Sheppard Collects Fourth Career Dirt Track World Championship at Portsmouth

PORTSMOUTH, OH  – Brandon Sheppard captured the 40th Annual General Tire Dirt Track World Championship – Presented by Optima Batteries on Saturday Night at Portsmouth Raceway Park. Sheppard earned $100,000 for his fourth career win in the crown jewel event sanctioned by the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. With the win, Sheppard became the third driver in the 40-year history of the event to score back-to-back wins, joining Josh Richards and Scott Bloomquist.

Ricky Thornton Jr. finished in second for his best career finish in the event with Tim McCreadie claiming third at the finish. McCreadie had led the first 23 laps of the 100-lap affair until yielding the top spot to Sheppard, who started 11th. Chris Madden; in his first DTWC start in 14 years; finished in fourth and 22nd-place starter Tyler Erb rounded out the top five drivers at the finish.

McCreadie, who had already clinched second place in the championship point standings, sprinted to the lead at the start of the richest first-place prize money offered in dirt late model racing this year.  McCreadie held off challenges from last year’s DTWC runner-up Mike Marlar for several laps until Marlar lost the second spot to Sheppard on lap 21.

Sheppard made his move to the lead three laps later taking over the top spot on lap 24. Zack Dohm was on the move taking the second spot on lap 35 and started to challenge Sheppard for the lead. Dohm pulled even with Sheppard a couple of times until lap 75 when Thornton moved into second place. Thornton held the second position until the finish.

In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the fifth time in 2020 the 27-year-old Sheppard withstood some tense caution flags laps to get the win. “I will tell you what, I love this place. As hard as its been all weekend I knew it was going to be around the bottom at the end of the race. I knew when I rolled out there for the race, drive as hard as I could to get to the front as soon as I could. So that was kind of the game plan. We went a little different on tires than we normally do here. We had an early game, but once we got the lead we didn’t know what we were going to do.”

“Our car was good just like it has been all year long. I think that’s 31 wins this year so that’s really awesome. During those cautions I had too much time to think about my right rear tire for sure. When I was in lap traffic I tried to pass them one time and I didn’t feel good and so I tucked back in behind them. Zack showed me his nose on the outside and when he showed the line a little bit different in one and two, that got me going a little bit better.”

Thornton was coming off his first career LOLMDS win at Pittsburgh came home in second. “I honestly don’t think the cautions mattered. He [Sheppard] had a really good car. I was going to try and go to the top if I got close enough. On the restarts he would really take off and it took me about 5 or 6 laps to get going. We ran a little hard on tires and I knew on the restarts we wouldn’t be as good as those other guys.”

McCreadie wound up third in the final rundown. “I gave it my best shot. I was too good too early, and I didn’t know where to be on the track. When Sheppard got by me I was just kind of got lost for a few laps and it cost us. On the restarts I just couldn’t get a clear track to make a move.”

The winner’s Mark Richards Racing Rocket Chassis is powered by a Durham Racing Engines and is sponsored by Valvoline, Seubert Calf Ranches, Gunters Honey, Ace Metal Works, Integra Racing Shocks, Sunoco Race Fuels, Sallack Well Services Keyser, and Rocket 1 Pre-Owned Motors.

Completing the top ten were Zack Dohm, Billy Moyer Jr., Boom Briggs, Kyle Bronson, and Jason Feger.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Race Summary
40th Annual General Tire Dirt Track World Championship – Presented by Optima Batteries
Saturday, October 17th, 2020
Portsmouth Raceway Park – Portsmouth, OH

Lucas Oil Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Tim McCreadie / 15.911 seconds (overall)
Fast Time Group B: Shane Clanton / 16.002 seconds

Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (15 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 22F-Chris Ferguson[1]; 2. 44M-Chris Madden[3]; 3. 29V-Darrell Lanigan[2]; 4. 1T-Tyler Erb[6]; 5. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[5]; 6. 58-Ross Bailes[4]; 7. D8-Dustin Linville[8]; 8. 16-Tyler Bruening[7]; 9. 144-Anthony Kinkade[9]; 10. 10C-Craig Christian[10]; 11. (DNS) 1A-Audie Swartz

FK Rod Ends Heat Race #2 Finish (15 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 0-Scott Bloomquist[2]; 2. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley[5]; 4. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[4]; 5. 44-Colten Burdette[1]; 6. 9-Devin Moran[7]; 7. 49-Jonathan Davenport[6]; 8. 81-Jason Riggs[9]; 9. 0P-Steve Prince[10]; 10. 17T-Tim Vance[8]

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (15 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[2]; 2. C9-Steve Casebolt[5]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[1]; 4. 0PD-Freddie Carpenter[8]; 5. 83-Scott James[6]; 6. 32A-Tyler Carpenter[7]; 7. 33K-Kevin Wagner[9]; 8. 25-Shane Clanton[3]; 9. 16C-Michael Conley Jr[11]; 10. 69-Jon Hodgkiss[10]; 11. 71-Hudson O’Neal[4]

Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (15 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[2]; 2. C9-Steve Casebolt[5]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[1]; 4. 0PD-Freddie Carpenter[8]; 5. 83-Scott James[6]; 6. 32A-Tyler Carpenter[7]; 7. 33K-Kevin Wagner[9]; 8. 25-Shane Clanton[3]; 9. 16C-Michael Conley Jr[11]; 10. 69-Jon Hodgkiss[10]; 11. 71-Hudson O’Neal[4]

MyRacePass Heat Race #5 Finish (15 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 2. 14-Josh Richards[2]; 3. 21H-Robby Hensley[6]; 4. 25F-Jason Feger[7]; 5. 72C-Jason Covert[5]; 6. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 7. 31T-Tyler Millwood[1]; 8. 79-Doug Drown[9]; 9. 24D-Michael Brown[8]; 10. 17ST-Shannon Thornsberry[10]

Lucas Oil Heat Race #6 Finish (15 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 99B-Boom Briggs[2]; 3. 777-Jared Landers[3]; 4. 6-Kyle Larson[5]; 5. 88-Trent Ivey[4]; 6. 22-Gregg Satterlee[7]; 7. 25B-Mike Benedum[9]; 8. 95-Jerry Bowersock[6]; 9. 20B-Todd Brennan[8]; 10. 316-Fast Eddy[10]

Tiger Rear Ends B-Main #1 Finish (15 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[3]; 2. 1T-Tyler Erb[2]; 3. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[4]; 4. 4G-Kody Evans[7]; 5. 81E-Tanner English[5]; 6. D8-Dustin Linville[8]; 7. 71C-RJ Conley[9]; 8. 2S-Stormy Scott[15]; 9. 81F-Brandon Fouts[11]; 10. 16-Tyler Bruening[10]; 11. 144-Anthony Kinkade[12]; 12. 4B-Jackie Boggs[13]; 13. 10C-Craig Christian[14]; 14. 1A-Audie Swartz[16]; 15. (DNS) 58-Ross Bailes; 16. (DNS) 8-Kyle Strickler

FAST Shafts B-Main #2 Finish (15 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[1]; 2. 9-Devin Moran[5]; 3. 71-Hudson O’Neal[15]; 4. 49-Jonathan Davenport[7]; 5. 44-Colten Burdette[3]; 6. 81-Jason Riggs[9]; 7. 33K-Kevin Wagner[8]; 8. 83-Scott James[4]; 9. 0P-Steve Prince[11]; 10. 17T-Tim Vance[13]; 11. 69-Jon Hodgkiss[14]; 12. 16C-Michael Conley Jr[12]; 13. 0PD-Freddie Carpenter[2]; 14. 25-Shane Clanton[10]; 15. 32A-Tyler Carpenter[6]

Sunoco Race Fuels B-Main #3 Finish (15 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[5]; 2. 25F-Jason Feger[1]; 3. 79-Doug Drown[9]; 4. 72C-Jason Covert[3]; 5. 24D-Michael Brown[11]; 6. 22-Gregg Satterlee[6]; 7. 25B-Mike Benedum[8]; 8. 88-Trent Ivey[4]; 9. 20B-Todd Brennan[12]; 10. 95-Jerry Bowersock[10]; 11. 31T-Tyler Millwood[7]; 12. 316-Fast Eddy[14]; 13. 6-Kyle Larson[2]; 14. (DNS) 17ST-Shannon Thornsberry

Jim Dunn Memorial Non-Qualifiers Race Finish (25 Laps): 1. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[1]; 2. 44-Colten Burdette[5]; 3. 71C-RJ Conley[10]; 4. D8-Dustin Linville[7]; 5. 83-Scott James[13]; 6. 24D-Michael Brown[6]; 7. 79-Doug Drown[2]; 8. 81-Jason Riggs[8]; 9. 33K-Kevin Wagner[11]; 10. 25B-Mike Benedum[12]; 11. 144-Anthony Kinkade[19]; 12. 0PD-Freddie Carpenter[25]; 13. 81F-Brandon Fouts[15]; 14. 32A-Tyler Carpenter[24]; 15. 69-Jon Hodgkiss[22]; 16. 0P-Steve Prince[16]; 17. 95-Jerry Bowersock[20]; 18. 4G-Kody Evans[3]; 19. 20B-Todd Brennan[17]; 20. 17T-Tim Vance[18]; 21. 16C-Michael Conley Jr[23]; 22. (DNS) 4B-Jackie Boggs; 23. (DNS) 72C-Jason Covert; 24. (DNS) 88-Trent Ivey; 25. (DNS) 31T-Tyler Millwood; 26. (DNS) 22-Gregg Satterlee

Lucas Oil Feature Finish (100 Laps):

Race Statistics
Entrants: 63
Lap Leaders: Tim McCreadie (Laps 1 – 23); Brandon Sheppard (Laps 24 – 53); Zack Dohm (Lap 54); Brandon Sheppard (Laps 55 – 100)
Wrisco Feature Winner: Brandon Sheppard
Margin of Victory: 0.953 seconds
Cautions: Brandon Overton (Lap 2); Josh Richards (Lap 13); Kyle Larson (Lap 15); Robby Hensley (Lap 74); Devin Moran (Lap 76); Devin Moran (Lap 83); Chris Ferguson, Tanner English (Lap 94); Steve Casebolt (Lap 94); Hudson O’Neal (Lap 98)
Series Provisionals: Jonathan Davenport, Shane Clanton
Fast Time Provisional: n/a
Series Emergency Provisionals: Tanner English, Tyler Bruening, Hudson O’Neal, Stormy Scott
Promotor Provisional: Kyle Larson
Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Brandon Sheppard, Ricky Thornton Jr., Tim McCreadie
Optima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Stormy Scott (Advanced 18 Positions)
Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Jimmy Owens
Allstar Performance Most Laps Led: Brandon Sheppard (76 Laps)
Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Brandon Sheppard
Eibach Springs Rookie of the Race: Tanner English
ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Durham Racing Engines
Miller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket Chassis
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Danny White (Brandon Sheppard)
Dirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Tim McCreadie (Lap #1 – 15.3952 seconds)
STEEL-IT Tough Break of the Race: Mike Marlar
PFC Brakes Pole Award: Tim McCreadie
Time of Race: 65 minutes 21 seconds