“This so sad”: Dirt Late Model driver involved in wild accident after enduring flip and reflip at Eldora speedway

Brandon Overton was dressed in casual clothes and snacking on potato chips from a bag in his left hand as he watched his staff inspect his damaged Infinity alongside Wells automobile. He was in excellent spirits and uninjured after colliding and spinning while racing at Wythe Raceway.

The 33-year-old star from Evans, Ga., wasn’t sure what caused his wild accident.

“I don’t really know,” Overton admitted, shrugging his shoulders in dismay. “It’s so wadded up now you can’t tell what broke. “The lower control arm broke, but…”

Overton was not battling for position. No additional cars were involved in the event. He was running about two seconds behind leader Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., and nearly the same distance behind third-place finisher and eventual winner Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., when his machine smashed into the outside wall between turns one and two, climbed it, and rolled onto its roof.

There was no warning for Overton. Something simply led him to lose control as he sped around the expansive, lightning-fast half-mile circuit.

“Fifty-three laps here is like a damn marathon, so I was sitting there riding around,” Overton said. “I had a really nice automobile. I wasn’t doing anything. I was just moving around — I’d open up my entries (to the corners) somewhat to see where I needed to be. I wasn’t afraid about falling behind McDowell since there’s always cautionary tales going on here.

“Then I went down in there (to turn one), and it just wouldn’t turn. “It went straight.”

Overton considered the possibility that a blown right-front tire was to blame, similar to what happened during last year’s Dream weekend at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, when a tire explosion sent him hurtling into the turn-one wall, leaving him with a sore neck and back for the rest of the summer. However, after further analysis, he stated that this was doubtful because the circumstances of Saturday’s collision differed from his ordeal at Eldora.

“I’m not sure it’s a tire,” Overton replied. “At Eldora, blowing out a tire causes it to turn to the right and blast straight ahead. That is not what happened here. As soon as I let go of the gas (approaching turn one), the front end hit the ground and I skidded against the wall, you know what I mean?

“I didn’t hit it quite as hard as Eldora. Everyone is texting me, inquiring about the accident… That wasn’t s— compared to Eldora. “That was nothing like it.”

At Eldora, he did not experience a rollover either. As he rode the steel guardrail, his car’s left side churned up the clay, resulting in the left-rear wheel being completely packed with mud. He “just flipped, you know what I mean?”

“I closed my eyes,” said Overton, who had only rolled a car once before in his career, when he was 15 years old and “flew out” of Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, South Carolina.

Overton’s most worrisome moment occurred as he dangled upside down on his seat near the outside wall. It’s an exceptionally risky situation for a Dirt Late Model driver.

“You can’t get out,” Overton explained. “Our crash bars also push out, but after you’re fastened in, I can’t reach them to shimmy out the front. So I’m not sure what to do.

“I saw the petrol (flowing out of the carburetor) and thought, ‘This ain’t good. I simply want to get the heck out. (The flip) also bends the roof down, so I was looking to the right and thinking, Well, maybe I can get out, and then I heard them (the safety crew reacting), and I was like, “F— it.” Simply flip it over.’ I didn’t want them to flip it halfway (with a tow truck to help ease the car back onto its wheels). Have you ever seen (cars) catch fire and still be upside down? Then everyone goes away, leaving your ass to burn.”

Overton’s request caused the track crew members to gather together and hastily toss the car back over in an apparent rough manner, causing the car to slam back onto all fours. Some spectators, both on the track and watching the FloRacing broadcast, questioned how the car was turned over.

However, the driver inside the car insisted on carrying out the action.

“I know everybody’s gonna give ’em s— about flipping me over, but when I was upside down I could see the fuel running out of the carburetor,” Overton recounted. “I knew I had a nice seat and was sitting on four inches of cushion, so I told ’em, ‘Just flip me over. I don’t care. If it breaks my back, I’d rather have it broken than burn the hell up.

“So, they did nothing wrong. They did exactly what I asked them to. I don’t want them to think they’ve done something wrong. I was telling them to do that: flip me over! The worst part about being upside down is you know you can’t get out and you don’t want it to catch on fire.”

Overton wasn’t concerned about suffering an after-the-fact injury by having his car righted roughly.

“After Eldora, I’ve done nothing but make sure, when I do wreck, I’m good to go, you know what I mean?” Overton said, noting how he’s put more emphasis on making his cockpit safe. “So shout out to Dave Sharpley, (of) Sharpe Advantage (Safety Products) … he’s got me a bad-ass (foam) insert in there so I really wasn’t worried about that. And Daryn Pittman with the Ultra Shield seat … yeah, I was cool.”

What’s more, Overton didn’t think his already-battered car needed to be babied.

“It looks way worse (the way the car crashed down when rolled over), but once you flip ‘em and crash ‘em, it’s tore every damn thing up anyway,” Overton said. “I mean, you ain’t gonna hurt it no more flipping it over.”

And the car was significantly damaged. According to Overton, the front clip was bent, suspension and body parts crushed, and “when the rearend hit it knocked all the under rails out of it.”

The especially bad part: it was Infinity by Wells car that Overton debuted during last month’s Dream weekend at Eldora. He left very pleased with its performance after finishing third in the 100-lap finale but now will likely look to take another machine to the track for September’s World 100.

“I wasn’t gonna run it (again until the World 100), but I ran it at Gaffney the other night (June 22’s Mid-East Super Late Model Series event) and the droop chain broke and we had other problems,” Overton said. “Then I decided to bring it here, but they’re building me another one right now so I was thinking I was gonna have some more time to go test (another car in necessary) before I go back to Eldora.”

That seems like it will be the case for Overton, who will be down a car again for a short time but does plan to run his other machine in Sunday’s Southern Nationals stop at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., and the tour’s remaining nine races.