GAFFNEY, S.C. — There was little madness about Cherokee Speedway's March Madness, at least as far as winner Brandon Overton was concerned.
The Evans, Ga., driver was on an even keel all afternoon and into the evening, zipping to the fast qualifying time, dominating his heat race and then leading all 60 laps of the Southern All Star Series opener for a $10,000 payday.
Overton repelled a few modest challenges from runner-up Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., and notched his fourth victory of the season — all on different tours. He was glad to put a subpar performance the previous night at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn., behind him.
"We had a pretty crappy night last night," Overton said of the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series event where he finished 11th. "We got behind early and couldn't make it up. We kind of come over here today with a point to prove. We've gotta set fast time and win those heats and put yourself in position (to win), especially tonight, the way the racetrack was. It's real critical. You've gotta get up there in the front because a lot of these guys, they don't mess up."
Overton never messed up in racing to victory over Davenport, a four-time March Madness winner, while Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., completed the podium finishers. Zach Mitchell of Enoree, S.C., and Stewart Friesen of Sprakers, N.Y., rounded out the top five.
Davenport nosed in on Overton a few times — most notably at halfway just before the first of two caution flags appeared — but Overton kept his cool amid slower cars.
"I was just telling myself don't move (off the bottom), don't panic," Overton said. "If I can't pass the last-place car, it'd be pretty hard for 'em to drive around me. But I knew, like I said, you get down there and you just gotta make sure you're patient and you don't mess up."
Davenport drifted high out of the groove in one rare attempt to try the outside groove, settling for following Overton in his tire tracks most of the way.
"I was just trying to make him run a little harder than he wanted to run, try to make him burn his stuff up. He's a smart racer. He kept the pace down and I didn't think we were ever going to catch lapped traffic (again) after that caution came out," Davenport said. "I guess the race was won in qualifying tonight. If we could've beat Brandon (or) been a little bit fast qualifying, you know, maybe started on the pole, it would've been a different story.
"It's just part of day racing and we knew that coming in. I know (promoter) Scott (Childress) and everybody has been working really hard on the racetrack trying to give these fans a whole lot better show. He's doing a good job."
Owens took the third spot from Mitchell on the 38th lap and crossed his fingers for a little luck, but he was pleased to have a solid race car.
"We made the right adjustments and the crew worked their butts off and got us a good piece for the feature," Owens said. "I was watching (Davenport and Overton) up there racing, and I was hoping maybe they'd scoot each other up out of the rubber and we'd get by 'em. I could run to 'em when I wanted to. ... I'm very pleased with our performance tonight and maybe we can keep this Ramirez Rocket up a little more often."
Cherokee's longer races often had many cautions for flat tires, but just two yellow flags appeared, the first on the 30th lap for a slowing Dustin Mitchell and again on lap 57 when Bryson Harper had a flat right-rear tire.
Notes: Overton has four victories in 2020, all on different tours (besides the Southern All Stars, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series and Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Series). ... Chris Ferguson (broken rocker arm) and Dennis Franklin (broken oil pump) both scratched before heat races. ... Chris Madden, the WoO winner the previous night at Smoky Mountain Speedway, was a no-show after falling ill. ... The 40-car entry list was the biggest since the race drew 41 cars in 2008.
