MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Brandon Sheppard romped to another dominant victory Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway.
Sheppard led every lap at the half-mile dirt track to earn his 13th World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series triumph of the season. It was his second victory in as many nights.
With his 68th career victory, the 27-year-old driver is only nine victories shy of matching Josh Richards (77) as the winningest driver in World of Outlaws history.
“I really love this race track,” Sheppard noted after his second win at Williams Grove. “This is just such a legendary place. I always dreamed of coming here as a kid, so to come here and race this Rocket house car and win the way we do, it’s special to me. This car has just been phenomenal, I can’t thank all my guys and our sponsors enough. This ride has been unbelievable. We’re gonna ride this streak out as long as we can.”
Sheppard started outside the front row and muscled around polesitter Cade Dillard to lead the opening circuit. The No. 1 was steady in command throughout the opening half while the rest of the top 10 jockeyed for position. The closest Sheppard came to a challenge was on lap 25 when Dillard, who had been searching all across the half-mile surface, started gaining ground and cut the gap down to five-tenths of a second with Sheppard in sight. A caution with 10 laps to go, however, quickly changed the game.
Going over the cushion and barely keeping it off the wall, Dillard slipped to fifth, and then back to seventh on the restart while a quartet of Pennsylvanian’s plus Sheppard’s championship rival, Ricky Weiss came into the picture.
A caution just four laps later shifted the frontrunners once again with Weiss’ No. 7 Team Drydene machine heading pitside with a flat left rear tire while running fourth.
From there, Sheppard aced the final restart and paced himself over the last six laps to score the $10,000 win at Williams Grove for the second straight year.
Gregg Satterlee finished second, ahead of Rick Eckert, Mason Zeigler and Gene Knaub.
Satterlee ended a 1,568-day drought with his first World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series podium finish since May 6, 2016 at Kentucky’s Ponderosa Speedway.
“Last night was an off night with the stuff we were trying, but we got way closer tonight,” Satterlee said on his car. “I was trying to be patient and not do anything stupid, especially the closer I got to the front. We don’t get to race with the Outlaws too often, so we like to capitalize and get these good runs when we can. I was honestly just happy keeping up with Brandon the way we were. I was hoping he would change his line up, make a mistake, anything to give me a window, but he’s about the best there is, he’s not gonna do that. I’d put that guy up against anybody in the country right now.”
The finish:
Feature (50 laps):Â 1. 1-Brandon Sheppard [2][$10,000]; 2. 22-Gregg Satterlee [9][$5,000]; 3. 0E-Rick Eckert [13][$3,000]; 4. 25Z-Mason Zeigler [4][$2,500]; 5. 1L-Gene Knaub [7][$2,000]; 6. 12-Ashton Winger [12][$1,700]; 7. 29V-Darrell Lanigan [3][$1,400]; 8. 18-Chase Junghans [15][$1,300]; 9. 2-Dan Stone [14][$1,200]; 10. 2J-Jeff Rine [18][$1,100]; 11. 28-Dennis Erb [11][$1,050]; 12. 97-Cade Dillard [1][$1,000]; 13. 4-Gary Stuhler [22][$950]; 14. 111-Max Blair [6][$900]; 15. B1-Brent Larson [24][$850]; 16. 27-Jim Yoder [21][$800]; 17. 7-Ricky Weiss [8][$770]; 18. 2t-Kyle Lee [17][$750]; 19. 43A-Tyler Bare [19][$730]; 20. 0-Scott Bloomquist [10][$700]; 21. 43-Jason Covert [5][$700]; 22. 20-Trever Feathers [16][$700]; 23. 99b-Boom Briggs [23][$700]; 24. 7r-Ross Robinson [20][$700]. Lap Leader(s): Sheppard 1-40. Hard Charger: 0E-Rick Eckert[+10]