Brandon Sheppard scored the World of Outlaws CASE Late Model Seires victory on Saturday night at Fairbury Speedway. Photo: Jacy Norgaard
Brandon Sheppard used his experience at Illinois’ Fairbury Speedway to quickly take the lead, and hold it the rest of the way to score the World of Outlaws CASE Late Model Series win on Saturday night.
It marked the third Prairie Dirt Classic victory for the New Berlin, Illinois driver, and bagged him a $100,000 payday.
While he never relinquished the lead, Sheppard didn’t go unchallenged. Fellow Illinois competitor Bobby Pierce chased Sheppard for more than 20 laps, trying to slide past the former champion and grab his first win in the prestigious event.
As Pierce gained momentum, heartbreak struck the Oakwood, Illinois driver. A brake issue sidelined Pierce to a 19th-place finish.
From there, Sheppard cruised to victory despite surviving several late-race restarts.
“With all that track prep and stuff, and the way that they did it, I felt like the cushion would be there,” Sheppard said. “The bottom was still pretty hard. It was wet down there, but I didn’t feel like it was going to keep up with the cushion if I could run it right.
“It was definitely tricky. It was rough around there after they tilled it, like a rut all the way around about a car lane off the top. It was tricky, and the transition from blowing the cushion over top of that, it was definitely tricky. I was about to turn over a couple of times, I thought, but it paid off, it was a crazy race, and we were very fortunate to lead all of the laps.”
Mike Marlar crossed the line second, with Tanner English third, Tyler Erb fourth, and Ryan Gustin fifth.
The World of Outlaws CASE Late Model Series next travels to Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wisconsin August 4-6. For more information, visit WorldofOutlaws.com.
WoO CASE Late Model Series
Fairbury Speedway – Fairbury, IL
Prarie Dirt Classic – July 30, 2022
1. 1S-Brandon Sheppard
2. 157-Mike Marlar
3. 81E-Tanner English
4. 1T-Tyler Erb
5. 19R-Ryan Gustin
6. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr
7. 32S-Chris Simpson
8. 111V-Max Blair
9. 25F-Jason Feger
10. 11-Gordy Gundaker
11. 25-Shane Clanton
12. 16-Tyler Bruening
13. 1-Josh Richards
14. 11R-Josh Rice
15. 10-Garrett Smith
16. 28-Dennis Erb Jr
17. B1-Brent Larson
18. 6-Kyle Larson
19. 32-Bobby Pierce
20. 24-Ryan Unzicker
21. 1ST-Johnny Scott
22. 42-Mckay Wenger
23. 22-Chris Ferguson
24. 89-Mike Spatola
25. 58W-Ashton Winger
26. 20-Jimmy Owens
27. 49-Jonathan Davenport
28. 40B-Kyle Bronson
29. 58-Garrett Alberson
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