5/18/2023
RacinBoys
Dennis Erb Jr. Tames Davenport for Castrol® FloRacing Night in America Win
By Ben Shelton (Davenport, IA) -- Unlike the last time he showed up to Davenport Speedway, basically everything went Dennis Erb Jr.’s way Wednesday at the quarter-mile oval.
The Carpentersville, Ill., veteran faced little resistance on his way to the $23,023 victory on Castrol® FloRacing Night in America thanks to his knack for rolling the bottom groove to perfection.
PHOTO CREDIT: Mike Ruefer
Last August, Erb wrecked out of the World of Outlaws feature at the track while Tanner English stormed to victory that brought the series title race to less than 100 points with 12 races to go at the time.
Of course, all turned out OK in the end for Erb, who captured his first WoO title last year. As the spring season ramps up, Erb’s appeared to have raised the bar a little more this year, as Wednesday marked his second Castrol Series victory in eight days.
“We’re just back where we need to be right now,” Erb said. “It’s good to have these races close to home, a place that we run at a lot. Our car’s just been working really good. We’ve had some good runs here; off a little bit a couple nights. All in all, I think our car is right back in shape.”
Additionally, it’s now just the third time in Erb’s career that he's won two races worth at least $20,000 in a single season. Erb accomplished the feat last year in winning the Castrol Series event at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway’s (worth $22,022) and with the World of Outlaws at Federated Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, Mo. (worth $20,000). He also fulfilled the accomplishment in 2016 in the $100,000 Dream at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway and $20,000 National 100 at East Alabama Motor Speedway.
On Wednesday, Erb led 30 of 50 laps and topped a red-hot Hudson O’Neal by 1.145 seconds as early leader Mason Zeigler (20 laps led) faded to finish eighth.
“It looks good for the summer months, and I think we’ll be right up in there,” Erb added.
Chalk Hill’s, Pa. Zeigler, finding instant success with a new Rocket Chassis, sprung to the lead from the outset looking strong around Davenport’s top side. Mike Marlar actually developed as Ziegler’s first challenger on lap 14, which lasted only for a brief moment. Marlar, riding directly behind Zeigler transitioning to lap 15, ran out of room barreling through turn one, thus thwarting his race car into the runoff area and effectively dooming his race.
Marlar went from 0.116 of a second behind Zeigler to 21st — more than five seconds behind — in that unfortunate turn of events. All told, Zeigler led the opening 18 laps, but was quickly met by Erb in a side-by-side battle for the lead that lasted from laps 15 to 21. Erb edged Zeigler by 0.047 of a second to lead 19 before Zeigler countered to lead laps 20 and 21 by 0.254 and 0.020 of a second.
But Zeigler, perhaps running too hard, too soon, couldn’t keep up with Erb, who in a four lap span snatched the lead and built a 1.7-second cushion by lap 25. Erb at one point mounted a 2.7-second lead, which O’Neal trimmed to as little as 0.764 with three laps to go.
Erb, however, only focused on biding his time amid slower traffic and hitting his marks on the bottom.
“I was kind of pacing myself, not trying to get to lapped traffic early; to get real tight so I can keep my speed up without having to back down a little bit,” Erb said. “I was starting to worry if someone would try that outside. Doing my own thing right there, trying to keep the car underneath, and listen if anyone was coming. It all worked out.”
O’Neal tried everything he could to win his third straight Castrol Series feature and would-be eighth victory of the season, but he too was no match for Erb around the bottom. He’ll accept the result as it extends his Castrol Series lead to 33 points over Bobby Pierce.
“That bottom was just so good. I tried the middle. I tried the top a little bit,” O’Neal said. “I didn’t really get up there for a long time. I figured as much as I tried it, it wasn’t very good. I didn’t figure running third or fourth was as good as second. Yeah, Dennis did a great job. He got out front early. It paid to be the winning move at the end of the race. We’re happy with it. We’ll take anything we’re standing out here on this front stretch. It’s a really good night.”
Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., started to the inside of Erb in the second row and couldn’t replicate his eventual race-winning pace. Pierce did finish third, which is a valuable points night considering he’s not far behind O’Neal in the series championship race.
“Erb snookered us on the bottom there. He’s really good at doing that,” Pierce said. “All in all, the tires weren’t really all the different. … The track was alright tonight. They missed it a little bit. We all miss it from time to time. Next time we come back, I’m sure they’ll be a little more lip up there so we can race a little better. A really good night, consistent like you said. We’re happy with i. We’ll move on to these World of Outlaws shows we got in the Northeast and hopefully we’ll be consistent with that because I’m trying to gain some points with that deal.”
Next up fort Castrol® FloRacing Night in America is a visit to the King-family owned Florence Speedway (Union, Ky.) on Wednesday, May 31 for a $23,023-to-win / $1,000-to-start event. Also in action will be Modifieds ($1,500-to-win) and Crate Late Models ($1,000-to-win). Joining the night’s action will be IMCA Modifieds
General admission (ages 18-and-up) is $30 with children (ages 13-17): $20, and kids (ages 12-and-under) free. Pit admission is $45.
Pit gate opens at 3 p.m. CT with the grandstand gate opening at 530 p.m. The driver’s meeting is at 5:30 p.m. with hot laps at 6:00 p.m. and racing action to follow.
RESULTS
DIRT SUPER LATE MODELS
A Feature 1 (50 Laps): 1. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[4]; 2. 1-Hudson O'Neal[7]; 3. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 4. 76-Brandon Overton[9]; 5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[11]; 6. 40B-Kyle Bronson[18]; 7. 49-Jonathan Davenport[5]; 8. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[2]; 9. B5-Brandon Sheppard[16]; 10. 19R-Ryan Gustin[13]; 11. 20-Jimmy Owens[6]; 12. 25-Chad Simpson[14]; 13. 32S-Chris Simpson[17]; 14. 96V-Tanner English[22]; 15. 39-Tim McCreadie[19]; 16. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[12]; 17. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[20]; 18. 97-Cade Dillard[8]; 19. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 20. 111-Max Blair[10]; 21. 11H-Spencer Hughes[15]; 22. 99M-Devin Moran[21]
B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 32S-Chris Simpson[4]; 2. 39-Tim McCreadie[2]; 3. 99M-Devin Moran[1]; 4. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 5. 7-Ross Robinson[7]; 6. 29-Spencer Diercks[6]; 7. 96V-Tanner English[10]; 8. 174-Ethan Dotson[8]; 9. 48-Tim Lance[9]; 10. (DNF) 99-Boom Briggs[5]; 11. (DNF) 44W-David Webster[12]; 12. (DNS) 22B-Gary Brown Jr
B Feature 2 (10 Laps): 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 2. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[2]; 3. 18D-Daulton Wilson[1]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson[6]; 5. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[3]; 6. 07-Matt Ryan[7]; 7. 15K-Justin Kay[11]; 8. B1-Brent Larson[5]; 9. 49T-Jake Timm[8]; 10. 93-Jay Johnson[9]; 11. 21B-Rich Bell[10]; 12. 91-Mike Guldenpfennig[12]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 49-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 4. 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 5. 99M-Devin Moran[5]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb[6]; 7. 99-Boom Briggs[7]; 8. 7-Ross Robinson[8]; 9. 48-Tim Lance[9]; 10. 22B-Gary Brown Jr[10]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 1-Hudson O'Neal[1]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 4. 11H-Spencer Hughes[4]; 5. 39-Tim McCreadie[6]; 6. 32S-Chris Simpson[5]; 7. 29-Spencer Diercks[8]; 8. 174-Ethan Dotson[7]; 9. 96V-Tanner English[10]; 10. 44W-David Webster[9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[3]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 3. 111-Max Blair[2]; 4. 25-Chad Simpson[5]; 5. 18D-Daulton Wilson[6]; 6. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[4]; 7. B1-Brent Larson[9]; 8. 07-Matt Ryan[7]; 9. 93-Jay Johnson[10]; 10. 15K-Justin Kay[8]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[3]; 2. 97-Cade Dillard[2]; 3. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[1]; 4. B5-Brandon Sheppard[4]; 5. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[6]; 6. 40B-Kyle Bronson[7]; 7. 58-Garrett Alberson[5]; 8. 49T-Jake Timm[8]; 9. 21B-Rich Bell[9]; 10. 91-Mike Guldenpfennig[10]
Qualifying A: 1. 157-Mike Marlar, 00:13.321[4]; 2. 1-Hudson O'Neal, 00:13.465[8]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport, 00:13.506[15]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:13.578[17]; 5. 76-Brandon Overton, 00:13.594[14]; 6. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:13.610[3]; 7. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:13.680[7]; 8. 11H-Spencer Hughes, 00:13.686[9]; 9. 99M-Devin Moran, 00:13.782[10]; 10. 32S-Chris Simpson, 00:13.803[6]; 11. 1T-Tyler Erb, 00:13.864[13]; 12. 39-Tim McCreadie, 00:13.947[11]; 13. 99-Boom Briggs, 00:13.978[1]; 14. 174-Ethan Dotson, 00:14.052[2]; 15. 7-Ross Robinson, 00:14.227[19]; 16. 29-Spencer Diercks, 00:14.312[18]; 17. 48-Tim Lance, 00:14.335[16]; 18. 44W-David Webster, 00:15.015[5]; 19. 22B-Gary Brown Jr, 00:15.221[12]; 20. 96V-Tanner English[20]
Qualifying B: 1. 20-Jimmy Owens, 00:14.124[2]; 2. 46-Earl Pearson Jr, 00:14.200[11]; 3. 111-Max Blair, 00:14.228[12]; 4. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:14.289[13]; 5. 25Z-Mason Zeigler, 00:14.291[3]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:14.332[9]; 7. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck, 00:14.343[1]; 8. B5-Brandon Sheppard, 00:14.472[14]; 9. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:14.488[19]; 10. 58-Garrett Alberson, 00:14.546[7]; 11. 18D-Daulton Wilson, 00:14.567[8]; 12. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr, 00:14.748[18]; 13. 07-Matt Ryan, 00:14.769[10]; 14. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 00:14.816[16]; 15. 15K-Justin Kay, 00:14.933[6]; 16. 49T-Jake Timm, 00:14.954[20]; 17. B1-Brent Larson, 00:14.984[15]; 18. 21B-Rich Bell, 00:15.305[17]; 19. 93-Jay Johnson, 00:15.727[4]; 20. 91-Mike Guldenpfennig, 00:16.194[5]
Hot Laps A: 1. 76-Brandon Overton, 00:13.426[14]; 2. 1-Hudson O'Neal, 00:13.473[8]; 3. 11H-Spencer Hughes, 00:13.527[9]; 4. 99M-Devin Moran, 00:13.577[10]; 5. 49-Jonathan Davenport, 00:13.637[15]; 6. 39-Tim McCreadie, 00:13.658[11]; 7. 32-Bobby Pierce, 00:13.679[17]; 8. 29-Spencer Diercks, 00:13.766[18]; 9. 7-Ross Robinson, 00:13.818[19]; 10. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr, 00:13.869[3]; 11. 96V-Tanner English, 00:13.930[20]; 12. 1T-Tyler Erb, 00:13.962[13]; 13. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:13.989[7]; 14. 22B-Gary Brown Jr, 00:14.007[12]; 15. 157-Mike Marlar, 00:14.022[4]; 16. 48-Tim Lance, 00:14.071[16]; 17. 99-Boom Briggs, 00:14.188[1]; 18. 32S-Chris Simpson, 00:14.233[6]; 19. 44W-David Webster, 00:14.824[5]; 20. 174-Ethan Dotson, 00:14.824[2]
Hot Laps B: 1. 97-Cade Dillard, 00:13.385[13]; 2. B5-Brandon Sheppard, 00:13.418[14]; 3. 18D-Daulton Wilson, 00:13.554[8]; 4. 46-Earl Pearson Jr, 00:13.587[11]; 5. 25Z-Mason Zeigler, 00:13.671[3]; 6. 20-Jimmy Owens, 00:13.679[2]; 7. 111-Max Blair, 00:13.725[12]; 8. 58-Garrett Alberson, 00:13.794[7]; 9. 28-Dennis Erb Jr, 00:13.876[9]; 10. 40B-Kyle Bronson, 00:13.927[16]; 11. B1-Brent Larson, 00:13.934[15]; 12. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:14.018[19]; 13. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr, 00:14.146[18]; 14. 49T-Jake Timm, 00:14.206[20]; 15. 07-Matt Ryan, 00:14.272[10]; 16. 93-Jay Johnson, 00:14.615[4]; 17. 21B-Rich Bell, 00:14.642[17]; 18. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck, 00:14.751[1]; 19. 15K-Justin Kay, 00:14.908[6]; 20. 91-Mike Guldenpfennig, 00:15.281[5]
Castrol® FloRacing Night in America Point Standings
(Standings After May 17, 2023)
1)Hudson O’Neal – 450
2)Bobby Pierce – 417
3)Brandon Sheppard – 387
4)Tim McCreadie – 384
5)Jonathan Davenport – 381
6)Ricky Thornton Jr. – 356
7)Mike Marlar – 339
8)Dennis Erb Jr. – 320
9)Tanner English – 318
10)Brandon Overton - 308
11)Devin Moran – 300
12)Spencer Hughes – 212
13)Tyler Erb – 193
14)Earl Pearson Jr. – 171
15)Kyle Bronson - 156
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IMCA MODIFIEDS - ERIKSEN CHEVROLET
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 4TW-Tim Ward[7]; 2. 12T-Dylan Thornton[5]; 3. 1-Eric Barnes[3]; 4. 9Z-Chris Zogg[11]; 5. 70-Mitch Morris[2]; 6. 56D-Travis Denning[9]; 7. B12T-Jeff Larson[20]; 8. 99M-Charlie Mohr[12]; 9. 3-Dustin Smith[19]; 10. D55-Scotte Lemke[8]; 11. 32K-Kyle Montgomery[6]; 12. 86X-Jake Morris[22]; 13. 09-Michael Leach[13]; 14. 53-Matt Stein[15]; 15. 17-Jason Pershy[16]; 16. 99-Brandon Jewell[18]; 17. 31A-Kory Meyer[17]; 18. 98-Brian Harris[1]; 19. 77-Jeff Aikey[4]; 20. 57-Andrew Hamburg[14]; 21. 01M-Mitch Way[10]; 22. (DNS) 93-Matt Werner
Heat 1 - Top 4 Redraw (8 Laps): 1. 98-Brian Harris[1]; 2. 77-Jeff Aikey[5]; 3. 9Z-Chris Zogg[8]; 4. 32K-Kyle Montgomery[2]; 5. 09-Michael Leach[4]; 6. 17-Jason Pershy[6]; 7. 3-Dustin Smith[7]; 8. 86X-Jake Morris[3]
Heat 2 - Top 4 Redraw (8 Laps): 1. 4TW-Tim Ward[3]; 2. 12T-Dylan Thornton[4]; 3. 56D-Travis Denning[7]; 4. 01M-Mitch Way[2]; 5. 57-Andrew Hamburg[1]; 6. 31A-Kory Meyer[6]; 7. B12T-Jeff Larson[5]
Heat 3 - Top 4 Redraw (8 Laps): 1. 1-Eric Barnes[1]; 2. 99M-Charlie Mohr[4]; 3. D55-Scotte Lemke[3]; 4. 70-Mitch Morris[5]; 5. 53-Matt Stein[6]; 6. 99-Brandon Jewell[7]; 7. (DNS) 93-Matt Werner
Submitted By: Kirk Elliott
