Shelby County Speedway simply had it all.

Four different leaders in the Feature. Racing from the infield to the wall. Leaders colliding on the final lap. And a drag race to the checkered flag to cap off an instant Race of the Year candidate.

From ninth in the starting order, Ethan Dotson wasn’t on the radar of potential contenders for the win for most of Saturday’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision debut at Shelby County. But the Bakersfield, CA native methodically worked his way into the top five by the halfway point of the 50-lapper, then up to third with eight laps to go. That meant Dotson was in prime position when chaos broke out.

The chaos in question came between Daulton Wilson and Bobby Pierce, who pulled away from earlier leaders Nick Hoffman and Dennis Erb Jr. to race for the win down the stretch. Pierce tried everything he could to get past the No. 58V, but Wilson matched every move to keep Pierce behind him. That was until the white flag flew.

On the bottom of Turn 1, Wilson spun on his own right in front of Pierce, who had nowhere to go but the side of Wilson’s car. The contact pointed Wilson back in the right direction and allowed him to drive away while Pierce was spun backwards. By Series rules, Wilson maintained the lead because his wheels never stopped turning, but Pierce was sent to the tail when his car came to a stop.

The green-white-checkered restart opened the door for Dotson to enter the picture. Wilson remained committed to the bottom for the last two laps, so Dotson elected to rip the cushion for all it was worth in search of his first World of Outlaws win of the year. Dotson got to Wilson’s outside off of Turn 2, then cleared him exiting Turn 4 to win by a car length.

“The line I was running, nobody was really running down there [in Turns 1 and 2],” Dotson said. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good there. Hate it for Bobby and Daulton, but the way it’s been going for me lately, I’ll take a little luck. I figured if I could get around the top down there and get a run on him, I saw [Wilson]’s guy telling him to run the bottom. Just all kind of fell together finally.”

Behind Wilson in second, Justin Duty scored a new World of Outlaws career best in third, while Tristan Chamberlain finished fourth for his best result of the season. Hoffman rounded out the top five.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision kicks off the fall portion of the season at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 25-26. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.

Want to watch the World of Outlaws? Stream every race live on DIRTVision.

RACE NOTES:

Ryan Gustin set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.

Nick Hoffman won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Daulton Wilson won Heat 1.

Dennis Erb Jr. won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Nick Hoffman won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Justin Duty won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Dustin Sorensen won the Last Chance Showdown.

Daulton Wilson won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Ethan Dotson won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Daulton Wilson won the MD3 Rookie of the Race Award.

Daulton Wilson was the Air National Guard Second-Place Finisher.

Justin Duty was the WIX Filters Third-Place Finisher.

Tristan Chamberlain was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Nick Hoffman was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Tyler Erb was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Tim McCreadie was the Penske Racing Shocks Seventh-Place Finisher.

Dallon Murty was VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Derrick Stewart was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Ryan Gustin was the Quarter Master 11th-Place Finisher.

Dustin Sorensen was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

Bobby Pierce was the Quarter Master 13th-Place Finisher.

Blair Nothdurft was the ARP 14th-Place Finisher.

Tad Pospisil was the Arizona Sport Shirts 18th-Place Finisher.

Feature (50 Laps): 1. 74X-Ethan Dotson[9]; 2. 58V-Daulton Wilson[1]; 3. 15D-Justin Duty[3]; 4. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[5]; 5. 9-Nick Hoffman[4]; 6. 1-Tyler Erb[11]; 7. 9M-Tim McCreadie[14]; 8. 13-Dallon Murty[6]; 9. B1-Brent Larson[7]; 10. 43-Derrick Stewart[13]; 11. 19R-Ryan Gustin[8]; 12. 19-Dustin Sorensen[17]; 13. 32-Bobby Pierce[15]; 14. 76-Blair Nothdurft[10]; 15. 14-Trey Mills[16]; 16. 6-Jake Neal[20]; 17. 1Z-Logan Zarin[12]; 18. 04-Tad Pospisil[21]; 19. 53-Andrew Kosiski[19]; 20. 80-Allan Hopp[25]; 21. 4-JC Wyman[24]; 22. 62-Justin Zeitner[22]; 23. 55E-Eli Johnson[18]; 24. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[2]; 25. 1X-Aaron Marrant[23]

This article was republished with permission from the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. The original article can be found here: https://worldofoutlaws.com/latemodels/dotson-uses-last-corner-pass-to-secure-shelby-county-win-in-photo-finish/

NEXT: Logan Zarin Displeased With Trey Mills After Tangle At Shelby County Speedway