Lernerville Speedway
Peanut's memory rides with J.D. at Lernerville
By Kevin Kovac
DirtonDirt.com senior writer
Jonathan Davenport grabs his first Lernerville victory. (heathlawsonphotos.com)
SARVER, Pa. (June 23) — For a track that sits more than 600 miles and nearly 10 hours from Jonathan Davenport’s hometown of Blairsville, Ga., Lernerville Speedway occupies an outsized place in his heart.
It’s not because he owns a memorable victory at the 4/10-mile oval outside Pittsburgh. It’s not because he’s raced at the track especially often. Davenport’s connection with Lernerville derives from the fact that every time he rounds the track he’s reminded of, and feels a deep connection to, his departed best friend. | RaceWire
After the 39-year-old superstar finally broke through for his first-ever victory at Lernerville in Friday afternoon’s first postponed 25-lap Firecracker 100 presented by Big River Steel semifeature, he revealed feelings about the track that few people probably realized.
“This place here hasn’t been very good to me, but it’s special to my heart,” Davenport said, noting that the ashes of his buddy from childhood to adulthood, Jamie Brown, are scattered around the speedway.
Brown, the son of well-known Southeast team owner and sponsor Brownie Brown, died on June 8, 2011, in a house fire in Cleveland, Ga. Davenport still remembers where he was when he learned the tragic news about his pal who was affectionately called “Peanut.”
“I was actually in the airport when they called me the morning after he died,” Davenport said. “I was going to the Prelude at the Dream (at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio) to help (NASCAR driver) Brian Vickers (who was racing a Late Model fielded by) Kevin Rumley.”
Jamie Brown had virtually been a brother to Davenport. They were close to inseparable for years.
“Me and Jamie grew up together, went to school together, played ball together,” Davenport said. “We were best friends. We event went to college together — Lanier Tech in Gainesville, Ga. — and we had a house together there.”
Davenport stayed at Eldora following the Prelude to drive the Barry Wright house car in the Dream. He qualified for the 100-lap finale and finished a modest 16th — with the message “In Memory of Jamie” in orange tape on his car’s right-rear quarterpanel — and then immediately headed back to Georgia for Jamie’s funeral service the next day.
Two weeks later Davenport entered Lernerville’s Firecracker 100 for the first time in his career. Brownie Brown also made the trip from north Georgia and, after the qualifying program that opened the weekend, came to Davenport with a request.
“I didn’t even know what he had done (cremating Jamie’s body),” Davenport said. “He said he wanted me to run him around the track on a four-wheeler, so me and him went around at the end of the night. He got out Jamie’s ashes and barely sprinkled him all the way around the top.”
Davenport wasn’t able to achieve an emotional victory the day after spreading Jamie’s ashes around the speedway, settling for a quiet 12th-place finish, one lap down. His next five visits to Lernerville for the Firecracker 100 weekend didn’t bring a victory either, leaving him frustrated that he couldn’t break through on what he now personally considered hallowed ground. As Davenport remarked, he’s “had a lot of bad luck here over the years.”
“I come back with the AES car in ’13 and I think we were running third or fourth in the feature that night and blowed an oil line,” Davenport said. “In ’14 we was leading (in the K&L Rumley Enterprises No. 6) and broke a rear end. In ’16 I was supposed to start on the outside pole in (Randy) Weaver’s car and the battery shorted out at the 10-minute call so we barely made it out for the race and then I think we ran fourth (actually fifth) from the rear.
“We was here in ’19 (his first season in his current Lance Landers-owned ride) and run fourth when Timmy (McCreadie) won in Kevin’s (No. 6) car, and we came last year and was terrible (finishing 19th after retiring early).
“I’ve always wanted to win here,” he continued, his voice trailing off for a moment.
That moment of Lernerville glory finally arrived Friday afternoon. He dominated the first 25-lap semifeature, leading from flag-to-flag and beating Michael Norris of Sarver, Pa., to the finish line by a commanding margin of 3.964 seconds.
And make no mistake, Peanut was in Davenport’s thoughts as he tore around the extreme outside of the track, churning up the cushion.
“I’ve always had that in the back of my mind, that I wanted to win a race around the top here,” said Davenport, who asserted that he was “thinking about my old friend Peanut the whole time.”
Added Davenport: “I thought I was gonna do it in 2014 with Kevin (Rumley) when we was leading the Firecracker and broke. I finally did it.”
Davenport nearly doubled his pleasure Friday, flirting with a sweep of the day when he overtook Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., to grab the lead on lap 22 of Friday evening’s semifeature. But Thornton threw a slider of his own the next lap to regain command and march on to the $5,000 victory as Davenport slipped over the backstretch berm on lap 23 and fell to third in the finishing order — and expressed a bit of displeasure with the circumstances of his fate.
“I just felt like I slid him with plenty of room in (turns) three and four there,” said Davenport, who drove a brand-new Longhorn Chassis. “I gotta watch the video, but I felt like I was still up to his door the whole time. I thought he was gonna give me a lane (at the other end of the track where Thornton threw a slider), but finally, when we got to the edge of the track (in turn two), I just lifted so he obviously got in front of me.
“He apologized … he was under me, but I thought he was gonna give me a lane, and at the last minute I lifted. The video probably don’t look as bad because I lifted … he didn’t really leave me no option, but that’s the way it goes.”
Perhaps the loss would have stung Davenport more had he not celebrated his first-ever win at Lernerville a few hours earlier. He also still earned the most points in the two preliminary programs to put him on the pole position of Saturday’s first Firecracker 100 heat, setting him up to make a run at the $50,000 prize that goes to the winner of one of the few major events that he’s yet to capture.
Davenport acknowledged that the Firecracker 100 isn’t at the top of his to-do list, but he certainly wants to add it to his resume.
“I mean, it’s not one of the ones I have circled, but it’s one I haven’t won yet,” Davenport said. “You want to win it, but when I really think about crown jewels, this one’s not one of them … but if I lived in PA, I’d think it would be.”
