Moran Breaks Through for Friday DIRTcar Nationals Victory

With five previous wins at Volusia Speedway Park, Devin Moran knows how to get the job done around the “World’s Fastest Half Mile.”

He had finished second, third and fourth at the track over the past month, but the top step of the podium eluded him. That changed at the end of Friday’s Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals program, when “The Mailman” finally delivered his Double Down Motorsports team a Gator.

“This is the Volusia that I love,” Moran said. “When it’s technical, there’s a curb, you’ve got to run the bottom and you could pass and maneuver. I mean, I started eighth and came up through there.”

Prior to Friday’s race, no Super Late Model winner at Volusia this season between World of Outlaws and DIRTcar competition had started worse than third. Moran began the process of bucking that trend from the outside of the fourth row and jumped two spots by the time Tristan Chamberlain blew an engine to bring out the caution seven laps in.

A flawless restart allowed Moran to move up to third behind Ricky Thornton Jr. and Ethan Dotson. Luck was on his side a few laps later, as Thornton jumped the cushion entering Turn 1 and Dotson piled into the side of the No. 20RT, opening the door for Moran to slip by on the bottom.

The yellow flag flew before Moran could make it back around to complete the lap, which meant Thornton got the lead back for the ensuing restart.

After Moran rode in third behind Thornton and Jonathan Davenport for a handful of laps, the race slowed once more after Bobby Pierce smacked the Turn 4 wall. That gave Moran the chance to power past Davenport exiting Turn 2 after going back green and turn his focus towards Thornton.

With 16 laps remaining in the 35-lap Feature, Moran threw the slider on Thornton and cleared him exiting Turn 4 to take command of the race.

Even with the adversity for his competitors, Moran said he never expected to get from eighth to first in less than 20 laps at a track where passing has come at a premium for much of the week.

“My car was just really, really good,” Moran said. “With Ricky and Ethan getting into each other when Ricky jumped the cushion, we just kind of took advantage of everybody else’s misfortune and it just worked out in our favor tonight.”

With no more interruptions from that point forward, there would be no stopping Moran for the rest of the race. The Dresden, OH driver sliced and diced his way through traffic in the final run on his way to his 14th World of Outlaws win and his sixth at Volusia.

Moran’s drive to victory took place on one of the widest racing surfaces of the week, which Moran acknowledged as a key factor in his ability to get to the front early on and stay out front in dirty air.

“The cushion was all the way up above the crown, the bottom had a little grip and you could actually run through the middle and hit the traction there,” Moran said. “I thought they did a really good job on the racetrack and hopefully it’s similar tomorrow night.”

Davenport cut the gap from nearly three seconds with six to go down to less than a second at the white flag, but was unable to get close enough to try a move before the checkers flew.

“Needed probably three more laps,” Davenport said. “Devin was finally catching lap cars there and they were two-wide in front of him. He hadn’t quite found the middle down in 3 and 4 where I was running. I might could have snuck by him there, but eventually when he caught the lap cars he probably would have gone through there and been pretty good too.”

Thornton rebounded from his error earlier in the race to finish third, enough to hold on to the Big Gator points lead by 39 markers over Davenport with one night of racing left to go.

“I screwed up about Lap 5 and hit the front straightaway wall,” Thornton said. “I stayed on the curb and got in the wall and killed the right-front. I was hanging on, got over the curb, got back under the curb and Ethan was there. It was all my fault. Sucks that it knocked him out of the race, it’s unfortunate.

“Luckily I was able to keep going. It was a handful after that, I knew I was a sitting duck. I knew Devin and JD were going to be better than I was at that point. Just trying to hang on.”

Alberson held on to fourth to collect his third top five of DIRTcar Nationals, while Ryan Gustin rounded out the top five.

RACE NOTES:

Jordan Koehler set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.

The Simpson Quick Time Award went to Ricky Thornton Jr.

Jonathan Davenport won STAKT Products Heat Two.

Garrett Alberson won Keyser Manufacturing Heat Three.

Ethan Dotson won Jarrett Rifles Heat Four.

Heats One, Five and Six were won by Ricky Thornton Jr., Bobby Pierce and Ryan Gustin.

Tyler Bruening, Tyler Erb and Max Blair won the three Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Garrett Alberson won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Dennis Erb Jr. moved up from 26th to 12th to take the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Daulton Wilson was the MD3 Rookie of the Race with his 11th-place finish.

Max Blair was the Lifeline USA Lucky Ninth Place Finisher.

UP NEXT: A Big Gator champion will be crowned on Saturday night at Volusia Speedway Park when Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals concludes with a 50-lap, $20,000-to-win World of Outlaws Late Models Feature. Get your tickets by clicking here.

If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.

Feature (35 Laps): 1. 99-Devin Moran[8]; 2. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[5]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 5. 19R-Ryan Gustin[6]; 6. 9-Nick Hoffman[13]; 7. 1T-Tyler Erb[20]; 8. 97-Cade Dillard[10]; 9. 111-Max Blair[21]; 10. 96-Tanner English[23]; 11. 18D-Daulton Wilson[12]; 12. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[26]; 13. 1-Brandon Sheppard[9]; 14. 3S-Brian Shirley[15]; 15. 40B-Kyle Bronson[25]; 16. 76-Brandon Overton[17]; 17. 93-Carson Ferguson[22]; 18. 2-Cody Overton[14]; 19. 19-Dustin Sorensen[24]; 20. B1-Brent Larson[28]; 21. 16-Tyler Bruening[19]; 22. 75-Daniel Adam[18]; 23. 14W-Dustin Walker[30]; 24. 22*-Drake Troutman[27]; 25. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 26. 99B-Boom Briggs[16]; 27. 74X-Ethan Dotson[4]; 28. 157-Mike Marlar[11]; 29. 5-Mark Whitener[7]; 30. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[29]

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Volusia Speedway Park

1500 East State Road 40

Barberville, FL, 32130