Brian Shirley revealed he ended his night early at Lincoln Speedway with the FloRacing Night in America because he didn’t want to potentially hurt his car more than a flat tire.

Shirley’s night began with a fifth place finish in heat 5, which gave him a 19th place starting position for the feature. With 42 laps left in the 50-lap feature, a caution came out for Myles Moos who had spun in turns 3 and 4. At the same time, Shirley had come to a stop on the back stretch with a flat left rear.

After the caution came out, Shirley drove his No. 3S into the pit area and called it a night. 

At the time it was unclear if Shirley had decided to call it a night in order to save his stuff for Fairbury Speedway and the Prairie Dirt Classic or if he had some kind of other issue aside from the flat tire. Fortunately, it was the former rather than latter. Shirley shared in a post to Facebook, “Pulled in with a flat tire last night at Lincoln Speedway, didn’t want to wreck anything for the rest of the week.”

He added, “Ready to go for FloRacing Night in America at Fairbury American Legion Speedway.”

Shirley not only won the Prairie Dirt Classic last year, but also won his Showdown on Friday night. He started the feature in fourth and began working his way to the front getting around Brandon Sheppard on Lap 10 to move into third. By Lap 22, he worked to the outside of Jonathan Davenport on the front stretch and cleared him on the exit of turn 2. A few laps later and he worked to the inside of Hudson O’Neal, slid him through 1 and 2 and cleared him exiting turn 2.

Shirley would then lead for the rest of the race and held off a hard-charging Brandon Sheppard by staying true to the cushion and getting big runs off the corners to keep him at bay.

Shirley reflected on the win leading up to this year’s Prairie Dirt Classic sharing, “To embrace how loud they were for the excitement and everything, it was just unbelievable that I was lucky enough that the Good Lord let me have this opportunity to feel that.” 

“When I pulled up over there and then I pulled up over here, just the raw feedback. It’d be like being in a football stadium when they’re scoring a touchdown and the crowd just goes crazy,” he continued. “So many people didn’t leave. What was even better about it was the fact at how many people went to the bank. Like I was just so impressed with how much support that I had from the fans here that went there. And that’s what makes it what it is.”

“It’s almost a fairy tale, you know? It’s waking up today, coming to Fairbury, the sun’s shining, everybody wants to talk about the Prairie Dirt. You come here and you just feel at ease. Like, okay, today the world is okay. We’re not worried about what’s going to happen on Monday and we’re not worried about what’s going to happen on Tuesday. Today we’re at a dirt track. You get to let go of all your life problems for a couple days, maybe not even a couple days, a couple hours, and you get to have some pure joy and fun. And I think that’s what Fairbury is all about.”

NEXT: Brandon Sheppard Survives Scrape For FloRacing Night In America Lincoln Triumph