World of Outlaws World Finals • night 3

The list of World of Outlaws World Finals winners with the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision is a who’s who of the sport’s best, and Jonathan Davenport has cemented his place at the top of that list.

“Superman” led wire-to-wire in Friday night’s Feature at The Dirt Track at Charlotte for his seventh victory in the event, tying Jimmy Owens for the most all-time in a Late Model.

“I would have never believed it,” Davenport said. “From my first win here back in a Crate car, to my first win here in a Super with Barry Wright here at the World of Outlaws finale here at the World Finals. Man, it’s just been an awesome ride. Just to have my name up there with Scott [Bloomquist], Jimmy [Owens], Chris [Madden], all the greats that’s been around here, it surely is special.”

A broken rear end may have derailed Davenport’s efforts on Thursday night, but aside from that mishap, the No. 49 has been the car to beat throughout the first three nights of World Finals. The week started with two top-five Qualifying efforts on Wednesday, which he translated into a Heat Race victory to start the program on Friday. A lucky Redraw saw Davenport claim the Bilstein Pole Award, and it was game on from there once the green flag dropped in the Feature.

Davenport rolled the middle through the first corner to clear second-starting Drake Troutman, and grew his margin to nearly two seconds in the first six laps before traffic came into play. That allowed the 20-year-old to trim the gap down to 0.6 seconds 13 laps in, with 22 circuits left to find a way around Davenport.

Troutman could match Davenport’s pace in the middle stages of the race, but always had at least one lap car between himself and the leader holding him back. Davenport eventually found enough momentum on the high side to start pulling away, and before Troutman knew it, he was more than two seconds shy of victory at the checkered flag.

The Lance Landers Motorsports team knew they had a car capable of laying down a commanding performance from the moment they unloaded on Wednesday, and Friday’s showing was all about overcoming Thursday’s misfortune and proving it to the rest of the Late Model world.

“We could finally see how good our car actually was once we got in clean air,” Davenport said. “My guys gave me one hell of a race car again. They went through this thing and had to change a bunch of parts, just for precautionary measures. Things go wrong, and then that accumulates to everything else going wrong.”

The other two steps on the podium were occupied by the same two men as on Thursday night, but in the opposite order. Troutman held on for second to earn his third podium at Charlotte in two years, and believes he’s still got more in the tank with one more chance on Saturday to grab his second World of Outlaws win of the year.

“We were off balance a little bit there, but JD was really good,” Troutman said. “We’ve just got to make the right adjustments tomorrow. Everything’s so close, and there’s a lot of good cars here, so just happy to be up here.”

Sheppard backed up his Thursday runner-up with a third-place run on Friday, putting him in the top three on back-to-back occasions at Charlotte for the first time since 2021.

“JD was just getting through those lap cars good, and Drake did a good job also, and we were just trying to keep pace as good as we could,” Sheppard said. “At the end, I felt like we were coming pretty good. So hopefully tomorrow night, being the last Feature, the track will be kind of like this and we’ll have something to work off of.”

Tyler Erb finished fourth to tie his Charlotte career best from 2021, while Thursday’s winner, Hudson O’Neal, rounded out the top five.

RACE NOTES:

Brandon Sheppard won Real American Beer Heat 1.

Hudson O’Neal won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Drake Troutman won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Jonathan Davenport won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Dennis Erb Jr. won Real American Beer Heat 5.

Nick Hoffman won Real American Beer Heat 6.

Ben Watkins, Mike Marlar and Ryan Gustin won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Jonathan Davenport won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Chris Ferguson won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Drake Troutman won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Tyler Erb was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Hudson O’Neal was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Dennis Erb Jr. was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Tim McCreadie was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Beckham Malone was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.

Brian Shirley was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Jordan Koehler was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision concludes the 2025 season on Saturday, Nov. 8, on the final night of World of Outlaws World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, where Bobby Pierce will celebrate his second Series championship after the race. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.

If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.

Feature (35 Laps): 1. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 22*-Drake Troutman[2]; 3. 1-Brandon Sheppard[4]; 4. 1T-Tyler Erb[11]; 5. 6-Hudson O’Neal[6]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[3]; 7. 9-Nick Hoffman[5]; 8. 9M-Tim McCreadie[8]; 9. 23-Beckham Malone[7]; 10. 3S-Brian Shirley[9]; 11. 19-Dustin Sorensen[10]; 12. 114-Jordan Koehler[13]; 13. 157-Mike Marlar[20]; 14. 17M-Dale McDowell[15]; 15. 22-Chris Ferguson[23]; 16. 32-Bobby Pierce[22]; 17. 96-Tanner English[25]; 18. 76-Brandon Overton[17]; 19. 2-Cody Overton[24]; 20. 58-Daulton Wilson[16]; 21. 16-Ben Watkins[19]; 22. 49-Jake Timm[27]; 23. 74X-Ethan Dotson[26]; 24. 19R-Ryan Gustin[21]; 25. 2X-John Henderson[14]; 26. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[28]; 27. 11S-Austin Smith[18]; 28. 20-Jimmy Owens[12]