SARVER, Pa. – Brandon Sheppard had a game plan coming into Lernerville Speedway. He implemented it, stuck to it, and it worked.
The three-time and defending World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series champion led all 30 laps during Thursday night’s Firecracker 100 opener at Lernerville to cash in on a $6,000 payday.
Sheppard’s preparation for the weekend put him in a position to strike on a slick surface.
“We had a plan to start off the night, whether [the track] was wet or slick, and we just stuck with our game plan,” Sheppard said. “We’ve been working with the [slick track] program a lot, and we’ve been getting better. Hopefully, tonight is the start of a good little run.”
Even though he led the entire race, the win didn’t come easy. Sheppard struggled to get around slower cars toward the end of the race.
“Whenever you’re following [slower cars] in the rubber, and the track is that slow and slick, you hope you can get by to put a lapped car between you and second place,” Sheppard said. “Sometimes you have to ride behind them and hope for the best.”
Sheppard’s win is his second of the season and his 71st career World of Outlaws late model win. He also extended his point lead over championship rival Chris Madden, who finished second.
Madden closed on Sheppard during the last few laps, searching for his fifth win of the season. He felt he had a shot to pass Sheppard in traffic, but couldn’t make it work.
“There was only one lane when I got back to second and got to Sheppard,” Madden said. “We had one shot at him, and I knew he wouldn’t know I was on the outside of him (when he look to go around the outside of Sheppard off turn two). But I thought better of it and lifted and got back in line.”
Madden thought he had a car capable of winning, but a bad decision cost him during the race’s only yellow flag.
“[Sheppard] had a real good car tonight, and I did too,” Madden said. “I just chose the wrong line on the restart and fell back to third.”
Scott Bloomquist, the 2004 Outlaws champion, crossed the line third. The Mooresburg, Tenn., driver passed Madden on the restart but lost the spot back to him in traffic.
Despite losing the position, Thursday’s feature gave “Black Sunshine” some optimism for the rest of the weekend.
“The track got kind of narrow, and everyone was running on the bottom,” Bloomquist said. “We ended up getting into that lap car and it got us a little messed up and slowed us down, but we have something we can work with now to keep us moving forward.”
Tyler Bruening, the top rookie of the race, finished fourth. The Decorah, Iowa, driver extended his lead in the chase for rookie-of-the-year over Ryan Gustin, who finished 22nd – after a rough start to the night when he spun in his heat race, trying to take the lead from Bruening. Gustin had also set quick time for the night.
Spencer Hughes crossed the line fifth.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 1-Brandon Sheppard [1][$6,000]; 2. 44-Chris Madden [2][$3,000]; 3. 0-Scott Bloomquist [5][$2,000]; 4. 16-Tyler Bruening [7][$1,750]; 5. 11H-Spencer Hughes [3][$1,500]; 6. 25Z-Mason Zeigler [4][$1,400]; 7. 97-Cade Dillard [6][$1,300]; 8. 72-Mike Norris [8][$1,200]; 9. 119-Chub Frank [10][$1,100]; 10. 29-Darrell Lanigan [9][$1,000]; 11. 76-Brandon Overton [15][$900]; 12. 72C-Jason Covert [14][$850]; 13. 22-Gregg Satterlee [18][$800]; 14. 111V-Max Blair [11][$775]; 15. 1C-Alex Ferree [12][$750]; 16. 17M-Dale McDowell [17][$700]; 17. 7-Ricky Weiss [22][$660]; 18. 0E-Rick Eckert [20][$640]; 19. 28-Dennis Erb [23][$620]; 20. B1-Brent Larson [13][$600]; 21. 58-Mark Whitener [19][$600]; 22. 19R-Ryan Gustin [25][$600]; 23. 99B-Boom Briggs [26][$600]; 24. 10-Jared Miley [21][$600]; 25. 2-Dan Stone [24][$600]; 26. 77-Tyler Dietz [16][$600].
Lap Leader(s): Brandon Sheppard 1-30.
Hard Charger: 22-Gregg Satterlee[+5]