World of Outlaws feature win at Lernerville brings back memories for Brandon Overton

Lernerville Speedway has plenty of sentimental value for Brandon Overton.

He won his first World of Outlaws feature at the Buffalo Township race track in 2016, and it was a launching pad for his career.

Overton won the Firecracker 100 in 2017 and recently pocketed $273,000 for winning the 2021 Dream and the 2020 Dream makeup race at Eldora Speedway in Ohio.

He put himself in contention for another Firecracker 100 crown by winning Friday’s 30-lap $6,000-to-win preliminary feature.

Saturday’s feature winner will bank $30,000.

Local standout Michael Norris of Sarver placed second after starting third. Pole sitter Mark Whitener finished third. Dennis Erb Jr. placed fourth, and Thursday night winner Brandon Sheppard was fifth.

Overton, an Evans, Ga. native who finished 10th in Thursday’s prelim, started fifth and took the lead from Whitener on lap 14.

Friday’s win brought back memories of his first triumph.

“That win means a lot more than a lot of them that I’ve had,” Overton said of the 2016 victory. “At that time, we put everything we had into it just to go race. A lot of people back home helped and so did my family. My dad put in every dime he had to get me to race, so to get a win on that big stage always stays in my brain.

“I don’t know if it brings me confidence, but it definitely made me feel good about what I’ve done. I see the video of it pop up every now and then, and I don’t even like watching it because it messes me up. This place is special to me and always will be. Hopefully we can get another one tomorrow.”

Norris got by Whitener on lap 17 for second but couldn’t close in on Overton, who already had built a comfortable lead.

Overton passed the lapped cars of Kyle Strickler and Boom Briggs to build a buffer between him and Norris.

The race was caution free.

“The track was better than it was yesterday and them going out there and working on it helped a lot,” Norris said. “Thanks to Dan (Bauman) and them guys for giving us something to race on. I wish I would’ve been able to get by (Whitener) first, but I don’t think I was better than Overton. If we could’ve got to him quicker, maybe we could’ve got him in lapped traffic, but that was the only shot I had.

“That said, I feel like we made a good showing. He didn’t totally run away from us. He’s tough. Everybody here is tough.”

Norris was looking for his third prelim win in four years. He set himself up well for Saturday by finishing second in the points standings, which were accumulated over the two prelim nights. Points were determined by finishing orders in qualifying, heat races and features.

“The 100-lap deal is tough, and I know that there’s some guys that are here that are going to be really good,” Norris said. “I think we got a lot of good notes tonight that we can apply for tomorrow. We tried some stuff with the car and it responded well, so I think we’ll have something good for tomorrow, but we’ll see.”

Norris set the fast time in Group A with a 15.986. It was the second consecutive night he was the top qualifier in his group. Sheppard topped Group B at 16.605.

Norris won heat one from the pole. Rick Weiss spun on lap two of the first heat but rebounded to finish second and qualify for the feature.

Chub Frank went from third to first in heat two.

Max Blair also started third and won heat three, but he waged a spirited battle with Sheppard to win. Blair led the first six laps before Sheppard passed him. Sheppard led laps 7-9 but slipped off the banking in turn two on the final lap and Blair capitalized.

Overton went from fifth to first to win heat five. Erb started third and passed Jared Miley halfway through heat six to pick up the win.

Tyler Bruening, Mike Benedum and Dale McDowell won the last-chance showdowns.

Kyle Strickler and Mark Lupfer were new entrants in the super late models after not racing Thursday night. Deshawn Gingerich and Eric Hamilton did not return Friday. Neither driver qualified for Thursday’s feature.

Virginia native Kyle Hardy won the RUSH Crate Series dash and earned the pole for Saturday’s 50-lap $10,000-to-win Bill Emig Memorial.

Jeremy Wonderling, Hardy, Joe Martin, Blair and Whitener, who are pulling double duty this weekend, and Mike Duritsky won the RUSH heats.

There are 20 states and one Canadian province represented by the 107 cars in attendance.