Brandon Sheppard ended his night early about 15 laps into the 50-lap feature on the opening night of the Wild West Shootout.

Sheppard went to the hot pit during a caution for Ethan Dotson who blew a flat tire. FloRacing’s pit reporter Trenton Berry shared, “Said he’s leaking oil out of the front of the oil pan. And there’s definitely some oil all over the front of this thing. They are done for the night.”

In a post to Facebook, Sheppard and his team shared more details, “Unfortunately tonight, we blew the front seal out of the oil pan. A tough break for our family-owned team, but we’re thankful a caution came out and that BP32 let us know we were smoking, allowing us to catch it before the motor was completely cooked.”

Sheppard qualified 10th in group 1, started his heat race in fifth, but moved up two spots to third to advance. That set him up for an 11th place starting position. At the time of the caution he was running in 12th. He said, “The car was really good tonight. Our Rocket Chassis XR2 had top-five potential in my opinion, the track was just starting to come in when we had to pull off.”

“We’ll get the motor changed tonight and go back at it tomorrow,” he declared. “Not the way we wanted to start the season, but we’ll be back swinging.”

Sheppard ended up finishing the race in 22nd only ahead of Billy Moyer Sr., Dustin Sorensen, and Jonathan Davenport who had parked their cars in the infield earlier in the race.

The Wild West Shootout is back in action tonight for the second of six races. Action is expected to start at 3:30 pm MT with the grandstands opening a half hour earlier at 3:00 pm MT and the pit gates opening at 1:00 pm MT.

Ricky Thornton Jr. took home the win in an epic duel with Hudson O’Neal that saw tire management play a key role not only for the two drivers, but the rest of the field. Towards the end of the race multiple cautions flew for flat tires and after a couple of restarts, Thornton was eventually able to find his way around O’Neal.

Official Finishing Order

1. Ricky Thornton Jr.
2. Hudson O’Neal
3. Cade Dillard
4. Ryan Gustin
5. Mike Marlar
6. Clay Stuckey
7. Garrett Alberson
8. Drake Troutman
9. Ethan Dotson
10. Kyle Beard
11. Tyler Erb
12. Dillon McCowan
13. Bobby Pierce
14. Jake O’Neil
15. R.C. Whitwell
16. Daniel Adam
17. Bricen James
18. Eston Whisler
19. Kylan Garner
20. Chase Junghans
21. Tyler Peterson
22. Brandon Sheppard
23. Billy Moyer Sr.
24. Dustin Sorensen
25. Jonathan Davenport

NEXT: Hudson O’Neal And Ricky Thornton Jr. Break Down Their Duel In The Opening Night Of The Wild West Shootout