Who will emerge to challenge Brandon Sheppard’s WoO supremacy?

Brandon Sheppard and his Mark Richards-owned Rocket Chassis house car team have won the last three consecutive and four of the last five World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series championships. But a look at the current standings for that national tour might give the impression that the New Berlin, Illinois driver’s stranglehold could be in jeopardy in 2022. However, a deeper look actually reveals otherwise.

Chris Madden is the points leader after the first six events of the season with Dale McDowell and Dennis Erb Jr. second and third respectively. Sheppard ranks fourth overall with red hot Devin Moran rounding out the top-five. The current standings are actually somewhat misleading, though, with still many more features to be contested. Three of those five drivers at the top of the rundown got off to solid beginnings but do not appear to be planning a run for a season-long championship.

Madden has previously sought the WoO Late Models title and appeared poised to make another run after turning in a noteworthy performance during Georgia-Florida SpeedWeeks. And with a pair of races set for this weekend at the Gray Court, South Carolina racer’s home track, Cherokee Speedway, it would seem logical to think that the veteran driver might emerge from those features with an even bigger lead.

However, Madden does not have those races on his website’s schedule. Instead, the No. 44 team appears to be headed for the Karl Kustoms Bristol Dirt Nationals being held this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway as, for the second consecutive year, the half-mile track noted for NASCAR competition will be covered in dirt. The 46-year-old driver has finished either second or third in the World of Outlaws standings in each of his three attempts(2017, 2018, 2021) at running the full schedule with the tour.

Without doubt, Madden would have been a strong title contender had he chosen to stay with the series.

Like Madden, both McDowell and Moran have the Bristol Dirt Nationals on their schedules for this coming weekend rather than the events at Cherokee Speedway and neither of those drivers appear to have plans to follow either of the traditional national tours in 2022.

Canadian Ricky Weiss had been a series regular for the past three seasons placing within the top-five in the final standings in each of those campaigns, but he has already missed several races and shows no sign of following the WoO tour in 2022.

So, who will emerge to challenge Sheppard’s dominance of the World of Outlaws?

One obvious possibility is veteran racer Dennis Erb Jr. The Carpentersville, Illinois veteran got off to a good start in Florida by registering one WoO win along with two top-fives and five top-tens in his first six starts. As mentioned above, the 49-year-old driver ranks ahead of Sheppard in the current standings which essentially puts him in the lead of the standings among those who plan to race full-time this year.

Erb has finished fourth in the final WoO standings in each of the past two seasons. His consistency will almost certainly keep him near the front throughout the 2022 campaign. But the question that will determine whether or not he can win the title will be if he can win enough races to match Sheppard as the season grinds through the summer and fall months.

Two drivers currently in the top-ten of the standings who have less experience running for championships on the national level are Max Blair and Tanner English. While both have experienced success in their home regions, there will be much to learn in terms of previously unseen tracks along with all the travel and other rigors of being on the road for long stretches at a time.

An interesting name who could make his way into the mix after getting off to a bit of a sluggish start in Florida is that of four-time World of Outlaws CASE Construction Late Model Series champion Josh Richards. After being off this tour for several seasons in which he won a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series title, the 34-year-old driver is now back with this series driving a car provided by fellow competitor Boom Briggs.

As Richards pointed out in an article posted earlier in the season to this website, his new team was still working to find its way during the first few races. That said, it has now been a month since the last WoO contest so the crew working on behalf of the Shinnston, WV star has almost certainly had time to get more organized and prepared for these upcoming races.

If a serious threat is to emerge to challenge Sheppard once the national tours start heading off in different directions it will have to come from one of the two veterans(Erb or Richards) who have been down this road before or from less experienced racers(Blair or English) who haven’t participated on a tour such as this nearly as many times as Sheppard and the Rocket Chassis team.

While some may view the 2022 season as one in which Sheppard will cruise to an unprecedented fifth championship, the situation at hand offers other drivers an opportunity to rise up and make names for themselves as serious contenders on the national stage. Or, it could provide those who have already made a name for themselves with a chance to add even more accolades to their lists of achievements.

Either way, there is a story to be written, we just don’t yet know what that story will be.

Please consider also reading:

Jimmy Owens tops Lucas Oil field to capture Atomic victory

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.