Brandon Sheppard
A second place finish in a $10,000-to-win feature race followed by a third-place result in a $20,000-to-win event would be considered as great efforts for many drivers. But when the driver who actually scored those finishes is Brandon Sheppard, they are a bit unsatisfying. And that’s exactly what the Rocket Chassis house car pilot did this past weekend at Minnesota’s Jackson Motorplex in a pair of World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series races.
That’s not to say that Sheppard and his team weren’t happy with those finishes, they just weren’t satisfied.
Consider that this is a team that has piled up gaudy numbers of feature wins over the past several years while also earning a total of three championships on their primary tour along the way. Between 2017 and 2020 the No. 1 car with Sheppard behind the wheel has pulled into victory lane an astounding 63 times in WoO Late Models competition alone. Add to that, three races that paid more than $100,000-to-win fell to this driver and team in 2019 as they took the Dirt Late Model Dream, the Dirt Million, and the Dirt Track World Championship in the same season.
But 2021 has not been very Brandon Sheppard-like to date. Although he currently leads the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series standings, he has only collected two points-paying checkered flags on the tour along with one victory in a Cherokee Speedway preliminary race.
However, Sheppard believes his team is not far from reaching its old form. Following his second-place run behind Frank Heckenast Jr. on Friday night at Jackson Motorplex, the former champion said he felt like his team needed only minor adjustments to get back to the top of the heap.
“We had a really good race car right there,” Sheppard declared in his post-race interview with DirtVision.com. “We’ve got to work on our race car just a little bit. We weren’t really able to take off very good. I don’t know if we’ve got to work on our carburetor or what but it definitely was a good run for us. We wanted to be one spot better but we’ve got another night tomorrow and our car was really good so everything is looking promising.”
Sheppard came very close to fulfilling that promise on Saturday night. After swapping the lead late in the feature with eventual winner Dennis Erb Jr. and then battling for the runner-up spot with Heckenast, Sheppard brought the Mark Richards Racing car home with another podium finish.
After that event, the driver declared that his team is approaching where it wants to be.
“We were good but it took us a while to get going there,” Sheppard told DirtVision.com reporter Hannah Newhouse. “We had to let the track get slick and let the top get good before we really got rolling. All in all, another good finish for us but definitely not what we wanted. We want a couple of spots better and we’re getting closer every night. I feel like we’re right on the cusp of being up there every night. We’ve just got to keep plugging away and keep digging.”
Brandon Sheppard believes his team is returning to old form
With numerous races coming up in the near future, including the next feature on Tuesday at Gondik Law Speedway in Superior, Wisconsin, Sheppard hopes his team is in the process of finding their old swagger.
“Hopefully it’s got our momentum built up going into the rest of the swing. Like I said, we want a couple of spots better. We’re really working our tails off to get there. Hopefully we can get a couple of spots better in the next couple of weeks but we’re going to give it all we’ve got.”
Respond to this post on Twitter by following @RichardAllenIDR and @MichaelRMoats or by liking the InsideDirtRacing.com Facebook page.
Also, NASCAR and pavement racing fans can check out InsideCircleTrack.
