Brandon Sheppard
Brandon Shepard made history on Sunday night when he clinched the lead in all-time wins for the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series in his family-owned No. B5 machine at the track closest to his hometown.
The Rocket Chassis driver from New Berlin, Illinois earned $10,000 for his efforts in a race on the quarter-mile track located in Jacksonville, Illinois and shown live by DirtVision.com.
A total of 24 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results: 1. Max Blair(12.054), 2. Brian Shirley, 3. Frank Heckenast Jr., 4. Shannon Babb, 5. Brandon Sheppard, 6. Gordy Gundaker, 7. Jake Little, 8. Ryan Gustin, 9. Billy Moyer Jr., 10. Shane Clanton
Heat 1 Results: 1. Shannon Babb, 2. Shane Clanton, 3. Max Blair, 4. Jason Feger, 5. Jake Little, 6. Justin Duty, 7. Payton Freeman, 8. Tommy Sheppard Jr.
Heat 2 Results: 1. Brandon Sheppard, 2. Brian Shirley, 3. Ryan Gustin, 4. Ashton Winger, 5. Boom Briggs, 6. Josh Richards, 7. Preston Luckman, 8.
Heat 3 Results: 1. Gordy Gundaker, 2. Frank Heckenast Jr., 3. Billy Moyer Jr., 4. Tanner English, 5. Dennis Erb Jr., 6. Kolby Vandenbergh, 7. Brent Larson, 8. Jimmy Miller
Redraw Results: 1. Clanton, 2. Babb, 3. Gundaker, 4. Shirley, 5. Sheppard, 6. Heckenast
Feature Re-cap: On the start of the 40-lap main event, it was Babb who took the early lead with Shirley, Clanton, Gundaker and Heckenast trailing. An incident following the completion of the first lap, contact between Clanton and Shirley sent Shirley spinning with Heckenast getting collected as well.
Gundaker took second on the lap 1 restart then moved in to challenge Babb. Clanton used an outside move to retake second on the fourth circuit with Sheppard and Feger right behind the battle for second.
Babb pulled out to a lead of almost a straightaway by lap 10 with Clanton and Gundaker trailing. However, the front runner began to encounter slower traffic by lap 11 as he worked to keep lapped cars between himself and his pursuers.
Sheppard got by Gundaker for third on lap 16 then Feger moved in to challenge Gundaker.
A lap 19 caution for the slowing car of Little slowed the pace and allowed the leaders a reprieve from traffic. Sheppard moved to second on the restart and began his pursuit of Babb. Sheppard moved in to challenge Babb on lap 22 but a yellow flag for Luckman again reset the field. At the time of caution, Babb led Sheppard, Clanton, Feger, Gundaker and Gustin.
Sheppard wrested the lead away from Babb on lap 26 just before a lap 27 caution was displayed for Winger.
English joined the top-5 when he passed Feger on lap 29. Meanwhile Sheppard drove his family No. B5 machine away from the pack until a lap 33 caution for Tommy Sheppard and Vandenburgh bunched the field again. English and Feger shuffled Gundaker back to sixth just after the restart.
In the end, Sheppard took the checkered flag giving him an all-time WoO Late Models leading win total of 79 surpassing Josh Richards for that honor.
Feature Results: 1. Brandon sheppard, 2. Shannon Babb, 3. Shane Clanton, 4. Tanner English, 5. Jason Feger, 6. Gordy Gundaker, 7. Ryan Gustin, 8, Justin Duty, 9. Dennis Erb Jr., 10. Josh Richards, 11. Max Blair, 12. Ashton Winger, 13, Frank Heckenast Jr., 14. Billy Moyer Jr., 15. Boom Briggs, 16. Tommy Sheppard Jr., 17. Preston Luckman, 18. Brent Larson, 19. Preston Luckman, 20. Jake Little, 21. Trevor Gundaker, 22. Payton Freeman, 23. Jimmy Miller, 24. Brian Shirley
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