Story By: BEN SHELTON / SHANE MCDOWELL RACING – MOORESBURG, TN – Volunteer Speedway has been good to Dale McDowell throughout his storied career, and the weekend’s Volunteer 50 was no exception.
McDowell won a $5,000 prelim in Friday before dominating Saturday’s $50,050-to-win finale with his Shane McDowell Racing / E-Z-GO No. 17m Cometic Gaskets / Klotz Synthetic Lubricants / Connected Strategy Advisors / Team Zero Race Cars / Clements Racing Engine Super Late Model.
“We go to some places that we get our tails handed to us, but (brother and car owner) Shane (McDowell) really worked hard at this place so this place has been awfully good to us,” McDowell said. “And these Team Zero cars are pretty good here. I’m just the lucky one who gets to hold the wheel.
“I think we were pretty decent in open runs, but those guys (chasing) were awesome. When I’m not racing against ‘em, I’m watching ‘em and trying to learn. It’s my 43rd year but I still learn from them guys, so I knew when I got to lapped traffic I was gonna be a sitting duck. Wherever I went, they were gonna go somewhere different. It just worked out for us.”
The Volunteer 50 weekend opened at Volunteer Speedway (Bulls Gap, Tenn.) with 42 drivers in attendance. The field was divided into a pair of $5,000-to-win qualifying features. With time trial line-up results setting the prelim feature line-ups, McDowell found himself positioned on the pole of his feature. He paced the field for all 25 laps to collect the $5,000 victory ahead of Shane Clanton, Mike Marlar, Chris Madden, and Ricky Thornton Jr.
Via his Friday night performance McDowell locked into the pole position for Saturday night’s $50,050-to-win finale at the 4/10-mile oval. Jumping to the lead at the drop of the green flag the Georgia native went on to wire all 50 laps to bank the $50,050 triumph.
He crossed the finish line 2.991 seconds in front of Mike Marlar with Brandon Overton, Donald McIntosh, and Ricky Weiss completing the Top-5 finishers.
His second win in as many nights pushed his 2024-win tally to three.
McDowell will be inactive this weekend before tentatively returning to action on July 12 with the Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals opener at Beckley (W.V.) Motor Speedway before invading Wythe Raceway (Rural Retreat, Va.) on July 13 for the second round of the miniseries. Both events pay $10,053 to win.