Brandon Sheppard took advantage of a mid-race restart to get to the lead and then he held off a late-charging Devin Moran to win a thrilling Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series opener at All-Tech Raceway.
Sheppard qualified 5th in Group B. That gave him a third place starting position in Heat 3. He was able to move up a spot to finish in second. That gave him a 6th place starting spot to start the feature. He dropped back to 7th early in the race as Mark Whitener was able to get by him. However, he began working his way back to the front through the first half of the race. With 31 to go he had moved to fifth past Justin Weaver. He then slipped by Devin Moran before a caution came out for Chris Madden.
Another caution would come out immediately on the ensuing restart as a number of cars got stacked up and Jackson Hise and Dillon McCowan eventually got together and spun on it.
On the next restart, Sheppard struck like a cobra. Coming out of turn four, Sheppard hugged the inside lane and got around both Hudson O’Neal and Clay Harris down the front stretch. He then got to the inside of Brandon Overton going down the back stretch and completed the pass at the start/finish line. It looked like Overton was going to return the favor the next lap on the high side, but a caution for Justin Weaver would stymie his chance and Sheppard would control the field on the next restart.
There would be another caution for Dan Ebert a few laps later. Finally, they would click off a number of green flag laps. However, another caution would come out for Clay Harris, who was running in second. He got into the wall in the middle of turns 1 and 2 and then got sucked into coming out of turn 2.
On the final restart, Devin Moran mirrored Sheppard’s earlier quick strike attack. However, he went to the outside of both Brandon Overton and Carson Ferguson on the exit of turn 2. He then set his sights on Sheppard, but Sheppard held him and kept him about half a second in the final laps.
In victory lane, Sheppard told FloRacing’s Ben Shelton, “That definitely feels good. We’ve had a really fast race car all of Speedweeks so far. We just needed a few things to go our way and Mark [Richards] and the boys been tweaking on this thing. And, you know, we’ve just been working really hard trying to get everything just right for the way I like. About halfway through last year I knew coming this year we were going to be pretty good. It was just a matter of getting the whole package together.”
“We’ve had such a good car this Speedweeks it’s finally paying off for us. So I’m super thankful and just happy to be here,” he said
On Facebook, Sheppard added, ” We had an incredible car. Sometimes you just have to speak it into existence… and I truly believe this is going to be a special year. Winning the finale at Volusia and now opening up the season with a win at All-Tech…. we’re on a roll, and I’m hoping we can keep it that way.”
Official Finishing Order
- Brandon Sheppard
- Devin Moran
- Hudson O’Neal
- Brandon Overton
- Carson Ferguson
- Josh Rice
- Dan Ebert
- Brian Shirley
- Kyle Bronson
- Mark Whitener
- Max Blair
- Cory Hedgecock
- Garrett Alberson
- Ricky Thornton Jr.
- Blair Nothdurft
- Preston Luckman
- Daniel Hilsabeck
- Dillon McCowan
- Tyler Bruening
- Brenden Smith
- Cory Lawler
- Clay Harris
- Justin Weaver
- Jackson Hise
- Tyler Wyant
- Chris Madden
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