After the Checkers
Instant reaction, analysis of North-South prelims
By Kevin Kovac
DirtonDirt senior writer
The Rocket1 clan in victory lane. (heathlawsonphotos.com)
UNION, Ky. (Aug. 6) — Instant reaction and analysis from Thursday’s twin 25-lap Sunoco North-South 100 semifeatures at Florence Speedway, a pair of $6,000-to-win Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned events captured by Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., and Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn.:
ROCKET FUEL: Brandon Sheppard and Mike Marlar were riding high after their semifeature victories, but arguably the happiest person on Florence’s grounds after Thursday’s preliminary program was the man who spent time reviewing the action with both drivers during postrace technical inspection at the Lucas Oil Series trailer. Mark Richards, the Rocket Chassis co-owner who fields the company’s house car for Sheppard, had a sweep of the evening’s 25-lappers to relish with Marlar now also campaigning a Rocket XR2 Chassis. “We had a pretty good night,” Richards deadpanned, but underneath the cool exterior was a chassis business owner who understood the significance of the results. Neither driver had to pound the cushion to emerge triumphant, and the victories marked just the second and third North-South 100 semifeature wins for Rocket machines since the event moved to the format in 2022, the year Hudson O’Neal drove a Double Down Motorsports Rocket to a checkered flag. Rocket’s superb opening night offered the very real prospect of a chassis from the Shinnston, W.Va., company reaching victory lane in the North-South finale for the first time since Eddie Carrier Jr. in 2014, and perhaps even the Richards-led house car team itself capturing the event for the first time.
BACK HOME: The brand-new car Florence favorite Josh Rice of Crittenden, Ky., unloaded from the JRR Motorsports trailer on Thursday was quite notable: a Rocket XR2, returning him to the company’s fold after he’s spent the first seven months of the 2026 season exclusively running Longhorn Chassis. The 28-year-old Lucas Oil Series rookie has had some shining moments with JRR’s Longhorns — most notably a Show-Me 100 preliminary win — but he admitted he just hasn’t been able to find the consistency, nor the feel, he had with the Rockets he’s driven throughout his career. With sponsor Glenwood Electric helping Rice’s James Rattliff-owned team acquire a Rocket, Rice entered the North-South weekend with the hope that the comfort Rockets have always offered him would return. The initial returns seemed promising: he finished third in the first semifeature despite multiple restarts hampering him because of a hard right-rear tire choice and he showed glimpses of his vintage top-side prowess. “I haven’t felt controlled to the cushion in a long time, so I think me learning and getting more seat time, it’s going to work out. I really do,” Rice said.
WILD RIDE: Dillon McCowan of Urbana, Mo., gained high-level acclaim in the Dirt Late Model world last month with his breakout sweep of a Lucas Oil Series doubleheader at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. He achieved more notoriety during Thursday’s heat action after he bicycled between turns three and four and flipped out of the ballpark. The 22-year-old Lucas Oil rookie smashed through a billboard above the concrete wall and came to rest down an embankment on his car’s right side with the roof against the trunk of a tree. It was a precarious position for McCowan with fuel and other fluids from his machine visibly flowing, but the Florence safety team was quickly on the scene to prevent the ignition of any flames and help McCowan clamber out of the cockpit without injury. “I’m selling T-shirts over there,” he said in a trackside interview with FloRacing’s Ben Shelton, attempting to capitalize in some way on a torturous, car-killing crash. “I'm really gonna need y’all to go buy some of them ‘cause I have a lot of stuff to pay for now.” McCowan drew a loud reaction from the crowd and went on to endear himself even more to the fans by driving his backup car to a transfer spot on the last lap of a B-main and then earning hard-charger status in the second semifeature with a 24th-to-12th run.
STIRRING PRELIM: It doesn’t happen every night, but sometimes a heat race manages to capture a crowd’s imagination. So it was with Thursday in a battle of titans between Jonathan Davenport and Brandon Overton. The stars went at it for eight laps with the outcome settled on the final lap. Coming to the white flag, Overton went to Davenport’s outside and the pair made contact; Overton then bolted underneath J.D. down the backstretch and won the race back to the finish line by a mere 0.039 of a second. How much did the fans appreciate the thrilling showdown? They roared their approval, serenading Overton with a cacophony that showed just how intense the Florence faithful can be. Overton said “the crowd was badass,” but, in his usual humorous, self-deprecating way, he brushed off the loud ovation he received for his victory. “I don’t think all them people really like me, you know what I mean? They must just not like him,” Overton cracked, referring to Davenport. “I think they just like seeing some of the some of the big dogs get beat.”
STAT OF THE NIGHT: Thursday’s semifeature winners Brandon Sheppard and Mike Marlar have made a combined 18 starts in the North-South 100 finale but have only three top-five finishes between them — all tallied by Marlar, who placed a career-best third in 2015 and fifth in 2011 and ’22. Marlar doesn’t have any other top-10 finishes in his 14 career appearances in the crown jewel’s feature; Sheppard, meanwhile, has only started the 100-lapper four times (2015, ’16, ’22, ’25) and hasn’t finished better than 12th (last year).
