8/3/2024
Hunt The Front Super Dirt Series
Tanner English captures Deep Fried 75 at Duck River Raceway Park
WHEEL, Tenn. (Aug. 3) – Midway through Saturday’s $20,000-to-win Deep Fried 75 at Duck River Raceway Park, third-running Tanner English felt like he was catching leaders Dale McDowell and Ashton Winger. Whether or not he could have erased his 1.868-second deficit behind McDowell and grabbed the lead he’ll never know for sure.
As it turned out, it really doesn’t matter. Taking advantage when the two Georgia drivers made contact and crashed out of the race while battling for the lead in the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series main event, English inherited the lead on lap 45n and cruised to his biggest victory of the season.
“I know me, Dale and Ashton had some good racing … I hate it for them,” said English. “I think it's just a racing deal. They were both going for the same spot. But right before that, I had found a line where I was kind of diamonding it off (in turns) three and four and I was catching them. So, who knows what would happen. I don't know. But I'd like to think I could have passed them outright.”
English, of Benton, Ky., finished 2.652 seconds ahead of Enoree, S.C.’s Zack Mitchell, who started third in just his second-ever feature at Duck River. Series points leader Brandon Overton of Evans, Ga., rallied from 17th to finished third to salvage a solid points night, while Jadon Frame of nearby Winchester, Tenn., improved two positions to finish fourth. Tenth-starting Camaron Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., completed the top five.
For English, he grabbed his third victory in his last nine starts after winning a pair of DIRTcar Summer Nationals features in July. It was his second career win with the Hunt the Front tour and first with the series since winning the $10,000-to-win Gobbler at Duck River on Nov. 18, 2023.
“This is big, it was hard to watch this (Deep Fried 75) race happen last year when I was at Cedar Lake (with the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series), just knowing how much I love this place and how our win record's pretty good here,” said English. “So it's a lot like one of my home-home tracks at Clarksville (Tenn.) Speedway. It's a little different, but still, red clay. I was a little scared when they worked the track. It's still pretty sticky right here (on the front straightaway). But I mean, it still raced pretty good.”
While English was content running third for the first half of the race, it was Winger, the race’s polesitter from Hampton, Ga., and McDowell, the National Dirt Late Model hall-of-famer from Chickamauga, Ga., who set the pace early. Winger jumped ahead of fellow front-row-start English at the start and led the first 41 laps before a bobble gave McDowell the opportunity he needed to take the lead.
When Winger slipped slightly up into the turn-two cushion, McDowell cleared him for the first time. McDowell led laps 42-45, but as he closed in on lapped traffic, Winger continued to charge the outside. Using a big run off of turn two, Winger pulled alongside McDowell down the backstretch. The two frontrunners made heavy contact with Winger’s white No. 12 getting into the wall, flying into the air with all four wheels off the ground as McDowell’s familiar black No. 17m spun to a stop after contact with the outside wall.
English, in just the second night in his new Colton Farms-back Longhorn Chassis, inherited the lead and ran uncontested the rest of the way in the feature slowed by four cautions, while Mitchell battled to keep the hard-charging Overton at bay.
“It feels good to be standing up here (on the podium) after 75 (laps),” said Mitchell. “Like I said, we didn't have the best race car (during the Friday) night (preliminary). I guess you could say the driver messed up more than the race car did. But we capitalized again tonight … awesome racetrack. Congrats to Tanner and Brandon.
“I didn't really know where to be up right there the last few laps after I got to second and kind of just tried to start following Tanner down here and just doing whatever down here in (turns) three and four. But once again, hats off to Tanner. He drove a heck of a race.”
“This place kicked our ass all day,” said Overton. “We've changed everything on the car except the driver … so like I said hats off to my crew. We swung at the fence (and) we salvaged the top three. You know, we'll take it.”
Article Credit: Robert Holman | Simple Moments Photography
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