Brandon Overton Casts Away Doubts With Deer Creek Victory
Brandon Overton Casts Away Doubts With Deer Creek Victory
Brandon Overton returned to his winning ways in big-money races with a win in Saturday's Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Gopher 50 at Deer Creek Speedway.
SPRING VALLEY, Minn. ā Flashing a megawatt smile while cooly leaning on a four-wheeler, Brandon Overton greeted a visitor to the inspection area following Saturday nightās NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50 at Deer Creek Speedway with an entirely predictable rhetorical statement.
āItās about damn time, right?ā Overton quipped, a sense of relief evident with every word that tumbled from his mouth.
A $50,000 victory in the 75-lap Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature was a satisfying, morale-boosting breakthrough for the 31-year-old superstar from Evans, Ga., who has been searching all season to recapture the big-money magic he displayed throughout a historic 2022 campaign that saw him earn nearly $1 million.
āThatās racing for you right there,ā Overton said. āStruggle, struggle, struggle, and then ā¦ā
A driverās winning ways return. Just like that.
Of course, it should be pointed out that Overton hasnāt been an also-ran this season. Far from it. He arrived at the three-day Gopher 50 weekend with eight victories on his ledger ā not exactly a sign of a down-and-out racer. Whatās more, in the 11 events paying $50,000-or-more that he had entered, he registered five podium finishes (including runner-up placings June 4 at West Virginia Motor Speedway and June 25 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa.) and sits second 14 laps into June 12ās Dream at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, that had its remaining distance postponed by rain to Sept. 7.
Overtonās frustration resulted from the fact that he hasnāt been matching the lofty ā otherworldly, even ā standards he established last year. All his pre-Gopher 50 triumphs this season had been five-figure scores, but none was worth more than $15,000 and no more than two came in any single month. Last year he roared into July with 17 victories at 10 tracks, topped, of course, by his four-race sweep of the double Dreams at Eldora to the tune of $273,000. He had $91,159 in 2022 first-place earnings before Saturday, a vast difference from the $415,575 in winnerās purses he had at the same juncture in 2021.
āWhen you win, you get used to winning,ā Overton said. āAnd when you win a big one, youāre like, āWell, I can do it.ā And once you know you can do it, anything other than winning sucks. So when you do run second or third, it kind of pisses you off.ā
Thirteen of Overtonās 31 feature wins in 2022 were worth at least $20,000. Five paid $50,000-or-more, including the two six-figure Dreams, Eldoraās $54,000 World 100 and 50-grand checks in the North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., and the Texas Dirt Nationals at Fort Worthās Texas Motor Speedway.
This year? Nothing that rich and important as the Fourth of July passed by, leaving the confident and vastly talented Overton doubting himself.
āI just told (crew member) Kent (Fegter, I said, āHell, I didnāt know if I knew how to work on these things or even know how to drive it any more,āā Overton said. āTo get us a big one, it makes the trip (which he began with June 30ās Lucas Oil Series stop at Florence) a lot easier, you know what I mean? We can go to (Iowaās) Stuart (International Speedway for the July 11-12 XR Super Series doubleheader) and kind of relax and get back home.ā
VIDEO: Hear from Brandon Overton and the rest of the top-five finishers Saturday at Deer Creek.
With Deer Creekās oversized 50-grand check tucked in his trailer, Overton had a giant weight lifted off his shoulders.
āWhen you get beat, thereās nothing worse,ā Overton said. āIt aggravates the hell out of me to lose, so it just makes you work a little harder. It makes you stay in the shop a little longer. You know what I mean? Youāre just more determined.
āSo many people have come up to me and theyāre like, āMan, youāre not as fast as you were last year.ā Iām like, āYeah, no s---. I know. Iām trying.ā But the more people say that, the more it just, like, pumps me up. Iām like, āIām gonna get it back, Iām gonna get it back.ā
āIt just shows you,ā he continued, ākeep working hard, keep doing it, donāt get down, and youāre gonna get back there.ā
Overtonās experience this year has given him a greater appreciation for how difficult it is to remain at the very top of the Dirt Late Model world.
āWhat Scott (Bloomquist) has done, and what Billy Moyerās done ā¦ you know how hard that is, to stay good all those years?ā Overton said. āIād say racing is tougher now than it ever has been. Thereās not a car in these pits that donāt have the same s--- that we got, so you donāt have your high-class guys and your low-class guys just trying to race. Every one of these guys got the same stuff. Weāre all pretty much open to the same technology pool, so itās tough. You gotta put a whole damn night together.ā
Overton did that in Saturdayās finale, albeit not without some worrisome moments. For starters, he was scheduled to take the green flag in the feature from third behind Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., and Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C. ā 2022ās top two Driver of the Year candidates ā and that had him seriously concerned, but he was put at ease when Davenport and Madden accepted the offer to move back to the 11th and 12th starting spots, respectively, to chase a $25,000 bonus posted by TraLo Trailers and Speedwerx.
āI didnāt know if I could beat J.D. and Madden in clean air, so when they did that, it just kind of gave me a sense of relief,ā Overton said. āI hot-lapped and they told me, āYeah (theyāre taking the challenge),ā and I come back over here and I said, āHell, if I can get in that clean air I think I can be OK.ā"
Overton traded the lead during the raceās first third with Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., and Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn. ā the eventual third- and fourth-place finishers, respectively ā before gaining solid control of the top spot. But as the feature wound down he had some uncertainty creep back into his mind.
āI just did what I always do and the thing was pretty good,ā Overton said of his Wells Motorsports Longhorn car. āBut when youāre out there leading, you donāt know where to go. Like, the thing (surface) was rubbered in the bottom but it was clean through the middle too so you could carry speed, and I didnāt know to be in the bottom or to be in the middle.ā
Then along came the 47-year-old Madden, who surged from fifth to third on a lap-54 restart and soon turned up the wick to make a last-ditch bid to win the race and the big bonus. Madden slipped past McCreadie for second off turn two on lap 71, and on the 72nd lap Madden appeared primed to drive around the outside of Overton rounding turns one and two but instead made contact with the lapped car driven by Kolby Vandenbergh of Ashland, Ill., who slowed thereafter with a cut left-rear tire to bring out a caution flag.
Overton said he was unaware that Madden was pressing him for a dramatic victory, ābut I knew somebody was there because I kept seeing the (photographersā) cameras flash. Kent donāt want to mess me up so he donāt want to tell me to go up or go down, so heās just telling me how close they are. Heās holding the (signal) sticks telling me theyāre on my ass, and Iām like, āDo I go high or do I go low? Where the hell do I go?ā
āThe 15 car (Vandenbergh) was there, and I said, āMan, (Maddenās) not gonna pass me on the bottom, so maybe heāll stick his nose up in there and Iāll see him,ā he continued. āI think somebody said he ended up running into the 15 car and that was the caution. Then I kind of got a breather, and Kent was telling me, āJust get in the middle and go.ā"
Overton had to calm himself in the cockpit before the final restart with three laps remaining.
āOne of the Worlds or the Dreams or whatever (last year) when Madden blew around me on the top (to take the lead), it was dead locked-down on the bottom, but he drove around me right out there in the middle,ā Overton said. āSo it gets you thinking. I just kept playing that back through my mind, and I told myself I just gotta enter hard enough into one for him not to slide me or do anything. Just drive it in there hard enough and donāt scoot, just get it gripping and going forward. So thatās what we did and it worked out for us.
āBut man, I was nervous as hell,ā he added. āWhen you aināt won in a minute, you get a little nervous, you get the bugs back. Last year it was never like that. You get in a rhythm winning āem and itās like, āWhatever. Iām gonna do whatever I think.ā If you lose, you lose. When you aināt won one, the pressureās a little higher.ā
As Overton noted, though, the pressure he felt was all internal. None came from his car owner, David Wells, or Wellsās son Eric. That wonderful support from his bosses is ultimately what keeps him rolling and makes him the winner he is.
āHe donāt say one thing. Iām telling you, he is good s---,ā Overton said of David Wells, who watched Saturdayās race broadcast from his home outside Sarasota, Fla. āMost times, when you have success like we did last year, itās easy to get down, and then itās easy to be like, āWe need to do something different.ā Like, I hear it through the pits all the time (from struggling teams) ā āWe need to do this or we need to do that.ā Heās never said, āHey Brandon, you think we need to do something to the car? You think we need to change motors? You think we need to change shocks?ā He donāt get in it. He just stays out of it and tells me, āKeep doing what youāre doing, stay with what got you here.ā
āHe hasnāt been like down or pissy about (the slip in success). I mean, hell, they spend a lot of money, so when you donāt do good itās like, āAw, hell, Iām spending a lot of (the car ownerās) money, Iām not doing worth a s---, is he gonna get mad?ā And heās not going to, him and Eric. Ericās called me every day and said, āHey, listen, weāre all in. Whatever you need to win the race, you let us know.ā And Iām hard-headed as hell, and I just keep doing it and doing it and doing it till I figure it out.ā
Overton paused, and the summed up his current situation with David and Eric Wells: āI get all the glory for doing this, but theyāre the reason I do good, without a doubt. They put zero pressure on me to do anything, you know what I mean? If I wanted to go home tomorrow and not go to Stuart, they wouldnāt say a damn word. Theyād say, āLoad this s--- up and go home.ā Thatās what makes me feel good. Wanting to just make them happy because I know how much they give to me ā¦ yeah, itās fun.ā
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