NEW RICHMOND, Wis. — Brandon Sheppard rocketed away from Cade Dillard on the second circuit and never looked back en route to his sixth World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series victory of the season Saturday night at Cedar Lake Speedway.
It was also Sheppard’s fourth career win at the three-eighths-mile track.
After Dillard led the opening lap with his high-side momentum, Sheppard rallied on the bottom to narrowly lead the second lap. On lap three though, Dillard stormed around Sheppard and secured command of the top spot only for the caution to fly and negate his pass for the lead. The lap-two red flag when Boom Briggs flipped was the only stoppage during the 40-lap event.
“We really got luck there at the beginning of the race when that caution came out,” Sheppard admitted. “The bottom was still a little slimy and Cade was able to get a better start than I was. Luckily, I barely got him when we crossed the line on that second lap. I saw that Boom’s car got tore up and I hate that for him, but man that caution really helped me.”
As lucky as the stoppage served him, Sheppard still had to grind it out over the final 38 laps on a tricky track with Dillard following his every move throughout lapped traffic. Dillard’s MB Customs No. 97 kept Shepard honest on a handful of occasions making it a close battle for the lead, but couldn’t find the momentum to overtake the defending World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series champion.
“About halfway through I felt really good, especially through the center where I felt like I was making up some ground on him,” Dillard said. “I just couldn’t get through that hole in turn three the longer race went on. We got to him at one point, but he just wasn’t going to make any mistakes to give us a chance. Congrats to him and that team, it’s fun racing with those guys. I’ll echo what he said, it’s an honor to just be up here on this stage and consistently at that. It took me a long time to get to the point, so this is really nice. It’s awesome to come to a facility like this with all you fans.”
Much like Dillard, Sheppard revels in the fact that he’s standing at the top of Dirt Late Model Racing on a nightly basis, and it humbles him
“Cade has been really tough, Ricky has been really tough, everyone we race with out here on the World of Outlaws makes for tough competition night in and night out,” Sheppard stated. “To be as consistent as we are against this type of talent is pretty special. Between Cade, Ricky, myself, and the rest of the bunch, we race each other so clean, but really hard as well. It’s unbelievable to be standing up here and on CBS at that, that’s really awesome and great for our sport. Thanks to all you fans for coming out and supporting us, this is a great crowd.”
Ricky Weiss finished third.
“This has been a really great weekend for Team Drydene, I’m proud to be supported by those guys all year long,” Weiss said. “It’s cool we got to race on CBS Sports Network for them tonight and race in front of this great crowd too. Overall a solid weekend for us.”
The finish:
Feature (40 laps): 1. 1-Brandon Sheppard [1][$20,000]; 2. 97-Cade Dillard [2][$7,000]; 3. 7-Ricky Weiss [3][$4,000]; 4. 28-Dennis Erb [5][$2,500]; 5. 28m-Jimmy Mars [4][$2,000]; 6. 0-Scott Bloomquist [6][$1,700]; 7. 18-Chase Junghans [13][$1,500]; 8. 99jr-Frank Heckenast [9][$1,400]; 9. 29v-Darrell Lanigan [15][$1,350]; 10. 12-Ashton Winger [7][$1,300]; 11. 71-Rick Hanestad [20][$1,250]; 12. 11-Pat Doar [10][$1,200]; 13. 56-Colton Horner [25][$1,150]; 14. 11g-James Giossi [11][$1,100]; 15. 16-Rusty Griffaw [23][$1,050]; 16. 71jr-Buddy Hanestad [22][$1,000]; 17. 20rt-Ricky Thornton [16][$1,000]; 18. 20-Rodney Sanders [8][$1,000]; 19. 15-Nick Anvelink [17][$1,000]; 20. 6m-Jeff Massingill [21][$1,000]; 21. 1e-Caley Emerson [24][$1,000]; 22. 10-Paul Parker [18][$1,000]; 23. 58-A.J. Diemel [19][$1,000]; 24. B1-Brent Larson [12][$1,000]; 25. 99b-Boom Briggs [14][$1,000]. Lap Leader(s): Sheppard 1-40. Hard Charger Award: 56-Colton Horner[+12]