Photo Credit: World Racing Group via Jacy Norgaard

Winning Moment: Blairsville, Ga.’s Jonathan Davenport swept the opening two nights of the Wild West Shootout, Sunday night (Jan. 8) besting Elk Grove, Calif.’s Kyle Larson in what will be a 2023 race of the year candidate.

? @TheFast49 WINS a memorable duel in the desert over @KyleLarsonRacin at Vado! @WildWShootout | @VadoSpeedway

? https://t.co/6r7dRCz5DS pic.twitter.com/TVPmouDr5F

Dramatic Moment: All 40 laps of Sunday’s late model feature in Vado, N.M. Motor racing doesn’t get better than that.

In a Nutshell: In a span of 24 hours, dirt late model racing went from skunk beer to finely aged bourbon.

Yes, the season is only eight days old, but I’d wager the $10,000 purse that was on the line Sunday night that the duel between Davenport and Larson at Vado will be on every race of the year list that gets published come season end. To see two of the best in the sport throw sliders at each other at will through lapped traffic lap after lap, and to do it completely clean, was masterclass. I’m a late model supremacist for a reason.

That right there ladies and gentlemen is why SLM is the BEST FORM OF MOTORSPORTS ON THE PLANET!!!!!!!!!!!

— ??Racin jason ???”The_Red_Clay_Rebel”???? (@ThonuesJason1) January 9, 2023

Vado Speedway Park has proven completely capable of replacing the now-demolished Arizona Speedway as home of the Wild West Shootout courtesy of a superb racing surface. Speaking as a race fan, I don’t want to see the event leave Vado. But my goodness were the grandstands empty this Sunday night. I don’t know where the disconnect is, but the on-track product is wayyyyy too good for empty grandstands.

Leave the Wild West Shootout at Vado

— Troy Shute (@Troydms) January 9, 2023

Talk about a bipolar weekend. I don’t know that I’ve seen a worse super late model race in my life than Saturday’s Ice Bowl feature at Talladega Short Track. Seventeen yellow flags in a 50-lap race, coupled with only one lead change coming because the leader’s right-rear tire popped. All I can say is I’m glad the track PA at TST kept reminding fans that the track was going to be reconfigured with new clay before the track races again. Screw the bulldozers, drop a MOAB.

On that same note though, watching Talladega’s Ice Bowl tear up a huge number of cars like it always does, I can’t help but shudder at the thought of that track adding a retaining wall in turns 1 and 2 before the World of Outlaws visit this spring. It’s a necessary evil after seeing how many cars jumped that berm in 2022, but Talladega’s big track Big Ones may end up eating less sheetmetal over the course of this race season.

Douglasville, Ga.’s Michael Page was controversially banned from this year’s Ice Bowl after purported tire issues and restart conduct in last year’s race. After seeing the calamity that this year’s event was, I’d wager Page writes the Iron-Man Racing Series officials a thank you card.

Davenport is coming off a record-breaking $2 million season and has opened 2023 with two consecutive feature wins. What he did on Sunday, however, holding off Larson for more than 20 laps in thick lapped traffic was the work of a driver truly on top of his game. What’s more, should Davenport keep this streak up for the remaining four events of the Wild West Shootout, he’ll net a $300,000 bonus. This isn’t an exaggeration.

pic.twitter.com/iCBnNb8bD9

— Cameron Saich (@ccsaich) January 9, 2023

Tucson, Ariz.’s Jake O’Neil gets a shout out here not just because he won Saturday’s modified feature at Vado in dominant fashion, but because he did so despite being listed as the cheapest driver in the field in Dirt Draft’s fantasy pool. Sadly, that steal wasn’t available again for Sunday’s race.

Yea, that was a fat finger error on our part. Everyone is welcome.

— Dirt Draft (@DirtDraft) January 8, 2023

From coast to coast, Saturday had it out for race leaders. Starting in the afternoon, Fort Payne, Ala.’s Sam Seawright led the first 42 laps of the Ice Bowl late model feature at Talladega before popping a right-rear tire, handing the lead and win to Cook.

Oakwood, Ill.’s Bobby Pierce endured a similar experience at Vado Saturday night, leading 27 laps of that Wild West Shootout feature race before a spin took him from contention on a night that his Longhorn Classis teammates were running wild all over the track.

Lastly, Danube, Minn.’s Brandon Beckendorf arguably topped them all, literally flipping his IMCA modified while leading the IMCA Winter Nationals feature at Cocopah Speedway Saturday night.

Cautions that Thomas Hunziker has been responsible for through two nights of the Wild West Shootout at Vado.

Dirt tracks that ran oval track racing programs this weekend.

Highest national car count this weekend, the Ice Bowl at Talladega.

Up Next: Frontstretch will be covering the opening qualifying night of the Chili Bowl Nationals on Monday (Jan. 9). Streaming coverage can be found on Flo Racing.

Richmond, Virginia native. Wake Forest University class of 2008. Affiliated with Frontstretch since 2008, as of today the site's first dirt racing commentator. Emphasis on commentary. Big race fan, bigger First Amendment advocate.

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