A second chance isn’t something you associate with Jonathan Davenport. When he takes the lead in a race, it’s a rare occurrence that he loses it.
But “Superman” needed a second chance Saturday at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. He thundered past Garrett Smith for the lead a second time in Turn 3 en route to back-to-back wins at the NGK NTK World Finals.
Davenport initially passed Smith for the lead on Lap 11, getting by with a similar slide job to how he passed Brandon Sheppard for the win on Friday. His lead slipped away once he caught slower traffic five laps later.
Jason Covert broke the Blairsville, GA driver’s momentum, allowing Smith to sneak up on Davenport and roar past him on the inside.
Just as it looked like Davenport’s opportunity for a weekend sweep may have slipped away, contact between his Longhorn Chassis and Covert sent the Pennsylvania driver around and brought out the caution.
That’s when Davenport knew he needed to get up on the wheel.
“I knew that the 10 had beat me the previous lap, so I said oh no, what was I going to do,” Davenport said. “I just kept trying the top down there, it got me to third and almost second on the first lap when everyone went for the rubber, and I just blasted the top, and it stuck somehow.”
The win is Davenport’s fifth NGK NTK World Finals Victory and 10th career World of Outlaws triumph.
Garrett Smith crossed the line second—a feather in his cap for a driver who’s in his first full year of Super Late Model competition.
The Eatonton, GA campaigner was thrilled with his performance and stated it was a learning experience racing against some of the top Late Model drivers in the country.
“It feels really good to come up here all weekend and have speed all weekend,” Smith said. “It’s fun racing with these guys and seeing how they race you and learn from them.
“Leading a couple of laps right there felt amazing.”
Garrett Smith and Brandon Sheppard battle for position/Jacy Norgaard photo
Sheppard finished third—officially clinching his third straight World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models Championship and fourth overall. He’s now tied with Josh Richards for the most titles all-time.
READ MORE: CHAMPION’S ROAD: BRAD SWEET, BRANDON SHEPPARD, MATT SHEPPARD CLAIM 2021 TITLES
The New Berlin, IL driver, led a few laps, but his car tightened up for the second straight night.
“I got a little snug there at the end of the race,” Sheppard said. “We definitely made improvements on the car; we were better here than we were the last couple of years.
“We’re looking forward to next year and doing some testing before we go to Florida and just fine-tune on this thing because we’re really close and really fast.”
Tim McCreadie, the 2006 World of Outlaws Late Models Champion, finished fourth and Chris Madden capped off his runner-up season in the standings with a fifth-place finish.
While a second chance isn’t something associated with “Superman,” it sometimes takes more to keep down Jonathan Davenport.
The Blairsville, GA driver capped off a weekend to remember on a stage he has holds in high regard for Late Model racing.
“This is the racing capital of the World almost, and it should be a crown jewel event,” Davenport said.
UP NEXT: The Most Powerful Late Models on the Planet kick off the 2022 season at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, FL, for the Sunshine Nationals Jan. 20-22. For Tickets: CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or through the DIRTVision App.
Morton Buildings Feature 40 Laps | 00:37:13.574 – 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[6]; 2. 10-Garrett Smith[2]; 3. 1-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 4. 39-Tim McCreadie[11]; 5. 44-Chris Madden[3]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 7. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[16]; 8. 76-Brandon Overton[17]; 9. 7-Ricky Weiss[7]; 10. 23B-John Blankenship[10]; 11. 11-Austin Kirkpatrick[19]; 12. 99B-Boom Briggs[24]; 13. 0-Scott Bloomquist[9]; 14. 20-Jimmy Owens[15]; 15. 89-Ashton Winger[21]; 16. 7R-Ross Robinson[22]; 17. 19R-Ryan Gustin[23]; 18. 14-Josh Richards[8]; 19. 16-Tyler Bruening[18]; 20. 72-Jason Covert[25]; 21. 119-Bryan Bernheisel[14]; 22. 8-Kyle Strickler[4]; 23. 111V-Max Blair[20]; 24. 01-Chris Ferguson[12]; 25. 0H-Nick Hoffman[13]; Hard Charger – Boom Briggs (+12)
Slick Woody’s Qualifying Group A 2 Laps | 00:02:34.184 – 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport, 00:15.627[23]; 2. 8-Kyle Strickler, 00:15.639[8]; 3. 1-Brandon Sheppard, 00:15.829[15]; 4. 14-Josh Richards, 00:15.925[22]; 5. 0H-Nick Hoffman, 00:15.935[21]; 6. 39-Tim McCreadie, 00:15.983[4]; 7. 0-Scott Bloomquist, 00:16.021[12]; 8. 20-Jimmy Owens, 00:16.027[5]; 9. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:16.084[17]; 10. 89-Ashton Winger, 00:16.144[9]; 11. 11-Austin Kirkpatrick, 00:16.242[11]; 12. 111-Steven Roberts, 00:16.295[14]; 13. 76-Brandon Overton, 00:16.358[10]; 14. B1-Brent Larson, 00:16.483[19]; 15. 48-Colton Flinner, 00:16.545[6]; 16. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:16.598[3]; 17. 91-Cody Overton, 00:16.708[20]; 18. 42-Cla Knight, 00:16.917[2]; 19. 17-Tim Vance, 00:17.090[1]; 20. K7-Gary Dillon, 00:17.276[13]; 21. 93-Pancho Lawler, 00:17.475[18]; 22. 23-Derek Rogers, 00:17.535[16]; 23. (DNS) 07-Brian Ledbetter
Slick Woody’s Qualifying Group B 2 Laps | 00:00:55.000 – 1. 10-Garrett Smith, 00:15.811[7]; 2. 01-Chris Ferguson, 00:15.873[4]; 3. 7-Ricky Weiss, 00:15.896[12]; 4. 44-Chris Madden, 00:15.915[20]; 5. 23B-John Blankenship, 00:16.095[21]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb, 00:16.113[2]; 7. 119-Bryan Bernheisel, 00:16.206[16]; 8. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:16.245[23]; 9. 72-Jason Covert, 00:16.247[14]; 10. 16-Tyler Bruening, 00:16.258[19]; 11. 99B-Boom Briggs, 00:16.330[8]; 12. 7R-Ross Robinson, 00:16.348[5]; 13. 1G-Ryan King, 00:16.357[3]; 14. 32-Dustin Mitchell, 00:16.372[11]; 15. 111V-Max Blair, 00:16.499[1]; 16. 55-Benji Hicks, 00:16.520[22]; 17. 2-Dan Stone, 00:16.526[13]; 18. 99-Jesse Glenz, 00:16.531[6]; 19. 20H-Bryson Harper, 00:16.837[10]; 20. 44L-Dylan Lewis, 00:16.879[17]; 21. 06-Mike Lupfer, 00:17.108[9]; 22. 354-Chris Nash, 00:17.126[15]; 23. 6-Blake Spencer, 00:17.290[18]
Drydene Heat 1 8 Laps | 00:05:35.996 – 1. 1-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 2. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 3. 0-Scott Bloomquist[4]; 4. 0H-Nick Hoffman[3]; 5. 76-Brandon Overton[7]; 6. 11-Austin Kirkpatrick[6]; 7. 19R-Ryan Gustin[5]; 8. 48-Colton Flinner[8]; 9. 91-Cody Overton[9]; 10. 17-Tim Vance[10]; 11. 93-Pancho Lawler[11]; 12. (DNS) 07-Brian Ledbetter
Drydene Heat 2 8 Laps | 00:05:09.766 – 1. 8-Kyle Strickler[1]; 2. 14-Josh Richards[2]; 3. 39-Tim McCreadie[3]; 4. 20-Jimmy Owens[4]; 5. 89-Ashton Winger[5]; 6. 3S-Brian Shirley[8]; 7. 111-Steven Roberts[6]; 8. B1-Brent Larson[7]; 9. K7-Gary Dillon[10]; 10. 23-Derek Rogers[11]; 11. 42-Cla Knight[9]
Drydene Heat 3 8 Laps | 00:05:31.920 – 1. 10-Garrett Smith[1]; 2. 7-Ricky Weiss[2]; 3. 23B-John Blankenship[3]; 4. 119-Bryan Bernheisel[4]; 5. 111V-Max Blair[8]; 6. 99B-Boom Briggs[6]; 7. 72-Jason Covert[5]; 8. 2-Dan Stone[9]; 9. 20H-Bryson Harper[10]; 10. 6-Blake Spencer[12]; 11. 1G-Ryan King[7]; 12. 06-Mike Lupfer[11]
Drydene Heat 4 8 Laps | 00:05:35.417 – 1. 44-Chris Madden[2]; 2. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 3. 01-Chris Ferguson[1]; 4. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[4]; 5. 16-Tyler Bruening[5]; 6. 7R-Ross Robinson[6]; 7. 99-Jesse Glenz[9]; 8. 55-Benji Hicks[8]; 9. 32-Dustin Mitchell[7]; 10. 44L-Dylan Lewis[10]; 11. 354-Chris Nash[11]
Last Chance Showdown 1 10 Laps | 00:09:03.570 – 1. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 2. 11-Austin Kirkpatrick[3]; 3. 89-Ashton Winger[2]; 4. 19R-Ryan Gustin[5]; 5. 48-Colton Flinner[7]; 6. B1-Brent Larson[8]; 7. 3S-Brian Shirley[4]; 8. 91-Cody Overton[9]; 9. 93-Pancho Lawler[13]; 10. 17-Tim Vance[11]; 11. 23-Derek Rogers[12]; 12. K7-Gary Dillon[10]; 13. 111-Steven Roberts[6]; 14. (DNS) 42-Cla Knight; 15. (DNS) 07-Brian Ledbetter
Last Chance Showdown 2 10 Laps | 00:08:04.142 – 1. 16-Tyler Bruening[2]; 2. 111V-Max Blair[1]; 3. 7R-Ross Robinson[4]; 4. 99-Jesse Glenz[6]; 5. 6-Blake Spencer[11]; 6. 72-Jason Covert[5]; 7. 2-Dan Stone[7]; 8. 1G-Ryan King[13]; 9. 32-Dustin Mitchell[10]; 10. 20H-Bryson Harper[9]; 11. 44L-Dylan Lewis[12]; 12. 99B-Boom Briggs[3]; 13. 354-Chris Nash[14]; 14. (DNS) 55-Benji Hicks; 15. (DNS) 06-Mike Lupfer
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