Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Motor Speedway

Patterned off J.D., Moran steering to rich victories

October 5, 2026, 3:15 pm

By Kyle McFadden

DirtonDirt staff reporter

Devin Moran before his Pittsburgher victory. (heathlawsonphotos.com)

IMPERIAL, Pa. (Oct. 3) — Devin Moran grew up with an ideal racing role model in his father, Donnie, a Dirt Late Model Hall of Famer forever associated with winning the first-ever Eldora Million in 2001.

But the 32-year-old of Dresden, Ohio, has also studied another driver’s knack for rising to the occasion in the sport’s biggest events — and his master class victory in Saturday’s 38th Pittsburgher at Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Motor Speedway bore shades of that driver’s crown jewel dominance.

“I’ve always kind of tried to base my racing off of Jonathan Davenport. He’s one of, if not the best, Late Model guys out there,” Moran said. “So I just really study him and watch what he does. For some reason, he’s really good at figuring out his race car for the big races. He doesn’t always win the prelims, but he always wins the big races.

“Like I said, I try to base myself off of him. He’s an amazing race car driver. I just try to listen, watch and kind of mimic what he does.”

Everything about Moran’s utterly dominant 7.5-second victory looked Davenportesque. His only challenge came on the opening lap, when Ricky Thornton Jr. ran alongside him before Moran cleared him rounding turn four.

Davenport entered weekend going for his third Pittsburgher victory in a row, having won both 70-lappers in flag-to-flag fashion with leads of more than five seconds for much of each race. Traffic hardly slowed him. He could point his Double L Motorsports machine wherever he wanted, mainly patrolling his hallmark middle groove.

Moran delivered a carbon copy of those performances.,

“I mean, there was Scott (Bloomquist) before. I think (Davenport) studied Scott. I’ve watched his interviews where he kind of mimics Scott,” Moran said. “But J.D., he’s such a smart race car driver. For me, just from the experience, I’m just trying to do that and learn from him.”

A mere total of eight victories through the first weekend October isn’t what the reigning Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion envisioned for his Double Down Motorsports team after totaling 27 victories in 2024-25.

But this season, Moran’s triumphs are more of quality than quantity. Last season, six victories came during a prelim night of some kind. Only two were on Saturdays of a national tour weekend — the Winternationals at Ocala (Feb.) Speedway worth and the Indiana Icebreaker at Brownstown Speedway, both worth $25,000.

In 2024, his biggest victories were the $53,000 prize at the Silver Dollar Nationals and May’s Lucas Oil stop at Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway worth $30,000. This season, he’s got the $50,000 Firecracker 100 and now the $55,000 Pittsburgher on the ledger — along with the $25,000 Hillbilly Hundred at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells.

Five of his eight victories are national tour events on Saturday night, meaning he’s delivering more with bigger purses on the line.

“Yeah, this one’s $50,000. Lernerville was $50,000. Then we won Golden Isles, (the Georgia-Florida Speedweeks finale), that was $25,000; Brownstown, $25,000; Georgetown (Del., in April), $20,000; the Hillbilly, $25,000,” Moran said. “So, yeah, the races we are winning are definitely bigger races.”

Moran had been overdue for another meaningful national touring payday. He hadn’t reached Lucas Oil victory lane since June 27’s Firecracker triumph, when he delivered one of his best all-around performances, outdueling Brandon Sheppard in the closing laps of the 100-lapper.

He did win Sept. 6 at WVMS in the unsanctioned Hillbilly, but the only other team with a regular national touring presence this season was Drake Troutman’s, who dropped off the World of Outlaws Late Model Series in June. Moran logged four runner-up finishes in national touring action from July 4 until Saturday’s victory, but that stretch fell short of the nine top-two finishes and 12 podiums he recorded over the same span last year.

“We’ve been kind of struggling, like, on consistency all year,” Moran said. “Just a great feeling to come out here … this is a place that really shows you your problems with your race car. Tonight, we didn’t have too many of them.”

At PPMS, Moran debuted a brand-new Longhorn Chassis in style — the latest design from the China Grove, N.C., manufacturer, developed by Kevin Rumley and his research and development team. Rumley recently told DirtonDirt that work began in August 2024. Among the drivers helping refine the design is Hudson O’Neal, who has won nine of his 23 races behind the wheel of Rumley’s No. 6 machine this season.

The design officially hit the market last Monday, and Moran’s Double Down team received one that week. Moran wasn’t sure it would be ready for the Pittsburgher, but being just two hours from the half-mile, coupled with Friday’s rainout, gave the team extra time.

“We never try to rush to get anything done car-wise. We just want to make sure we do it right,” Moran said. “So every time, like I said, new car, old car, it really don’t matter. Longhorn always has good race cars. It just happened this would be the weekend that we started with it.

“After hot laps, I told the guys, I said, ‘Y’all, we’re pretty good. We got a good piece.’ It just carried into every transition of the racetrack. Yeah, it was good all night long.”

Moran’s assessment of the new piece of machinery was that it’d been the finest race car he’d ever driven. In fact, Moran embraced lapped traffic rather than having dreaded it. The aero-aspect of the monster half-mile didn’t seem to affect him.

“Yeah, it kind of was. Honestly, normally when you’re leading, you don’t want lapped traffic, but I felt like I was so good at maneuvering lapped cars, I didn’t really want to see any cautions,” Moran said. “I felt like once I got through cars, I could move and do whatever I needed and just roll.

“So, yeah, I told the guys, it’s the best race car I’ve ever driven. So that’s, once again, a testament to Longhorn.”

PPMS has perhaps become Moran’s strongest track outside his home oval, Muskingum County Speedway. He hasn’t finished off the podium there since placing sixth in the 2021 Pittsburgher. His Pittsburgher results since include a runner-up finish in the ’23 finale, a prelim victory and another second-place finish in ’24, and a prelim victory and third-place finish in ’25 — all before Saturday’s victory.

Even with this continued success, he doesn’t what it is about that Pittsburgh suits him.

"I don’t know why. It’s big, wide, slick, normally good racing,” Moran said. “I guess it fits my driving style. … It’s just a different racetrack. We don’t have a certain setup we come around here with, but we have some tendencies that we know about. We just kind of go down that path and then do what the car tells us.”

The Pittsburgher is a race Moran has wanted to win since he began his racing career in 2009 — one of the sport’s most storied events within easy reach of his Dresden, Ohio, home. His father Donnie won the event three times (and in different decades): 1986 vs. an 87-car field for $41,000; 1991 vs. a 75-car field in which he led all 100 laps; and 2005, the first year the event was Lucas Oil-sanctioned.

“Yeah, you know, for a lot of people, this might not be a big race, but this is one closest to home,” Moran said. “This one, the Hillbilly, the Firecracker. So I don’t know if anyone’s ever got all three of those in the same year. That’s a pretty cool deal.”

Last year’s Pittsburgher weekend launched Moran’s charge to the Lucas Oil title. He entered the doubleheader 80 points behind Ricky Thornton Jr., trimmed the deficit to five with his Friday victory, then took a 15-point lead after Saturday’s finale. He eventually won the championship by 85 points — a 165-point swing over the final three races in the tour’s former playoff-style format.

With three Lucas Oil races remaining this year, Moran has already cut 60 points from what had been a 125-point deficit to Brandon Sheppard. Does he sense the tide turning again heading to this weekend’s UNOH Clash on the Wabash at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio?

“You never know. Eldora’s obviously different than Pittsburgh, and then West Virginia Motor Speedway is way different than both,” Moran said. “So we’re just going to take it night by night, and hopefully this car is just as good next weekend as it was tonight. We’ll just go from there.”

Adding to that momentum, Moran can sleep in his own bed for virtually the rest of October, a luxury many of his competitors won’t have with Eldora and WVMS hosting the final two Lucas Oil race weekends.

“We could win the next three races and soak up this championship,” Moran said. “That would be pretty cool. … Yeah, I love it. Let’s get it on.”