LOCUST GROVE, Ark. — Dan Ebert’s first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory couldn’t have been much bigger.

Capturing one of the sport’s crown jewel events, the 38-year-old Lake Shore, Minn., driver endured a tire-eating track and a stiff national touring field to lead the final 12 laps of Saturday’s 34th annual Ace Doran Topless 100 at Batesville Motor Speedway.

Elbert’s first Super Late Model victory paid $50,000 as the second-year Lucas Oil Series competitor rallied after a lap-35 pit stop to overtake Josh Rice on the frontstretch and pull away late to win by five seconds over two-time race winner Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga.

“It’s just unbelievable. This is just crazy,” Ebert said in victory lane, trying to put his accomplishment into words. “I'm just speechless to be where I am. I mean, for my year and a half basically driving a Super Late Model, I've come a long ways. James Trantina, my owner, took a chance on me and my team and my wife and Shelby and Jeff and Hunter and Ben. It’s pretty crazy because a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into getting here.”

Ebert, who ran as high as fourth early before a flat tire and pit stop dropped him to 18th on lap 35, got back into the top five on the 82nd lap, took second from McDowell on lap 87 and hoped his right-rear tire would hold up after he overtook Rice, whose own flat tire knocked him out of second on lap 89.

McDowell and third-finishing Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., also a two-time Topless 100 winner, praised Ebert’s special win.

"He did an awful good job, you know,” McDowell said. “To win one of these things is tough.”

Added Davenport: “It's hard to win any Lucas Oil race, no less one here at Batesville the way this place shakes out and a crown jewel on top of that.”

Clay Stuckey of Shreveport, La., the only other driver than McDowell who didn’t pit in the 100-lapper, rallied from 15th to finish fourth and series points leader Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., rounded out the top five.

With at least half the 24-car field suffering flat tires in a race slowed by 17 cautions, the finishing order was littered with drivers who led (Rice for 35 laps and polesitter Ricky Thornton Jr. for 53 laps) or held the second spot (Brian Shirley, Terry Phillips, Brenden Smith and Hudson O'Neal) but were also-rans at the checkers.

Thornton led the first half of the race mostly comfortably, but logged dozens of caution-flag laps while most of his pursuers pitted with flat tires and various issues at the 3/8-mile oval.

Rice, aiming for his second straight crown jewel following the previous weekend's Sunoco North-South 100 victory at his home track of Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., capped a rally from the 11th row to take command in the second half of the race. While Rice built comfortable leads several times, Ebert was picking his way towards the front in a car with a fresher right-rear tire than most drivers ahead of him.

"I try to be as nice as I could and not slide (the car), but we ended up having a tire go down, which probably was a blessing because we probably had something there to race at the end,” Ebert said, admitting luck played a role. “I was just kind of able to get that middle groove working down here on some of those restarts, and it was a little touchy, for sure.

"I could roll the middle good, and then, kind of hated I got into Dale there, but I had a good run there. Obviously Dale McDowell's an idol, and I've been looking up to him my whole life. I would run second to him any day, but I had to take  that chance, and then I was running Rice down and I kind of see he was starting” to lose air in his right-rear tire.

After taking the lead, Ebert’s mantra was “just be patient” in trying to win a race where he finished fourth last season for his best major-race performance of his rookie campaign.

"Man, that's nerve-wracking there. It’s so hard to lead races, let alone, you know, a couple to go in one of the biggest crown jewel races there ever was,” Ebert said. “(Spotter) Jeff (McGee) was communicating really well with me, he just said, you know, open up my entry good and, and make my car as wide as possible.

“It's a dream to be here. I mean, people would kill to be standing where I am, let alone racing with some of the best competition in the world. Just taking it all in. This is just incredible.”

McDowell, who was running ninth when he drew the race’s first caution with a turn-four spin that left the rear of his car perched on the inside wall, rallied after that and made his right-rear tire last, but it was a flat right-front tire that caused him problems late.

“I first felt like I gave it away a little bit because I was running really conservative, trying to make it on tires,” McDowell said. “But when I wheelspun, Dan came by me. But those guys pitted about 34 or 35, I think, and they just had a little bit better tire.”

After restarting 22nd on lap 16, "I was just patient trying to race my way back up through,” McDowell said. “The car was really good in the middle, so I knew I wasn't really hurting tires as bad, but this place will eat at ‘em. But it was a good run for us.”

Davenport, who was running third when he cut a tire and pitted after 34 laps, said the Double L Motorsports “just played the card we was dealt there” in trying to become the race’s first back-to-back winner.

"I just felt like I was really patient and felt like we had a car to win really. I was just kind of easing around there at the beginning, make sure I didn't go too hard, didn't run the top, any really,” said Davenport, who saw an opportunity to take second from Smith when he felt his right-rear going down. “The tires look great; I just had a cut in it. So it's just part of Batesville here, you know? It’s bit a lot of people and some it hasn’t.”

Davenport found himself frequently racing with Ebert as they both headed for the front in the second half of the race.

On a restart before lap 70, “I think the car in front of me got a little loose in (turns) and one and two there.  We had to check up and then, so (Ebert) got by us. From then on we went single-file (restart) and (Ebert) started moving around and getting a couple of guys on the outside when when they get bottled up in turn one. We just really didn't know how hard to go. We still had plenty of tire left, so we had a really balanced race car.”

Ebert became the second Topless 100 winner whose victory was his first in a Super Late Model. Hometown driver Jared Landers accomplished the same feat with his 2010 victory at Batesville.

Notes: While Ebert notched his first Super Late Model victory, he previously had four Late Model victories in WISSOTA spec-engine competition, the biggest in 2020's Dick Johanneck King of Dirt Special at I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minn. ... Ebert's victory came a week after a low point when he broke in front of the field at Aug. 8's Sunoco North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., triggering a 15-car frontstretch pileup. … All the 17 cautions were for flat tires, except for McDowell’s lap-16 spin and Sam Seawright’s lap-35 spin. … Drivers drawing cautions for flat tires were Ethan Dotson (laps 20 and 88), Charlie Cole (23 and 34), Brandon Overton (24), Hudson O’Neal (39), Clay Harris (46), Brenden Smith (59), Terry Phillips (67), Brian Shirley (70), Ricky Thornton Jr. (76) and Carson Ferguson (83), . … Many other drivers who didn’t cause cautions pitted with flats during the yellow-flag periods. … No driver went a lap down under green-flag conditions with 20 of 24 starters completing 100 laps. .... The 82-minute feature concluded at 11:12 p.m. ... Max Blair and Thornton split Friday’s 25-lap, attrition-plagued semifeatures, each collecting $5,000. Blair was the first retiree from the 100-lapper. ... Series regular Garrett Alberson missed the action while recovering from facial injuries suffered when his helmet was struck by an object during Florence's North-South 100.