2022 Topless 100 At Batesville

The Headline(s)

Jonathan Davenport’s reign of terror continued Saturday night (Aug. 20), leading all 100 laps to score his first career Topless 100 victory and his fourth consecutive feature win in national late model competition.

How it Happened

2022 Topless 100 (Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series)
Where: Batesville Motor Speedway – Batesville, Ark. (streamed on Flo Racing)
Winner’s Purse: $50,000

Another crown jewel race, another flag-to-flag performance by Jonathan Davenport. For the third time this month, Davenport led all 100 laps of a crown jewel late model race, scoring his third win of $50,000 or more in three weeks in the Topless 100 at Batesville. The win shook demons for Davenport from a year ago, where he lost this race on the last lap to Hudson O’Neal.

🏁 @TheFast49 adds another jewel to his crown winning the Topless 100! @lucasdirt | @BatesvilleSpeed!

It’s @MAVTV on FloRacing!

📺 https://t.co/H0yYe9iRVZ pic.twitter.com/j44d0N1XDB

— FloRacing (@FloRacing) August 21, 2022

It has to be said though, the caution flag ended up being Davenport’s best friend on the night as a flurry of yellows through the first half of the race kept the leader out of lapped traffic. After the caution flew on lap 73 for David Payne’s wreck in turn 4, a 22-lap green flag run saw a rout turn into a race up front, with O’Neal and Dale McDowell both closing in on Davenport as he battled through lapped traffic. 

All the momentum that those two had went out the window, however, on lap 95, when Stormy Scott slowed on the backstretch and brought out the final yellow of the night, allowing Davenport to run clean laps to the checkered as O’Neal couldn’t build enough momentum on the high side to make the pass.

In the points race, defending champion Tim McCreadie successfully defended his current series lead, finishing fourth ahead of his closest competition, Brandon Sheppard, in fifth.

Success Stories

What more can be said about Davenport, who has absolutely dominated super late model racing since taking home the Eldora Million in June. Take a look at his month of August. Five feature wins, including four in a row over the last two weekends. And over those last two weekends at Florence and Batesville, Davenport has led 330 consecutive feature laps and banked $135,000 in winnings. There is no hotter driver in motorsports right now.

We might go 100 more years before there are no passes for the lead in the PDC, USA Nats, North-South and Topless…