GREENWOOD, Neb. (July 21) — A magical combination of patience, speed and good fortune combined to land Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., a $53,000 victory in Saturday night’s eighth annual Imperial Tile Silver Dollar Nationals at I-80 Speedway.

After spending much of the distance calmly saving his equipment while running at the back end of the top five, the 34-year-old superstar came on in the 80-lap feature’s late stages to pull off a dramatic score. He overtook a slowing Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., for the lead on lap 78 and pulled away on a green-white-checkered restart for his second career win in the half-mile oval’s marquee event.

The monumental triumph backed up Davenport’s photo-finish win over Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., in Thursday night’s weekend-opening 50-lap Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series A-main that paid $10,000, setting J.D. and his Lance Landers Racing team back on track after a struggle-filled stretch on the national tour that didn’t cost him the points lead but brought him plenty of frustration.

“What a turnaround,” said Davenport, who registered his series-leading eighth victory of 2018. “I was kind of dreading this month — just with the amount of money you’re able to win and you’re not running good going into that month, it’s pretty disheartening.

“But now I’m definitely ready for it. We’ve completely turned our program around.”

Buoyed by a change earlier in the week from the Andy Durham-built Ford engines he’s used all season to a Jack Cornett-built Chevy that the team obtained from North Carolina racer G.R. Smith, Davenport turned up the wick following a lap-67 restart to reach second place on lap 74 with an outside move by Ricky Weiss of Headingley, Manitoba. Moments later Pierce, who had made a spectacular charge from the 28th starting spot to the lead, began to slow drastically with terminal engine trouble, allowing Davenport to erase his near full straightaway deficit and slide by the 21-year-old sensation for the lead as lap 78 was scored.

Pierce proceeded to come to a stop on the backstretch in a cloud of smoke on the 78th circuit after leading laps 42-43 and 50-77, ending his storybook rally and setting up a final deciding restart. Davenport handled it with aplomb, stepping away from his challengers to reach the checkered 1.958 seconds ahead of the 29-year-old Weiss, a first-time Silver Dollar Nationals starter who led laps 17-20.

A three-wide battle for third on the final lap saw Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., secure the position at the finish over Hudson O'Neal of Martinsville, Ind., and Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla.

The polesitting Bloomquist led laps 1-16, 21-41 and 44-49, but he had fallen to sixth at the lap-78 caution as he struggled to get his car off the corners and then pitted for new rear tires during the slowdown. He finished sixth, with seventh-place Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., the final driver on the lead lap.

Davenport, who started 12th in his Longhorn Race Car, began the race with a specific strategy and largely followed it to perfection. He was extremely cognizant of the fact that he had to save the rubber on his machine in hopes of being in position to make a late-race bid.

“When we set out I had a gameplan — if my car was good enough I wanted to go in stints and try to work my way to the front so that way I didn’t get myself into trouble,” Davenport said. “I knew if I could get (close) to the front and then I could set my own destiny on what place I was in, how far I was behind and things like that.

“I knew the top (groove) was really good, but I only went up there in two-lap stints because I knew I would hurt my tires if I went up there for longer than that. I just wanted to have the best tires the last 10 laps.”

Pierce, however, gave Davenport some pause. The driver of the Dunn-Benson Racing XR1 Rocket used a Lucas Oil Series provisional to start deep in the feature field after struggling in qualifying but found himself in the A-main, hooking up around the top of the track to crack the top 10 by lap 13 and then sail by the remainder of the vehicles ahead of him. He overtook Davenport for third on lap 27 on his way to wrestling the lead from Bloomquist for the second and final time on lap 50.

“He was letting her sing when he come by me,” Davenport said of Pierce, “and I was like, ‘Well, I hope he slows down.’”

Pierce didn’t seem much inclined to do so. He stayed hard on the throttle as he built more than a straightaway edge while tearing through lapped traffic.

But mechanical factors ultimately dulled Pierce’s pace. He build a straightaway advantage shortly after a lap-67 restart, but on lap 75 — moments after Davenport seized control of second place — smoke began to trickle from Pierce’s No. 32 and his pace noticeably slowed. Davenport quickly caught up, swept past the lumbering Pierce down the homestretch just after completing lap 77 and was in command for good as the two-to-go signal was displayed.

Pierce limped to a stop on the inside of the backstretch that same circuit, his heart broken after more bad luck left him just short of what would have been the richest win of his career.

“If anyone’s had a bad luck year, I think this is like top five,” a dejected Pierce said after the race. “Especially to be winning a $53,000-to-win race, first time here … it just really sucks. But I guess … what are you gonna do?”

Pierce tried to remain as upbeat as he could considering the difficult circumstances.

“I’m just really glad that we had a fast car,” commented Pierce, who thinks a burned valve did him in. “I don’t know how to act. When it happened — and I knew it was gonna happen because for like five laps, or even longer that that, something was acting up and the power in the motor just got less and less and it finally gave out — I’m like, ‘Get a notebook, write every single thing we did to this car down, because we were terrible and then we came to the feature tonight. I think it kid of turned into an Illinois-style track — slick, with a little bit of a cushion on top — and that’s just what I grew up racing on.

“I feel bad obviously for everybody,” he added. “We work so hard, and to perform as well as we did and not get it there at the end — we just needed a couple more laps — it hurts.”

Davenport certainly felt sympathy for Pierce’s tough fate.

“That was definitely his misfortune,” Davenport said. “That sucks, it really does. He’s had a lot of motor problems lately, and to be leading and have one … that hurts twice as bad.”

But Davenport also didn’t apologize for having put himself in position to take advantage of Pierce’s misfortune.

“I had a plan, I stuck to it, and it played out,” Davenport said. “I was unbelievably patient. I was almost twiddling my thumbs in there waiting for those laps to go up.

“I knew with 13 laps to go (when a caution flag flew) I was gonna let it all hang out because the other night (Thursday) we had a caution with 17 to go and my tires stayed under me (to the end). I did hurt ‘em, but they didn’t really slow down for that little bit.”

Davenport was on the charge during those final 13 circuits, though he did experience some moments of uncertainty.

“Actually, I hit the cushion (after initially overtaking Weiss for second) and something happened to the car,” Davenport said. “It was in three and four, one of the first laps I went to the cushion, and I hit it wrong and I done something to the right front because it started steering very, very weird, so I’m like, ‘Oh, s—.’ Then I kind of backed off and I kind of tested the waters up there because I hadn’t run the cushion yet. That let Ricky back by me and I think Scott, but then I got going again. Once I cleared Ricky (on lap 74), Bobby had gotten out on me a little bit, but I got me a good rhythm going and then I think (Pierce) started smoking about the same time as I started tracking him down a little bit.”

Would Davenport have been able to run down and pass Pierce?

“I don’t know,” he said. “It would have been close at the end. I don’t know if I could’ve caught him. I think I could’ve, but, you know, we will never know.”

Davenport’s last obstacle was the restart with two laps remaining. He had a plan for that, too.

“The biggest thing was, I wanted to take off far enough back, but take off far enough forward that I could turn straight down the racetrack and not let somebody get a run on the outside of me or on the bottom,” Davenport said. “If they was within one or two car lengths of me getting in the corner they could probably slide me.

“If I didn’t get a good restart I’d have probably slid through the middle and caught the cushion off, but I felt like I got a really good restart so I went ahead and rung the top. I knew if I could get through the first corner, then I think it was my race to lose. I just didn’t have to mess up.”

Davenport was flawless over the final tours, but Weiss didn’t exactly throw all caution to the wind in an attempt to beat J.D. either.

“I think I was a little gun shy just knowing that second was good,” said Weiss, who recorded a career-best finish in a big-money Dirt Late Model event. “I know if Scott (Bloomquist) would’ve been driving the car I think he would’ve probably won the race. Every race we’re out there to win, but I was quite happy with second.

“With Owens there (in third) I knew I could drive into one and two real deep and probably would’ve had to get up towards the wall. I figured, Heck, Maybe J.D. would clip the wall. I’d seen him do it and slow down a little bit, and maybe we’d have something for ‘em if he did that. But heck, we were happy with what we had.”

The 46-year-old Owens, meanwhile, wondered aloud afterward if he had shown a bit too much patience.

“I just thought, Well, we’ll just ride here as much as we can because we can ride and keep up instead of hustle the car and keep up,” said Owens, who started 17th and steadily advanced forward. “We took our time, and then when the time come we just kind of got on it and was pretty aggressive.

“Once I got aggressive, the car just kept getting better and better and better, and then I realized I took too long waiting to be aggressive and probably feel like it might’ve cost us a win.”

Five caution flags slowed the event, including the final one on lap 78 for Pierce. Earlier cautions were caused by Dave Eckrich of Oxford, Iowa, who spun in turn two on lap three; a lap-eight tangle in turn one that knocked out both Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., and Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill.; Mason Zeigler of Chalk Hill, Pa., who stopped on lap 12 while running second due to a broken j-bar; and Kyle Bronson of Brandon, Fla., who clobbered the wall between turns three and four on lap 67 and rode it until stopping in the fourth corner.

Imperial Tile Silver Dollar Nationals

Pos., Driver (car no.), hometown, earnings
1. Jonathan Davenport (49), Blairsville, Ga., Longhorn, $53,000
2. Ricky Weiss (7W), Headingley, Manitoba, Sweet-Bloomquist, $20,000
3. Jimmy Owens (20), Newport, Tenn., Rocket, $10,000
4. Hudson O’Neal (71), Martinsville, Ind., Club 29, $7,000
5. Earl Pearson Jr. (1P), Jacksonville, Fla., Black Diamond, $6,000
6. Scott Bloomquist (0), Mooresburg, Tenn., Sweet-Bloomquist, $5,500
7. Don O’Neal (5), Martinsville, Ind., Club 29, $5,000
8. Tim McCreadie (39), Watertown, N.Y., Longhorn, $4,700
9. Gregg Satterlee (22), Indiana, Pa., Rocket, $4,400
10. Chris Simpson (32), Oxford, Iowa, Longhorn, $4,000
11. Chad Simpson (25), Mount Vernon, Iowa, Black Diamond, $3,800
12. Shannon Babb (18), Moweaqua, Ill., Rocket, $3,600
13. Billy Moyer (21), Batesville, Ark., Moyer Victory, $3,400
14. Jared Landers (1777), Batesville, Ark., Black Diamond, $3,200
15. Chase Junghans (18c), Manhattan, Kan., Rocket, $3,000
16. Darrell Lanigan (14), Union, Ky., Club 29, $2,900
17. Bobby Pierce (32), Oakwood, Ill., Rocket, $2,800
18. Jason O’Brien (15J), Atlantic, Iowa, Black Diamond, $2,700
19. Josh Richards (1), Shinnston, W.Va., Rocket, $2,600
20. Kyle Berck (14), Marquette, Neb., Missile,  $2,500
21. Kyle Bronson (40B), Brandon, Fla., Rocket, $2,400
22. Matt Buller (1B), Lincoln, Neb., Swartz, $2,300
23. Corey Zeitner (26Jr), Omaha, Neb., Black Diamond, $2,250
24. Dave Eckrich (58), Oxford, Iowa, Black Diamond, $2,200
25. Tad Pospisil (04), Norfolk, Neb., Club 29, $2,150
26. J.C. Wyman (4), Griswold, Iowa, Black Diamond, $2,100
27. Kent Robinson (7R), Bloomington, Ind., MB Customs, $2,075
28. Justin Zeitner (1GRT), Malvern, Neb., GRT, $2,050
29. Shane Clanton (25), Zebulon, Ga., Capital, $2,025
30. Scott Ward (37), Watertown, S.D., Rocket, $2,000
31. Mason Zeigler (25z), Chalk Hill, Pa., Rocket, $2,000
32. Dennis Erb Jr. (28), Carpentersville, Ill., Black Diamond, $2,000
33. Brandon Sheppard (1), New Berlin, Ill., Rocket, $2,000
Lap leaders: Bloomquist (1-16); Weiss (17-20); Bloomquist (21-41); Pierce (42-43); Bloomquist (44-49); Pierce (50-77); Davenport (78-80)
Non-qualifier's race winner: McCreadie
Heat race winners (among 47 cars): Chad Simpson, H. O’Neal, Weiss, Bloomquist, Satterlee, Landers, Zeigler, Robinson, Bronson, D. O’Neal
Consolation race winners: Babb, O’Brien
Provisional starters: Richards, Pierce, Zeitner, Pospisil

Preliminary results and feature details:

Feature updates

Lap 80: Davenport pulls away after restart, wins second Silver Dollar Nationals by 1.958 seconds over Weiss.

Lap 78: Davenport slides under a slowing Pierce off turn four to take the lead ... moments later caution out as Pierce stops on the backstretch with smoke coming from his car, ending his sterling run. Bloomquist relinquishes sixth during caution period to pit for new rear tires ... Davenport leads Weiss, Owens, Pearson, Hudson O'Neal, Don O'Neal and Bloomquist (seven cars on lead lap).

Lap 76: Pierce appears to be slowing ... Davenport charging up in second.

Lap 70: Pierce 1.1 seconds over Weiss ... Davenport, Bloomquist and Pearson follow.

Lap 67: Caution flies for Kyle Bronson, who hit the wall hard between turns three and four and rode it until coming to rest in turn four. Pierce's straightaway-plus edge over Bloomquist wiped out; he will restart ahead of Bloomquist, Weiss, Hudson O'Neal, Davenport, Don O'Neal, Pearson, Satterlee and McCreadie.

Lap 60: Pierce flying around the top, leads Bloomquist by a straightaway ... Weiss is third, followed by Davenport, Hudson O'Neal, Owens, Don O'Neal, Pearson, Satterlee and Chris Simpson.

Lap 50: Pierce powers off outsid eof turn four to take lead again — one lap after the two touched on the homestretch, crunching Bloomquist's right-rear bodywork.

Lap 44: Bloomquist sneaks inside of Pierce in traffic off turn four to regain lead.

Lap 42: Pierce runs down Bloomquist, sails around outside to take the lead.

Lap 31: Pierce around the outside of Weiss to second place, trails Bloomquist by full straightaway ...

Lap 27: Pierce runs outside by Davenport to take third place after starting 28th.

Lap 21: Bloomquist back in front, sweeping by Weiss on the backstretch.

Lap 17: Weiss sails around the outside of Bloomquist to grab the lead.

Lap 12: Second-place Zeigler slows suddenly in turns three and four and stops on the homestretch; he was pushed to the pit area. Bloomquist leads Davenport, Hudson O'Neal, Weiss and Don O'Neal.

Lap 8: Caution out after Dennis Erb Jr. hits turn-one wall and is clipped by Brandon Sheppard; Kyle Berck slid in later making light contact. Sheppard's car was pushed to his trailer while Erb pitted and did not return in time for the restart. Bloomquist leads Zeigler, Hudson O'Neal, Weiss, Don O'Neal, Pearson, Davenport, Chad Simpson, Satterlee and Clanton.

Lap 3: Caution flies for Dave Eckrich, who spun in turn two. Bloomquist leads Zeigler, Hudson O'Neal, Don O'Neal and Weiss.

Lap 1: Bloomquist leads over Zeigler ...

10:20 p.m.: Green flag flies ...

10:16 p.m.: The 33-car field pulls away for pace laps.

10:05 p.m.: With the 10-minute horn already blown, the feature field is lining up on pit road.

Feature lineup

Row 1: Scott Bloomquist, Mason Zeigler
Row 2: Hudson O’Neal, Don O’Neal
Row 3: Ricky Weiss, Earl Pearson Jr.
Row 4: Chase Junghans, Kent Robinson
Row 5: Gregg Satterlee, Dennis Erb Jr.
Row 6: Chad Simpson, Jonathan Davenport
Row 7: Brandon Sheppard, Shane Clanton
Row 8: Jared Landers, Billy Moyer
Row 9: Jimmy Owens, Kyle Bronson
Row 10: Shannon Babb, Jason O’Brien
Row 11: Darrell Lanigan, Scott Ward
Row 12: Kyle Berck, J.C. Wyman
Row 13: Matt Buller, Chris Simpson
Row 14: Josh Richards, Bobby Pierce
Row 15: Corey Zeitner, Tad Pospisil
Row 16: Tim McCreadie, Justin Zeitner
Row 17: Dave Eckrich

Belt Bash Non-Qualifiers’ Race

Running the 12-lap race in an attempt to avoid using an emergency provisional to start the Silver Dollar Nationals, defending race winner Tim McCreadie came off the outside pole to score a flag-to-flag victory. He beat Justin Zeitner to the finish line by 2.746 seconds.

Not surprisingly, McCreadie declined the race’s $3,000 first-place prize in favor of starting 31st in the 80-lap A-main. He would have had to forfeit the SDN’s $2,000 start money if he fell back on a Lucas Oil Series emergency provisional.

Zeitner briefly considered taking the $2,500 runner-up check before his father directed him to move on to the feature. Third-place finisher Dave Eckrich also opted for a starting spot in the 80-lapper, bypassing the $2,200 payoff.

Finish: Tim McCreadie, Justin Zeitner, Dave Eckrich, Justin Duty, Chris Spieker, John Anderson, Al Humphrey, Junior Coover, Robbie Anderson, Bob Millander.

Belt Bash Non-Qualifiers’ Race lineup

(16 laps; top 3 have option to start feature)
Row 1: Justin Zeitner, Tim McCreadie
Row 2: Dave Eckrich, Justin Duty
Row 3: Al Humphrey, Jake Neal
Row 4: Junior Coover, Terry Phillips
Row 5: Allan Hopp, Tyler Bruening
Row 6: John Anderson, Chris Spieker
Row 7: Bob Millander, Robbie Anderson

Second B-main

Jason O’Brien dominated the 15-lapper, scoring a flag-to-flag win by 2.655 seconds over Scott Ward. J.C. Wyman took third and Chris Simpson placed fourth after overtaking Tim McCreadie for the position on lap 11. McCreadie was second when the race’s only caution flag flew on lap eight for John Anderson slowing on the backstretch, but he slipped to fourth on the restart and ultimately missed transferring by one spot.

Finish: Jason O’Brien, Scott Ward, J.C. Wyman, Chris Simpson, Tim McCreadie, Dave Eckrich, Justin Duty, Jake Neal, Terry Phillips, Bobby Pierce, John Anderson, Chris Spieker.

First B-main

Inheriting the lead on lap seven when race-long pacesetter Tyler Bruening came together with a lapped car, Shannon Babb cruised in front the remainder of the 15-lap distance to defeat Darrell Lanigan by 1.354 seconds. Kyle Berck and Matt Buller finished third and fourth, respectively, to also transfer to the A-main. A red flag was put out on lap seven for a multi-car homestretch tangle that knocked Bruening from the lead and continued Josh Richards’s miserable weekend. When Bruening went low off turn four to lap the much slower Bob Millander, Millander turned left, causing Bruening to spin toward the outside and collect Richards. Both Bruening and Richards were towed off.

Finish: Shannon Babb, Darrell Lanigan, Kyle Berck, Matt Buller, Justin Zeitner, Corey Zeitner, Tad Pospisil, Al Humphrey, Junior Coover, Allan Hopp, Tyler Bruening, Josh Richards, Bob Millander, Robbie Anderson.

Pre-race notes

The eighth annual Silver Dollar Nationals is closing under perfect weather conditions: clear skies, high temperatures in the mid-80s and a light breeze. … Perhaps the most interesting row in the 80-lap feature’s field is the second. Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., starts third and his father, Don, is alongside in fourth. “Hopefully Hudson won’t throw an elbow going in that first corner,” Don said with a smile. … Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., and his Best Performance Motorsports crew will certainly relish a post-SDN break after all the work they’ve done this weekend. After Richards failed to earn enough points on Friday to lock into the feature — largely the result of a tangle during his Round 1 heat that hampered his effort the remainder of the night — his crew chief, Randall Edwards, led the team in pulling the motor from the machine that was damaged on Friday and bolting it into the car that was sidelined by terminal engine trouble during Thursday night’s heat-race action. … Ricky Weiss of Headingley, Manitoba, will start the SDN A-main for the first time in his career from the fifth starting spot. He was strong on both Thursday and Friday and is looking to race in his mentor Scott Bloomquist’s tire tracks during the 80-lapper. “I feel we got a pretty good car that we can kind of maintain and just roll and kind of figure out Scott’s pace out there,” Weiss said. “Hopefully we can follow him and take it to the front.” … Joining Weiss as a first-time SDN feature starter after Friday’s heat action is Kent Robinson of Bloomington, Ind. … Four previous SDN winners are already locked into the feature field: polesitter Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn. (2014 and ’15), Don O’Neal (’11), Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga. (’16) and Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn. (’13). The defending race champion, Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., is scheduled to start a B-main.

Pre-race setup

I-80 Speedway’s eighth annual Imperial Tile Silver Dollar Nationals weekend concludes Saturday with consolation races, the Belt Bash Non-Qualifiers’ Race  and the 80-lap, $53,000-to-win main event for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. United States Modified Touring Series competitors are also in action completing a two-day, $8,000-to-win program.

Friday night’s racing program included 10 total races for the 47 Late Model competitors. No time trials were contested for Late Models; lineups for the two rounds of heats were set by draws, and combined passing points from the prelims determined the 18 transfers to Saturday night’s 80-lap finale.

Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., is scheduled to start on the pole of Saturday’s main event with Mason Zeigler of Chalk Hill, Pa., alongside. The two drivers earned the most passing points in Friday’s heats.

Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill., and Jason O’Brien of Atlantic, Iowa, start on the pole of Saturday night’s pair of 15-lap B-Mains, which will transfer four additional drivers from each to the A-Main.

Saturday’s card, which also includes the $3,000-to-win Belt Bash for Late Model non-qualifiers, is scheduled to get underway with hot laps at 7 p.m. CDT.

Saturday B-main lineups

(15 laps; top 4 transfer)
First B-main
Row 1: Shannon Babb, Tyler Bruening
Row 2: Darrell Lanigan, Josh Richards
Row 3: Corey Zeitner, Kyle Berck
Row 4: Matt Buller, Bobby Pierce
Row 5: Chris Simpson, Chris Spieker
Row 6: Jake Neal, Robbie Anderson
Row 7: Andrew Kosiski, Justin Duty
Row 8: Jimmy Mars
Second B-main
Row 1: Jason O’Brien, Tim McCreadie
Row 2: Scott Ward, J.C. Wyman
Row 3: Terry Phillips, Dave Eckrich
Row 4: Tad Pospisil, Justin Zeitner
Row 5: Junior Coover, Al Humphrey
Row 6: John Anderson, Allan Hopp
Row 7: Charlie McKenna, Bob Millander

Schedule of events

6:30 p.m.: Late Model drivers’ meeting
7 p.m.: Late Model/Modified B-main hot laps
7:30 p.m.: Opening ceremonies
- Late Model B-mains (15 laps)
- Late Model feature qualifier hot laps
- Modified B-mains
- Modified feature qualifier hot laps
- Belt Bash non-qulaifiers' race (18-20 laps)
- Belt Bash trophy presentation (top 3)
- Intermission with Lucas Oil driver intros and autographs on frontstretch concourse
- USMTS modified feature (40 laps)
- Track prep if needed
- Silver Dollar Nationals feature (80 laps)