Devin Moran Strikes First With DIRTcar Late Models Win at Volusia
BARBERVILLE, Fla. — At the start, Devin Moran wrestled lap after lap for a podium finish. By the end, he got more than that.
After avoiding a massive late-race accident on the front stretch, Moran inherited the lead and ran away with Tuesday night’s DIRTcar Late Model victory during Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals.
The 25-lap Feature started with Brandon, FL’s Kyle Bronson and Oakwood, IL’s Bobby Pierce leading the field to the green flag. On the first lap, Pierce used the high line to swing by Bronson for the lead.
While Pierce had competition in Moran, Gray Court, SC’s Chris Madden, and Martinsville, IN drivers Ricky Thornton Jr. and Hudson O’Neal, Pierce had a car that could work multiple lanes of the “World’s Fastest Half Mile” in the Feature.
As the “Smooth Operator” displayed the dominance that won him the 2023 World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model title, the battle inside the podium raged on with Madden and Moran in a tight race for second place. Moran ended the duel by using the bottom line to pass “Smokey.”
When the field approached the green flag with six to go, Pierce’s fuel line broke – his #32 car slowed in front of the field and created a large wreck that involved 13 cars, ending the night for Pierce, Madden, O’Neal, Mike Marlar, Nick Hoffman and Brandon Sheppard. All left the accident OK.
Moran was able to sneak through the wreck and come out with the lead. When the race resumed, the white #99 was able to hold off Thornton in the final six laps and find itself parked in Victory Lane again at Volusia – after winning with the World of Outlaws at Sunshine Nationals in January. However, this time, Moran got a famous golden gator trophy.
“I felt like the car was really good,” Moran said. “I could run the bottom really well when the other guys couldn’t when I got up to second. I saw a flame come out of Bobby’s hood and the wreck started from there. I didn’t see what happened, but I knew Bobby was having trouble. The track changed a lot from the start of the Feature and it really slicked off and slowed the cars down. It was a lot of fun. Obviously, having the #20RT on your rear makes you give it all you got. I drove it hard and it’s a great way to start the week.”
Thornton came home in second after following Moran on the outside to miss the restart wreck.
“The car was great,” Thornton said. “We moved around where we needed to, though I didn’t see the wreck because I fired on the top and I was next to Devin. I’m glad nobody got hurt. It sucks to tear up stuff, but it was a good night for the team, and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”
Bronson rallied to end the night in third place – fighting an ill-handling car to pass Centerville, PA’s Max Blair on the final lap.
“(The wreck) kind’ve helped me out there a little bit even though we got grazed,” Bronson said. “The beginning of the race, I was way too tight, and we had a big curve at the beginning of the race and (the car) finally pushed up, so when we did that, I put the right front and let it steer around there pretty good.”
Blair had to settle for a fourth-place finish and Robeline, LA’s Cade Dillard completed the night’s top-five after avoiding the carnage on the Lap 19 wreck.
UP NEXT: The DIRTcar Late Models return for one more night of racing in the 53rd Federated Auto Parts on Wednesday, Feb. 14, with three Features paying $5,000-to-win and Monday’s makeup Feature paying $7,000-to-win. For more info, visit DIRTcarNationals.com.
If you can’t make it to the track, watch every lap live on DIRTVision – available either online or through the DIRTVision App.
RESULTS
DIRTCAR LATE MODELS
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 99-Devin Moran[5]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[9]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson[1]; 4. 111-Max Blair[6]; 5. 97-Cade Dillard[12]; 6. B5-Brandon Sheppard[20]; 7. 12-Ashton Winger[11]; 8. 44-Chris Madden[3]; 9. 19-Dustin Sorensen[23]; 10. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[16]; 11. 18D-Daulton Wilson[24]; 12. 1T-Tyler Erb[18]; 13. 114-Jordan Koehler[7]; 14. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 15. 157-Mike Marlar[14]; 16. 1-Hudson O'Neal[4]; 17. 9-Nick Hoffman[8]; 18. 18-Chase Junghans[10]; 19. 16-Tyler Bruening[17]; 20. 174-Ethan Dotson[15]; 21. 7T-Drake Troutman[21]; 22. 6JR-Parker Martin[19]; 23. 17M-Dale McDowell[13]; 24. 3S-Brian Shirley[22]
Last Chance Showdown 1 (10 Laps): 1. 7T-Drake Troutman[2]; 2. 19-Dustin Sorensen[1]; 3. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 4. B1-Brent Larson[7]; 5. 54-David Breazeale[5]; 6. 99T-Dylan Thompson[8]; 7. 14JR-Jason Fitzgerald[9]; 8. 25B-Mike Benedum[10]; 9. 1Z-Logan Zarin[12]; 10. 22*-Max McLaughlin[6]; 11. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[3]; 12. 10-Garrett Smith[11]; 13. B2-Brian Booze[13]; 14. 14C-Codee Schneider[14]
Last Chance Showdown 2 (10 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 2. 18D-Daulton Wilson[1]; 3. 5-Mark Whitener[2]; 4. 76-Blair Nothdurft[4]; 5. 89-Mike Spatola[5]; 6. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[8]; 7. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[12]; 8. 48-Tim Lance[11]; 9. 11-Austin Smith[9]; 10. 97C-Cody Overton[6]; 11. 30-Todd Cooney[7]; 12. 4-Amanda Robinson[10]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[1]; 2. 99-Devin Moran[3]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 4. 17M-Dale McDowell[5]; 5. 16-Tyler Bruening[6]; 6. 19-Dustin Sorensen[7]; 7. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[2]; 8. 54-David Breazeale[9]; 9. B1-Brent Larson[8]; 10. 14JR-Jason Fitzgerald[12]; 11. 10-Garrett Smith[10]; 12. B2-Brian Booze[11]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 111-Max Blair[4]; 3. 18-Chase Junghans[3]; 4. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 5. 1T-Tyler Erb[8]; 6. 7T-Drake Troutman[7]; 7. 39-Tim McCreadie[5]; 8. 22*-Max McLaughlin[10]; 9. 99T-Dylan Thompson[11]; 10. 25B-Mike Benedum[9]; 11. 1Z-Logan Zarin[6]; 12. 14C-Codee Schneider[12]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 44-Chris Madden[2]; 2. 114-Jordan Koehler[3]; 3. 12-Ashton Winger[4]; 4. 174-Ethan Dotson[5]; 5. 6JR-Parker Martin[8]; 6. 18D-Daulton Wilson[6]; 7. 3S-Brian Shirley[9]; 8. 89-Mike Spatola[11]; 9. 30-Todd Cooney[7]; 10. 11-Austin Smith[1]; 11. 48-Tim Lance[10]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Hudson O'Neal[1]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman[2]; 3. 97-Cade Dillard[3]; 4. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[5]; 5. B5-Brandon Sheppard[6]; 6. 5-Mark Whitener[7]; 7. 76-Blair Nothdurft[4]; 8. 97C-Cody Overton[9]; 9. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[8]; 10. 4-Amanda Robinson[10]; 11. 17Z-Seth Zacharias[11]
Heat 1 Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 00:15.625[6]; 2. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain, 00:15.627[2]; 3. 99-Devin Moran, 00:15.635[8]; 4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:15.645[7]; 5. 17M-Dale McDowell, 00:15.732[9]; 6. 16-Tyler Bruening, 00:15.746[1]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen, 00:15.786[10]; 8. B1-Brent Larson, 00:16.047[11]; 9. 54-David Breazeale, 00:16.063[3]; 10. 10-Garrett Smith, 00:16.179[4]; 11. B2-Brian Booze, 00:16.300[5]; 12. 14JR-Jason Fitzgerald, 00:16.502[12]
Heat 2 Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:15.256[2]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar, 00:15.259[10]; 3. 18-Chase Junghans, 00:15.403[12]; 4. 111-Max Blair, 00:15.421[5]; 5. 39-Tim McCreadie, 00:15.585[4]; 6. 1Z-Logan Zarin, 00:15.616[1]; 7. 7T-Drake Troutman, 00:15.622[7]; 8. 1T-Tyler Erb, 00:15.656[9]; 9. 25B-Mike Benedum, 00:15.738[11]; 10. 22*-Max McLaughlin, 00:15.758[6]; 11. 99T-Dylan Thompson, 00:15.770[3]; 12. 14C-Codee Schneider, 00:15.770[8]
Heat 3 Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 11-Austin Smith, 00:15.453[5]; 2. 44-Chris Madden, 00:15.523[9]; 3. 114-Jordan Koehler, 00:15.538[11]; 4. 12-Ashton Winger, 00:15.566[2]; 5. 174-Ethan Dotson, 00:15.664[1]; 6. 18D-Daulton Wilson, 00:15.779[10]; 7. 30-Todd Cooney, 00:15.783[4]; 8. 6JR-Parker Martin, 00:15.833[3]; 9. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:15.894[7]; 10. 48-Tim Lance, 00:16.198[8]; 11. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:16.455[6]
Heat 4 Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 1-Hudson O'Neal, 00:15.494[6]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman, 00:15.509[4]; 3. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:15.516[1]; 4. 76-Blair Nothdurft, 00:15.653[2]; 5. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:15.734[3]; 6. B5-Brandon Sheppard, 00:15.759[8]; 7. 5-Mark Whitener, 00:15.916[7]; 8. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck, 00:15.932[11]; 9. 97C-Cody Overton, 00:15.937[9]; 10. 4-Amanda Robinson, 00:16.100[10]; 11. 17Z-Seth Zacharias, 00:16.239[5]
Heat 1 Hot Laps: 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:15.810[7]; 2. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 00:16.175[6]; 3. 10-Garrett Smith, 00:16.300[4]; 4. 17M-Dale McDowell, 00:16.396[9]; 5. 16-Tyler Bruening, 00:16.396[1]; 6. 99-Devin Moran, 00:16.399[8]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen, 00:16.509[10]; 8. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain, 00:16.517[2]; 9. B2-Brian Booze, 00:16.600[5]; 10. 54-David Breazeale, 00:16.741[3]; 11. 14JR-Jason Fitzgerald, 00:18.131[12]; 12. B1-Brent Larson, 00:18.131[11]
Heat 2 Hot Laps: 1. 7T-Drake Troutman, 00:15.645[7]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:15.688[2]; 3. 18-Chase Junghans, 00:15.728[12]; 4. 157-Mike Marlar, 00:15.773[10]; 5. 99T-Dylan Thompson, 00:15.893[3]; 6. 39-Tim McCreadie, 00:15.897[4]; 7. 111-Max Blair, 00:15.998[5]; 8. 25B-Mike Benedum, 00:16.199[11]; 9. 1T-Tyler Erb, 00:16.231[9]; 10. 1Z-Logan Zarin, 00:16.469[1]; 11. 22*-Max McLaughlin, 00:18.000[6]; 12. 14C-Codee Schneider, 00:18.000[8]
Heat 3 Hot Laps: 1. 44-Chris Madden, 00:15.809[9]; 2. 18D-Daulton Wilson, 00:15.936[10]; 3. 174-Ethan Dotson, 00:16.065[1]; 4. 12-Ashton Winger, 00:16.197[2]; 5. 11-Austin Smith, 00:16.284[5]; 6. 3S-Brian Shirley, 00:16.320[7]; 7. 6JR-Parker Martin, 00:16.377[3]; 8. 114-Jordan Koehler, 00:16.499[11]; 9. 48-Tim Lance, 00:16.547[8]; 10. 30-Todd Cooney, 00:16.560[4]; 11. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:16.560[6]
Heat 4 Hot Laps: 1. 9-Nick Hoffman, 00:15.780[4]; 2. 5-Mark Whitener, 00:15.820[7]; 3. 97C-Cody Overton, 00:15.913[9]; 4. 1-Hudson O'Neal, 00:15.939[6]; 5. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:15.950[1]; 6. 17Z-Seth Zacharias, 00:15.990[5]; 7. 76-Blair Nothdurft, 00:16.065[2]; 8. B5-Brandon Sheppard, 00:16.203[8]; 9. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck, 00:16.289[11]; 10. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:16.468[3]; 11. 89-Mike Spatola, 00:16.769; 12. 4-Amanda Robinson, 00:17.335[10]
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