CONCORD, N.C. — All dreams, all hopes, all anxieties, all wonders and all dirt roads led to three drivers being crowned champions at the World of Outlaws World Finals Saturday night.
David Gravel, of Watertown, Conn., Brandon Sheppard, of New Berlin, Ill. and Mat Williamson, of St. Catharines, Ont., conquered all paths en route to the 2024 title with their respective series.
Gravel and his Big Game Motorsports team – consisting of Cody Jacobs, Stephen Hamm-Reilly and Zach Patterson – earned their first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series championship. He became the 11th different series champion and first new champion since 2019. Also, his car owner, Tod Quiring, became the first new team owner to win a title since 2013.
“It’s a dream come true,” Gravel said. “We’ve been working at this for a long time. To do this with Big Game (Motorsports) in our fourth year together feels really really good.”
Sheppard made history by becoming the winningest World of Outlaws Late Model champion in Series history by claiming his fifth Series championship – breaking the tie with Josh Richards. However, this was his first with the Sheppard Riggs Racing Longhorn Factory Team.
“It’s crazy to think about now,” Sheppard said. “These things are not easy to win, and we did it the absolute hardest way possible, that’s for sure. Longhorn and the whole Riggs family gave me everything I needed to get the job done. It’s been a trying year with a ton of ups and downs. We’ve showed a lot of speed but haven’t had the wins that we needed. It was a battle of attrition to keep the thing up front and just be consistent…
“The stars lined up, man. I’ve battled for this a lot of years now. I know how to do it, it’s just a matter of putting together the package to be consistent and be OK when you’re not going to win that night.”
Williamson earned his second Super DIRTcar Series championship – first since 2019 – becoming the eighth driver in Super DIRTcar Series history to win multiple titles.
“It’s unbelievable,” Williamson said about winning the championship. “The second one was way harder than the first one. We worked really hard. The guys do such a good job of getting this thing prepared. I really have to thank them for everything they do. It’s really cool to be sitting here on the front straightaway (at The Dirt Track at Charlotte) celebrating something like this.”
Sheppard and Williamson had to endure the stress of waiting until the final lap of the weekend to be crowned the champion, while Gravel was able to lock up his title on Friday. His championship rival, Carson Macedo, won Friday night’s race, but Gravel’s fourth-place finish gave him enough points to lock up the title – ending the season with 15 wins, 44 top five finishes and 60 top 10s.
Gravel’s championship season started with him winning the second race of the year at Volusia Speedway Park and then taking home his third Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals Big Gator title. He and the Big Game Motorsports team were then masters of consistency, finishing outside the top 12 only two times in the first half of the season. And in that time, Gravel also picked up his first Kings Royal title and a Summer Nationals win at Williams Grove Speedway.
Their win count dropped in the second half of the year, picking up only two wins in that time span, but only had two finishes outside the top 10 with the worse being 13th.
“We started off really good, but when I started to build a big lead (in points) I crashed and it got close again and then stretched it out a little bit,” Gravel said. “We went through a little bit of a slump. Once we got away from the West Coast, I thought we battled back and ran really good to close off the year. It feels good to get the job done, finally.”
Sheppard’s championship season was tame in the win column, grabbing three series wins on the year – compared to his other four championship years, which saw him earn 18 wins with his first and second titles, 14 wins with this third title and eight with his fourth. However, he too was a master of consistency. He only had eight finishes worse than eighth in 41 starts – and only one outside the top 20.
Although, one of those finishes outside the top 10 came during the first World Finals Feature of the week, putting Nick Hoffman within 26 points of him. And then Bobby Pierce won Friday night’s feature, while Hoffman suffered a mechanical failure, moving Pierce to second in points – 22 points behind Sheppard.
The drama continued on the final night as Pierce battled for the lead, while Sheppard fought to stay within the top 10 to hold on to his points lead. But Pierce suffered a flat tire near the halfway point and could only recover to a 17th-place finish. Sheppard finished ninth and clinched the title by 38 points.
“It was a crazy year,” Sheppard said. “We’re super happy and thankful for all the sponsors that have stuck behind us. My dad and my grandpa. The whole Riggs family. The whole Longhorn family. Just everybody that’s involved with this team. It’s wild to think about standing here right now. I know the Riggs family has been trying to get one of these for a while.”
The Super DIRTcar Series had the closest points battle of the three series entering the World of Outlaws World Finals with Williamson trailing 10-time series champion Matt Sheppard by 15 points. That points lead evaporated for Sheppard and transferred to Williamson after Sheppard’s engine overheated during the first Feature of the weekend. Williamson then went on to win Friday night’s Feature and finish third on Saturday – securing the championship by 33 points over Sheppard.
“In our first year (as a team with Buzz Chew Racing) we came down to Charlotte and won the championship and it was like, ‘Wow, we did it. Good job guys.’ And then the next year you expect it and the year after you expect it and the year after, and so on and so forth,” Williamson said. “To get the second one finally done is unbelievably cool.”
Williamson ended the season with eight series wins, 14 top five finishes and 17 top 10s. He also earned his second straight DIRTcar Nationals Big Gator title in February.