Fast Talk presented by MD3 and Five Star Bodies
Fast Talk: Rocket1's favorable trajectory
With Brandon Sheppard winning the lone two weather-allowed Illinois Speedweek events, our weekly roundtable checks in for the feature presented by MD3 and Five Star Race Cars Bodies (edited for clarity and length):
Reflect on Brandon Sheppard’s Illinois Speedweek success.
Kevin Kovac, DirtonDirt senior writer: This is the Sheppard-Rocket1 combination everyone has been waiting to see since they reunited for the 2025 season — winning races in bunches, not just here-and-there over the course of the season. As Todd mentions, Sheppard and Mark Richards’s house car team might not yet be at that same fear-level point they were during their 2017-22 run together, but they’re getting there. Seven victories by early May is a pretty good indication that they’ve found something that was missing last year. Sheppard also made up significant ground in the Lucas Oil points race Saturday at Fairbury, so if he can go on to battle for the title while pushing the 20-victory mark — with several major-event wins — it’ll feel like old times for him and the Rocket1 boys.
Todd Turner, DirtonDirt managing editor: Rocket1 appears to be turning the corner, but isn’t quite at the standard where Sheppard was the most feared competitor during the team’s best seasons. Sheppard was just out of the mix in three Eagle Raceway starts last season, so it’ll be interesting to see if his first three-wins-in-a-row streak since 2022 is a possibility in Nebraska this week. Want a tangible sign of Rocket1’s success? A significant Longhorn driver making a switch to Rocket’s XR2.
Kyle McFadden, DirtonDirt staff reporter: If there were any driver destined to sweep the week — while it ended up being only two races — it was Brandon Sheppard and Rocket1 Racing in the New Berlin, Ill., driver’s backyard. Since the end of Georgia-Florida Speedweeks, the five-time World of Outlaws champion owns four victories and seven podium finishes in 11 starts, good for a robust 2.9 average finish. That stretch — especially the 36 percent win rate — rivals Sheppard’s Rocket1 glory days. What’s stood out most to me — and I’ve mentioned this several times already — is the versatility. They’ve won at seven tracks to begin 2026: quarter-miles and half-miles alike, spanning the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest. That’s the stuff I look at when projecting what the rest of season could look like. Right now, there’s no indication that Sheppard and Rocket1 are slowing anytime soon. Look for them to return to 20-victory form and knock down at least one crown jewel victory, and be right in the Lucas Oil title mix.
Bryan Ault, DirtonDirt contributor: Brandon Sheppard is on a roll. With two victories in the last four Lucas Oil Series starts and a FloRacing Night in America victory at Spoon River, the Rocket1 group has to be fired up about the upcoming stretch of races in the Midwest. Other than his eighth-place run at Circle City, Sheppard hasn’t finished outside the top five since Speedweeks. He was clearly the class of the field at Fairbury, pacing the field for most of the race, and heads into the tour’s tripleheader Thursday any Eagle, Neb., where I’m anxious to see if he keeps rolling. The Rocket1 team could be the hottest in the country, and momentum is all in B-Shepp’s favor.
Make another point about Illinois Speedweek.
Turner: Boy, did Brian Shirley ever need that third-place finish and a confidence-boost. The Bob Cullen Racing team has been languishing all season without a top-five finish and when the pole-starting Shirley dropped to fourth in the second half of the race, the possibility of another also-ran performance appeared likely. But Shirley hung in for a solid third-place finish at Fairbury, where the Chatham, Ill., driver had one of his career highlights with last season’s Prairie Dirt Classic triumph. Can he capitalize on his Fairbury boost?
McFadden: Obviously it’s a bummer that Mother Nature didn’t cooperate. Makes me think all the more how we were spoiled last year to get all five races in under pristine weather conditions. It’s grown into one of my favorite weeks of the year. Crown jewel fields make for storylines aplenty and the racetracks on the schedule are bucket-list venues. If you’re a Dirt Late Model fan looking to take a week off work or travel to a newer part of the country to get your racing fix, Illinois Speedweek is a must. Just next time, let’s hope Mother Nature plays nice.
Ault: Saturday’s Fairbury showdown was a rough outing for the Lucas tour’s points leaders, Hudson O’Neal and Devin Moran, but the week as a whole was forgettable for Ricky Thornton Jr. Any momentum Thornton built after a win at Circle City and a podium finish at Florence two weeks ago was squashed by a dead-last finish at Spoon River and a 25th-place run at Fairbury. I’m sure Thornton is happy to be away from Illinois and onto Eagle Raceway, where he won twice in 2025.
Kovac: It’s just a darn shame that three of the five scheduled races were rained out. A high-quality roster of drivers was assembled in the Land of Lincoln to run all five nights, led by 13 of the top 15 drivers in the Lucas Oil points standings plus seven World of Outlaws regulars, including four of the top five drivers in the points. You won’t see that type of Lucas Oil-WoO showdown for an extended stretch of action very often all season. At least two nights were completed, but fans were robbed of an especially memorable week by Mother Nature.
Discuss this week’s national touring events and something or someone to watch.
McFadden: At 52 races now since his last series victory, Brandon Overton is sorely due for his first Lucas Oil Series victory since last May. These elbows-up, black-dirt bullrings aren’t necessarily his wheelhouse, but he hung around long enough in the top five at Fairbury on Saturday — a track that’s not his strong suit — making me believe that he could win at a track like that before too long. Other than that, Eagle has quickly become one of my favorite tracks since I first visited for a High Limit sprint car race in 2023. There’s so much to fall in love with about the place — the track layout, the facility, the high banks and how it often generates just good racing. That’s another bucket-list destination for race fans.
Ault: Will Ryan Gustin’s success in the Midwest translate to the WoO tour’s upcoming East Coast swing? As we discussed on the podcast last week, Gustin’s season turned a corner with a win at Paragon and he dominated the Dairyland Showdown finale at Mississippi Thunder Speedway. Will his recent success carry over to the rest of the season, especially at tracks outside of his familiarity? On the Lucas side, I’m intrigued by Eagle’s fast and high-banked oval. I’m thinking O’Neal and Sheppard will be battling during all three nights. The weekend could definitely mix up the series title chase, especially if Sheppard comes out on top.
Kovac: With three Lucas Oil features (all at Eagle) and five WoO shows (at four Northeast tracks) scheduled, can we perhaps see the rare 2026 occurrence of a national touring series race won by a driver who’s not a regular on one of the tours? In a combined 38 Lucas Oil and WoO races contested in 2026, just three drivers who aren’t national points-chasers on one of the circuits have won: Jonathan Davenport (three Lucas Oil wins), Chris Madden (one WoO) and Mike Marlar (one WoO). Those three, of course, are accomplished veterans who just happen to not be running national tours this season, so can a regional-level drivers break through this week? I’d put money on that guy being Gregg Satterlee, who will have four WoO opportunities at three tracks (Selinsgrove, Marion Center and Bedford) that he knows especially well.
Turner: The schedules are attractive with Lucas Oil returning to Eagle, a track I loved last season in my first visit, and with the World of Outlaws running at four tracks (Georgetown, Selinsgrove, Marion Center and Bedford) over five nights. I suspect Ricky Thornton Jr. likes the idea of returning to an Eagle oval where he won two of three races (and wrecked running third in the other). And I’m thinking the WoO weekend sets up as the first four-feature stretch of the season (Marion Center’s opening night has a pair of semifeatures) without series victories for title frontrunners Nick Hoffman and Bobby Pierce (I’m ready for a “told you so” here).
Discuss a non-national touring result or development.
Ault: After coming up one spot short in a Slingin’ Dirt tour opener in April, Matt Boknecht was able to pick up the first Super Late Model victory of his career at Brownstown, edging Cody Mahoney at the checkers. It was a regular show with most noteworthy names racing elsewhere, but it’s still a feel-good story. The Seymour, Ind., Weekend Warrior has raced at the quarter-mile oval for the entirety of his career, capturing the track championship in the modified division nine times since 2000. Taking home the checkered flag in front a crowd that has watched him race there for more than two decades provided a special moment.
McFadden: If nobody’s noticed, drivers and teams have made the full transition to Hoosier’s newer-style NLMT right-rear tire as of May 1, and it’s definitely created a wrinkle in the sport’s pecking order. Teams could still run the older right-rear through last month, but now everyone must adapt to the newer tire — unveiled last April — from here forward. For anyone needing a refresher, the new-version right-rear features a taller, softer sidewall and wider construction designed to create more sidebite and durability, whereas the previous tire had a stiffer, more rigid feel. I talked with a handful of drivers over the last week about the change. Some, like Bobby Pierce and Devin Moran, don’t believe it’s altered much — at least for them. Others, however, including Brandon Sheppard and Nick Hoffman, say the newer right-rear more closely resembles the feel they craved before the NLMT tire era — Sheppard during his Rocket1 heyday from 2017-22 and Hoffman in his dominant modified days. Those two have legitimate arguments as the hottest drivers in the country right now, so is that really coincidence? Brian Shirley, meanwhile, admitted over the weekend the transition has thrown his team for a loop. Definitely something worth monitoring as summer approaches.
Kovac: Saturday brought a feel-good result at Ohio’s Atomic Speedway with veteran Jerry Bowersock capturing the $5,000 Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series feature. Driving a brand-new Rocket XR2 Chassis, the 60-year-old from Wapakoneta, Ohio, recorded his first touring series victory since 2009 and first Super Late Model triumph since ’23. He’s one of the good guys in the sport — not to mention a no-doubt lover of racing — and by no means has he been a non-contender in recent years (he was Eldora’s modified champ just last year), but a Super Late Model checkered flag had eluded him for a while. Nice to see him grab one — and in a race that saw 61-year-old R.J. Conley finished second and 55-year-old Freddie Carpenter place fourth.
Turner: James Trantina III’s announced purchase of I-94 EMR Speedway in Fergus Falls, Minn., continues his significant connections to dirt racing through his Collins Brothers Towing sponsorships, operating Dan Ebert’s Lucas Oil Series team and ownership of Granite City Motor Park in Sauk Rapids, Minn. There’s rumblings that he has eyes on a third track and he’s certainly becoming a major player with his interests extending beyond the Upper Midwest through Ebert’s travels and sponsorship of drivers like Bobby Pierce. He’s the kind of benefactor that keeps the sport humming.
Pick a five-year age window that you see as a Dirt Late Model driver’s prime.
McFadden: I think anywhere in a driver’s 30s suffices, especially from 33-37. I feel like early 30s, a driver is still maturing. By the time you’re closer to 40, you’re more of a veteran than you are a young buck. A driver in their mid-30s has experience, racecraft, understanding of the race car itself and emotional maturity all converging. Decline in reaction time is a real thing, too, and that tends to tail off in your 40s. I keep thinking of drivers like Jonathan Davenport and Ricky Thornton Jr., how they didn’t fully arrive as superstars on the Dirt Late Model scene until their 30s. A driver can still be in his prime well into their 40s as they long they take care of their body and stay on top of the sport’s technical trends. But mid-30s is the sweet spot that sounds about right.
Ault: In the past I would say the “prime” age would be much older than it is today, but some of our sport’s superstars learned how to turn circles right after they learned how to walk. That prime window, particularly for drivers whose fathers raced for decades, stretches longer than five years. I’d say the prime years could probably be 29-34. At that age, a driver has enough experience to be capable of winning at any track. We’ve seen Moran and Thornton win series titles and have success at Eldora’s crown jewels. O’Neal is only 25, and he’s accomplished both of those at a younger age.
Kovac: Bryan is right — the prime of today’s Dirt Late Model driver has become a younger age as racers have launched their careers and, notably, jumped right out on national tours earlier than in the past. You could probably say a driver was hitting their full stride in their mid- to late-30s — over even into their 40s — for quite some time, but now it seems a “prime” starts earlier (let’s say late 20s) and will actually stretch longer. I look at it like this: a driver’s best years will probably come after they’ve gained the experience of hundreds of starts, and that number can obviously be reached at a younger age if they start racing full-bore in their teens.
Turner: This is tricky because it’s definitely a sport where a driver’s physical prime is typically years removed from a driver’s best years as a savvy, experienced and mature racer. I guess that sweet spot is about ages 28-33. Obviously drivers can have major success before and after that, but the younger drivers are more prone to mistakes (or be too aggressive) while the older drivers are less likely to have the same physical prowess (or not be aggressive enough). There’s no hard and fast answer. There are clearly twentysomething drivers who find fleeting success, and fortysomething racers who settle into the best seasons of their careers.
