Brandon Overton had unlocked an outside lane, passed race-long pacesetter Chris Madden for the lead on lap 37 and was half a circuit away from taking the white flag in Saturday night’s 50-lap Tennessee Tipoff feature at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn.

The first national touring series victory of Overton’s resurgent 2026 season — and first World of Outlaws Late Model Series triumph in nearly three years — seemed inevitable.

But what was shaping up to be a joyful $20,000 moment for the 34-year-old star from Evans, Ga., suddenly turned to disaster as he approached turn three on lap 48. He couldn’t avoid colliding with Dennis Erb Jr.’s spinning car and his bid was abruptly squelched, done in by a vicious impact that he was fortunate to escape without serious injury.

“When I seen (Erb),” Overton related in a text message when asked about the accident, “I said, ‘Oh, f---, this is gonna hurt.’”

There was essentially nothing Overton could do to avoid the veteran Erb’s machine. Overton was amid lapped traffic down the backstretch with Carson Ferguson a couple car lengths ahead and Jake Timm and Sam Seawright to his outside. When Ferguson let off the gas and ducked low, Overton’s field of vision was opened to Erb’s car spun sideways right in front of him.

Overton T-boned the right side of Erb’s car, sending all four wheels of the 53-year-old Illinois racer’s No. 28 off the ground. Overton’s Riggs Motorsports mount came to an almost immediate stop with its nose crushed and steam and fluid spewing out; Seawright, meanwhile, clipped Erb’s car on the way by and slid to a stop over the banking between turns three and four while the second-running Madden spun to the top of turn three after his car’s left-rear corner caught the left-front of Overton’s No. 76.

All the drivers involved emerged from their cars under the own power; Erb even headed to turn two during the red flag period to offer some angry words to stopped WoO rookie Logan Zarin, whom Erb blamed for the contact that sent him spinning. Overton was the last driver to climb from their cockpit after taking some time to get his wind back and reported later that he was “OK” but also “gonna be sore” for a while.

The scary incident left the drivers who benefitted from it feeling more blessed to miss involvement in the wreck than pleased with their finishes. That included winner Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., who inherited the lead and wasn’t challenged during the green-white-checkered finish as he captured Smoky Mountain’s WoO event for the second consecutive year.

“It doesn't feel like a win, but I’ll take it,” Pierce said. “I just hope Overton and (Dennis) Erb are OK. That looked like a pretty hard hit from my viewpoint. I saw it happening right away and I was able to duck down to the infield and I still felt like I almost was in the wreck. Like, that’s just how big the wreck is, and spread out, and it took Madden out too. I don’t know what happened there, but it’s great to get the win.”

Pierce noted that the crash added to Erb’s “bad weekend” — the former WoO champion had to pull out a backup car the previous night at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn., after being collected in a multi-car heat-race accident — and was an unfortunate fate for Overton.

“Brandon had nowhere to go and I’m sure as he was stuck behind those other cars he didn’t see (Erb) until it was too late,” Pierce said. “I know (officials) called caution, but sometimes you’re behind them other cars and you can’t see.”

Runner-up Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, N.C., was alongside Pierce when he slipped underneath Erb’s car after its hit from Overton. He narrowly missed making contact with Erb.

“I don't know how the hell I missed that. It was pretty tight,” Hoffman said. “I was having Raceceiver (one-way radio) trouble the entire race there, so I might have looked like I was gonna ARCA-break that deal and run right in the side of Dennis. But luckily we came out of there unscathed.

“I was going to run fourth there, so I hated for them guys to get tore up with two to go. That really sucks, especially how hard those hits were.”