ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Brandon Sheppard’s second straight Castrol Gateway Dirt Nationals victory will be remembered for the slide job that never came.
With fellow Illinois racer Bobby Pierce charging from 12th and pulling up to Sheppard’s rear deck on the last lap, Pierce's broken driveshaft allowed the New Berlin, Ill., racer to collect the $30,000 checkers without drama Saturday at The Dome at America's Center.
Perhaps without drama, but with plenty of emotion for the 31-year-old Sheppard, who in 2024 captured an unprecedented fifth World of Outlaws Late Model Series championship but tallied a modest six victories heading to Dirt Late Model racing’s lone indoor event.
"I'm emotional right now,” Sheppard said in victory lane after a crowd-pleasing fist pump atop his No. B5 Rocket Chassis. "This crowd is … there's nothing like it. (Ohio’s) Eldora (Speedway) has got a lot of fans and you know, that one probably still tops this one, but I tell you, this up-close-and-personal and in-your-face underneath this Dome is something special.”
The pole-starting Sheppard, who dove under fellow front-row starter Gordy Gundaker to take the lead on the 11th lap, controlled the rest of the 40-lapper to become the third two-time winner of the Cody Sommer-founded event, matching Oakwood, Ill.’s Pierce (2017-18) and Tyler Carpenter of Parkersburg, W.Va. (2019 and ’21).
The runner-up Pierce, who rallied from the 12th starting spot, limped across the line 2.585 seconds behind Sheppard with Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., in third. Mike Spatola of Manhattan, Ill., a preliminary feature winner along with Thornton, was fourth with Nick Hoffman of Mooresville, N.C., rounding out the top five on the temporary fifth-mile oval.
Sixth-starting Ashton Winger ran as high as second and never worse than fifth before engine woes forced his smoking car into the infield after 28 laps.
Sheppard, who spent the 2024 season with the Longhorn Factory Team, made a victorious return to the Rocket Chassis camp. While he wasn’t driving the Rocket1 of the Rocket Chassis house car team he’ll return to for the 2025 season, team owner Mark Richards loaned Sheppard a 2-year-old car that showed it had plenty of juice in it while adorned with the B5 skins of Sheppard’s family-owned team.
“I'm super thankful to start off this new venture on a great note. Actually, I’m thinking Mark Richards is probably smiling right now,” Sheppard said in victory lane. “He still had the old girl sitting around and it’s all cracked and beat up and busted, and he let me bring it out here and put my motor in it and let me go have a little fun. I’m sure he’s sitting at home smiling and proud of me right now.”
Pierce’s dazzling charge from the sixth row ended when he lost power midway down the backstretch on the white-flag lap.
“Something in the drivetrain broke, which figures, how rough I was bouncing. That one time I hit (a hole) extremely hard and I had to get smoother again after that. That was actually the faster way around there, to enter the corner slower and then get back on it,” Pierce said, congratulating Sheppard and adding that he "was driving so hard trying to catch him I think that's really what made it break that last corner there.
“He was kind of pulling me off (turn) two and I had to get a good launch off the corner and I kind of hung there for a second. So I tried to get one last good lick of cushion to launch me on the backstretch, I think I might have hit the wall and that's probably what broke it.
“If it didn't break, I was sending it in there regardless, whether I was 10 car lengths back or what. We were going for it.”
The third-finishing Thornton held the second spot from laps 15-29, but he couldn’t keep up with the speedy Illinois drivers.
“I think Shepp, it was like he had a Cadillac running all around the top over there,” said Thornton, who finished second to Sheppard in 2023. “We were trying (to do) what we can. Maybe next year? We're close, but it definitely sucks to run third. But if we're complaining about running third, we're doing something right.”
Gundaker controlled the early laps with Sheppard patiently trying to show him a nose down low. Sheppard made his winning move one lap after the first restart, taking command on the 11th lap when he dove under Gundaker entering turn three.
While a flurry of challengers swapped positions behind him — Thornton, Winger, Spatola and finally Pierce were among those throwing slide jobs aplenty — Sheppard ran mostly unchallenged until Pierce, who grabbed the second spot on the 30th lap, began tracking down the leader over the final caution-free stretch.
Sheppard, eventually hung up by slower traffic, wasn’t surprised the top-ranked Pierce, a 38-race winner in 2024’s outdoor season, was on the hunt.
“When the track gets like that, there's only a couple of us that can let 'er eat up there, and the 32 is one of them,” Sheppard said.
Pierce didn’t get into contention until the final laps while Sheppard lost momentum trailing the slower Jonathan Davenport, who was running Sheppard’s preferred high groove until he dropped low in the race’s waning moments.
With two laps remaining, Davenport, sporting a depiction of the Watusi cattle from his Dirty Dollar Ranch in South Carolina on his car's hood, “held Brandon up just enough for me to really get a good run and then we went down the backstretch and J.D. went to the bottom. That was probably my chance there if I could’ve split them guys and went for it, but it would have been treacherous,” Pierce said.
A lap later Pierce lost power and was relieved to coast across the finish line with the $15,000 runner-up’s purse.
“I’m glad I got second after that. I was hoping J.D, with his horns would push me to the finish line. I didn’t know if I’d make it, but I’m happy with it.”
The 40-lapper was slowed by five cautions, the first on the 10th lap when Steve Sheppard Jr. and Davenport went around in turns one and two.
On the 12th lap, Tanner English spun in turn two after contact with Pierce while Jadon Frame spun to avoid English. A lap-17 caution dropped for debris in the form of Rich Bell’s spoiler.
Carpenter spun for a lap-22 yellow and the final caution flew on the 26th lap when Bell slowed on the backstretch.
Notes: Sheppard said his last victory in the winning car came during 2022’s Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury (lll.) Speedway in his previous stint with the Rocket house car operation. … All three two-time Gateway winners (Sheppard, Pierce and Carpenter) won consecutive races, although Tyler Carpenter’s victories came on either side of 2020 pandemic-hampered season when the event wasn’t held. … Discussing his 10-position rally on the tight track in his postrace interview, Pierce said that “to come from 12th to the front like that’s pretty good in my book” while upsetting a single competitor, Tanner English, who pulled alongside Pierce after the race to express his displeasure over the lap-12 contact that helped turn him around. … Other drivers were upset postrace, including Tyler Carpenter, who made contact several times with Steve Sheppard Jr., the winner’s father, en route to the pits. There was also a scuffle in the pits involving Sheppard, who claimed that Carpenter had mistakenly blamed him for contact made by another driver. … Ninth-running Ryan Gustin parked after 25 laps with a flat right-rear tire. … A dozen of 20 starters completed 40 laps.
Ninth annual Castrol Gateway Dirt Nationals
Pos. Driver (car no.), hometown, chassis, earnings
1. Brandon Sheppard (B5), New Berlin, Ill., Rocket, $30,000
2. Bobby Pierce (32), Oakwood, Ill., Longhorn, $15,000
3. Ricky Thornton Jr. (20rt), Chandler, Ariz., Longhorn, $10,000
4. Mike Spatola (89), Manhattan, Ill., Rocket, $5,000
5. Nick Hoffman (9), Mooresville, N.C., Longhorn, $3,000
6. Gordy Gundaker (11), St. Charles, Mo., Longhorn, $2,500
7. Josh Rice (11), Crittenden, Ky., Rocket, $2,400
8. Hudson O’Neal (71), Martinsville, Ind., Longhorn, $2,300
9. Kyle Hammer (45), Clinton, Ill., Longhorn, $2,200
10. Steve Sheppard Jr. (5s), New Berlin, Ill., Longhorn, $2,100
11. Tyler Carpenter (28), Parkersburg, W.Va., Kryptonite, $2,000
12. Tanner English (96), Benton, Ky., Longhorn, $2,000
13. Jonathan Davenport (49), Blairsville, Ga., Longhorn, $2,000
14. Brandon Overton (76), Evans, Ga., Longhorn, $2,000
15. Ryan Unzicker (24), El Paso, Ill., MB Customs, $2,000
16. Ashton Winger (12), Hampton, Ga., Rocket, $2,000
17. Ryan Gustin (0), Marshalltown, Iowa, Infinity, $2,000
18. Rich Bell (21B), Sheffield, Ill., Rocket, $2,000
19. Jadon Frame (J8), Winchester, Ky., Longhorn, $2,000
20. Jack Riggs (81), College Grove, Tenn., Longhorn, $2,000
Lap leaders: Gundaker 1-10; Sheppard
Fast qualifier (among 131 cars): Thornton, 12.098 seconds.
Qualifier winners: Gustin, Unzicker, Hammer, English, Carpenter, Pierce
Last-chance winner: Bell
Provisional starter: Overton
Preliminary feature winners: Spatola, Thornton
Feature lineup
(40 laps)
Row 1: Brandon Sheppard, Gordy Gundaker
Row 2: Mike Spatola, Ricky Thornton Jr.
Row 3: Nick Hoffman, Ashton Winger
Row 4: Ryan Gustin, Ryan Unzicker
Row 5: Kyle Hammer, Tanner English
Row 6: Tyler Carpenter, Bobby Pierce
Row 7: Steve Sheppard Jr., Jack Riggs
Row 8: Jadon Frame, Josh Rice
Row 9: Jonathan Davenport, Hudson O'Neal
Row 10: Rich Bell, Brandon Overton
Consolation race results
(10 laps; winner transfers)
Finish: Rich Bell, Jason Feger, Rusty Schlenk, Jason Welshan, Spencer Hughes, Gavin Cowan, Joseph Joiner, Freddie Carpenter, Derek Fisher, Tristan Chamberlain, Michael King Jr. Scratched: Austin Howes.
Consolation lineup
Row 1: Rich Bell, Derek Fisher
Row 2: Jason Feger, Freddie Carpenter
Row 3: Joseph Joiner, Jason Welshan
Row 4: Michael King Jr., Rusty Schlenk
Row 5: Tristan Chamberlain, Spencer Hughes
Row 6: Gavin Cowan, Austin Howes
Qualifying race recap
Ryan Gustin led all 10 laps from the pole to win the first qualifier by 1.040 seconds over sixth-starting Steve Sheppard Jr., with both drivers punching their ticket into Saturday’s 40-lap main event. Trevor Gundaker and Jimmy Owens tangled while battling for second, sending both spinning. They continued, with Gundaker finishing fifth and Owens in eighth. Chris Simpson spun on the ensuing restart, collecting Tyler Erb and ending their weekend. … Third-starting Ryan Unzicker inherited control after the leaders tangled on the second lap and paced the final nine circuits, winning the second qualifier by 0.835 of a second over fifth-starting Jack Riggs. Riggs muscled his way by Derek Fisher, forcing him into the turn-two wall, as they came to take the white flag; Fisher showed his displeasure with Riggs after the checkers. Fisher’s lap-two slider sent early leader Myles Moos hard into the turn-four wall, ending his night. … Kyle Hammer cruised to win the third qualifier, leading the entire distance and crossing the line 0.818 of a second ahead of pole-starting Jadon Frame. Jason Feger pressured Frame for much of the race, before taking the checkers 1.149 seconds back. Shannon Babb and Brandon Overton made contact on lap eight, sending both spinning and eliminating them from contention. … Tanner English earned a flag-to-flag victory in the fourth qualifier, winning by 0.544 of a second over third-starting Josh Rice, who used a last-lap slider by Freddie Carpenter for the final transfer spot into the $30,000-to-win finale. Cody Bauer couldn’t overcome a lap-eight spin, while Cole Babcock slowed on lap nine after slamming the turn-two wall and losing his entire right-rear wheel assembly. … Tyler Carpenter overcame a few botched restarts to lead the entire distance of the fifth qualifier, winning by 1.980 seconds over Jonathan Davenport. Oakley Johns briefly held a transfer spot until tangling with Gavin Cowan on a lap-three restart and spinning, before retiring. Ryan Montgomery saw his weekend end when he nosed hard into the turn-two wall on lap three; the contact necessitated a lengthy red flag for fence repairs. Rodney Melvin spun twice before completing a lap. … Bobby Pierce scored a commanding green-to-checkered victory in the sixth and final qualifier, cruising to win by 2.006 seconds over third-starting Hudson O’Neal.
Qualifying race results
(10 laps; top two transfer)
First qualifier: Ryan Gustin, Steve Sheppard Jr., Rich Bell, Michael King Jr., Trevor Gundaker, Jeffrey Ledford, Derek Fetter, Jimmy Owens, Chad Wallace, Chris Simpson, Tyler Erb.
Second qualifier: Ryan Unzicker, Jack Riggs, Derek Fisher, Rusty Schlenk, Devin Moran, Carter Schlenk, Manny Falcon, Brenden Smith, TeeJay Janousek, Myles Moos. Scratched: Ryan Wilson.
Third qualifier: Kyle Hammer, Jadon Frame, Jason Feger, Tristan Chamberlain, Mike Franklin, Zak Blackwood, Lance Brasington, Brandon Overton, Shannon Babb, Bob Gardner, Jon Mitchell.
Fourth qualifier: Tanner English, Josh Rice, Freddie Carpenter, Spencer Hughes, Jordan Barbee, Corey DeLancey, Delbert Crum, Dylan Thompson, Steven Dotson, Cody Bauer, Cole Babcock.
Fifth qualifier: Tyler Carpenter, Jonathan Davenport, Joseph Joiner, Gavin Cowan, Wil Herrington, Todd Rehg, Jason Riggs, Oakley Johns, Ryan Montgomery, Rodney Melvin, Donald Johns.
Sixth qualifier: Bobby Pierce, Hudson O'Neal, Jason Welshan, Austin Howes, Daniel Adam, Carson Ferguson, Amelia Eisenschenk, Quentin White, Dean Carpenter, Chad Zobrist. Scratched: Dakota Smith.
Qualifying race lineups
First qualifier
Row 1: Ryan Gustin, Jimmy Owens
Row 2: Trevor Gundaker, Chris Simpson
Row 3: Jeffrey Ledford, Steve Sheppard Jr.
Row 4: Michael King Jr., Chad Wallace
Row 5: Rich Bell, Derek Fetter
Row 6: Tyler Erb
Second qualifier
Row 1: Myles Moos, Derek Fisher
Row 2: Ryan Unzicker, Carter Schlenk
Row 3: Jack Riggs, Devin Moran
Row 4: Brenden Smith, Manny Falcon
Row 5: Ryan Wilson, TeeJay Janousek
Row 6: Rusty Schlenk
Third qualifier
Row 1: Jadon Frame, Kyle Hammer
Row 2: Shannon Babb, Jason Feger
Row 3: Jon Mitchell, Bob Gardner
Row 4: Mike Franklin, Tristan Chamberlain
Row 5: Lance Brasington, Zak Blackwood
Row 6: Brandon Overton
Fourth qualifier
Row 1: Freddie Carpenter, Tanner English
Row 2: Josh Rice, Jordan Barbee
Row 3: Spencer Hughes, Delbert Crum
Row 4: Cody Bauer, Cole Babcock
Row 5: Steven Dotson, Corey DeLancey
Row 6: Dylan Thompson
Fifth qualifier
Row 1: Oakley Johns, Tyler Carpenter
Row 2: Jonathan Davenport, Joseph Joiner
Row 3: Rodney Melvin, Jason Riggs
Row 4: Ryan Montgomery, Donald Johns
Row 5: Todd Rehg, Gavin Cowan
Row 6: Wil Herrington
Sixth qualifier
Row 1: Bobby Pierce, Carson Ferguson
Row 2: Hudson O’Neal, Austin Howes
Row 3: Dean Carpenter, Jason Welshan
Row 4: Daniel Adam, Amelia Eisenschenk
Row 5: Dakota Smith, Quentin White
Row 6: Chad Zobrist
Non-qualifying race results
(12 laps; top two transfer)
First non-qualifier: Derek Fetter, TeeJay Janousek, Daniel Garrett, Brody Yarbrough, Michael Seibers, Casey White, Justin Green, Zach Wohlers, Jacob Magee, Chris McKeehan, Matt Menzie, Scott Geaschel, Jonathan Woods, Jim O'Hara, Doug Cooper, James Nash, Rachel Carpenter, Mike Petersilie. Scratched: Darin Weisinger, Scott Bell, David Scott Jr.
Second non-qualifier: Zak Blackwood, Corey DeLancey, John Ownbey, Devon Morgan, Dustin Rollins, Matthew Tribble, Jayme Zidar, Evan Koehler, Austin Theiss, David Seibers, Timmy Dick, Chase Collins, Kyle Mixon, Cyle Forgy, Tate O'Leary, Ted Johnson Jr., Glen Hounshell, Blake Higginbotham, Jared Bamberger. Scratched: Will Harris, Robbie Scott.
Third non-qualifier: Gavin Cowan, Quentin White, Greg Kimmons, William Rose, Blake Morris, Matt Koch, Chris Fetter, Patrik Daniel, Brody Smith, Benji Hicks, Steve Hewitt, Daniel Shelton, Megan Sanders, Rusty Griffaw, Jacob Grimsley, Bree Whittmore, Kylan Garner, Nathan Higginbotham, Devon Andrews, Cameron Reynolds, David Marlow. Scratched: Brandon Carpenter.
Non-qualifying race lineups
First non-qualifier
Row 1: Derek Fetter, James Nash
Row 2: Justin Green, Michael Seibers
Row 3: Rachel Carpenter, Zach Wohlers
Row 4: Casey White, TeeJay Janousek
Row 5: Scott Geaschel, Jacob Magee
Row 6: Chris McKeehan, Mike Petersilie
Row 7: Jonathan Woods, Brody Yarbrough
Row 8: Daniel Garrett, Darin Weisinger
Row 9: Matt Menzie, Scott Bell
Row 10: Jim O’Hara, David Scott Jr.
Row 11: Doug Cooper
Second non-qualifier
Row 1: Matthew Tribble, Zak Blackwood
Row 2: Dustin Rollins, John Ownbey
Row 3: Cyle Forgy, Austin Theiss
Row 4: Corey DeLancey, Devon Morgan
Row 5: Kyle Mixon, Glen Hounshell
Row 6: Timmy Dick, Blake Higginbotham
Row 7: Tate O’Leary, Lance Brasington
Row 8: Will Harris, Evan Koehler
Row 9: Jayme Zidar, Robbie Scott
Row 10: Jared Bamberger, David Seibers
Row 11: Ted Johnson Jr., Chase Collins
Third non-qualifier
Row 1: Rusty Griffaw, Jacob Grimsley
Row 2: Quentin White, Gavin Cowan
Row 3: Bree Whittmore, Greg Kimmons
Row 4: William Rose, Kylan Garner
Row 5: Nathan Higginbotham, Matt Koch
Row 6: Blake Morris, Brody Smith
Row 7: Daniel Shelton, Devon Andrews
Row 8: Benji Hicks, Chris Fetter
Row 9: Megan Sanders, Patrik Daniel
Row 10: Cameron Reynolds, Steve Hewitt
Row 11: Brandon Carpenter, David Marlow
Saturday’s schedule
(All times local)
11 a.m. - Pits open, technical inspection begins
1 p.m. - Drivers’ meeting, fuel storage and fueling lane opens
2 p.m. - Grandstands open
3 p.m. - On-track activity
- Late Model non-qualifiers (12 laps)
- Late Model qualifiers (10 laps)
- Late Model hot laps (locked-in entrants)
- Modified qualifiers (10 laps)
- Modified hot laps (locked-in entrants)
- Late Model consolation (10 laps)
- Modified consolation (10 laps)
6 p.m. - Opening ceremonies and driver introductions
Features
- Late Models (40 laps)
- Modifieds (30 laps)
