HomeDirt Late Model NewsBlast Off: Brandon Sheppard claims 16th win with victory at Salina High...

Blast Off: Brandon Sheppard claims 16th win with victory at Salina High Banks

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Junghans and Eckert round out podium

SALINA, OK- September 24, 2017-For the second night in a row and the second of three nights during the World of Outlaws Craftsman® Late Model Series Great Plains swing, Brandon Sheppard walked away with the checkers. Sheppard battled Chris Madden for several laps of the 50-lap event but pulled away from the grasp of the No. 44 midway through the feature.

“The championship is what’s on our mind right now,” said Sheppard on his 16th win with the Series. “The ultimate goal when we come here is just to win the race. I have a hard-working team behind me. If I mess up they have my back, and if I win a race they have my back, but just a good group of guys. We have a good thing going so I hope we can keep it going for quite a few years.”

Sheppard is steadily creeping up on the Series single-season win record of 18 wins set in 2016 by his predecessor in the Rocket Chassis house car, Josh Richards. Yet, with six races left in the season, Sheppard and his Rocket 1 team keep their focus on the race ahead of them.

“Right now, we’re just riding a big wave,” said Danny White, Crew Chief of the Rocket 1 Racing Machine. “It will crash down at some point but right now you just ride it and enjoy every moment you get. Yeah, maybe we don’t celebrate like some other teams, but we’ll be happy tonight and tomorrow is a new day with a new race to win. That’s our goal. We’ll celebrate a little bit tonight and we’ll be ready tomorrow.”

Sheppard has had an undeniably extraordinary season in 2017 and as he keeps pushing the limits on records across the nation, some may credit his car for his success. White said that everything is just “clicking”.

“I know everyone says ‘this is the house car. They have all this trick stuff’ but this is as standard as you get,” explained White. “They can say that we just out-budget everybody but this car has its second year on it. It has 125 to 130 races on it which is like 1,550 laps. We push everything to the limit just like everybody else does. We just have the best wheelman there is right now and everything is just clicking. This is fun. This is the most fun season I have ever had. Even when we don’t win, it’s still fun.”

Sheppard is on his way to claiming the Series championship title as he sits a solid 284 points ahead of Madden in second. Fans saw the battle between the pair come to life on the 3/8-mile track on Saturday night as the two exchanged the lead position several times early in the race.

On lap 14 Sheppard took command over the lead position once and for all, only being challenged once more for his position due to a caution on lap 45 that reset the field. The caution, which came out for Austin Siebert who got turned around in turn four, erased Sheppard’s lead which had grown to a whopping 8-seconds over the rest of the field.

When the caution fell, Madden had fallen back to fifth after getting hung up in lapped traffic opening the door for Chase Junghans, Rick Eckert and Devin Moran to make their move up the chain.
“That lap traffic, it was just really hard to get around,” said Junghans. “Sheppy got out there a ways but we had that restart and I was hoping I could hang with him on that restart and drive down to the bottom and slide him, but he did a good job. Them guys are really hard to beat this year so we’ll take a second and move on. Hopefully tomorrow we just better this one spot tomorrow.”

Rick Eckert rounded out the podium during the World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series first ever visit to Salina Highbanks Speedway.

“The track was really cool,” said Eckert. “They did a great job with the track here and thanks to all of the fans for coming out. It’s a pretty awesome place, it really is.”

The Series heads to 81 Speedway in Park City, KS on Sunday to wrap up the three-race Great Plains swing.

Craftsman Club Feature: 1. 1- Brandon Sheppard[4]; 2. 18c- Chase Junghans[3]; 3. 7- Rick Eckert[2]; 4. 44- Chris Madden[1]; 5. 9- Devin Moran[6]; 6. 25- Shane Clanton[7]; 7. 18- Eric Wells[5]; 8. 36m- Logan Martin[8]; 9. B1- Brent Larson[9]; 10. 0- Jesse Stovall[12]; 11. 1*- Chub Frank[13]; 12. 99j- Frank Heckenast Jr[10]; 13. 91- Tyler Erb[19]; 14. 14m- Morgan Bagley[16]; 15. 5T- Randy Timms[17]; 16. 16- Austin Siebert[11]; 17. 12M- Raymond Merrill[14]; 18. 52- Dillon Rupe[23]; 19. 7D- Jake Davis[20]; 20. 9g- Joseph Gorby[18]; 21. 36- Jason Redman[24]; 22. 20- Rodney Sanders[15]; 23. 10- Jacob Magee[25]; 24. 26r- Joe Godsey[21]; 25. 60- Kip Hughes[22]

Heat 1: 1. 44- Chris Madden[3]; 2. 18- Eric Wells[5]; 3. 25- Shane Clanton[1]; 4. 99j- Frank Heckenast Jr[4]; 5. 1*- Chub Frank[6]; 6. 14m- Morgan Bagley[7]; 7. 91- Tyler Erb[2]; 8. 60- Kip Hughes[8]; DNS. 10- Jacob Magee[9]

Heat 2:  1. 1- Brandon Sheppard[1]; 2. 7- Rick Eckert[4]; 3. 36m- Logan Martin[5]; 4. 16- Austin Siebert[2]; 5. 12M- Raymond Merrill[3]; 6. 5T- Randy Timms[6]; 7. 7D- Jake Davis[7]; 8. 52- Dillon Rupe[8]

Heat 3: 1. 9- Devin Moran[1]; 2. 18c- Chase Junghans[4]; 3. B1- Brent Larson[2]; 4. 0- Jesse Stovall[6]; 5. 20- Rodney Sanders[3]; 6. 9g- Joseph Gorby[7]; 7. 26r- Joe Godsey[5]; 8. 36- Jason Redman[8]

Qualifying: 1. 25- Shane Clanton, 14.291; 2. 1- Brandon Sheppard, 14.388; 3. 9- Devin Moran, 14.56; 4. 91- Tyler Erb, 14.682; 5. 16- Austin Siebert, 14.722; 6. B1- Brent Larson, 14.761; 7. 44- Chris Madden, 14.787; 8. 12M- Raymond Merrill, 14.834; 9. 20- Rodney Sanders, 14.883; 10. 99j- Frank Heckenast Jr, 14.884; 11. 7- Rick Eckert, 14.892; 12. 18c- Chase Junghans, 14.912; 13. 18- Eric Wells, 14.935; 14. 36m- Logan Martin, 14.957; 15. 26r- Joe Godsey, 14.983; 16. 1*- Chub Frank, 15.056; 17. 5T- Randy Timms, 15.206; 18. 0- Jesse Stovall, 15.238; 19. 14m- Morgan Bagley, 15.425; 20. 7D- Jake Davis, 15.761; 21. 9g- Joseph Gorby, 16.039; 22. 60- Kip Hughes, 16.223; 23. 52- Dillon Rupe, 16.308; 24. 36- Jason Redman, 16.48; DNS. 10- Jacob Magee, NT

SEASON WINNERS:

Brandon Sheppard- 16 (Whynot Motorsports Park on March 24, Farmer City Raceway on April 1, Fayetteville Motor Speedway on May 6, Wayne County Speedway on May 27, Senoia Raceway on June 3, Brighton Speedway on June 17, Lernerville Speedway on June 25, Federated Auto Part Raceway at I-55 on July 1, Hibbing Raceway on July 13, Fayette County Speedway on July 26, Fairbury American Legion Speedway on July 30, Oshkosh SpeedZone Raceway on Aug. 1, Port Royal Speedway on Aug. 19, Eriez Speedway on Aug. 20, Lakeside Speedway on Sept. 22, Salina Highbanks Speedway on Sept. 23)

Shane Clanton- 5 (Volusia Speedway Park on Feb. 24, Cherokee Speedway on May 6, Tazewell Speedway on June 3, River Cities Speedway on June 14, Merritt Speedway on Aug. 26)

Chris Madden– 5 (Screven Motorsports Complex on Feb. 18, Deer Creek Speedway on July 8, Ogilvie Raceway on July 12, Cedar Lake Speedway on Aug. 5, Merritt Speedway on Aug. 27)

Brandon Overton- 2 (Smoky Mountain Speedway on May 13, Lernerville Speedway on June 24)

Rick Eckert– 2 (Screven Motorsports Complex on Feb. 17, Shawano Speedway on Aug. 2)

Devin Moran- 2 (Atomic Speedway on May 26, Georgetown Speedway on Aug. 18)

Don O’Neal- 1 (Volusia Speedway Park on Feb. 25)

Timothy Culp- 1 (LoneStar Speedway on March 26)

Brian Shirley-1 (Farmer City Raceway on April 2)

Mike Marlar- 1 (Duck River Raceway Park on May 14)

Max Blair- 1 (McKean County Raceway on June 20)

Jeff Rine- 1 (Selinsgrove Speedway on Sept. 3)

Unofficial World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series Championship Standings:

Pos. Car # Driver Points Trail By
1 1 Brandon Sheppard 5230 0
2 44 Chris Madden 4946 284
3 25 Shane Clanton 4896 334
4 9 Devin Moran 4844 386
5 7 Rick Eckert 4812 418
6 91 Tyler Erb 4782 448
7 18 Eric Wells 4662 568
8 1* Chub Frank 4594 636
9 99JR Frank Heckenast Jr. 4592 638
10 14M Morgan Bagley 4580 650
11 2C Joey Coulter 2856 2374
13 18C Chase Junghans 2512 2718
12 3S Brian Shirley 2464 2766
14 157 Mike Marlar 1930 3300
17 B1 Brent Larson 1488 3742
15 93 Donald Bradsher 1486 3744
16 40B Kyle Bronson 1456 3774
18 32 Bobby Pierce 1218 4012
19 21JR Billy Moyer Jr. 1124 4106
20 116 Brandon Overton 1110 4120
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