CONCORD, N.C. — Nine-time Super DIRTcar Series champion Matt Sheppard flexed his muscles late in Thursday night’s 30-lap feature at The Dirt Track at Charlotte by clinching his fourth series victory of the season.
The driver of the No. 9s led from lap 23 to the checkered flag, where he finished 2.447 seconds ahead of Demetrios Drellos.
It is Sheppard’s first win in six years at the four-tenths-mile track.
“We’ve run so good here every year, and it seems like something would always happen. We’d have a failure, get passed late in the race,” Sheppard said. “We’ve been second a lot this year. But second sucks, it finally feels good to be back in victory lane.”
The No. 9s driver has finished second seven times this year. With his victory on Thursday, Sheppard extended his points lead over Mat Williamson to 83 points.
The strategy at World Finals is simple for @SuperDIRTcar Series points leader Matt Sheppard.
— SPEED SPORT (@SPEEDSPORT) November 2, 2023
“We need to finish.”
He’s looking to wrap up his 10th series championship this weekend. pic.twitter.com/G6IuT6xOfT
Runner-up Drellos put in an impressive performance in his No. 111 modified after starting 10th. He slowly picked off his competitors through the 30-lapper and ultimately stole second from the No. 88 of Williamson with five laps to go.
Meanwhile, championship hopeful Williamson watched his title hopes slip a little further away, despite leading early on Thursday.
“I though maybe lapped traffic might’ve won us the race, but Matt (Sheppard) got around us there,” Williamson said. “I was just kind of hanging on at the end. We’ve got a good car, we’re in the ballpark, we’re just not good enough to beat Matt right now.”
Max McLaughlin and Anthony Perrego finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Jimmy Phelps, Erick Rudolph, Tim Fuller, Bob Hentschel and Alex Yankowski completed the top 10.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[3]; 2. 111-Demetrios Drellos[10]; 3. 88-Mat Williamson[2]; 4. 8H-Max McLaughlin[1]; 5. 4*-Anthony Perrego[12]; 6. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[7]; 7. 25-Erick Rudolph[13]; 8. 19-Tim Fuller[4]; 9. 4SL-Bob Hentschel[6]; 10. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[11]; 11. 99L-Larry Wight[20]; 12. 21A-Peter Britten[14]; 13. JS98-Rocky Warner[23]; 14. ONE-David Hebert[16]; 15. 35-Mike Mahaney[18]; 16. 2A-Mike Gular[9]; 17. 70A-Alex Payne[5]; 18. 14-CG Morey[30]; 19. 2-Jack Lehner[24]; 20. 33-Louden Reimert[15]; 21. 5H-Chris Hile[28]; 22. 215-Adam Pierson[19]; 23. 91-Felix Roy[26]; 24. 12-Darren Smith[21]; 25. 66-Corbin Millar[25]; 26. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[27]; 27. 54-Steve Bernard[29]; 28. 91D-Billy Decker[17]; 29. (DNF) 27J-Danny Johnson[22]; 30. (DNF) 26-Ryan Godown[8].