GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Brian Shirley’s climb back to the top of the podium with the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models is complete.
Leading all 40 laps at River Cities Speedway, Shirley had to endure threats for the lead from Devin Moran and Max McLaughlin to score an emotional eighth career series win.
“Shoot… Truthfully, I’m emotionally happy,” Shirley said. “I’m happy for all the hard work that my team, my car owner, a lot of hard work and money put into this operation, and we haven’t been getting the results that they deserve. At the end of the day, I give everyone a little bit of gratitude for their work. It’s definitely humbling and rewarding.”
Beginning the Feature from the lead after getting $100 for drawing the Bilstein Pole Award, Shirley took command by running low and making speed off the corners to create a bubble between the second-place running Moran.
Once lapped traffic played a factor, Moran snuck up to the back bumper of Shirley to make a pass but began to deal with a battle for his second-place spot as McLaughlin caught up to the back bumper of the Double Down Motorsports No.99 as Moran began to run the high line of the track.
With Moran and McLaughlin caught in a dogfight, Shirley drove his Bob Cullen Racing No.3s away from the two drivers as he sliced his way through the pile of slower cars in front of him.
It looked like a surefire win for Shirley until a caution with two laps to go forced a green-white-checkered finish.
On the restart, “Squirrel” blasted off from Moran and McLaughlin as he completed his return to victory lane for the first time this season.
“You’re always nervous when you’re leading,” Shirley said. “These guys are the best in the business. And with two laps to go, the last thing you want to do is mess up and not win. But we led the whole thing. I feel like I knew what I had to do, put in two solid laps and luckily it led us to victory.”
Moran finished with his second consecutive podium finish of the weekend with the World of Outlaws Late Models after using any and every opportunity laid out for him to steal the win.
“I got to (Brian), but you couldn’t get a run through (turns one and two),” Moran said. “The bottom was definitely the dominant line. I was trying to make the high line work and through turns three and four, but there wasn’t enough up there so we got stuck around that bottom and bounced through the holes. All in all, a second-place finish is a good run and move on to what’s next.”
McLaughlin crossed the checkered flag in third to cement his first career points podium with the series.
“(Moran) and Shirley were pretty good, but I thought I was even better than them,” McLaughlin said. “I started rolling the middle pretty good, I got to Devin, forced myself through the middle of a hole behind him, and about flipped. After that, I had to be a lot more cautious. It’s a good night, almost got Devin on the green-white-checkered there. I think we’ve been making good calls lately, with GR and Tyler working good on the setups, D-Train’s doing great with tires, everything’s been clicking and it’s a lot of fun. I’m really excited to see what the second half of the season brings.”
Brandon Sheppard finished fourth to extend his points lead to 30 markers over Nick Hoffman. Ryan Gustin rounded out Sunday’s top five.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 2. 99-Devin Moran[2]; 3. 22*-Max McLaughlin[4]; 4. B5-Brandon Sheppard[9]; 5. 19R-Ryan Gustin[3]; 6. 97JR-Cody Overton[7]; 7. 19-Dustin Sorensen[8]; 8. 28M-Sam Mars[12]; 9. 40B-Kyle Bronson[17]; 10. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[15]; 11. E85-Jason Strand[10]; 12. 9-Nick Hoffman[11]; 13. 97-Cade Dillard[19]; 14. 16-Tyler Bruening[5]; 15. 55C-Chad Mahder[16]; 16. B1-Brent Larson[13]; 17. F50-Ryan Corbett[24]; 18. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[21]; 19. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 20. 71-Dustin Strand[14]; 21. 14W-Dustin Walker[23]; 22. 1TPO-Tyler Peterson[18]; 23. 12-Brad Seng[20]; 24. 44*-Cole Schill[22]