Jonathan Davenport has staked an early claim to victory lane in the 17th annual dirt Super Late Model Wild West Shootout at New Mexico’s Vado Speedway Park.
The Blairsville, Georgia speedster swept the opening weekend of the event, winning on both Saturday and Sunday night at the 3/8-mile dirt track.
The 39-year-old earned a $10,000 payday for Saturday night’s win, and then added another $10,000 to his total with Sunday night’s victory.
Better yet, Davenport remains eligible for the $300,000 Penske Racing Shocks Paydirt Jackpot bonus should he sweep the week’s four remaining features. He can also pocket $100,000 for winning five times and $25,000 for capturing four races.
On Saturday night, Davenport grabbed the lead form Bobby Pierfece on lap 26, and never looked back en route to clinching the opening night victory.
“I think that right there closed any doubts in any minds,” Davenport said confidently when asked about his quick return to victory lane with newcomers Cory Fostvedt (crew chief) and Michael Bixby (tire specialist) joining returning race engineer Vinny Guliani.
Davenport wasn’t seriously threatened after wrestling the lead from Pierce, who paced all but one of the race’s first 26 laps — he was nosed out at the line by Davenport on lap 19 — before ceding the position to the eventual winner and then spinning out of contention on lap 30 while running second. Pierce slid high in turn two, scraped the outside wall and twirled, bringing out the second and final caution flag of the feature.
Sheppard inherited the runner-up spot with Pierce’s miscue and stayed there for the remainder of the distance. Ricky Weiss ran third, with Cade Dillard in fourth, and NASCAR Cup Series driver Kyle Larson in fifth.
“It was kind of a gamble on tires,” Davenport said. “Thanks to Hoosier Tire for finally listening to us, all the racers and all the crews and car owners. They kind of put us on a little bit different tire rule that’s gonna be all the way across the country now and they give us some choices tonight and we picked right.
“I just kept managing the racetrack, trying to manage my tires. I knew I was a little harder (on compound choice) than they was and I didn’t want to burn the edges off early. I thought I might catch (Pierce) in (lapped) traffic and I did one time (to peak ahead on lap 19) and Don (Shaw) come down … it just worked out for Bobby there. Then on that (lap-26) restart it kind of cleaned up right there around the top so I got me a big run there and just tried to slide him clean (to assume command at lap 27) and set a good pace from there.”
On Sunday night, Davenport held off a hard charge from Larson, with the two jockeying back and forth for position to score his second win of the weekend.
Though Davenport never officially relinquished the lead, he had to turn back a bevy of challenges from Kyle Larson, who gave Davenport all he could handle down the stretch. Larson finished 1.840 seconds behind Davenport in second.
“He just wouldn’t give up. I’m like, dammit, just quit,” a smiling Davenport said of Larson in victory lane. “No, he did a good job. I couldn’t really tell where he was getting a run on me because he kept sliding me in different corners, so I kept changing my line up a little bit — how hard I’d run around the cushion.”
All told, Larson attempted five challenges on the pace-setting Davenport over Sunday’s final 19 laps. The last of those came with four laps to go, when Larson drove hard into turn three and narrowly cleared Davenport rounding the front stretch.
Larson couldn’t maintain his momentum in that final effort, though, as Davenport regathered himself — and the lead — before the flag stand to nearly win by multiple seconds. Davenport and his new-look crew bolted on a softer tire than what they used in Saturday’s win, which added a wrinkle in Sunday’s winning strategy.
“It was kind of a different tire game tonight once again,” Davenport said. “The track was obviously totally different than what it was last night. … I just tried to save it so the last 10 to 15 laps I could burn it down.”
There weren’t many moments in the last half of Sunday’s feature where Davenport left the top of the racetrack. That was the place to be most of the night despite Larson mixing in the bottom groove in his attack to keep pace with the sport’s top-ranked driver.
“That was such a fun race. What an amazing racetrack,” Larson said. “We had a big cushion to lean on; had some moisture on the bottom early. My car was really good. A big thank you to Kevin Rumley and Longhorn, and everybody who helps out who tries to get me comfortable. We changed a lot of stuff the last few times we’ve had the car. I feel like maybe we are getting closer on something. Nice we get to race consecutive nights to build on the notebook. A blast racing there. I threw a handful of sliders, but I could never get squared up on exit how I needed to.”
Only two cautions slowed Sunday’s feature. The first yellow flag flew for Cade Dillard on lap 13, which erased Davenport’s two-second lead, while the second stoppage occurred on lap 16 for Don Shaw.
The last 24 laps set the stage for the thrilling finish between Davenport and Larson. Bobby Pierce briefly made it a three-way battle for the win with nine laps remaining, dislodging Larson from the runner-up position off bold slide job through turn one.
Larson regained second with seven laps to go, though, as Pierce couldn’t keep his car off the wall when attempting another challenge.
Pierce held on to finish in third, with Brandon Sheppard and Ricky Weiss rounding out the top five.
“Man, I need to keep my fat butt off the couch and need to start doing something in the winter,” Davenport said through a laugh. “I was about wore out there. I just have thank my guys once again. They did an excellent job.”
Racing action resumes on Wednesday, with the final three race nights set for Friday through Sunday. For more information, visit VadoSpeedwayPark.com.
Vado Speedway Park – Vado, NM
Wild West Shootout – January 7, 2023
1. (4) 49 Jonathan Davenport
2. (7) B5 Brandon Sheppard
3. (5) 7 Ricky Weiss
4. (10) 97 Cade Dillard
5. (3) 6 Kyle Larson
6. (13) 2S Stormy Scott
7. (11) 1T Tyler Erb
8. (9) 157 Mike Marlar
9. (1) 58 Garrett Alberson
10. (15) 32S Chris Simpson
11. (12) 21 Billy Moyer, Sr.
12. (6) 1ST Johnny Scott
13. (2) 32 Bobby Pierce
14. (14) 49T Jake Timm
15. (8) 75 Terry Phillips
16. (16) 15 Justin Duty
17. (22) 91 Rusty Schlenk
18. (24) 15S Clayton Stuckey
19. (19) 42S Don Shaw
20. (20) 86 Kyle Beard
21. (17) 14M Morgan Bagley
22. (23) 04 Tad Pospisil
23. (25) 14S Collen Winebarger
24. (18) 28 Dustin Sorensen
25. (21) 20 Rodney Sanders
Vado Speedway Park – Vado, NM
Wild West Shootout – January 8, 2023
1. (2) 49 Jonathan Davenport
2. (5) 6 Kyle Larson
3. (3) 32 Bobby Pierce
4. (4) B5 Brandon Sheppard
5. (7) 7 Ricky Weiss
6. (13) 157 Mike Marlar
7. (15) 32S Chris Simpson
8. (18) 1T Tyler Erb
9. (1) 58 Garrett Alberson
10. (6) 1ST Johnny Scott
11. (17) 21 Billy Moyer, Sr.
12. (9) 20 Rodney Sanders
13. (21) 28 Dustin Sorensen
14. (22) 14S Collen Winebarger
15. (16) 49T Jake Timm
16. (19) E85 Jason Strand
17. (8) 04 Tad Pospisil
18. (24) 28W Jim Whisler
19. (25) 15S Clayton Stuckey
20. (10) 2S Stormy Scott
21. (11) 75 Terry Phillips
22. (14) 42S Don Shaw
23. (20) 15 Justin Duty
24. (12) 97 Cade Dillard
25. (23) 7C Cole Wells
