-Spencer Hughes[10]; 26. 44D-Dalton Cook[12]