MARYVILLE, TN (June 18, 2022) – Chris Madden survived a late-race scare en route a $50,000 victory on Saturday night in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned, Mountain Moonshine Classic Presented by Lazydays RV.

Madden made heavy contact with the fourth turn wall which allowed Jonathan Davenport to close the gap heading into the final lap. However, Madden held on for the win despite severe damage to the right rear of his No. 44 entry – crossing the finish line .355 seconds ahead of the three-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion. Brandon Overton took third at the stripe with Ricky Thornton Jr. and Mike Marlar rounding out the top-five finishers.

Madden bolted from the pole position to grab the lead at the start of the 60-lap event. Davenport moved around Carson Ferguson on the second lap to take over the second position. Madden then began to put some distance between himself and the other contenders in lapped traffic. With 22 laps complete Davenport started to gain on Madden as he fought heavier lapped traffic before the second caution of the race flew just one lap later.

As the race continued, Madden still held the point, fighting off challenges from Davenport and Brandon Overton. As Madden approached the back of the field in the closing laps he made hard contact with the turn four wall while battling through lapped traffic. Madden held off a final bid from Davenport to claim the victory – the richest overall purse in the history of Smoky Mountain Speedway.

In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the second night in a row and for the 15th time in his career, Madden said: “I caught Terbo [Tyler Erb] there and I thought going down the back straightaway he was going to commit to the bottom, so I committed to the top and tried to get up beside him. He made a lane change suddenly and I was running way faster than him. We had to get on the binders hard and I got loose, I just backed it in the fence. You know when you have JD and Overton chasing you then you’ve got it hit every mark and you had better not miss a mark if you do then they will get by you.”

“You know we have had a great race car all year long,” Madden added. “This Rocket has been extremely good to us. It’s just amazing to come back to Smoky Mountain and win in front of such a big crowd. There’s always a big crowd here and a bunch of great people here with Roger [Sellers] and his crew. I appreciate you guys for putting on these big races in this part of the country for us.”

Davenport, who won the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series “Historic 100” just two weeks ago, fell short of victory this time around, but still collected $20,000 for second. “You just never know when something is going to happen when you are leading you could cut a tire or something. I was hoping it would stay green once we got into heavy lapped traffic there so I could sneak around him. It’s really a technical place to get around. He [Madden] just had a little bit better race car than I did. Congratulations to him and his guys. I wasn’t going to run him dirty. I got beside him one time and that’s about all I could do.”

Overton rounded out the podium for the night claiming the third spot, earning $10,000. “It was about track position. We didn’t do a good enough job to win our heat race, so we had to start seventh. I was passing them, and I was still trying to take care of my tires. I knew there were two good cars in front of me and I was hoping they would race it out a little bit and maybe I would have had something left over to get them. I could make up a little time getting into one on the bottom, but they had enough grip to lead me off the corner. But we’ll take it.”

The winner’s Rocket Chassis is powered by a Durham Racing Engine and sponsored by Drydene, Franklin Enterprises, Henderson Amusement, Millwood Plumbing, VP Fuels, Worley Monuments, DirtCar Lift, Davis Diesel Service, and Swift Springs.

Completing the top ten were Tim McCreadie, Zack Mitchell, Carson Ferguson, Brandon Sheppard, and Ricky Weiss.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series

Race Summary

Mountain Moonshine Classic presented by Lazydays RV

Saturday, June 18th, 2022

Smoky Mountain Speedway – Maryville, TN

A-Main Mtn Moonshine Classic (60 Laps): 1. 44M-Chris Madden[1]; 2. 49-Jonathan Davenport[4]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[7]; 4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[5]; 5. 157-Mike Marlar[3]; 6. 39-Tim McCreadie[10]; 7. 57-Zack Mitchell[6]; 8. 93-Carson Ferguson[2]; 9. 1-Brandon Sheppard[11]; 10. 7W-Ricky Weiss[15]; 11. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[9]; 12. 1V-Vic Hill[8]; 13. 20-Jimmy Owens[14]; 14. 0-Scott Bloomquist[12]; 15. 58-Garrett Alberson[20]; 16. 71-Hudson O’Neal[24]; 17. 79-Ross Bailes[16]; 18. 40B-Kyle Bronson[17]; 19. 1T-Tyler Erb[23]; 20. 83-Jensen Ford[18]; 21. 51-Mack McCarter[21]; 22. 23B-John Blankenship[19]; 23. 11-Spencer Hughes[26]; 24. 89-Ashton Winger[25]; 25. 18D-Daulton Wilson[28]; 26. 7-Ross Robinson[27]; 27. 88-Trent Ivey[22]; 28. 17M-Dale McDowell[13]

B-Main 1 FAST Shafts (10 Laps): 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 2. 23B-John Blankenship[3]; 3. 51-Mack McCarter[1]; 4. 71-Hudson O’Neal[4]; 5. 2S-Stormy Scott[5]; 6. 17-Cameron Weaver[6]; 7. 99-Camaron Marlar[8]; 8. 109-Eli Beets[7]; 9. 20H-Bryson Harper[12]; 10. 11-Spencer Hughes[14]; 11. 89-Ashton Winger[9]; 12. 17SS-Brenden Smith[13]; 13. 3-Austin Neely[11]; 14. 21M-Robby Moses[10]; 15. (DNS) 24 D-Michael Brown

B-Main 2 UNOH (10 Laps): 1. 83-Jensen Ford[1]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[3]; 3. 88-Trent Ivey[2]; 4. 7-Ross Robinson[7]; 5. 18D-Daulton Wilson[5]; 6. 10-Garrett Smith[10]; 7. 1T-Tyler Erb[4]; 8. 8-Kyle Strickler[8]; 9. 16-Ben Watkins[9]; 10. 9C-Dusty Carver[11]; 11. 23-Cory Hedgecock[6]; 12. (DNS) 118-Matt Henderson; 13. (DNS) 16S-Sam Seawright; 14. (DNS) 22-Lynn Leach

Heat 1 Penske Shocks (8 Laps): 1. 44M-Chris Madden[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 3. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[3]; 4. 17M-Dale McDowell[2]; 5. 51-Mack McCarter[6]; 6. 23B-John Blankenship[8]; 7. 2S-Stormy Scott[7]; 8. 109-Eli Beets[5]; 9. 89-Ashton Winger[10]; 10. 3-Austin Neely[11]; 11. 17SS-Brenden Smith[9]; 12. (DNS) 24 D-Michael Brown

Heat 2 Summit Racing Equipment (8 Laps): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton[2]; 3. 1-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 4. 7W-Ricky Weiss[7]; 5. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 6. 71-Hudson O’Neal[5]; 7. 17-Cameron Weaver[6]; 8. 99-Camaron Marlar[11]; 9. 21M-Robby Moses[8]; 10. 20H-Bryson Harper[9]; 11. 11-Spencer Hughes[10]

Heat 3 Simpson Race Products (8 Laps): 1. 93-Carson Ferguson[2]; 2. 57-Zack Mitchell[3]; 3. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 4. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 5. 83-Jensen Ford[8]; 6. 58-Garrett Alberson[5]; 7. 18D-Daulton Wilson[7]; 8. 7-Ross Robinson[11]; 9. 16-Ben Watkins[6]; 10. 9C-Dusty Carver[9]; 11. (DNS) 16S-Sam Seawright

Heat 4 Ohlins Shocks (8 Laps): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 1V-Vic Hill[2]; 3. 0-Scott Bloomquist[4]; 4. 79-Ross Bailes[3]; 5. 88-Trent Ivey[7]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb[6]; 7. 23-Cory Hedgecock[10]; 8. 8-Kyle Strickler[5]; 9. 10-Garrett Smith[8]; 10. (DNS) 118-Matt Henderson; 11. (DNS) 22-Lynn Leach

Hot Laps 1: 1. 51-Mack McCarter, 00:17.472[6]; 2. 2S-Stormy Scott, 00:17.581[7]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:17.597[4]; 4. 46-Earl Pearson Jr, 00:17.621[3]; 5. 23B-John Blankenship, 00:17.642[8]; 6. 17M-Dale McDowell, 00:17.767[2]; 7. 3-Austin Neely, 00:17.798[11]; 8. 44M-Chris Madden, 00:17.866[1]; 9. 109-Eli Beets, 00:17.900[5]; 10. 17SS-Brenden Smith, 00:18.260[9]; 11. 89-Ashton Winger, 00:05.998[10]; 12. 24 D-Michael Brown, 00:59.999[12]

Hot Laps 2: 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal, 00:17.374[5]; 2. 11-Spencer Hughes, 00:17.422[10]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 00:17.491[4]; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard, 00:17.500[3]; 5. 76-Brandon Overton, 00:17.549[2]; 6. 157-Mike Marlar, 00:17.586[1]; 7. 7W-Ricky Weiss, 00:17.619[7]; 8. 21M-Robby Moses, 00:17.705[8]; 9. 99-Camaron Marlar, 00:17.725[11]; 10. 17-Cameron Weaver, 00:17.741[6]; 11. 20H-Bryson Harper, 00:18.034[9]

Hot Laps 3: 1. 58-Garrett Alberson, 00:17.501[5]; 2. 57-Zack Mitchell, 00:17.575[3]; 3. 39-Tim McCreadie, 00:17.619[4]; 4. 93-Carson Ferguson, 00:17.768[2]; 5. 20-Jimmy Owens, 00:17.838[1]; 6. 7-Ross Robinson, 00:17.982[11]; 7. 18D-Daulton Wilson, 00:17.989[7]; 8. 16-Ben Watkins, 00:18.291[6]; 9. 83-Jensen Ford, 00:18.296[8]; 10. 9C-Dusty Carver, 00:18.611[9]; 11. 16S-Sam Seawright, 00:59.999[10]

Hot Laps 4: 1. 1V-Vic Hill, 00:17.868[2]; 2. 49-Jonathan Davenport, 00:17.966[1]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb, 00:17.991[6]; 4. 0-Scott Bloomquist, 00:18.010[4]; 5. 8-Kyle Strickler, 00:18.057[5]; 6. 88-Trent Ivey, 00:18.062[7]; 7. 10-Garrett Smith, 00:18.277[8]; 8. 79-Ross Bailes, 00:18.343[3]; 9. 23-Cory Hedgecock, 00:18.550[10]; 10. 118-Matt Henderson, 00:59.998[9]; 11. 22-Lynn Leach, 00:59.999[11]

Race Statistics

Entrants: 45

Lap Leaders: Chris Madden (Laps 1-60)

Wrisco Feature Winner: Chris Madden

Arizona Sport Shirts Crown Jewel Cup Feature Winner: Chris Madden

Brandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: Chris Madden

Margin of Victory: 0.354 seconds

Stop-Tech Cautions: Daulton Wilson (Lap 1); Spencer Hughes (Lap 23)

Series Provisionals: Tyler Erb; Hudson O’Neal

Series Emergency Provisionals: Ashton Winger; Spencer Hughes; Ross Robinson; Daulton Wilson

Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Chris Madden, Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Overton

Penske Shocks Top-5: Chris Madden, Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Overton, Ricky Thornton, Jr., Mike Marlar

Optima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Hudson O’Neal (Advanced 8 Positions)

Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Brandon Sheppard

Hot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Chris Madden (60 Laps)

Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Ricky Thornton, Jr.

O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Garrett Alberson

Dirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Chris Madden (Lap 1 – 17.816 seconds)

Feature DirtonDirt.com Tough Break of the Race: Ashton Winger

Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Ricky Arnold (Chris Madden)

ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Durham Racing Engines

Miller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket Chassis

Dirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Hudson O’Neal (17.3743 seconds)

Time of Race: 25 minutes 33 seconds

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 7T-Tyler Price[1]; 2. 31-Brad Seagle[2]; 3. 10-Dustin Ratliff[5]; 4. 21H-Tyler Haynes[8]; 5. 33-Warren McMahan[7]; 6. 15-Bryan Cooper[6]; 7. 03-Forrest Medina[11]; 8. 7X-Mark Sexton[13]; 9. (DNF) 50-Adam Mitchell[3]; 10. (DNF) 98-Jed Emert[4]; 11. (DNF) 8W-Paul Whitley[12]; 12. (DNF) 00-Isaac Boring[10]; 13. (DNF) 7-Bill Norwood[9]

Dash 1 (5 Laps): 1. 7T-Tyler Price[1]; 2. 31-Brad Seagle[2]; 3. 50-Adam Mitchell[3]; 4. 98-Jed Emert[4]; 5. 10-Dustin Ratliff[5]

Qualifying 1: 1. 7T-Tyler Price, 00:18.121[8]; 2. 31-Brad Seagle, 00:18.470[12]; 3. 50-Adam Mitchell, 00:18.601[9]; 4. 98-Jed Emert, 00:18.634[2]; 5. 10-Dustin Ratliff, 00:19.013[4]; 6. 15-Bryan Cooper, 00:19.195[13]; 7. 33-Warren McMahan, 00:19.244[11]; 8. 21H-Tyler Haynes, 00:19.320[7]; 9. 7-Bill Norwood, 00:19.526[10]; 10. 00-Isaac Boring, 00:19.709[3]; 11. 03-Forrest Medina, 00:20.263[14]; 12. 8W-Paul Whitley, 00:20.493[5]; 13. (DNS) 7X-Mark Sexton, 00:20.493; 14. (DNS) 9C-Chris Johnston, 00:20.493

Hot Laps 1: 1. 31-Brad Seagle, 00:18.432[12]; 2. 98-Jed Emert, 00:18.513[2]; 3. 21H-Tyler Haynes, 00:18.628[7]; 4. 50-Adam Mitchell, 00:18.631[9]; 5. 7T-Tyler Price, 00:18.904[8]; 6. 10-Dustin Ratliff, 00:18.986[4]; 7. 33-Warren McMahan, 00:19.115[11]; 8. 15-Bryan Cooper, 00:19.501[13]; 9. 7X-Mark Sexton, 00:20.066[1]; 10. 8W-Paul Whitley, 00:20.900[5]; 11. 03-Forrest Medina, 00:21.277[14]; 12. 7-Bill Norwood, 00:21.349[10]; 13. 9C-Chris Johnston, 00:22.138[6]; 14. 00-Isaac Boring, 00:44.257[3]

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 21-Hayston Collett[2]; 2. 2B-Shane Bullock[1]; 3. C11-Michael Courtney[3]; 4. D1-Nathan Davis[8]; 5. D3-Jeremy Davis[7]; 6. 18D-Marcus Thompson[19]; 7. 5D-Paul Day[13]; 8. 13-Landon Housley[9]; 9. 21F-Justin Farless[11]; 10. 8-Joey Harmon[15]; 11. (DNF) 96-Bradley Creech[12]; 12. (DNF) 7UP-Chad Manning[14]; 13. (DNF) 46-Ricky Harmon[4]; 14. (DNF) 30-Larry Housley[5]; 15. (DNF) 44-Cordell Collins[16]; 16. (DNF) 25-Brian Smith[17]; 17. (DNF) 61-Richard Warfield[18]; 18. (DNF) 12-Dustin Stephens[10]; 19. (DNF) 25G-Gracie Duggan[6]; 20. (DNS) 99-Chuck McMahan

Qualifying 1: 1. 2B-Shane Bullock, 00:20.908[20]; 2. 21-Hayston Collett, 00:21.015[7]; 3. C11-Michael Courtney, 00:21.432[5]; 4. 46-Ricky Harmon, 00:21.644[14]; 5. 30-Larry Housley, 00:21.696[16]; 6. 25G-Gracie Duggan, 00:21.730[13]; 7. D3-Jeremy Davis, 00:21.778[2]; 8. D1-Nathan Davis, 00:21.873[18]; 9. 13-Landon Housley, 00:22.028[17]; 10. 12-Dustin Stephens, 00:22.069[3]; 11. 21F-Justin Farless, 00:22.245[11]; 12. 96-Bradley Creech, 00:22.362[10]; 13. 5D-Paul Day, 00:22.403[19]; 14. 7UP-Chad Manning, 00:22.842[8]; 15. 8-Joey Harmon, 00:23.068[4]; 16. 44-Cordell Collins, 00:23.279[6]; 17. 25-Brian Smith, 00:24.158[9]; 18. 61-Richard Warfield, 00:24.669[15]; 19. 18D-Marcus Thompson, 00:33.037[12]; 20. (DNS) 99-Chuck McMahan, 00:33.037

Hot Laps 1: 1. 21-Hayston Collett, 00:20.870[7]; 2. C11-Michael Courtney, 00:21.099[5]; 3. D1-Nathan Davis, 00:21.356[18]; 4. 2B-Shane Bullock, 00:21.484[20]; 5. D3-Jeremy Davis, 00:21.506[2]; 6. 46-Ricky Harmon, 00:21.715[14]; 7. 25G-Gracie Duggan, 00:21.858[13]; 8. 99-Chuck McMahan, 00:21.893[21]; 9. 30-Larry Housley, 00:21.986[16]; 10. 13-Landon Housley, 00:22.042[17]; 11. 96-Bradley Creech, 00:22.128[10]; 12. 5D-Paul Day, 00:22.141[19]; 13. 12-Dustin Stephens, 00:22.445[3]; 14. 21F-Justin Farless, 00:22.492[11]; 15. 18D-Marcus Thompson, 00:22.678[12]; 16. 7UP-Chad Manning, 00:22.689[8]; 17. 8-Joey Harmon, 00:23.118[4]; 18. 44-Cordell Collins, 00:23.357[6]; 19. 61-Richard Warfield, 00:24.024[15]; 20. 25-Brian Smith, 00:24.290[9]