DUNDEE, N.Y. (Sept. 20) — How did Shane Clanton’s visit to Outlaw Speedway go on Friday night? Let him explain with a simple statement.
“Fast time, win the heat, start on the outside pole and win the race,” Clanton said. “That’s pretty good.”
Indeed, Clanton, 44, of Zebulon, Ga., swept the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series’s stop at the third-mile oval in upstate New York’s Finger Lakes Region, dominating the action en route to a flag-to-flag victory in the 50-lap Outlaw Fall Nationals feature.
A fourth-place finisher in last year’s WoO debut at Outlaw, Clanton asserted himself at the front of the pack as soon as the A-main’s green flag was displayed and never looked back. The only time it appeared he might face a challenge was when last year’s WoO winner at Outlaw, Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., remained within several car lengths after a lap-41 restart, but Clanton proceeded to pull away following a final caution period on lap 47 and beat the national tour’s points leader by 1.207 seconds.
Chase Junghans of Manhattan, Kan., slipped past Sheppard to run second for laps 31-33 but settled for a third-place finish as brake trouble hampered him down the stretch. Cade Dillard of Robeline, La., relinquished a top-five spot when he pitted during a lap-29 caution period but rallied to finish fourth while Dennis Erb Jr. of Carpentersville, Ill., advanced from the 10th starting spot to complete the top five.
Both Dillard and Erb made first-ever starts at Outlaw, a track that headlines big-block modifieds on a weekly basis.
Clanton’s $10,000 triumph was his fourth of 2019 on the WoO circuit but first since July 30 at Shawano (Wis.) Speedway. It was his eighth overall checkered of the season and came eight days after a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned score in a Lucas Oil Knoxville Nationals preliminary feature at Knoxville (Iowa) Raceway.
Clanton’s Empire State success in Iowan Greg Bruening’s Skyline Motorsports Capital Race Race also prevented the 26-year-old Sheppard from establishing a new WoO single-season win record. Sheppard and the Rocket Chassis house car team have six races remaining on the ’19 schedule to break the tie at 18 wins he now shares with Josh Richards.
“Me and (Capital’s) Marshall Green and all the guys back at Capital (in Woodstock, Ga.) working their butts off here trying to make a run at this deal trying to keep Sheppard from winning number 19,” said Clanton, who recorded his 46th career WoO victory. “And tonight we done our job.”
There were few anxious moments for Clanton, who built nearly a straightaway edge during the race’s first 29 non-stop circuits. Four caution flags over the remaining distance, however, kept his gap over second place more modest as he attempted to smoothly make his way to the finish.
“My (crew) guy was telling me I had a good lead there in one lap (after restarts) so I was just trying to make pace, trying not to get myself in trouble,” Clanton said. “Me and Boom (Briggs) got together a little bit (while lapping the Pennsylvania driver) just trying to say, ‘Hey, I am here,’ but other than that, our car was flawless tonight.”
Clanton’s victory, coupled with a 19th-place finish for Ricky Weiss of Headingley, Manitoba, also moved Clanton past the Canadian for second place in the WoO points standings. Weiss appeared to be a contender for a podium finish — and perhaps even a potential challenger to Clanton — after he passed Junghans for third on lap 26 and began closing on Sheppard, but a scrape with a lapped car sent him spinning in turn one to draw a lap-29 caution flag and the disappointed series rookie’s car was towed off the track.
Despite starting from the pole position, Sheppard couldn’t quite summon the speed to outrun Clanton. He was beaten off the start by Clanton and never made a significant bid for the lead.
“It was a little bit choppy out there for the way we had the car setup anyway,” said Sheppard, who tallied his seventh runner-up finish of the 2019 WoO tour (three of Clanton’s four wins have come with Sheppard placing second). “I needed to steer a little bit better, but second, we’ll take it. There’s another race tomorrow (at Pennsylvania’s Selinsgrove Speedway) and we’ll go see what we can do there.”
Sheppard shrugged off discussion of his pursuit of the WoO single-season win record.
“We’re gonna just do the best we can,” Sheppard said. “If we get it, we get it. If we don’t, we don’t. That’s not exactly what we’re here for. We’re here to keep this thing up front and win the championship.”
The fourth-starting Junghans, 26, held on to finish third in his family-owned XR1 Rocket after brake trouble set in during the race’s second half.
“One of those restarts (lap 29) I almost got to Shane (after passing Sheppard for second) and I thought, Heck, he’s coming back to me,’” Junghans said. “But with like 20 laps to go my brake pedal started going to the floor, and then (during) those cautions it would come back. We gotta look at that tomorrow.”
Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., had just reached fourth place when he slowed on lap 33 with a flat right-rear tire to bring out the race’s second caution flag. He pitted and came back to finish sixth in his first-ever start at Outlaws.
Flat right-rear tires also struck Rick Eckert of York, Pa., who slowed to trigger caution conditions on lap 41 while running seventh, and Gregg Satterlee of Indiana, Pa., who stopped in turn four on lap 47 while in fourth place. Eckert returned to the track and finished ninth while Satterlee, whose car sported right-rear damage from his exploded tire, retired from further action and was credited with a 15th-place finish.
