ROSSBURG, Ohio — The stage is set for the biggest night of the dirt Late Model season.
The second of two split-field preliminary nights finalized the heat race lineups for Saturday’s World 100 finale, with Brandon Sheppard and Hudson O’Neal each finding victory lane in their respective 25-lap features on Friday night.
Feature 1
From fourth in the starting lineup, Sheppard raced his fellow Illinoisan, Frank Heckenast Jr., for second in the wake of polesitter Carson Ferguson on the opening lap. Sheppard prevailed in that tussle in Turns 3 and 4, while Ricky Thornton Jr. also got past Heckenast to slide into third.
One lap later, Sheppard got a run on Ferguson into Turn 3 and cleared him in Turn 4, moving up in front of the No. 93 off the corner to take command of the race. Thornton followed Sheppard around Ferguson shortly after, setting up an exciting race for the lead between the No. 1 and the No. 20rt.
Thornton made it side-by-side with Sheppard for the first time with 10 laps on the board, and found enough speed through the middle to take the lead.
But as traffic became more of a factor later in the race, Sheppard switched from the top side to the bottom, and used it to get back around Thornton with 10 to go. That would be the end of the race for the lead, as Sheppard started to pull away for his seventh Eldora win, but his first on World 100 weekend since 2015.
“Anytime you can get a win here, it’s just amazing,” Sheppard said. “Feels really good. It’s been a long time since we won a prelim night here, so I feel really good about that. Our car’s just been really balanced all weekend, and it was at the Dream also. The only difference between the Dream and here is we’re qualifying better this weekend. That puts us starting back a little bit more in the Heats, but we know our car’s good enough to drive up through there.”
Thornton settled for second ahead of Nick Hoffman, who climbed from seventh to third.
The finish:
Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 1-Brandon Sheppard[4]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[6]; 3. 9-Nick Hoffman[7]; 4. 17M-Dale McDowell[5]; 5. 9M-Tim McCreadie[8]; 6. 49-Jonathan Davenport[16]; 7. 93-Carson Ferguson[1]; 8. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[2]; 9. 12-Ashton Winger[3]; 10. 19R-Ryan Gustin[18]; 11. 99-Devin Moran[10]; 12. 5-Drake Troutman[11]; 13. 20-Jimmy Owens[12]; 14. 22-Gregg Satterlee[14]; 15. 0-Jake O’Neil[15]; 16. 44D-Dalton Cook[9]; 17. 49M-Luke Morey[17]; 18. 95J-Jerry Bowersock[23]; 19. 09-Michael Leach[19]; 20. 10S-Garrett Smith[24]; 21. T1-Todd Morrow[20]; 22. 1Z-Logan Zarin[26]; 23. 25B-Mike Benedum[25]; 24. 16-Sam Seawright[21]; 25. S21-Seth Daniels[22]; 26. 111R-Steven Roberts[13]
Feature 2
O’Neal watched the seas part in front of him as the field took the green flag. Both front row starters, Brian Shirley and Tristan Chamberlain, struggled to find traction, and Chamberlain slid up the track toward the frontstretch wall, leaving a lane open for O’Neal to stick his nose into.
That’s exactly what O’Neal did, and in the blink of an eye, he went from fourth to racing Shirley for the lead into Turn 1. The “New Deal” rode the high side through the first set of corners and pounded the Turn 2 cushion well enough to pull ahead of Shirley down the backstretch. It was all O’Neal the rest of the way – Chris Ferguson worked his way from seventh to second by halfway and was closing in on O’Neal late, but didn’t have enough time to make a serious bid for the win.
O’Neal’s triumph was the sixth of his career in World 100 prelim action and his 16th win of 2026, but his first in the SSI Motorsports No. 71 since May 14 at Eagle Raceway.
“You always try to dream up those situations before you take the green,” O’Neal said of his move for the lead on the start. “I feel like here, of all places, it’s so hard to get going late whenever the track gets so slick on the outside. Especially on the front row when the inside guy gets to fire first. I feel like coming from fourth here is almost better than starting third. If you can get a good enough run, you can make a lot of moves there. I was just fortunate to be able to get up beside Shirley as well, and then race him off in there and be able to clear him down the back straightaway. Those moves, they don’t happen very often, especially with this group of people.”
Ferguson and Bobby Pierce completed the podium.
The finish:
Feature 2 (25 Laps): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[4]; 2. 22F-Chris Ferguson[7]; 3. 32-Bobby Pierce[5]; 4. 44-Chris Madden[6]; 5. 8S-Brian Shirley[1]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb[9]; 7. 11R-Josh Rice[3]; 8. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[2]; 9. 25-Shane Clanton[13]; 10. 60-Dan Ebert[14]; 11. 19-Dustin Sorensen[20]; 12. 157-Mike Marlar[15]; 13. 25F-Jason Feger[25]; 14. 22*-Zack Mitchell[22]; 15. 40B-Kyle Bronson[11]; 16. 14JR-Trey Mills[10]; 17. 10-Joseph Joiner[17]; 18. 81F-Jadon Frame[12]; 19. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[23]; 20. C7-Adam Stricker[21]; 21. 15L-Lane Snook[19]; 22. 12J-Jason Jameson[16]; 23. 24-Jason Riggs[24]; 24. 17SS-Brenden Smith[8]; 25. 13M-Dallon Murty[26]; 26. 13-Tyler Carpenter[18]
