Lucas Oil Series notebook
Notes: Quick start key for Owens at Atomic
Jimmy Owens wins at Atomic. (heathlawsonphotos.com)
Jimmy Owens didn’t lead every lap of Sunday’s Buckeye Spring 50 at Atomic Speedway in Alma, Ohio. But he was close. Polesitter Devin Moran held a scant lead — seven-hundredths of a second — on the opening lap. Owens, however, knew he needed to take control of the 50-lap Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event as soon as he could. | RaceWire
“I just know Devin’s been extremely good this year. I thought if we was gonna be able to beat him we was gonna have to do it on the take off,” Owens said. “We was able to get a good run there and kinda run him up the backstretch down yonder, but I thought I had him cleared a little bit. It’s all good racing. You know it’s a good group of kids and a good group of guys.”
Once out front, Owens was never really threatened.
“I could hear somebody behind me. I didn’t know if it was (Moran) or lapped cars coming up,” said Owens. “I knew if I just held a good line and kept the car good and straight maybe we could carry it on to the finish.”
The victory, Owens’s second of the season and 79th on the Lucas Oil Series, pulled him to with 15 wins of Scott Bloomquist’s series-leading 94 victories. More importantly, it was a special victory in that it was his first since the death of longtime car owner Leon Ramirez of Woodward, Okla.
“It just says a lot for the Ramirez family, to keep pushing and to keep giving us the best equipment money can buy,” Owens said. “I’ve said it time and again, I’ve been very blessed to have them in my life … a lot of good people that are on this car. The people are just phenomenal. It just takes a whole group of guys to get this team going. You know, I can’t thank those guys enough.”
Another runner-up for Moran
Devin Moran said the biggest key to winning his fourth Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature of the season was pretty simple: he needed to stay in front of Jimmy Owens. It was an obvious answer from the young Dresden, Ohio, star who, rather than keep the four-time series champion behind him, gave up the top spot on the second lap and settled for his fifth runner-up finish in Lucas Oil Series action this season.
“I just (needed) to get in front of him on that first start,” Moran said. “I missed the bottom of (turns) three and four that first lap and he drove underneath of me. I was reeling him in, reeling him in and I think it was Rod (Conley) didn’t know I was up there and turned right and I was there and got us jacked up. At that point I fell back to third and kinda had to work my way back to second.”
Moran said that by the time he got back around Tyler Erb and began to track down the race leader, he was out of laps.
“I saw five (laps) to go and didn’t realize we were already that late into the race,” Moran said. “I just tried to start ripping the fence. All-in-all (the race car) was really good you know. We’re close, we’re just not where we need to be.”
The race was slowed by a single caution. While the yellow flag and subsequent restart helped Moran get back by Erb, Moran said he wasn’t sure if a second caution would have done the same in his effort to pass Owens.
“It’s hard to tell,” he said. “Sometimes the cautions can help you and sometimes they can really hurt you. That’s just the way the race played out. We aren’t were we need to be, but we’re really close. We just gotta keep working on this race car and get it one spot better.”
Moran moved into the Lucas Oil Series points lead, but he's said he doesn't have intentions of following the national tour.
No repeat for O'Neal
After winning last season’s Buckeye Spring 50 in his first season with Tennessee-based Double Down Motorsports, Hudson O’Neal was one of the favorites entering Sunday’s race at Atomic. However, history wasn’t on his side.
While there were three repeat winners (Owens now makes four), only one driver — Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., in 2015-’16 — has won back-to-back Lucas Oil Series races at Atomic. Before Sunday’s race, Davenport, Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., and Eddie Carrier Jr. of Salt Rock, W.Va., were the only drivers with two Lucas Oil Series wins there.
For Owens, Bloomquist and Carrier, there's been one Lucas Oil Series race held at Atomic between each of their two respective wins. While that stat bodes well for O’Neal next season, it was of little consequence Sunday, when he improved three positions to finish fourth.
“Got a little bit behind qualifying, but we were able to make it up,” said O’Neal, whose father Don won at the track in 2011. “I felt like we had a really good race car there. We were really strong up to the (lap-31) caution, but after the caution we just got a little snug through the center. We’ll add it to the notebook. We’ve been good at this place. We’ve had successful runs here the last couple years and I’m sure we’ll come back at least once this year. We’ll just keep improving and see what we can do.”
Sheppard's chances spoiled
Third-starting Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., slipped to fourth on the opening lap and was fifth on lap three. After losing another spot midway through the race, Sheppard said he felt lucky to climb back into the top five by the end of Sunday’s 50-lapper.
“I think the third or fourth lap there my spoiler got knocked back by a big mud clod,” Sheppard said. “I don’t really know what happened. There’s a big dent in it and it’s laid back there, so that definitely didn’t help me. We’re fortunate that we got to hang on for a top-five there. We had a really fast car all night long.”
Sheppard entered Sunday’s race with four Lucas Oil Series victories — more than any other driver — and the series points lead. Though he lost the points lead to runner-up Devin Moran, the four-time World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series champion, is more concerned with knocking of solid finishes each night.
“We’ve got to get our consistency good, run in the top five every night,” Sheppard said. “We’re really close to that right now. I fell like we’re gaining confidence night in and night out. We’ve got quite a few wins this year already so our season’s looking good to start.”
Solid night for Tyler Erb
Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, slipped by Devin Moran on lap 18 and chased leader Jimmy Owens for the next 13 laps before relinquishing the spot on a restart following the race’s lone caution. He held on to finish third. While Erb wasn’t necessarily giddy with his seventh podium finish of the season, he was pleased to be in contention and to record a solid points night.
“If things played out a little different there, we might've had something for Jimmy,” said Erb, whose previous Lucas Oil Series victory came Sept. 24, 2021, in Brownstown, Ind. “When Devin got with that lapper there I was able to get by him. And then the restart, I didn’t really want that. I felt like I was kinda figuring out a line in (turns) three and four.
“It would’ve been easy to go up there and blow the little bit of fence down trying (to catch Owens), but … just didn’t try to drive over our head there and got a good run. When you’ve got a good race car and good people (supporting you), it makes it a lot easier. We’re just gonna keep working and get us (a win) here soon.”
Odds and ends
Kyle Bronson of Brandon, Fla., a Lucas Oil regular since 2018, was a no-show at Atomic. The new owner of Golden Isles Speedway in Brunswick, Ga., had previously listed Atomic and all the Lucas Oil events on his personal schedule. ... The mid-March weekend marked the second straight year that the Lucas Oil schedule was shuffled with Atomic was originally scheduled to precede Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway's Indiana Icebreaker. Atomic's event was shifted to Sunday because of Friday's poor weather while Brownstown's Saturday event fell victim to weather as well (last season's Indiana Icebreaker was cancelled following prelims because of dangerous track conditions). ... Seventh-finishing Garrett Alberson of Las Cruces, N.M., was the top finishing rookie candidate at Atomic. ... Lucas Oil competitors take two weekends off before returning to action with April 8's Hillbilly 100 at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va., a $30,000 event that makes up last September's rainout. ... April 9-10 series action shifts to Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway and Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway.
