Eldora Speedway
No-win situation with Overton's Eldora lane choice
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Brandon Overton (76) leads the way. (joshjamesartwork.com)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (June 5) — The more Brandon Overton thought about Friday’s final restart of the Dream XXXII prelim feature at Eldora Speedway, the more convinced he became that leading with five laps remaining left him in a no-win situation lining up for a true double-file restart. | Complete Dream coverage
The choice wasn’t complicated, but the consequences weren't. Take the bottom lane, and he'd open up the top to anyone willing to risk it. Take the top, and he'd leave the door open for a slider from behind. In Overton's mind, there wasn't a safe option.
“I looked at the board and I seen the 49 in second. I said, ‘Man, he always chooses the bottom on these restarts. I need to take the bottom,’ ” the 34-year-old Overton said of Jonathan Davenport. “But I didn't want to get down there, spin the tires, and just let him drive right by me along the top.”
So the Evans, Ga., driver rolled the dice on the outside lane. At first, the decision appeared to work. Overton wasn't necessarily expecting a slider from Davenport into turn one.
“I really thought I had a good enough start where he couldn't slide me, because when I got down there, I really didn't see him,” Overton said. “I kind of looked to my left, and I said, ‘Oh, s---! Here he comes.’ ”
Catching Overton off guard, Davenport not only pulled the trigger on a slider, but completed it just enough to put Overton in a bind at the apex of turns one and two. Forced to check up and avoid contact, Overton slammed the outside wall, instantly killing the momentum he had as the control car on the restart.
“I just got in the wall so hard, knocked the wing in the spoiler and all off, and then it sucks after that,” Overton said. “I was mad at myself. Didn’t do a good job there. Should have chose the bottom. … But just, you’d hate to get out of rhythm. I've taken off every other time in the top.
“Yeah, I really didn't think (Davenport) was going to slide me, especially when I didn't see him. If I would have seen him at the flagstand, I would have thought he's coming. And I probably would have entered higher where I could cross him over, but when I got to the flagstand, I really didn't see him. So I just ran the middle to try to float off.
“I've learned a lot from (Davenport), following him, racing against him here, you know what I mean? So, that’s just one more lesson he taught: don’t choose the bottom. Make the other guy make a decision.”
It was another frustrating addition to a growing list of near-misses for Overton, who found himself within striking distance of victory before it slipped through his grasp. In fact, Friday at Eldora marked the ninth nationally sanctioned race this season in which he's either started from the pole, led laps or finished second without reaching victory lane.
While Overton's seven overall victories rank among the highest totals in Dirt Late Model racing, none have come in nationally sanctioned competition. That distinction has become increasingly difficult to ignore given the opportunities that have slipped away.
Some of the more tantalizing examples are easier to identify: a flat tire while leading at Ocala with 15 laps remaining, last Friday’s runner-up at Mansfield (Ohio) Speedway — that paid $7,000 for second, far below the $100,000 for the winner following an $88,000 winner’s bonus from the Niss family — and now a restart at Eldora that left him wondering whether there was ever a right choice to begin with.
At some point, if he keeps leading laps, finishing on the podium and starting on the front row of features, his time is bound to come, right?
“You would think. Like I said, we're plenty capable of doing it,” Overton said. “All I gotta do is get the car right. Get the car right and I can win. It's just so hard now because there's so many other good guys. We all got the same car, you know what I mean? Like, everyone that's fast, pretty much, besides B-Shepp (Brandon Sheppard in the Rocket Chassis house car) and a couple other ones, we all got the same car. So we're all working with the same little piece of puzzle here.
“It’s not like we're going to make big gains on the other cars, so you just got to do all the little things add up to make you win or run fifth or sixth. But we're not gonna worry about it. Like I said, I was happy with the way the car was tonight.”
As frustrating as the finish was, Overton found solace in the bigger picture. His car was vastly improved from Wednesday's program, and for much of Friday's 50-lapper he looked every bit like a driver capable of contending for a Dream victory.
“At the other side, I was happy with my car,” Overton said. “On Wednesday … I was terrible. So, to come back and do really good, I felt really comfortable. I felt like I took care of my tires for a long time, did everything right. … Just a s--- caution. Didn't need the caution.”
While Friday's speed gave Overton reason for optimism, he acknowledged his recent struggles at Eldora haven't been the result of any one particular issue. In his view, a combination of evolving race cars, tire compounds and rule changes has altered the landscape at the half-mile and forced him to adapt.
“A lot of it is the cars and the tires and the rules and all the s--- that they f——— dream up of every day, you know what I mean?” Overton said. “So that's a lot of what's got me wrong, like messed up here. It obviously looks bad here because people were used to seeing me win. So then when I come and run 18th, they're like, ‘What in the hell's wrong?’ ”
The biggest difference, Overton said, is that the setup that carried him to unprecedented success at Eldora a few years ago no longer applies. During his dominant 2021 and ’22 Dream run — when he swept both preliminary features each year and won the ’21 Double Dreams — he could lean on essentially the same package every time he unloaded. That's no longer the case.
“It’s not the car necessarily the car being so much different, but the setup-wise is a lot different,” Overton said. “I know it sucks, but I'm just now starting to get more comfortable with my adjustments and stuff, as bad as that sounds.”
Following a national tour has changed Overton’s approach to Eldora, too. During his most dominant years at the half-mile, he wasn’t chasing a national tour and could devote more time and energy to the track’s unique demands.
Now, his focus is spread across a variety of racetracks and conditions, from black-dirt bullrings in the Midwest to places that still devote much of his attention simply to become comfortable.
“So many different tracks, so many different kinds of dirt, that I never really raced on,” Overton said. “Like, I want to win a race in Illinois, but I never really even cared to go to Illinois. I know it's badass to watch, but that's just not me. So now I have to go to them, then I have to try to get better at them.
“And things you do there, obviously you're not going to do here. But like I said, tonight was another big step.”
For a driver trying to rediscover the form that for a stretch made him virtually unbeatable at Eldora, Friday's performance represented tangible evidence that he and his Riggs Motorsports team are moving in the right direction.
“Like I said, because we sucked so bad the first night, the prelim night, I finally got the car a little better,” Overton said. “So we'll take it. Good momentum. We'll take it and give ‘em hell tomorrow.”
