LAKE ODESSA, Mich. (Aug. 29) — Brandon Sheppard’s 17th World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series victory of 2019 came in anticlimactic fashion Thursday night when the scheduled 50-lap feature at I-96 Speedway was declared official after 24 circuits due to rain.
But considering the way the 26-year-old superstar from New Berlin, Ill., was tearing around the 3/8-mile oval in his Rocket Chassis house car, it might not have mattered if the race had been run to its full distance.
Sheppard was in a league of his own from the initial green flag of the A-main when he swept off the outside pole to assume command over his front-row mate Chase Junghans of Manhattan, Kan. The runaway WoO points leader built a full straightaway edge during the race’s longest green-flag stretch and wasn’t challenged following caution periods on laps 12 and 18.
Soon after the race’s third caution flag flew on lap 24 for a turn-four tangle involving Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., and Blake Spencer of St. Augustine, Fla., as Sheppard was a half lap away from reaching the halfway point, increasingly heavy rain began to fall. Officials then sent the field to the pit area shortly after 9 p.m. in hopes of waiting out the weather, but the thunderstorm that deluged the track was too much to allow racing to resume at a reasonable hour.
While the race didn’t reach the lap-25 mark, WoO officials called it official about an hour after it was red-flagged following discussions with I-96 management and race teams. WoO rules state officials can declare a feature event complete at any time if the conditions create a reasonable inability to continue, ultimately leading officials to make that decision Thursday.
Sheppard’s $10,000 triumph continued his spectacular season, drawing him within one victory of matching the WoO single-season win record he currently shares with Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., Sheppard’s predecessor in the Rocket house car. Richards won 18 times in 2016 and Sheppard duplicated that mark in ’17.
In addition, Sheppard’s 54th career WoO victory — third on the tour’s all-time win list — pushed him over $280,000 in earnings on the 2019 series. His 17 wins are among 30 top-five and 31 top-10 finishes in 32 WoO starts.
Junghans, 26, was unable to threaten Sheppard before the rain arrived, but he hung tough in second place for all 24 laps to finish in the position in his XR1 Rocket. It was his fourth runner-up WoO finish of 2019; three of his four bridesmaid runs have been behind Sheppard.
Frank Heckenast Jr. of Frankfort, Ill., placed third in his XR1 Rocket after overtaking Darrell Lanign of Union, Ky., for the spot on the lap-18 restart. Lanigan settled for a fourth-place finish in his Club 29 Race Car while WoO rookie Cade Dillard of Robeline, La., continued his uptick in performance since early July with a fifth-place result in his MB Customs machine.
Brandon Thirlby of Traverse City, Mich., was the top home-state driver in the final rundown, finishing sixth after starting 14th. He earned the $500 WoO Bonus Bucks cash for being the highest-finishing racer who isn’t a WoO regular and has never won a tour event.
The race’s first two caution flags were caused by slowing cars: Bry Johnson of Lowell, Mich., on lap 12 and Rusty Schlenk of McClure, Ohio, on lap 18.
