CONCORD, N.C. — While an 11th Super DIRTcar Series title isn’t in the cards for Matt Sheppard, he still earned a piece of history Thursday at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
The Savannah, N.Y., driver led all 30 laps to score his record-sixth feature win at the World of Outlaws World Finals, breaking a tie with Brett Hearn for the most Big Block wins at the North Carolina track.
“This is the culmination of the season,” Sheppard said. “It’s the biggest crowds and the most diverse crowds we race in front of. A lot of fans from other walks of life, like the late models and the sprint cars, get to see us put on a show. Anytime you can win here is always special.”
Alex Yankowski led the field to the green in the 30-lap feature. However, the race’s first caution flew immediately as Tim Sears Jr. spun in Turn 2.
When the race resumed, Sheppard carried a ton of speed on the inside lane and slid in front of Yankowski, taking the lead away from “Kid Rocket” as they raced down the backstretch. While Sheppard pulled away, he couldn’t get in a rhythm as a multitude of cautions slowed the race in its 30-lap distance.
Yankowski, who ran second for most of the race, tried everything to get by Sheppard on those restarts, but the Covington Township, Pa., driver couldn’t get the momentum he needed to pass the No. 9s. That included a Lap 15 restart, where Yankowski left the bottom open for Mat Williamson, who wrestled second away in Turn 1.
But like Yankowski’s lead at the beginning of the race, Williamson’s time in second was also short-lived. After another caution on Lap 17, Yankowski regained second on the next restart when he stormed underneath Williamson to grab the position in Turn 3.
Yankowski got one more chance at Sheppard when the caution flew for the last time on Lap 26 for Chris Curtis, setting him up on the outside of Sheppard again. When the green came back out, Yankowski switched lanes, hoping to surprise Sheppard on the inside. However, Alex Payne was already side-by-side with Yankowski when they entered Turn 1. Payne used that momentum to drive ahead of Yankowski and take second away on Lap 27.
That was as close as Payne would get to the lead, though, as Sheppard went on to score the $10,000 prize and his 103rd Super DIRTcar Series victory. Thursday’s win was also his sixth series win of 2025, breaking a tie with Stewart Friesen for the most wins this season.
Sheppard said the cautions benefited him.
“I just felt like I could really enter hard and carry a lot of speed,” Sheppard said. “It looked like traffic was going to be a handful. I didn’t want to keep seeing the restarts because that’s an opportunity to get beat to Turn 1, but at the same time, I didn’t really want to get into lap traffic either.
“It was one of them deals where everything just worked out for us, and I’m really proud of this team.”
Payne crossed the line second, earning his fourth consecutive podium finish and third straight top-two result.
“I think where we finished was probably where our car was tonight,” Payne said. “Normally, there’s a bit of a berm on the top, but it just wasn’t quite there enough tonight. I tried to make a couple of things work, but then I just tried to smarten up and make some clean passes. At that point, it’s tough to make up any major ground. You’re kind of just where you’re at.”
Defending series champion Mat Williamson crossed the line third, earning his fourth consecutive top five and ninth top five in his last 10 races. The St. Catharines, Ontario, driver said he anticipated something different from the track.
“I thought it was going to (rubber) on the bottom,” Williamson said. “I was trying to catch Matt, as good as he was off the bottom, I figured if it started to latch, I’d be able to roll right by him. But the track was great. The track was really good all night.
“Clean air just means so much here. Tomorrow, we’ll have a little bit more racetrack to work with, so we’ll see what happens.”
With his third-place finish, Williamson extended his lead over Yankowski, who finished sixth, to 115 points entering Friday’s event. That moves him closer to mathematically securing his third series championship.
Tim Fuller crossed the line fourth, and Erick Rudolph earned his second consecutive top five with a fifth-place finish.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[2]; 2. 70A-Alex Payne[7]; 3. 88-Mat Williamson[4]; 4. 19-Tim Fuller[10]; 5. 25-Erick Rudolph[9]; 6. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[1]; 7. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[12]; 8. 91-Felix Roy[5]; 9. 26-Ryan Godown[19]; 10. 02-Jack Lehner[20]; 11. 35-Mike Mahaney[29]; 12. 6-Matt Stangle[23]; 13. 4M-Logan Watt[22]; 14. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[6]; 15. 3-Justin Haers[16]; 16. 99L-Larry Wight[21]; 17. 21A-Peter Britten[14]; 18. 15X-Justin Stone[18]; 19. 12-Darren Smith[24]; 20. 11T-Jeff Taylor[26]; 21. 44G-Sebastien Gougeon[15]; 22. 11C-Matt Caprara[13]; 23. 6S-Brian Swartzlander[28]; 24. 66-Corbin Millar[25]; 25. 35C-Chris Curtis[17]; 26. (DNS) 4-Anthony Perrego; 27. (DNS) 17-Marcus Dinkins; 28. (DNS) 58-Louden Reimert; 29. (DNS) CRZ8-Max McLaughlin; 30. (DNS) 48T-Dave Rauscher
