BARBERVILLE, FL (February 16, 2025) – With more than two decades of dirt Late Model experience and hundreds of wins on his resume, Jonathan Davenport rarely accomplishes a feat for the first time.
But that’s exactly what he did Saturday night at Volusia Speedway Park, as “Superman” scored his first World of Outlaws Late Models victory at the “World’s Fastest Half Mile” in the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals finale.
A 12th-place starting spot could have meant a win was out of the question for most drivers, considering how track position had been at a premium throughout the week. But not for Davenport. The Blairsville, GA driver cracked the top 10 by Lap 5, then into the top five a dozen laps later, and finally up to second 20 laps into the 50-lap Feature.
What made the drive all the more impressive was that it came without any cautions to bunch the field up. That meant that when Davenport got by Bobby Pierce for second, he had a gap of nearly five seconds to make up to Drake Troutman, who left the field in the dust in the first half of the race.
Davenport was up for the challenge though. The margin immediately began to wither away, and 10 laps later, Davenport was on Troutman’s outside, ripping the top lane trying to wrestle the lead away. That would become a theme for the closing laps, as Troutman and most of the field stuck to the rubbered-up bottom groove while Davenport worked the high side for everything it was worth.
“I kind of got lost in lap traffic and didn’t really know where I was,” Davenport said. “I looked on the board and saw that I was second and the 22 was leading, so I just started looking for Drake. He was caught in lap traffic just riding around in the rubber, just didn’t know I was coming.”
Their battle went on pause with 13 to go when a flat right-rear tire on Dustin Walker’s car brought out the caution after 37 laps of green-flag racing. Once the race got going again, it was more of the same between Troutman and Davenport, as the two put on a show running side-by-side lap after lap.
With 10 laps remaining, Davenport finally cleared Troutman, slipped down into the preferred low lane and quickly drove away. A pair of late cautions gave the field their chance at Davenport, but no one was able to stop him from claiming his second Gator of the week.
“It just worked out perfect,” Davenport said. “I ain’t never raced side-by-side with somebody in the rubber with me on the top, that’s just crazy. I hate to do that to Drake, I cleared him just enough into Turn 1 where I could turn back down in the rubber and then protect. From then, I knew I had really burnt my tires up trying to get there. So then it was just ride and save my tires as much as possible.”
While Troutman may have come up short, Saturday was nothing short of a statement night for the MD3 Rookie of the Year contender. Following five days of racing that saw the Pennsylvanian finish no better than 15th, Troutman took on one of the greatest dirt Late Model drivers of all time head-to-head and nearly came out on top.
“Went a little bit too hard early and then the track rubbered down on us, we went with soft tires tonight and just used them all up,” Troutman said. “Congrats to JD, he’s a hell of a wheelman and it’s tough to beat him on this kind of racetrack. He’s really experienced and just really smart behind the wheel. Congrats to him, and we’ll be back.”
Behind them in third was Nick Hoffman, who bookended his DIRTcar Nationals with podiums after winning on Monday.
“JD just did ‘Superman’-type stuff there and got up on the horse, got around the top of all of us and made us look dumb there,” Hoffman said. “His car was obviously really good to be able to do that. Once I got to third, I was like ‘man, I’m pretty content with this.’ I was even in fourth behind Brandon [Overton], he tried it and gave it back to me. I was pretty content with just running third or fourth and just get out of here without any flat tires or hitting anything.”
“Typically I struggle pretty bad here as a driver,” Thornton said. “To be able to come here and have the week that we did and all the great runs that we did, it shows how hard our team’s working. I feel like I’ve gotten a little better here, still a lot I need to learn. Just excited for the rest of our year.”
Davenport and Devin Moran finished second and third in the Big Gator standings, collecting an extra $2,000 and $1,000 respectively.
RACE NOTES:
Ricky Thornton Jr. picked up the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap Award.
Nick Hoffman won the Simpson Quick Time Award.
Ricky Thornton Jr. won STAKT Products Heat Two.
Drake Troutman won Keyser Manufacturing Heat Three.
Ryan Gustin won Jarrett Rifles Heat Four.
Heats One, Five and Six went to Nick Hoffman, Bobby Pierce and Devin Moran.
Brandon Sheppard, Michael Leach and Kyle Bronson won the three Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.
Drake Troutman won the Bilstein Pole Award.
Jonathan Davenport drove from 12th to the win for the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.
Drake Troutman won the MD3 Rookie of the Race Award and the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.
Brandon Overton was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.
Devin Moran was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.
Ricky Thornton Jr. was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.
Max Blair was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.
Garrett Alberson was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.
Ryan Gustin was the Comp Cams 10th-Place Finisher.
Tyler Bruening was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.
UP NEXT: The 2025 World of Outlaws Late Models season resumes in less than a month at Smoky Mountain Speedway on Friday and Saturday, March 14-15. Get your tickets by clicking here.
If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
Feature (50 Laps): 1. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[12]; 2. 22*-Drake Troutman[1]; 3. 9-Nick Hoffman[4]; 4. 76-Brandon Overton[8]; 5. 99-Devin Moran[3]; 6. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[6]; 7. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 8. 111-Max Blair[13]; 9. 58-Garrett Alberson[16]; 10. 19R-Ryan Gustin[5]; 11. 97-Cade Dillard[10]; 12. 16-Tyler Bruening[17]; 13. 9M-Tim McCreadie[9]; 14. 93-Carson Ferguson[18]; 15. 3S-Brian Shirley[15]; 16. 1T-Tyler Erb[11]; 17. 157-Mike Marlar[7]; 18. 60-Dan Ebert[22]; 19. 09-Michael Leach[20]; 20. 74X-Ethan Dotson[23]; 21. 19-Dustin Sorensen[24]; 22. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[25]; 23. 40B-Kyle Bronson[21]; 24. 1-Brandon Sheppard[19]; 25. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[28]; 26. 114-Jordan Koehler[14]; 27. 14W-Dustin Walker[29]; 28. 2-Cody Overton[27]; 29. 96-Tanner English[30]; 30. B1-Brent Larson[26]; 31. 18D-Daulton Wilson[31]
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