WHEATLAND, MO. (May 26, 2023) – Jonathan Davenport’s perfect weekend continued Friday night at the 31st annual Show-Me 100 Presented by the Missouri Division of Tourism.
Davenport led all 40 laps to capture the Tribute to Don and Billie Gibson at Lucas Oil Speedway, adding to his Thursday night Cowboy Classic triumph. He held off a late-charging Tim McCreadie to prevail by two car lengths for his 68th career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory and third win at Lucas Oil Speedway in 2023.
The Blairsville, Ga., driver has led all 85 laps of the features the first two nights as drivers collected points to help determine the starting lineup for Saturday night’s 100-lap, $50,000-to-win Show-Me 100. While “Superman” has earned $6,000 for each of the two victories so far this weekend, he now sets his sights on the big prize and will start from the pole of the 100-lapper.
“I haven’t got into traffic a lot to see how good our car really is,” Davenport said, noting the toughest assignment awaits. “We’ve been fortunate to qualify good and we got lucky tonight to win the heat race and get to start on the front row. So, we’ve led a lot of laps but we haven’t had to pass a lot of good cars yet.
“I still think we have a lot of work to do to be able to seal the deal tomorrow,” the 2015 Show-Me 100 winner added. “We get to start on the front row, though. It’s going to be a long race. We’ve led 85 laps so far, just as long as we lead the last 85 tomorrow we’ll be fine.”
The Tribute to Don and Billie Gibson honors the former owners of West Plains Motor Speedway, who started the Show-Me 100 in 1993. It was a dandy race as Davenport, despite leading every lap, had to fend off challengers throughout.
Just as he did a night earlier, Davenport jumped to the lead on lap one and already had a 1.3-second command over Brandon Overton with Payton Looney in third when the race’s first caution flew on lap four.
By lap 10, Davenport’s lead over Overton was a half-second with Jimmy Owens advancing from eighth to fourth and closing in on Looney for third. The leaders were able to avoid a pair of stalled cars that spun in turns three and four to bring out a lap-13 caution. Looney got a great restart to whip around Overton and into second.
As the race reached the halfway point at lap 20, Davenport led Looney by 1.2 seconds with Overton right behind. Three laps later, the leaders caught lapped traffic with Looney pulling alongside Davenport on the low side, but unable to complete a pass.
Twelfth-starting Mason Zeigler joined the top three to make it a four-car battle, first-to-fourth separated by 1.9 seconds when the event’s third caution slowed the battle on lap 28.The race’s return to green only lasted one lap as Zeigler slowed with mechanical issues, taking him out of contention.
Overton used the restart to regain second, pushing Looney back to third with Jimmy Owens in fourth with 11 to go. Looney returned the favor to Overton on the restart and gave chase of Davenport on lap 30 but couldn’t keep up.
McCreadie, lurking just outside the top five much of the race, found his best speed late, moving around Looney with four to go and closed in on the leader. But Davenport, hugging the low groove, held on to beat McCreadie by .271 seconds.
“I saw the white flag so I kind of floated through (turns) one and two, then I tried to block the bottom and the top on the last lap, because I had no idea where to be there,” Davenport said. “It was good to see the 39 (McCreadie) first and second. As much as we run up and down the road … we bounce a lot of ideas off one another.”
Both Davenport and McCreadie, the two-time reigning Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion, drive Longhorn chassis.
“I think everybody just came to use and we had a couple of restarts,” McCreadie said. “We got up there and were fighting for it, but once JD kind of maneuvered it, I kind of was dead in the water. But we’ll take a second and try to find some speed tomorrow.”
Ricky Thornton Jr., the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points leader, came from seemingly nowhere in the last few laps to finish third. Thornton started 24th and last after having to go to a backup car after engine issues after a third-place heat-race finish. He even had to visit the hot pits early in the feature to get an adjustment.
“We just changed a couple of small things and after that, it took off,” Thornton said. “Credit to my crew. They busted their butts.
Looney, the 2020 Show-Me 100 winner and home crowd favorite from Republic, wound up fourth with Overton fifth. Looney, who missed Thursday’s feature with mechanical issues, said he probably drove his car too hard in the first half of the race, battling with Davenport.
“When I caught Jonathan in lapped traffic, nothing really mattered besides trying to pass him,” Looney said. “I blistered the right rear really bad. I was just trying to hang on the last 10 laps. The right rear was pretty well toast at that point.”
Defending Show-Me 100 champion Chris Ferguson finished sixth while Owens was seventh.
Jeff Herzog had fast qualifying time in Group A at 15.611 seconds, then went on to win his heat race to earn the feature-race pole. Owens posted a 16.104 time to lead Group B.
Johnson takes USRA Modified feature: Matt Johnson of Archie took the lead from Ryan Middaugh with eight laps remaining and went on to earn the Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified feature victory.
Middaugh started on the outside front row and led from the start, with Johnson staying close as those two broke away from the rest of the field. Middaugh led by two car lengths at the mid point with third-place Dylan Hoover nearly five seconds behind the leading duo.
Two laps later, Johnson was able to work his way to the inside and pass Middaugh coming out of turn four on lap 12 for the lead, as the leaders hit lapped traffic. Johnson was able to pull away from there to finish 2.9 seconds in front of Middaugh, the track points leader in the Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified division.
“Ryan did a really good job. We just kind of tucked in behind him and the track ogt better and better,” Johnson said. “My car just pulled around there perfect and we’re happy.”
Hoover was four seconds in back of Middaugh to earn third with Tyler Hibner fourth and Paden Phillips in fifth.
The Modifieds, like the Late Models, accumulated points the first two night to help set their feature lineup for the Saturday finale which will be worth $2,000 to win.
Saturday action: The Saturday program includes B Mains, the Midwest Sheet Metal Show-Me Challenge and the Show-Me 100-lap feature event paying $50,000-to-win for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and the Lucas Oil MLRA.
Pit gates open at 3 p.m., grandstands at 4 with pre-race concert from 5-5:45 p.m., opening ceremonies at 6, hot laps at 6:30 and racing at 7:05.
Lee Newton pre-race concert: Nutrien Ag Solutions will add to the fan experience on Saturday by presenting a pre-race concert from 5-5:45 p.m. featuring Nashville recording artist/songwriter Lee Newton. During pre-race ceremonies, Lucas Oil Speedway will honor the Veterans and Military as part of the Memorial Day Weekend.
Newton will also serve as Grand Marshal for the Show-Me 100. She is a three-time Josie Music Award winner and the Josie Music Vocalist of the Year in 2020.
LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (May 26, 2023)
31st annual Show-Me 100 Presented by Missouri Division of Tourism
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series/Lucas Oil MLRA
Tribute to Don and Billie Gibson A Feature – 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 2. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[24]; 4. 15L-Payton Looney[5]; 5. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 6. 22F-Chris Ferguson[7]; 7. 20-Jimmy Owens[8]; 8. 99-Devin Moran[14]; 9. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[16]; 10. 111B-Max Blair[22]; 11. 25C-Chad Simpson[9]; 12. 8-Dillon McCowan[6]; 13. 32-Chris Simpson[15]; 14. 11-Spencer Hughes[21]; 15. 58-Garrett Alberson[11]; 16. 1H-Hudson O’Neal[19]; 17. 45-Cole Wells[10]; 18. 18D-Daulton Wilson[17]; 19. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[18]; 20. 11H-Jeff Herzog[1]; 21. 54-David Breazeale[20]; 22. 14M-Morgan Bagley[23]; 23. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[12]; 24. 2-Tyler Stevens[13]
Fash Shafts B Main 1 – 1. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[2]; 2. 11-Spencer Hughes[1]; 3. 7W-Ricky Weiss[11]; 4. 93-Mason Oberkramer[6]; 5. 22H-Dustin Hodges[3]; 6. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[8]; 7. 15-Justin Duty[4]; 8. 99B-Boom Briggs[7]; 9. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[9]; 10. 96-Dalton Imhoff[5]; 11. 1X-Aaron Marrant[13]; 12. 51-Larry Ferris[10]; 13. 26-Glen Powell[14]; 14. (DNS) 7-Ross Robinson
UNOH B Main 2 – 1. 1H-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 2. 111B-Max Blair[3]; 3. 21XXX-Neil Baggett[2]; 4. 16-Tyler Bruening[5]; 5. 14G-Trevor Gundaker[4]; 6. 50-Kaeden Cornell[8]; 7. 82-Jace Parmley[7]; 8. 49J-Justin Wells[6]; 9. 1S-Jeremy Shaw[10]; 10. 15T-Matt Johnson[9]; 11. 1A-Bryon Allison[11]; 12. 3-Brennon Willard[12]
MyRacePass B Main 3 – 1. 54-David Breazeale[1]; 2. 14M-Morgan Bagley[6]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 4. USA28-Kylan Garner[2]; 5. 14R-Jeff Roth[7]; 6. 11K-Jon Kirby[12]; 7. 7D-Dusty Leonard[9]; 8. USA1-Chris Hawkins[4]; 9. 50C-Kayden Clatt[8]; 10. 14RM-Reid Millard[10]; 11. 19M-Colby Moore[11]; 12. 94-Austin Rettig[3]
Penske Shocks Heat 1 – 1. 11H-Jeff Herzog[1]; 2. 22F-Chris Ferguson[3]; 3. 2-Tyler Stevens[6]; 4. 11-Spencer Hughes[8]; 5. 22H-Dustin Hodges[2]; 6. 96-Dalton Imhoff[5]; 7. 99B-Boom Briggs[7]; 8. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[4]; 9. 7W-Ricky Weiss[9]; 10. 1X-Aaron Marrant[10]
Summit Racing Equipment Heat 2 – 1. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 2. 25C-Chad Simpson[2]; 3. 32-Chris Simpson[3]; 4. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[4]; 5. 15-Justin Duty[6]; 6. 93-Mason Oberkramer[5]; 7. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[9]; 8. 51-Larry Ferris[8]; 9. 7-Ross Robinson[7]; 10. 26-Glen Powell[10]
Simpson Race Products Heat 3 – 1. 15L-Payton Looney[1]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[4]; 3. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[2]; 4. 1H-Hudson O’Neal[6]; 5. 111B-Max Blair[5]; 6. 16-Tyler Bruening[3]; 7. 82-Jace Parmley[7]; 8. 15T-Matt Johnson[9]; 9. 1A-Bryon Allison[8]
AP1 Insurance Heat 4 – 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[3]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 3. 99-Devin Moran[4]; 4. 21XXX-Neil Baggett[2]; 5. 14G-Trevor Gundaker[5]; 6. 49J-Justin Wells[8]; 7. 50-Kaeden Cornell[7]; 8. 1S-Jeremy Shaw[6]; 9. 3-Brennon Willard[9]
Lucas Oil Heat 5 – 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[3]; 2. 45-Cole Wells[1]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 4. 54-David Breazeale[2]; 5. 94-Austin Rettig[5]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb[7]; 7. 14R-Jeff Roth[8]; 8. 7D-Dusty Leonard[6]; 9. 19M-Colby Moore[9]
Lucas Oil Heat 6 – 1. 8-Dillon McCowan[1]; 2. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[3]; 3. 18D-Daulton Wilson[6]; 4. USA28-Kylan Garner[2]; 5. USA1-Chris Hawkins[4]; 6. 14M-Morgan Bagley[7]; 7. 50C-Kayden Clatt[9]; 8. 14RM-Reid Millard[5]; 9. 11K-Jon Kirby[8]
Qualifying Group A – 1. 11H-Jeff Herzog, 00:15.611[1]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton, 00:15.724[14]; 3. 15L-Payton Looney, 00:15.744[2]; 4. 22H-Dustin Hodges, 00:15.868[6]; 5. 25C-Chad Simpson, 00:15.869[25]; 6. 46-Earl Pearson Jr, 00:15.901[11]; 7. 22F-Chris Ferguson, 00:15.904[7]; 8. 32-Chris Simpson, 00:16.000[10]; 9. 16-Tyler Bruening, 00:16.001[4]; 10. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh, 00:16.025[19]; 11. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck, 00:16.051[8]; 12. 58-Garrett Alberson, 00:16.077[23]; 13. 96-Dalton Imhoff, 00:16.127[13]; 14. 93-Mason Oberkramer, 00:16.133[5]; 15. 111B-Max Blair, 00:16.161[17]; 16. 2-Tyler Stevens, 00:16.180[20]; 17. 15-Justin Duty, 00:16.269[26]; 18. 1H-Hudson O’Neal, 00:16.276[16]; 19. 99B-Boom Briggs, 00:16.302[3]; 20. 7-Ross Robinson, 00:16.329[9]; 21. 82-Jace Parmley, 00:16.385[27]; 22. 11-Spencer Hughes, 00:16.446[29]; 23. 51-Larry Ferris, 00:16.469[22]; 24. 1A-Bryon Allison, 00:16.487[15]; 25. 7W-Ricky Weiss, 00:16.543[28]; 26. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr, 00:16.593[12]; 27. 15T-Matt Johnson, 00:16.741[21]; 28. 1X-Aaron Marrant, 00:16.783[24]; 29. 26-Glen Powell, 00:17.341[18]
Qualifying Group B – 1. 20-Jimmy Owens, 00:16.104[18]; 2. 45-Cole Wells, 00:16.107[26]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan, 00:16.166[3]; 4. 21XXX-Neil Baggett, 00:16.216[4]; 5. 54-David Breazeale, 00:16.229[8]; 6. USA28-Kylan Garner, 00:16.284[7]; 7. 49-Jonathan Davenport, 00:16.292[10]; 8. 39-Tim McCreadie, 00:16.402[5]; 9. 25Z-Mason Zeigler, 00:16.430[24]; 10. 99-Devin Moran, 00:16.471[17]; 11. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:16.496[16]; 12. USA1-Chris Hawkins, 00:16.526[2]; 13. 14G-Trevor Gundaker, 00:16.553[6]; 14. 94-Austin Rettig, 00:16.627[1]; 15. 14RM-Reid Millard, 00:16.808[27]; 16. 1S-Jeremy Shaw, 00:16.812[15]; 17. 7D-Dusty Leonard, 00:16.824[9]; 18. 18D-Daulton Wilson, 00:16.844[25]; 19. 50-Kaeden Cornell, 00:16.846[11]; 20. 1T-Tyler Erb, 00:16.850[14]; 21. 14M-Morgan Bagley, 00:16.882[12]; 22. 49J-Justin Wells, 00:16.962[28]; 23. 14R-Jeff Roth, 00:16.988[13]; 24. 11K-Jon Kirby, 00:17.006[19]; 25. 3-Brennon Willard, 00:17.333[20]; 26. 19M-Colby Moore, 00:17.491[22]; 27. 50C-Kayden Clatt, 00:17.999[23]
Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds
A Feature – 1. 1X-Matt Johnson[5]; 2. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[2]; 3. 99-Dylan Hoover[1]; 4. 89-Tyler Hibner[9]; 5. 127-Paden Phillips[7]; 6. 92-Tyler Grooms[6]; 7. 91-Joe Duvall[13]; 8. 5-Robbie Reed[8]; 9. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[14]; 10. 11B-Donnie Barnhart[22]; 11. 51-Lucas Gibbs[17]; 12. 24C-Brandon Conkwright[20]; 13. 29-Dennis Elliott[11]; 14. 38C-Jason Pursley[15]; 15. 21F-Johnny Fennewald[21]; 16. 21-Greg Scheffler[16]; 17. 95JR-Johnny Wyman[23]; 18. 03-Chase Jones[12]; 19. 23-Lucas Dobbs[19]; 20. 85-Tyler Shaw[24]; 21. 21W-Tracy Wolf[18]; 22. (DNF) 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[10]; 23. (DNF) 356-Reggie Jackson[4]; 24. (DNF) 88-Chad Wheeler[3]
B Main – 1. 51-Lucas Gibbs[1]; 2. 21W-Tracy Wolf[2]; 3. 23-Lucas Dobbs[3]; 4. 24C-Brandon Conkwright[5]; 5. 21F-Johnny Fennewald[4]; 6. 11B-Donnie Barnhart[13]; 7. 95JR-Johnny Wyman[7]; 8. 85-Tyler Shaw[9]; 9. 9-Kenton Allen[11]; 10. 5M-Jason McGehee[12]; 11. 7-Daniel Franklin[10]; 12. 12-Andrew Thomas[6]; 13. 12JR-Jory Stotts[14]; 14. (DNF) 33S-Ben Stockton[8]
Heat 1 – 1. 356-Reggie Jackson[1]; 2. 89-Tyler Hibner[2]; 3. 92-Tyler Grooms[7]; 4. 38C-Jason Pursley[3]; 5. 21W-Tracy Wolf[6]; 6. 24C-Brandon Conkwright[8]; 7. 85-Tyler Shaw[5]; 8. 5M-Jason McGehee[4]
Heat 2 – 1. 1X-Matt Johnson[1]; 2. 99-Dylan Hoover[7]; 3. 91-Joe Duvall[3]; 4. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[8]; 5. 21F-Johnny Fennewald[5]; 6. 95JR-Johnny Wyman[2]; 7. 9-Kenton Allen[6]; 8. (DNF) 12JR-Jory Stotts[4]
Heat 3 – 1. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[2]; 2. 127-Paden Phillips[1]; 3. 29-Dennis Elliott[4]; 4. 21-Greg Scheffler[3]; 5. 23-Lucas Dobbs[6]; 6. 12-Andrew Thomas[7]; 7. 7-Daniel Franklin[5]
Heat 4 – 1. 88-Chad Wheeler[2]; 2. 5-Robbie Reed[1]; 3. 03-Chase Jones[4]; 4. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[6]; 5. 51-Lucas Gibbs[7]; 6. 33S-Ben Stockton[5]; 7. (DNF) 11B-Donnie Barnhart[3]
Saturday admission prices:
Adults (16 and up) – $40
Seniors (62 and up)/Military – $37
Youth (age 6 to 15) – $10
Kids (age 5 and under) – FREE
Family Pass – $90
Pit Pass $45
For information about any event at Lucas Oil Speedway in 2023 contact admissions director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or email her at nichole@lucasoilspeedway.com for more information.
CONTACT:
Danny Lorton
Lucas Oil Speedway General Manager
Office: (417) 282-5984