Sad News: Dirt Late Model Dream Racer Faces Uphill Battle After Huge Hit At Eldora Speedway

Three-time defending winner of the Dirt Late Model Dream at Eldora Speedway, faces an uphill battle

Although He has an impressive track record at Eldora Speedway, he is aware that his success there is still mostly dependent on luck.

At the Big E, there are bad nights for every driver. During the second Dream XXIX preliminary program on Friday, Overton experienced his when he crashed severely while leading a heat race.

The collision that severely hampered Overton, 32, of Evans, Georgia, from winning the 100-lap race on Saturday would have left him physically shaken, but he remained optimistic.

Watching the evening’s two 25-lap preliminary features from atop his Wells Motorsports team’s trailer, Overton stood in street clothes in Eldora’s pit area and said matter-of-factly, “It ain’t always gonna be perfect.” I’ve been saying this for ages: you have to be lucky.

He continued, “It stinks, but it’s Eldora.” “It is what it is.”

Overton hasn’t faced many difficulties at Eldora, where in a comparatively short amount of time, he has established himself as one of the track’s most illustrious Dirt Late Model champions. While his seven World 100 attempts show one victory (the first of 2021’s double events) and four top-five runs in six feature starts, his nine career Dream appearances since 2014 include three wins—an incredible sweep of the double Dreams in 2021 worth over a quarter-million dollars and a third consecutive triumph last year—and five top-five finishes in seven feature starts. In addition, he has won two World 100 preliminary events and four Dream preliminary A-mains.

After slamming into the concrete wall in turn one, Overton appeared to be going toward victory in Group A’s third heat, but in an instant, he was sitting in his wrecked Longhorn car, gasping for air. This was almost unheard of for him.

After qualifying in a B-main and finishing eighth in the 25-lap preliminary feature on Thursday, Overton was comfortably leading the heat with two laps to go. However, as he approached the first circuit, his car abruptly drifted to the right. Between the first and second spins, he made heavy impact with the concrete wall and stopped suddenly.

Overton exclaimed, “I just blew the right-front tire out.” It destroyed the sidewall in the same way that we did at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. Due to the high speeds, there is so much pressure on the right front corner that it inflate the tire and just bursts out the sidewall.

“Alright, I’m driving way too hard. I drove hard for four or five laps when I went into the corner,” I told myself. I must take some time to relax. I would go in there and push, then turn it to the left and gas it because I could feel it. You can tell that it’s simply applied to the right front.

On the eighth lap, Overton said, “I had lifted and was back in the gas, and I wasn’t near the wall really.” As I descended the track, I heard the tire go, “Psst!” I absolutely destroyed the wall as it immediately went off. I was in the fence when I heard the word “Psst.”

This was no pedestrian accident, Overton recognized as he came to a stop near the top of the track.

He declared, “That’s the hardest I’ve ever hit anything in my whole entire life.”

Three members of the safety team hurried to Overton’s car window and leaned down to peer inside to see how he was doing. The wind had been knocked out of him, so at first he had difficulty talking to them.

Overton remarked, “That’s what I was trying to tell ’em, like, ‘I’m alright, I just can’t talk.” “I’ve taken a lot of hits, and the pain was unlike anything I’ve ever felt.” I mean, I’ve flipped before, but it didn’t hurt as bad as it did. Hell, I immediately left when I flipped. It doesn’t hurt all that much while you flip it, in my opinion, but it stinks when you just stop.

“Billy Moyer and I were discussing how, even though it appears like we’re working hard behind the wheel, you’re actually almost calmer outside than you are inside.” I believe the reason I hurt is that you’re not prepared for such a strike. I was kind of stopped. It did not ricochet off or slide. It abruptly ceased.

“It will undoubtedly ache in the morning. You should definitely assume that my neck feels stretched out,” he said. The greatest thing, though, was that I felt like I was punched exactly there (in his lower abdomen, close to where his crotch belts are). I mean, it was like someone taking a hit to the nuts, isn’t that right?

After a while Overton caught his breath and got out of his car while officials hoisted a red flag so he could be attended to. He strolled towards the ambulance accompanied by EMTs and boarded it to reach the infield care center, where he received a brief examination. After it was determined that he was only sore but not hurt, he quickly returned to his trailer and discovered his car parked in the middle of the pit area close to turn three, with a large number of crew members from both his team and other teams working quickly to make repairs.

“I think everyone was jumping in helping, so obviously I appreciate all that,” Overton remarked, referring to the crews of Spencer Hughes, Tyler Erb, and Capital (Shane Clanton). “Jonathan Davenport, the winner of the third heat following Overton’s loss, came down to see how I was doing, and he obviously came to the damn (care center) room when I was in it, Terbo.”

Once the army of mechanics had completed fixing the automobile, Overton got back in and fastened his helmet and seatbelts. When the first B-main finished, he powered up his machine and headed to the pre-race tech line.

But the car wasn’t in good condition. He only managed to gain five positions to finish sixth in the second B-main, falling four positions short of a transfer position despite running the whole 12-lap distance. He then admitted that the car wasn’t really meant for racing because of its bent structure.

“That cracked where the uprights are,” Overton remarked. “I returned there and saw that…” Driving it actually worried me. “This will be really stupid if I rush to get back out there and then wreck again,” I thought to myself.

“After putting it back together, I can’t turn the wheels back and forth because the rack plate is so bent down. I’m not going to race if I have to run it (on Saturday). I’m not able to operate it. It is completely dependent upon a (front) clip. You can see that the welds are broken.

While describing the damage to his vehicle, Overton mentioned that he was awaiting a visit from DIRTcar representatives to inquire about the regulations of car swapping at the event. He discovered that, although he would have to start last in the next race he entered, he could, in fact, haul out his other car to complete the weekend. He was supposed to start from sixth place in the second of six 15-lap heats on Saturday.

When questioned if he had been happy with the speed of his car before to the collision, Overton’s confidence in his ability to overcome his Friday issues was apparent.

Overton remarked, “We were way better than (Friday) night.” “Even comparing the times from last night’s feature, I was actually faster than (winner) Ricky Thornton Jr. for the last five laps.” We obviously have the incorrect tires on, a 20 and a 30, and the Eldora surface is significantly drier than it has been in a long time, so we eventually tire out. I used to fly up through there on restarts, and then everyone would single-file out, leaving you feeling kind of there.

“I’m not depressed about my vehicle. As I’ve mentioned every year, I do worse on prelim evenings the rougher the track gets into the bends because I can’t go through them well. However, as the race goes on, you just slow down, which lessens the amount of bounce off the ground when you slow down to enter.

Overton thinks he can make it to the top four in a B-main or transfer through a heat by finishing in the top three, but he needs to do both in order to maintain his prospects of winning a Dream checkered flag for the fourth time in a row. He believes that the new crew-to-driver signaling regulations for the event, which forbid signal sticks and for tea members to hand-sign only when they are clear of the inner wall, would work to his advantage in the $129,000-to-win 100-lapper.

Overton remarked, “Obviously there’s still signaling, but that’s probably quite beneficial since it’s not as simple for us to see (the crew members). “I have the feeling that a lot of guys are going to bolt out of fear, you know what I mean? Thus, you might be able to bike around and sit back there with some tire remaining.

Will Overton be able to implement his long-term plan? He has to respond to that query on Saturday.