Brandon Sheppard took the win by the narrowest of margins
The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series went back into action for the second consecutive weekend following the shutdowns resulting from the coronavirus outbreak. This two-night event at the Davenport(IA) Speedway features the Late Model cars on a quarter-mile track on Friday night with the action moving to an outer ringing half-mile speedway on Saturday evening . On Friday night it was Brandon Sheppard who earned a $6,000 payday as he beat out Ricky Thornton Jr. by just .007 seconds at the finish line.
Bobby Pierce was fastest in qualifying as he toured the quarter-mile clay oval in 14.415 seconds.
Bobby Pierce, Brandon Sheppard, Chris Simpson and Ryan Unzicker won the four heat races while Darrell Lanigan and Rich Bell were victorious in the two Last Chance Showdown races.
At the start of the 30-lap feature Bobby Pierce went to the early lead with Ryan Unzicker, Chris Simpson, Brandon Sheppard and Shannon Babb trailing. Sheppard moved forward on lap 3 as he took third away from Simpson and set his sights on the second running Unzicker.
Sheppard moved into position to challenge Unzicker on lap 5 while Pierce pulled away from his pursuers and looked as if were poised to take control of the feature. However, the No. 32 encountered slower traffic on lap 7 which allowed Unzicker and Sheppard to close in on the race leader.
On lap 11 the lead trio went three-wide as they contested the top spot with Sheppard emerging from that battle with the lead. Further back, Ricky Weiss made his presence felt as he entered the top-5 on lap 13.
On lap 14, Unzicker took second away from Pierce which brought a fast rising Ricky Thornton, Jr. into the picture as he also moved around Pierce claiming third. Thornton then took on Unzicker for second but a lap 18 caution slowed the action.
On the ensuing restart Thornton took to the top side of the track and moved all the way to the lead. However, Sheppard fought back on the bottom to fight with Thornton.
On lap 20, Weiss challenged Unzicker for third, eventually taking the spot.
As the laps clicked away, Sheppard and Thornton continued to contest the lead with Sheppard on the bottom and Thornton up top. The two cars traded the lead and swapped from top to bottom.
At the finish line it initially appeared as if Thornton might have crossed first but the transponders on the cars pointed to Sheppard as the winner.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Sheppard, 2. Ricky Thornton, Jr., 3. Ricky Weiss, 4. Ryan Unzicker, 5. Shannon Babb, 6. Justin Kay, 7. Jason Feger, 8. Bobby Pierce, 9. Chris Simpson, 10. Brian Birkhofer, 11. Darrell Lanigan, 12. Chase Junghans, 13. Cade Dillard, 14. Chris Madden, 15. Jimmy Mars, 16. Dennis Erb, Jr., 17. Ashton Winger, 18. Rich Bell, 19. Scott Bloomquist, 20. Matt Cosner, 21. Bob Gardner, 22. Kody Evans, 23. Boom Briggs, 24. Brent Larson, 25. Frank Heckenast, Jr., 26. Dave Eckrich, 27. Joel Callahan
