Brandon Sheppard earned his first WoO Late Models win of 2018
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series once again pulled through the gates of Volusia Speedway Park on Saturday night but this time it would be to bring the curtain down on this year’s version of the DIRTcar Nationals and the Late Model portion of Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks. When all was said and done, it was defending WoO Late Models champion Brandon Sheppard who pulled his car into victory lane at the facility located near Daytona Beach, Fla.
Chris Madden came away as the overall DIRTcar Nationals champion for the week-long event at Volusia.
Tyler Millwood proved to be the fastest in Group A qualifying as he turned a lap of 16.035 seconds to beat out Dennis Erb, Jr., Tyler Bruening, Josh Richards and Boom Briggs.
For the third night in a row Scott Bloomquist was the fastest overall qualifier as he led Group B by posting a lap of 16.029 seconds topping Chris Madden, Jonathan Davenport, Chase Junghans and Brandon Sheppard.
Mike Marlar picked up the win in the night’s first heat race over Millwood, Briggs and Jimmy Owens while Erb took the honors in the second preliminary ahead of Richards, Hudson O’Neal and Rusty Schlenk.
Bloomquist scored the win in the third heat by beating out Brandon Sheppard, Dale McDowell and Davenport just before Madden won the final heat of the night as he outran Timothy Culp, Kyle Bronson and Junghans.
David Breazeale won the first Last Chance Showdown over Devin Moran and Don O’Neal while Rick Eckert captured the final preliminary of the night ahead of Mike Norris and Joey Coulter.
The WoO Late Models redraw placed Bloomquist on the pole with Marlar lining up on his outside followed by Madden, Erb, Sheppard, Millwood, Richards and Culp.
At the start of the 50-lap feature it was Bloomquist, Erb and Marlar who went three-wide for he lead before Erb bolted to the top spot with Marlar and Bloomquist contesting the runner-up position.
Marlar eventually won out in the battle for second while Madden moved forward to fight with Bloomquist for third, which he took on the third circuit. Marlar flexed his muscle on the fourth lap as he passed by Erb for the race lead. At the same time, Sheppard began a strong move forward as he passed by Culp for fifth on lap 5.
Sheppard continued to march toward the front as he roared by Bloomquist on the outside to take fourth on the seventh circuit. He then took third from Madden just one lap later. Richards also began to move forward in the team car to Sheppard after his Best Performance Motorsports team had been forced to leave the track earlier in the week.
While Marlar led, the likes of Sheppard, Madden, Erb and Richards mixed it up for top-5 spots in the running order. Sheppard broke away from that battle and took the lead away from Marlar on lap 13 before a caution flag waved on lap 17 for the slowing car of Briggs.
A lap 17 restart brought about a big moment in the race when Culp and Richards went at it for fourth. Culp passed by Richards in turns one and two but Richards fired back down the backstretch and into turns three and four. Contact between the two cars sent Culp sliding up the track. His prone car was then slammed by Davenport causing heavy damage to both machines as well as several others who were collected.
Davenport had come into the night as the leader in the DIRTcar Nationals Late Model standings but had to retire from the event due to the damage his car received.
Eckert began to move up the scoreboard following the cleanup from the prior incident. The No. 7 machine moved around Madden for third on lap 22 then surged forward to take second from Marlar on lap 30. For several laps it would be Eckert pressuring Sheppard for the lead of the race as Marlar and Madden tracked the lead duo down from third and fourth.
Marlar regained second following a lap 36 restart and went after Sheppard for the top spot. The No. 157 car actually took the lead away from Shepard on lap 38 only to have a caution flag negate the move.
On the restart, Madden bolted into second while Sheppard scampered away from his pursuers. However, Madden would reel the front runner back in and on the last lap of the race closed right to the rear spoiler of the Rocket house car but was unable to make a pass as Sheppard sailed under the checkered flag to capture his first WoO Late Models win of 2018.
Feature Finish: 1. Brandon Sheppard, 2. Chris Madden, 3. Mike Marlar, 4. Rick Eckert, 5. Josh Richards, 6. Chub Frank, 7. Hudson O’Neal, 8. Dale McDowell, 9. Devin Moran, 10. Tim McCreadie, 11. Shane Clanton, 12. Dennis Erb, Jr., 13. Scott Bloomquist, 14. Chase Junghans, 15. Boom Briggs, 16. David Breazeale, 17. Morgan Bagley, 18. Joey Coulter, 19. Tyler Millwood, 20. Chris Ferguson, 21. Colton Flinner, 22. Jimmy Owens, 23. Kyle Bronson, 24. Rusty Schlenk, 25. Mike Norris, 26. Brandon Overton, 27. Don O’Neal, 28. Jonathan Davenport, 29. Timothy Culp
