Mark Richards lavished praise on his Rocket1 Racing driver Brandon Sheppard following the team’s Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Championship comparing him to the legendary Scott Bloomquist.

Sheppard and the Rocket1 Team won the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Championship with a very good 2nd place finish in the team’s home state of West Virginia during the Dirt Track World Championship at West Virginia Motor Speedway. Sheppard had a 45-point lead over Devin Moran heading into the race, and was able to extend it to 55 points when it was all said and done.

Rocket1 Racing celebrates its 2026 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Championship

While the second place finish locked up the Championship, the team had an overall stellar and extraordinarily consistent year. With Lucas Oil, they won nine races, had 28 Top 5s, and 39 Top 10s. His first two wins came at All-Tech Raceway and Ocala Speedway during Speedweeks. He also won at Hagerstown Speedway, Fairbury Speedway, Smoky Mountain Speedway, Lernerville Speedway, 34 Raceway, Shelby County Speedway, and Florence Speedway.

Outside of Lucas Oil competition, the team won the Sunshine Nationals mini-series and the Prairie Dirt Classic. He also nabbed two FloRacing Night in America Series wins at Spoon River and Lincoln Speedway. He currently leads that series’ points standings by nine points over Hudson O’Neal with two races left at Senoia Raceway in the middle of November.

Furthermore, he put together his best performance in the World 100 finishing fourth. He was also in the hunt to win the Dirt Late Model Dream, but suffered an issue with his right front that sent him careening into the outside wall just as he had closed the gap to Bobby Pierce and looked prime to put on a whale of a finish for the win.

During an appearance on The Dirt Parlor Podcast, Richards praised Sheppard by comparing him to Bloomquist. He said, “Brandon Sheppard has become a different driver. I believe Scott Bloomquist has come back as Brandon Sheppard. A lot of people probably throw stones at me for that, but he drives a lot like Scott did. I mean Brandon used to be the guy that was up on the cushion, knocking the deck out. And now Brandon’s the guy taking care of his car and waiting ‘till the end of the race. Just like Scott used to do.”

“Everybody would think Scott was out of it and the last 10,15 laps of the race and here he would come and drive by everybody,” Richards continued. “And Brandon, the races ain’t long enough for us anymore. I wish they were longer races more like when Scott used to dominate when they were 100 lappers because it seems like our car comes on at the end now.”

“He’s the most patient driver that I’ve ever had, for sure, for patience,” Richards praised. “And sometimes I think we’re going to run 10th in this race. And we end up winning it.”

“I tell other drivers that I think sometimes too hard early and I tell them, ‘Look, you’re not going to win this race at the beginning. You’re going to win this race at the end. Nobody drops the checkered flag in the first five laps. They drop the checkered flag at whatever the distance is.’ And Brandon has become that driver. The first lap we’re never passing cars. We’re never trying to get in a situation where we’re going to knock our nose off or knock our deck out. He’s patient. That’s all I can say. It’s patience.”

Richards also highlighted how well Sheppard takes care of his tires, “That’s the biggest deal in this sport today. The tires are not what they used to be. And if you abuse them you’re not going to be any good. You was at the Show-Me, right? Most everybody at that Show-Me had 3s and 4s on, right? We raced with 2s and a 3. And run second.”

“Jonathan [Davenport] come up to me after the race. Brandon ran second and Bobby [Pierce] won on the cushion. Brandon was driving around the bottom. He looked a lot like you (Gordy Gundaker), the way you race, creeping around the bottom. And JD said, ‘Can I look at your tires?’ ‘Cause he heard that I had 2s and a 3 on. And I said, ‘Yeah, you can look at them.’ He said, ‘I can’t believe them tires look like that.’ It’s because [Sheppard] doesn’t rip the tires off anymore.

Richards continued, “He said, ‘Come and look at mine.’ And I looked at his. And because he was harder and they were up there at the top of the race track, his tires looked like they’d had a cheese grater on them.”

Brandon Sheppard. Photo by Event Horizon Photography.

“And Brandon has become, like I say, that patient Scott Bloomquist style of racer. I would’ve really never believed that would work today, but it does work. It just takes longer distance, slicker races for it to happen. If there’s a cushion and they’re mowing the decks out and all that, we’re probably not that guy anymore.”

“And you remember Brandon from the early days, that was us. Knocking the deck out and mowing the cushion down. But he can still get up there and do it, it’s just we don’t do it like we used to do it. We don’t have to because our car is built a whole lot better than it was back in those days,” he concluded. “Back in those days, we had to rely on the cushion and the tires were good enough that you could run your car kind of out of control. The tires today, you can’t run out of control. You’ve got to take care of your tires.”

NEXT: Earl Pearson Jr. Shares How Different Dirt Late Model Racing Is From Just 2 Years Ago