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Cody Overton Explains Why He Wrote “Dilly” On His Door Panel During MARS Feature At Belle-Clair: “You Just Can’t Be So Serious”

August 31, 2026  ·
  John Trent

Cody Overton had a little fun at the expense of Dylan Thornton after the two banged doors during their heat race at Belle-Clair Speedway during MARS Racing Series competition on Sunday night.

In that heat race the two battled for the lead in the closing laps. With 2 to go, Thornton threw a slider into turn 3, but was unable to clear Overton and instead made contact with his door and ripped it off.  Despite the contact Overton was able to drive around him and maintain the lead and get the heat race win.

On Facebook, Overton reacted to the contact writing, “Silly dilly was just trying to help me show off my Henry’s Headers & Exhaust Systems LLC.”

When Overton returned to the track for the feature, he had replaced his door panel with a new one and wrote “Dilly” on the side. During the feature, he once again found himself in a battle with Thornton for the lead, but this time it was Thornton out front and Overton was the one throwing the slider and getting into Thornton’s door. And just like how he was able to pull away and fend off Thornton in the heat, Thornton was able to keep him and a late-charging Tanner English behind him to get the win. 

In his third place podium interview, Overton had a little fun discussing his battle for the win with Thornton and referencing the contact in the heat race, “Congrats to Dylan. I didn’t really mean to get into him, but I had to get payback. I had to get my door back. No, there’s no hard feelings. He’s trying just like we are. I’m not mad. Hell, it happens. We’re racing.”

As for why he decided to write Dilly on the door, Overton said, “You just can’t be so serious. You got to be serious, but you got to have a good time doing it. And my car owner’s pretty big on me about that. If you’re not having fun, we’re not doing it. That’s my way of having fun. I know that we’re tearing them up, but he maybe tore up 60 bucks. It’s okay.”

The MARS Racing Series will be back in action for four nights of racing action beginning on Thursday, September 3rd at LaSalle Speedway. The Series then heads to Farmer City Raceway on September 4th and Fairbury Speedway on September 5th. It concludes the weekend at Spoon River Speedway on September 6th.

Ryan Unzicker still leads the series points standings. He has an 87 point advantage over Jason Feger. Dylan Thornton is just 108 points behind in third.

NEXT: Garrett Smith Takes Lead Late To Win $12,022 Harold Hardgrove Memorial

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Author: John Trent