Winger Becomes Two-Time World of Outlaws Late Models Winner at Senoia in Series Return

Story By: SPENCE SMITHBACK / WORLD OF OUTLAWS – SENOIA, GA – The last time Ashton Winger competed with the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision, he loaded up and left after Hot Laps.

Two blown engines in as many nights brought his full-time bid to an unscheduled end at Nodak Speedway in June. Since then, the Jeff Mathews Motorsports team has reset, rebuilt and gotten back on their feet in regional competition. And when Winger decided it was time to return to World of Outlaws racing, he ended Senoia Raceway’s Billy Clanton Classic in Victory Lane.

“First off, it’s the Clanton Memorial. I say it all the time, but the Clanton family, the Smith family, they mean so much to me,” Winger said. “That headache’s going to be worth it, man. When I got the lead the way I did, I’m like, ‘man, I’m going to have to cowboy up the rest of this thing.”

That move for the lead began as soon as the green flag dropped, when Winger, Brandon Overton and Tim McCreadie broke away to make it a three-way tango for the top spot. With five laps in the books, Winger rode the cushion around Turns 3 and 4 to dispose of McCreadie, then darted to the bottom down the frontstretch and got side-by-side with Overton for the lead in Turns 1 and 2.
He didn’t have enough to move in front down the backstretch, but a move back to the top in the next set of corners allowed him to repeat the move from a lap prior, and this time he had enough speed to clear the slider and take the lead.

From then on, it was a battle through traffic on Senoia’s signature slick surface as the first 46 laps went caution free. Winger’s margin out front grew to as large as three seconds before McCreadie started to reel him back in, but the gap was eliminated when Winger got into Tanner English, sending the No. 96 around in Turn 2 to set up a four-lap sprint to the finish.

“It was my fault, I got into Tanner there,” Winger said. “The line I was running in one and two, I had to enter off of it. I was so tight across the center of the corner, I had to enter off of it and drive to it the little bit that was leaving. I just kind of misjudged it, whenever I turned in right behind Tanner, I think he was side-by-side with somebody. I didn’t really know where to be.”

McCreadie may have had the pace advantage in the laps before the caution, but the same couldn’t be said for the restart. Winger wasted no time driving away from the pack and took the checkers in World of Outlaws action for the first time in more than three years.

While “T-Mac” narrowly missed his first Series win since the opening night of USA Nationals in July, keeping the No. 9M up front all race long was a strong rebound from Friday’s race at Needmore Speedway when tire trouble led to him dropping from second to 11th.

“[Winger]’s really good here, everybody knows that going in,” McCreadie said. “I didn’t really need to see the yellow, but it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference. It made it especially a lot easier for Winger to cool his tires down, and then he could keep doing what he had been doing most of the race.”

Third went to Ethan Dotson, who parked the No. 74X on a World of Outlaws podium for the first time in 16 races.

“We’ve just been changing a lot here, just trying to get better once it gets in this slick and kind of crummy situation,” Dotson said. “Still wasn’t that good, but luckily the wall was up there and I could kind of lean on it and make some speed. I’d like to have had some cautions a little earlier. I felt like we were pretty good up there early, and I just kind of faded at the end a little bit.”

Brian Shirley finished fourth to extend his top-five streak to six, while Shane Clanton took fifth in the race honoring his late father.

RACE NOTES:

Brian Shirley set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.

Ashton Winger won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Ashton Winger won Real American Beer Heat 1.

Tim McCreadie won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Shane Clanton won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Sam Seawright and Tristan Chamberlain won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Brandon Overton won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Sam Seawright won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Ethan Dotson was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Tim McCreadie won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Brian Shirley was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Shane Clanton was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Sam Seawright was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Chris Ferguson was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Bobby Pierce was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.

Cody Overton was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Ryan Gustin was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision heads to Kansas for events at Humboldt Speedway (Friday, Oct. 3) and 81 Speedway (Saturday, Oct. 4).

Feature (50 Laps): 1. 12-Ashton Winger[2]; 2. 9M-Tim McCreadie[3]; 3. 74X-Ethan Dotson[11]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley[7]; 5. 25-Shane Clanton[4]; 6. 16-Sam Seawright[17]; 7. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 8. 22-Chris Ferguson[9]; 9. 32-Bobby Pierce[8]; 10. 2-Cody Overton[10]; 11. 96-Tanner English[16]; 12. 19R-Ryan Gustin[15]; 13. 22*-Drake Troutman[12]; 14. B1-Brent Larson[22]; 15. 9-Nick Hoffman[6]; 16. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[18]; 17. 19-Dustin Sorensen[13]; 18. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[23]; 19. 10-Joseph Joiner[20]; 20. 49-Jake Timm[19]; 21. 24-Payton Stevenson[24]; 22. 14JR-Trey Mills[5]; 23. 57-Zack Mitchell[14]; 24. T1-Todd Morrow[21]