HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Brandon Sheppard dominated Sunday night at Hagerstown Speedway, capturing the Conococheague 40 for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series in commanding fashion.
The New Berlin, Illinois native earned $10,000 for his third LOLMDS victory of the season, taking the lead from Brandon Overton on lap three and pacing the remainder of the race.
Sheppard crossed the finish line more than five seconds ahead of Overton, with 11th-starting Hudson O’Neal rounding out the Big River Steel podium in third. Current championship points leader Devin Moran finished fourth and Max Blair completed the top five.
Overton led the opening two laps of the annual event, which marked the series’ 16th appearance at Hagerstown Speedway, before Sheppard surged past him for the top spot on lap three.
Once out front, Sheppard quickly built a commanding lead, reaching lapped traffic by lap nine. The race’s only caution came on lap 10, but it did little to slow his momentum.
On the restart, Sheppard remained firmly in control, leading the rest of the way in a race that featured just one caution flag.
The victory marked the 38th of Sheppard’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series career—and his first at Hagerstown Speedway.
“It was awesome. Mark, Dan, Austin, Joel, Steve Baker, and everyone at Rocket Chassis have been working their tails off,” Sheppard said. “They’ve been giving me a great car night in and night out. There’s so much competition out here—you can have the fastest car and still not win—but I really feel like we’ve been fast all year. I don’t think I’ve felt bad at the track once this season.”
Overton, who was aiming for a clean sweep of the night, settled for the runner-up finish.
“He (Sheppard) had a little different tire than we did. I probably tried to block him too early—I moved down and pushed up the track,” Overton said. “Hats off to them—they did a great job. We were good, just not quite good enough.”
O’Neal, who started sixth row inside, closed the gap late and now sits 25 points behind Moran in the championship standings heading into next weekend’s events at Circle City Raceway and Florence Speedway.
“We just needed to qualify better,” O’Neal said. “We weren’t very good in qualifying and probably over-adjusted for the rough conditions. We got back to our normal program for the feature and were really good. We just didn’t get a caution at the right time. I was able to close in during lapped traffic, but Brandon was able to navigate through and pull away. Thanks to Hagerstown and Lucas Oil for the effort—they gave us a great race track.”
Conococheague 40 Feature Finish (40 Laps):
Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Earnings
1 – 1 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $10,900
2 – 2 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $6,400
3 – 11 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $4,800
4 – 6 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $4,100
5 – 7 – 111 – Max Blair – Centerville, PA – $3,400
6 – 4 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – $3,600
7 – 5 – 3S – Brian Shirley – Chatham, IL – $3,100
8 – 10 – 40B – Kyle Bronson – Brandon, FL – $3,000
9 – 19 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – $2,950
10 – 9 – 25Z – Mason Zeigler – Chalk Hill, PA – $2,000
11 – 8 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $2,500
12 – 12 – 22G – Gregg Satterlee – Indiana, PA – $1,400
13 – 17 – 66C – Matt Cosner – Ridgeley, WV – $1,200
14 – 15 – 32J – Justin Weaver – Clearspring, MD – $1,000
15 – 14 – 19M – Brenden Smith – Dade City, FL – $1,850
16 – 21 – 8 – Dillon McCowan – Urbana, MO – $1,925
17 – 24 – C4 – Freddie Carpenter – Parkersburg, WV – $200
18 – 13 – 55 – Jamie Lathroum – Mechanicsville, MD – $875
19 – 3 – 11 – Josh Rice – Crittenden, KY – $1,750
20 – 18 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – $1,725
21 – 16 – 27 – Trever Feathers – Winchester, VA – $800
22 – 20 – 7 – Ross Robinson – Georgetown, DE – $800
23 – 25 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $1,700
24 – 23 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – $900
25 – 22 – 12M – Ryan Montgomery – Fairmont, WV – $800
