DirtonDirt Dispatches

Dispatches: Overton bid ends with vicious impact

March 15, 2026, 1:05 am

From series, staff, track and other reports

WoO official Matty Watkins checks on Brandon Overton. (mrmracing.net)

Among the latest notes and quotes from Late Model action, primarily focused this weekend on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series weekend at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., and Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn.:

Difficult demise

Brandon Overton had unlocked an outside lane, passed race-long pacesetter Chris Madden for the lead on lap 37 and was half a circuit away from taking the white flag in Saturday night’s 50-lap Tennessee Tipoff feature at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn.

The first national touring series victory of Overton’s resurgent 2026 season — and first World of Outlaws Late Model Series triumph in nearly three years — seemed inevitable.

But what was shaping up to be a joyful $20,000 moment for the 34-year-old star from Evans, Ga., suddenly turned to disaster as he approached turn three on lap 48. He couldn’t avoid colliding with Dennis Erb Jr.’s spinning car and his bid was abruptly squelched, done in by a vicious impact that he was fortunate to escape without serious injury.

“When I seen (Erb),” Overton related in a text message when asked about the accident, “I said, ‘Oh, f---, this is gonna hurt.’”

There was essentially nothing Overton could do to avoid the veteran Erb’s machine. Overton was amid lapped traffic down the backstretch with Carson Ferguson a couple car lengths ahead and Jake Timm and Sam Seawright to his outside. When Ferguson let off the gas and ducked low, Overton’s field of vision was opened to Erb’s car spun sideways right in front of him.

Overton T-boned the right side of Erb’s car, sending all four wheels of the 53-year-old Illinois racer’s No. 28 off the ground. Overton’s Riggs Motorsports mount came to an almost immediate stop with its nose crushed and steam and fluid spewing out; Seawright, meanwhile, clipped Erb’s car on the way by and slid to a stop over the banking between turns three and four while the second-running Madden spun to the top of turn three after his car’s left-rear corner caught the left-front of Overton’s No. 76.

All the drivers involved emerged from their cars under the own power; Erb even headed to turn two during the red flag period to offer some angry words to stopped WoO rookie Logan Zarin, whom Erb blamed for the contact that sent him spinning. Overton was the last driver to climb from their cockpit after taking some time to get his wind back and reported later that he was “OK” but also “gonna be sore” for a while.

The scary incident left the drivers who benefitted from it feeling more blessed to miss involvement in the wreck than pleased with their finishes. That included winner Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., who inherited the lead and wasn’t challenged during the green-white-checkered finish as he captured Smoky Mountain’s WoO event for the second consecutive year.

“It doesn't feel like a win, but I’ll take it,” Pierce said. “I just hope Overton and (Dennis) Erb are OK. That looked like a pretty hard hit from my viewpoint. I saw it happening right away and I was able to duck down to the infield and I still felt like I almost was in the wreck. Like, that’s just how big the wreck is, and spread out, and it took Madden out too. I don’t know what happened there, but it’s great to get the win.”

Pierce noted that the crash added to Erb’s “bad weekend” — the former WoO champion had to pull out a backup car the previous night at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., after being collected in a multi-car heat-race accident — and was an unfortunate fate for Overton.

“Brandon had nowhere to go and I’m sure as he was stuck behind those other cars he didn’t see (Erb) until it was too late,” Pierce said. “I know (officials) called caution, but sometimes you’re behind them other cars and you can’t see.”

Runner-up Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, N.C., was alongside Pierce when he slipped underneath Erb’s car after its hit from Overton. He narrowly missed making contact with Erb.

“I don't know how the hell I missed that. It was pretty tight,” Hoffman said. “I was having Raceceiver (one-way radio) trouble the entire race there, so I might have looked like I was gonna ARCA-break that deal and run right in the side of Dennis. But luckily we came out of there unscathed.

“I was going to run fourth there, so I hated for them guys to get tore up with two to go. That really sucks, especially how hard those hits were.” — Staff and series reports

Helpful guidance

In capturing his 19th career World of Outlaws race Friday at Volunteer Speedway, Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., got some late-race guidance from brother Camaron Marlar, who was running seventh in the 40-lap feature before retiring at halfway.

In victory lane, the 48-year-old Mike gave “a shoutout to my little brother,' saying the 30-year-old Camaron did a little coaching at the 4/10-mile oval.

“He was key to me winning the race because there was a little grip down there (on the racing surface) that I was staying in,” Mike said. “He come down under that last caution and give me some motivation of what I need to be doing if I wanna win this race.”

The victorious Marlar continued a hot stretch of success at Volunteer with his 10th straight finish of seventh or better, a span with three victories. Marlar notched his sixth career Super Late Model victory overall at the high-banked track.

It marked a rebound from his previous racing appearance — Marlar hit the wall in time trials a week week earlier in Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga. — and he headed home without competing to “get my program turned around here,” the Ronnie Delk Racing driver said. “It paid off tonight. It’s awesome.”

Marlar's feathers were ruffled by Ricky Thornton Jr. on the race’s second restart when they made contact in turn two, but a red-flag break — caused when Marlar’s longtime racing buddy Jimmy Owens got upside down — allowed Marlar to regain his front-row spot and settle down.

“I probably needed that red to just get my composure because I was seeing red there,” Marlar said.

Once Marlar overtook polesitter Chris Madden on the second lap, he controlled the rest of the race.

“After that, just everything went good. I got to the traffic and felt like I probably made some moves at the right time in traffic and squeezed it when I needed to squeeze it,” Marlar said.

Calling Dirt Late Model racing “such a humbling sport,” Marlar was grateful of the turn of fortune for his team that has long depended on crew members Josh Davis and Jerry “Donk” Sprouse.

“We haven’t been running good. The bank account's empty,” Marlar said. “Jerry’s having to do another job that Ronnie needs all week, and we didn't honestly know if he's even coming, so we just had to get it figured out, and Josh is always laying there right there with me. So, it’s been a little bit tough lately, but we prevailed.” — From DIRTVision and staff reports

Jackson rebounds

Tony Jackson Jr.’s 2026 season was eight laps old when it all went awry. A violent rollover wreck in turn four at Arrowhead Speedway in Colcord, Okla., on Jan. 3 destroyed the Lebanon, Mo., driver's race car and gave him a couple of months to get ready to attack the season again.

It was mission accomplished Friday at Springfield (Mo.) Raceway as the 43-year-old Jackson led all 30 laps of Friday’s Midwest LateModel Racing Association opener, the first of back-to-back $5,000-to-win races at the Jerry Hoffman-owned track.

Jackson credited crew chief Tim Douglas, Longhorn Chassis expert Kevin Rumley and his crew for the quick turnaround.

“We worked our butts off,” said the two-time MLRA champion. “We had a really bad start to the season and it was a long time coming.

“You know you got a good racetrack, when you don't know what lane to (run). I just kept moving around trying different lines, because I felt good everywhere, but (track owner) Jerry (Hoffman) definitely knows what to do with this place.”

Jackson notched his 17th career MLRA victory and fourth of his career in Super Late Model action at Springfield, where he previously ripped off three victories in 2014-15.

Jackson's victory came in MLRA’s first event since 2024. The longtime Missouri-based circuit was shuttered by the Lucas Oil racing organization following the 2024 season, but previous series director Ernie Leftwich purchased MLRA for a 2026 revival. The tour was founded by Ken Essary and Randy Mooneyham in 1989 and has been among the steadiest regional circuits in Super Late Model racing. — Series and staff reports

Next up for Mills

After his eye-grabbing rollover wreck last week that knocked him out of the lead at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., Trey Mills of St. Augustine, Fla., goes back to work on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series.

The 17-year-old’s Saturday crash in the late stages of Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series competition at Golden Isles knocked him out of a chance at his first national touring event, but he’ll take a crack at WoO action this weekend at Volunteer and Smoky Mountain.

Mills wasn’t hurt at Golden Isles, but his thwarted Golden Isles bid drew lots of attention. By Sunday night, the team had to temporarily stop accepting merchandise orders due to the overwhelming demand.

“It’s been pretty crazy,” Mills said. “A lot of people have been texting, making sure I was OK first. The T-shirt orders have been going crazy too. To see all the support is definitely really cool. It was pretty cool to be out front leading that race, just unfortunate that I got up in the wall, then Hudson (O’Neal) had nowhere to go, and I ended up going over. Not the way we wanted to get publicity, but I guess it kind of worked out in a way. Got a lot of publicity, a lot of T-shirt orders, so we’ve been super pumped up to get back to the racetrack.”

Once the adrenaline of the night wore off, the team was left with a destroyed race car to load up with six days to turn around in advance of the resumption of his rookie season with the World of Outlaws.

“We have two other cars, so we plan on taking both of those to Tennessee,” Mills said. “The car that I wrecked at Golden Isles is totaled out, so we won’t be able to race that one no more. But Longhorn Chassis has got my back, they’ve already got us in line, they should have us a car done by the end of this week. So, we’ll have somebody picking it up this weekend to make sure that we’re fully prepared to run this Outlaw deal.”

Mills will be making his debut at Volunteer and returning to Smoky Mountain, where he finished 10th and 11th in starts on the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series.

“I actually really like Smoky Mountain, I like the shape of the track,” Mills said. “It’s really just a momentum-based track, and I feel like that’s kind of where I strive more. I’m really looking forward to going back to Smoky Mountain, and then I’ve watched a lot of film on Bulls Gap and I’m super excited to go there, too.

“I have a lot of confidence after our showing on Saturday, even though we didn’t finish how we wanted to. We had a lot of good speed, so I’m really excited to carry that momentum over to some of these tracks that I’ve ran good at in the past, and I’m just hoping to get that big win.” — Spence Smithback