Tampa, FL (February 9, 2022) – Brandon Sheppard passed race leader Brandon Overton on lap 13 to win for the seventh time in his career at East Bay Raceway Park in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. On Wednesday night the four-time Dirt Track World Championship winner took night number two of the Wrisco Industries Winternationals Presented by Lucas Oil for his second series win of 2022.

Ashton Winger finished in second for his best career run in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series as he edged out Tyler Erb at the checkers. Erb was third at the end with Kyle Bronson rallying from a pit stop to finish fourth on his home track. Ricky Thornton Jr. rounded out the top five finishers.

Sheppard, who started on the pole led the first seven laps of the race until Overton, who started right behind Sheppard in the lineup, vaulted by Sheppard for the lead in traffic. A stretch of back-to-back cautions kept the field bunched up. On the restart after a lap nine caution, Overton held the point for three more circuits before Sheppard regained the lead on lap 13. From then on Sheppard ran virtually unchallenged to the finish. There was a caution with four laps remaining in the race that gave Sheppard’s competitors one last gasp, but he smoothly held his line to the checkers.

In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 23rd time in his racing career, Sheppard joined Overton and Devin Moran as two-time feature winners this year with the series. “I just hit my marks. He (Overton) passed me in lapped traffic, you don’t know when you’re leading whether to pull out and try to pass them guys or what to do. Luckily, he was missing the bottom there a little but getting into one and that let us get under him in one and two. So, after that I knew I had to hit my marks and the cautions fell when they needed to fall. The restarts here are really stressful, you don’t know where to take off at. I took off way too early that one time, I thought that was going to keep me from getting passed on the restart.”

“Thanks to Mark Richards and Steve Baker from Rocket Chassis for this great opportunity they gave me going on seven years ago now. It’s been a heck of a ride for us. I want to give a shoutout to Ron Slavic. He’s not here with us any longer. He was a huge supporter of ours, so we are thinking about him and his family; the Ramirez family as well.”

Winger, who has been fast all year finally put together a night topped off by his best career run with the series. “It feels like you lose about ten of ‘em before you get a chance to win one. I guess if you are going to run second it should be to a Brandon. Congrats to them guys. I know they worked hard, and their car is really good, they have a good program there. We were just a little off, I feel like I can’t fire off as good as I need to.”

Erb, who entered the week with four career wins at East Bay rounded out the podium. “Once you get to the cars that have the grasp on it here there wasn’t many options to move around. I got to second and I just had to try something on the restart. I went to the top and let Winger get by me.”

The winner’s Mark Richards Racing Rocket Chassis is powered by a Durham Racing Engine and sponsored by Valvoline, Seubert Calf Ranches, Ace Metal Works, Gunter’s Honey, Petroff Towing, Sallack Well Services, Integra Racing Shocks, Keyser Manufacturing, and Rocket Pre-Owned Motors.

Completing the top ten were Hudson O’Neal, Earl Pearson Jr., Stormy Scott, Tim McCreadie, and Devin Moran.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series

Race Summary

Wrisco Industries Winternationals Presented by Lucas Oil

Wednesday, February 9th, 2022

East Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL

Allstar Performance Time Trials

Fast Time Group A: Brandon Sheppard / 14.980 seconds (overall)

Fast Time Group B: Devin Moran / 15.282 seconds

Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 3. 16-Tyler Bruening[3]; 4. 18J-Chase Junghans[4]; 5. J8-Jadon Frame[7]; 6. 81-Jason Riggs[9]; 7. 48-Colton Flinner[5]; 8. 19M-Jason Hiett[8]; 9. 71M-Pierce McCarter[6]; 10. 27M-Michael Lake[11]; 11. 9G-Larry Greer[10]; 12. 3B-Billy Boyd Sr[12]

Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 2. 7-Ross Robinson[2]; 3. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr[3]; 4. 10-Garrett Smith[5]; 5. 1ST-Johnny Scott[4]; 6. 16H-Clinton Hersh[7]; 7. 1G-Ryan King[8]; 8. 6S-Blake Spencer[6]; 9. 66C-Matt Cosner[9]; 10. 2X-John Henderson[11]; 11. 17SS-Brenden Smith[10]; 12. 93M-Mason Oberkramer[12]

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 89-Ashton Winger[2]; 2. 1T-Tyler Erb[1]; 3. 97-Cody Overton[3]; 4. 0K-Freddie Carpenter[4]; 5. 18D-Daulton Wilson[7]; 6. 0H-Dale Hollidge[5]; 7. 0J-Jake O’Neil[9]; 8. 22R-Will Roland[6]; 9. 1Z-Logan Zarin[8]; 10. 6B-Adam Boyd[10]; 11. 27-Joe Denby[11]

Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 9-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 2S-Stormy Scott[3]; 3. 81E-Tanner English[2]; 4. 111V-Max Blair[5]; 5. 58W-Mark Whitener[11]; 6. 58-Garrett Alberson[8]; 7. 6T-Tim Dohm[7]; 8. 99-Kyle Hardy[4]; 9. 44B-Colten Burdette[9]; 10. 11AC-Trevor Collins[10]; 11. 354-Chris Nash[12]; 12. 151-Kyle Lear[6]

Wrisco Industries Heat Race #5 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[1]; 2. 71-Hudson O’Neal[4]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 4. 25-Shane Clanton[3]; 5. 94-Jason Miller[7]; 6. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[6]; 7. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[8]; 8. 20B-Todd Brennan[5]; 9. 26JR-Jimmy Sharpe Jr[11]; 10. 119-Chad McClellan[9]; 11. 0G-Deshawn Gingerich[10]; 12. 5*-Bryant Dickinson[12]

Lucas Oil Heat Race #6 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[3]; 2. 3S-Brian Shirley[2]; 3. 212-Josh Putnam[5]; 4. 11-Spencer Hughes[4]; 5. 11R-Josh Rice[1]; 6. 7T-Drake Troutman[9]; 7. 4G-Bob Gardner[8]; 8. 4-Kody Evans[7]; 9. 31-Ken Monahan[11]; 10. 2D-Dan Stone[6]; 11. 3-Brennon Willard[10]

Fast Shafts B-Main #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 18J-Chase Junghans[1]; 2. 16H-Clinton Hersh[6]; 3. 71M-Pierce McCarter[11]; 4. 17SS-Brenden Smith[16]; 5. 10-Garrett Smith[2]; 6. 3B-Billy Boyd Sr[17]; 7. 1G-Ryan King[8]; 8. 93M-Mason Oberkramer[18]; 9. 1ST-Johnny Scott[4]; 10. 81-Jason Riggs[5]; 11. 9G-Larry Greer[15]; 12. 2X-John Henderson[14]; 13. 19M-Jason Hiett[9]; 14. J8-Jadon Frame[3]; 15. 27M-Michael Lake[13]; 16. 48-Colton Flinner[7]; 17. (DNS) 6S-Blake Spencer; 18. (DNS) 66C-Matt Cosner

UNOH B-Main #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 58W-Mark Whitener[4]; 2. 0K-Freddie Carpenter[1]; 3. 111V-Max Blair[2]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson[6]; 5. 6T-Tim Dohm[8]; 6. 0H-Dale Hollidge[5]; 7. 151-Kyle Lear[17]; 8. 99-Kyle Hardy[10]; 9. 0J-Jake O’Neil[7]; 10. 22R-Will Roland[9]; 11. 44B-Colten Burdette[12]; 12. 18D-Daulton Wilson[3]; 13. 11AC-Trevor Collins[14]; 14. 27-Joe Denby[15]; 15. 1Z-Logan Zarin[11]; 16. 6B-Adam Boyd[13]; 17. 354-Chris Nash[16]

DirtonDirt.com B-Main #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 11-Spencer Hughes[2]; 2. 25-Shane Clanton[1]; 3. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[5]; 4. 4G-Bob Gardner[8]; 5. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[7]; 6. 4-Kody Evans[10]; 7. 11R-Josh Rice[4]; 8. 94-Jason Miller[3]; 9. 20B-Todd Brennan[9]; 10. 2D-Dan Stone[14]; 11. 26JR-Jimmy Sharpe Jr[11]; 12. 119-Chad McClellan[13]; 13. 5*-Bryant Dickinson[17]; 14. 7T-Drake Troutman[6]; 15. 31-Ken Monahan[12]; 16. 3-Brennon Willard[16]; 17. 0G-Deshawn Gingerich[15]

Lucas Oil Feature Finish (40 Laps):1. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 2. 89-Ashton Winger[5]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[11]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[16]; 5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[7]; 6. 71-Hudson O’Neal[10]; 7. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[4]; 8. 2S-Stormy Scott[8]; 9. 39-Tim McCreadie[6]; 10. 9-Devin Moran[2]; 11. 16-Tyler Bruening[13]; 12. 3S-Brian Shirley[12]; 13. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr[15]; 14. 58W-Mark Whitener[20]; 15. 18D-Daulton Wilson[25]; 16. 58-Garrett Alberson[26]; 17. 81E-Tanner English[14]; 18. 97-Cody Overton[17]; 19. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 20. 212-Josh Putnam[18]; 21. 7-Ross Robinson[9]; 22. 0K-Freddie Carpenter[23]; 23. 11-Spencer Hughes[21]; 24. 25-Shane Clanton[24]; 25. 18J-Chase Junghans[19]; 26. 16H-Clinton Hersh[22]

Race Statistics

Entrants: 70

Lap Leaders: Brandon Sheppard (Laps 1 – 7); Brandon Overton (Laps 8 –12); Brandon Sheppard (Laps 13 – 40)

Wrisco Feature Winner: Brandon Sheppard

Arizona Sport Shirts Crown Jewel Cup Feature Winner: n/a

Brandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: n/a

Margin of Victory: 2.034 seconds

Stop-Tech Cautions: Devin Moran (Lap 8); Devin Moran, Spencer Hughes (Lap 9); Freddie Carpenter (Lap 20); Debris (Lap 29); Brandon Overton (Lap 36)

Series Provisionals: Daulton Wilson, Garrett Alberson

Fast Time Provisional: n/a

Series Emergency Provisionals: n/a

Track Provisionals: n/a

Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Brandon Sheppard, Ashton Winger, Tyler Erb

Penske Shocks Top 5: Brandon Sheppard, Ashton Winger, Tyler Erb, Kyle Bronson, Ricky Thornton Jr

Optima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Kyle Bronson (Advanced 12 Positions)

Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Devin Moran

Hot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Brandon Sheppard (35 Laps)

Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Brandon Sheppard

O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: n/a

Dirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Brandon Overton (Lap 9 – 16.555 seconds)

DirtonDirt.com Tough Break of the Race: Spencer Hughes

Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Danny White (Brandon Sheppard)

ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Durham Racing Engines

Miller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket Chassis

Dirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Brandon Overton (14.596 seconds)

Time of Race: 27 minutes 59 seconds