The third to last race of the 2026 Flo Night in America Series championship season took place Thursday night at the famed Volunteer Speedway, located in Bulls Gap, Tennessee.
Bobby Pierce was the previous race winner for the Flo Night Series about a month ago at Lincoln Park Speedway in Lincoln, Illinois and was seeking back-to-back victories in the Flo Night Series, since he was entered for this event. Additionally, recently crowned Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series champion Brandon Sheppard was also in action. Sheppard is the current points leader for the Flo Series by 21 points over Hudson O’Neal.
However, the checkered flag went to local favorite Jimmy Owens, who dominated the main event by leading all 50 laps and fended off Jonathan Davenport in a photo finish at the start/finish line.
“It’s pretty awesome to hear all these people cheer and wishing you well,” Owens told Flo Racing in victory lane. “I got a lot of great fans who stuck with me through the years and it’s an awesome feeling. It’s been a long time since we got the lead it seems like. I was just telling Mac and them (McCarter Brothers Racing, Owens Team Owner) this might be the first time we’ve never won a race since we started, but we fixed that for the year. I thought I gave it away there when I tightened the quarter panel with the wall, I could feel the back starting to get a lot loose.
“I thought, ‘I hope we didn’t kill ourselves, but the cautions really helped me and kept my right-rear cool.’ We was alright. I didn’t really know where to be in (Turns) 3 and 4, but it worked out.”
33 Late Models were on the entry list for Thursday’s race.
Feature Race Recap – 51-Laps – $20,000 To Win
Jimmy Owens started on the pole, and Chris Madden was on the outside pole. Owens led the first lap over Madden and Benji HIcks. The first yellow was seen with 44 laps to go for Jeff Maupin, who had a flat tire and went down.
Owens would lead the field back to green with Madden and Hicks following behind him. A fierce battle broke out between Devin Moran and Jonathan Davenport for the fourth position, before Davenport got the best of Moran for position. The second yellow came out with 35 laps to go for two different incidents. One for Barrett Lowe, who was spun around at the start/finish line. Second for Nick Hoffman, who was trying to get to the hot pit, but had spun around sideways right before the entrance. Replays showed that Hoffman was losing power and locked up the car at the start/finish line, and Lowe spun, possibly trying to avoid him.
With 30 laps to go, Hicks began rapidly closing in on the race leader, Owens, but the third caution halted the battle for Noah Phillips, who had slowed on the backstretch. At the halfway mark, Owens controlled the race lead over Hicks, Madden, Davenport, and Moran in the top five. Another yellow came out with 16 laps to go for Garrett Alberson as he came to a stop after running the high line a bit too high and damaging his right-front during the process.
Before the caution came out, Owens briefly tapped the wall and had right-rear quarter panel damage to his car, but still maintained the top spot coming to the restart. With 13 laps to go, Davenport moved into the third position. With 10 laps to go, it was Owens the leader, Madden, Davenport, O’Neal, and Moran in the top five. Unfortunately, the top five was short-lived for Moran, as he brought out the late-race yellow with five laps to go for a right-rear flat tire.
With four laps to go, Davenport moved into second position following the restart and then challenged for the race win with Owens, but Owens fended off Davenport in a photo finish at the checkered flag.
Heat Race Recaps – Top Four Transfer – 8 Laps A Piece
Prior to the heat races, there was a hot lap and qualifying session. Dale McDowell paced the Hot Lap session with a time of 12.179 seconds. In Flight A qualifying, it was Moran who had a time of 12.245 seconds, while Madden was 12.182 seconds for the Flight B session.
Heat 1 – Moran had the pole for the first heat. Local favorite Owens took the lead from Moran off Turn 4 with four laps to go before the caution came out for Maupin, who was slow on the track and pulled in the infield. Brad Dyer was also in the infield at the time of the caution.
Owens went on to win the heat with Moran, Alberson, and Earl Pearson Jr. taking the top four. Owens would start on the pole for the feature thanks to his heat win.
Heat 2 – Hicks was on the pole for the second heat. A caution came out with five laps to go for Donald McIntosh, who spun in the middle of Turns 3 and 4 with help from Nick Hoffman. McIntosh spun after Hoffman got in the left-rear of his car.
Hicks went on to secure the heat victory with McDowell, Jake O’Neil, and Dennis Erb Jr. rounding out the top four.
Heat 3 – Chris Madden had the top spot for the third heat. The third heat went caution-free and saw Madden fend off a hard-charging Davenport to claim the heat race win. Madden, Davenport, Kaede Loudy, and Garrett Smith were the transfers.
Heat 4 – Sheppard had the pole for the fourth and final heat race. He led wire-to-wire to win the heat, and was followed by O’Neal, Pierce, and Mike Marlar, who completed the transfers.
There were two B-mains. Moving on from the B-main to round out the A-feature were Brenden Smith, Hoffman, Phillips, Lowe, Todd Morrow, and Dylan Thompson.
For those who missed the feature, you can click on the highlights below.
Official Race Results Following Round 8 For The Flo Night in America Series Championship at Volunteer Speedway
- Jimmy Owens
- Jonathan Davenport
- Hudson O’Neal
- Chris Madden
- Bobby Pierce
- Dale McDowell
- Brandon Sheppard
- Dennis Erb Jr
- Jake O’Neil
- Brenden Smith
- Earl Pearson Jr
- Benji Hicks
- Garrett Smith
- Kaede Loudy
- Devin Moran
- Todd Morrow
- Barrett Lowe
- Mike Marlar
- Ryan Gustin
- Garrett Alberson
- Dylan Thompson
- Noah Phillips
- Nick Hoffman
- Jeff Maupin
Up Next – The final two rounds of the Flo Night in America championship will take place at Senoia Raceway, Friday and Saturday November 13-14, live on Flo Racing.
