3/18/2024
Hunt The Front Super Dirt Series
Brandon Overton takes Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series opener at Talladega Short Track
EASTABOGA, Ala. (March 16) — It only took Brandon Overton two laps to get rolling in the 50-lap Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series main event at Talladega Short Track on Saturday. Once he did, there was little anyone behind him could do to slow down the Evans, Ga., superstar.
Overton led 49 of 50 circuits at the Adam Stewart-promoted, third-mile oval en route to a $15,000 payday in the 25th annual Bama Bash. Winning the Milton, Fla.-based tour’s season-opener by 1.485 seconds ahead of Loudon, Tenn.’s Cory Hedgecock, Overton collected his first career victory with the series that kicked off its sophomore season just across the street from Talladega Superspeedway.
"Honestly, that was probably one of the best cars I’ve had in a really long time," said Overton. "Hats off to my car owner, Eric (Wells). I know he put his heart and soul in this thing and we’ve been busting our ass trying to get it fast for him.”
After leading the opening lap from the pole position, Overton watched as second-starting Putnam, the series inaugural champion, blasted down the backstretch and into the lead to complete the second lap. Overton moved up the track and went back around Putnam on the very next lap and was never seriously challenged after that.
“There’s so many different ways to go and the lapped traffic can get you messed up, hemmed up, and somebody can blaze by you,” said Overton. “I was just trying not to screw it up. I knew I had a really good car. I think (Josh) Putnam was gigging around the top there for a minute and he got down to block me and I was like, 'Hell, I’ll just roll around,’ and I went right back around him, so I said, 'This thing is pretty damn good.' It was all up to me not to screw it up.”
Hedgecock, who started ninth, cracked the top five on lap 15 and joined the top three on lap 23. He passed second-running Chris Ferguson on a lap-36 restart, but Overton pulled out to a comfortable 1-second advantage and Hedgecock couldn’t make up the difference.
“If I could have maybe got to second before that lap-37 caution or whatever, I think we maybe could have done something,” said Hedgecock. “Mine just didn’t fire back off on that long restart. Brandon was better for sure. But from ninth to second, at Talladega, to start off the season deal, it’s always a good night.”
Slowed only by occasional lapped traffic, Overton led by two seconds with six laps remaining and cruised home from there. Hedgecock finished 0.658 of a second ahead of Mt. Holly, N.C.’s Ferguson, while Putnam, of Florence, Ala., slipped to fourth after leading lap two, and Michael Page of Douglasville, Ga., completed the top five after starting eighth.
Ferguson grabbed second on lap nine and ran there for 27 laps before Hedgecock took the position.
“I just needed a little better car tonight,” said Ferguson. “We can hang with them in traffic. I think I got a little aggressive with my tires there in traffic and definitely hurt ‘em a littler bit. But I was a third-place car. But I’m just tickled to death to be up on the podium.”
The Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series turns its focus to All-Tech Raceway in Ellisville, Fla., for an April 12-13 doubleheader paying $5,000-to-win on Friday and $15,000-to-win on Saturday. The series will return to Talladega Short Track on Oct. 4-5, an event that coincides with NASCAR’s Oct. 6 YellaWood 500 just across Speedway Blvd.
Article Credit: Robert Holman | Simple Moments Photography
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