FAIRBURY, Ill. — It’s starting to feel like old times again for Rocket1 Racing and Brandon Sheppard.
The most dominant pairing in the history of the World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision won 71 races and four championships in an incredible five-year stretch from 2017 to 2021. After going their separate ways for two seasons before reuniting in 2025, nights like Saturday prove that Sheppard and Mark Richards still have a lot left in the tank.
The New Berlin, Ill., native won the Prairie Dirt Classic for the fourth time in his career, marking his first crown jewel win in the Rocket house car since the last time he won his home state’s biggest race in 2022.
Sheppard’s 90th Series win was also his 128th national-touring triumph, which broke the tie with Scott Bloomquist and made Sheppard the winningest driver in the combined history of the World of Outlaws and the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
Sheppard’s road to the record involved getting around a driver looking for his first big league triumph. MD3 Rookie of the Year contender Trey Mills won a preliminary Showdown Feature on Friday and drew the pole for the big show on Saturday, and held off some of the biggest stars in Late Model racing for the first 63 laps.
But as Mills’ tires started to fade in the second half of the race, the trio of Sheppard, Bobby Pierce and Hudson O’Neal saw their chance to pounce.
Sheppard found some grip on the low side while Mills continued to pound the cushion like he had been doing all race long, and one bobble up high gave Sheppard enough room to clear Mills exiting Turn 2. With slower traffic approaching on the bottom, Sheppard had no choice but to go back to the top and slide up in front of Mills in Turn 3 to seal the position.
Even after losing the lead, Mills remained in the hunt for a top-five finishing position for a few more laps until his right-rear tire finally gave out with 18 laps remaining. His night wasn’t over though, as the crew put on some fresh rubber and Mills wheeled his way back up to 11th at the checkered flag.
Up front, a rash of cautions meant Sheppard struggled to build any momentum out front. The ensuing restarts also meant Pierce and O’Neal had plenty of chances to make a bid for the top spot. Their last chance came after Ricky Thornton Jr. pounded the backstretch wall with four to go, but once again, no one could stop Sheppard from sealing the deal and earning the $50,000 top prize.
“You’ve kind of got to wait for a little while until the track starts to slow down, and then it gets to a point where there’s three lanes out there and you can run all over it,” Sheppard said. “You’ve got to make the right moves when it comes to that part of the race. Late in the race, when it gets slick and I can really run that momentum line like I do, you know, I passed those guys in basically the middle-bottom in [Turns] 1 and 2. Caution came out immediately, and I’m like, ‘Now what do I do? I don’t know where to be at.’ I just stuck to the old faithful line that I always seem to be pretty good with here, especially when I’m out front, and it definitely paid off.”
O’Neal came up one spot short of joining Jonathan Davenport and Kyle Larson as the third different driver to win the PDC in the K&L Rumley Enterprises No. 6. Pierce finished third in his first weekend with his father and crew chief, Bob Pierce, back at the track after his stroke on July 15.
Trailing the podium were Nick Hoffman and Tim McCreadie in fourth and fifth, respectively.
The finish:
Feature (100 Laps): 1. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 2. 6-Hudson O’Neal[18]; 3. 32-Bobby Pierce[14]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[19]; 5. 9M-Tim McCreadie[23]; 6. 25F-Jason Feger[3]; 7. 11-Gordy Gundaker[16]; 8. 1-Tyler Erb[10]; 9. 19R-Ryan Gustin[15]; 10. 74X-Ethan Dotson[24]; 11. 14-Trey Mills[1]; 12. 77-Devin Moran[20]; 13. 126-Kaede Loudy[9]; 14. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[11]; 15. 15-Justin Duty[8]; 16. 13-Dallon Murty[6]; 17. 16S-Sam Seawright[4]; 18. 45-Kyle Hammer[27]; 19. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[13]; 20. 89-Mike Spatola[26]; 21. 157-Mike Marlar[12]; 22. 58V-Daulton Wilson[21]; 23. 19-Dustin Sorensen[29]; 24. 36-Mckay Wenger[25]; 25. 40B-Kyle Bronson[17]; 26. 32S-Chris Simpson[7]; 27. 25-Shane Clanton[5]; 28. 22*-Zack Mitchell[28]; 29. 18-Shannon Babb[22]
