4/21/2018
RacinBoys
Sheppard takes Whynot WOO Late Model weekend opener
By WOO Late Model Series (Meridian, MS) -- The World of Outlaws Craftsman® Late Model Series returned to action on Friday evening at Whynot Motorsports Park for the first of two nights for the inaugural Queen City Shootout. This was the Series first race in 62 days due to several cancellations for weather, but Mother Nature finally showed some mercy and the 50-lap feature was worth the wait. The 2017 World of Outlaws Champion Brandon Sheppard charged from 12th to collect his second win of the 2018 season.
“That was definitely not an easy one there. [Chris] Madden and Big Billy [Moyer] did a great job,” said Sheppard. “The track was really tricky tonight. The line kept changing all over the place. I could roll the middle there pretty good for a little bit, and then I could go to the bottom, and then I could move up, and then the middle got dirty there. We had a good car early, I think we just ran the wrong line in qualifying.”
The dominant New Berlin, IL driver qualified 21st overall earlier in the day which placed him fifth in his heat race. Sheppard was able to finish third in his heat which secured his transfer spot into the $10,000-to-win feature event. In the first lap of the race, Sheppard had remarkably gained four positions. By lap 13, Sheppard had bypassed Moyer for second and began chasing down pole-sitter and race-long leader, Madden. Known for his patient approach to take over the lead position, Sheppard made the pass for the top spot on lap 41 when the perfect time arose.
“Well, I’m pretty sure it was hard to lead that race in the first half since like I said, the line was moving around all over the place,” continued Sheppard. “You know I could see where [Madden] was messing up a little bit. I found a little bit of a line there coming off of [turn] two, to where I could get up underneath him if he moved up again, and that’s what happened. Everything just worked out for us. We were really fortunate to be in a position to take the lead there.”
At the time, Madden was running around the bottom of the racetrack and slightly shifted his line up on the backstretch opening the door for Sheppard to charge through to command the lead. Madden continued to chase down Sheppard throughout the remaining laps in the feature. With five laps to go, the driver of Gray Court, SC headed to the top of the race track hoping to find the extra momentum he needed to reclaim the lead but while doing so, he opened the door for Moyer to steal second and was forced to settle for third.
“We just got too tight right there from about the middle of the race on and when I caught those lapped cars, and I couldn’t use the whole racetrack, I got in some trouble there,” said Madden. “I couldn’t stay down off of two over there and use the moisture like I could. I left the door open and Brandon was there to fill the spot. He was better than we were at the end of the race to steer around the bottom. We tried to go up top to get by Sheppard so we gave up second for third and that’s OK. We were trying to get the win instead of running second.”
“You just had to hit your marks perfect,” said Moyer. “We are happy to get a second here for sure. We had fun. We had a good racetrack. You know, we could move around on there, I thought it was a pretty neat deal.”
The World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series will return to the quarter-mile dirt track at Whynot Motorsports Park on Saturday for the finale of the inaugural Queen City Shootout.
Whynot Motorsports Park Abbreviated Results:
Craftsman Club Feature (50 Laps): 1. 1-Brandon Sheppard [12]; 2. 21-Billy Moyer [3]; 3. 44-Chris Madden [1]; 4. 1x-Chub Frank [11]; 5. 157-Mike Marlar [8]; 6. 7-Rick Eckert [14]; 7. 18c-Chase Junghans [20]; 8. B1-Brent Larson [24]; 9. 14m-Morgan Bagley [13]; 10. 21jr-Billy Moyer [18]; 11. 1c-Chad Thrash [4]; 12. 116-Brandon Overton [23]; 13. 97-Cade Dillard [22]; 14. 54-David Breazeale [15]; 15. 18s-Jack Sullivan [9]; 16. 86-Rick Rickman [7]; 17. C8-Timothy Culp [25]; 18. 91-Tyler Erb [16]; 19. 6-Blake Spencer [26]; 20. CJ1-Rusty Schlenk [19]; 21. 25-Shane Clanton [6]; 22. 90-Brian Rickman [2]; 23. 4-Michael Arnold [10]; 24. 22-Chris Ferguson [17]; 25. 77-Gavin Landers [5]; 26. 9-Devin Moran [21]
Qualifying Flight-A: 1. 21-Billy Moyer, 12.589; 2. 4-Michael Arnold, 12.661; 3. 21xxx-Neil Baggett, 12.694; 4. 1b-BJ Robinson, 12.755; 5. 25-Shane Clanton, 12.797; 6. 1c-Chad Thrash, 12.88; 7. 14z-Zack McMillan, 12.889; 8. 77-Gavin Landers, 12.898; 9. 18s-Jack Sullivan, 12.9; 10. 22-Chris Ferguson, 12.902; 11. CJ1-Rusty Schlenk, 12.914; 12. 10-Spencer Hughes, 12.953; 13. 14m-Morgan Bagley, 12.961; 14. 777-Jared Landers, 12.984; 15. 9-Devin Moran, 12.994; 16. 7-Rick Eckert, 13.053; 17. 116-Brandon Overton, 13.07; 18. 5-Jon Mitchell, 13.173; 19. 94-Austin Rettig, 13.22; 20. 6-Blake Spencer, 13.634
Qualifying Flight-B: 1. 86-Rick Rickman, 12.685; 2. 91-Tyler Erb, 12.709; 3. 90-Brian Rickman, 12.731; 4. 44-Chris Madden, 12.79; 5. 21jr-Billy Moyer, 12.881; 6. 97-Cade Dillard, 12.884; 7. B1-Brent Larson, 12.904; 8. 51m-Joey Moriarty, 12.929; 9. 54-David Breazeale, 12.941; 10. 1-Brandon Sheppard, 12.946; 11. 18c-Chase Junghans, 12.949; 12. 157-Mike Marlar, 12.961; 13. 3-Shay Knight, 13.02; 14. 6r-Robbie Stuart, 13.029; 15. C8-Timothy Culp, 13.149; 16. 44s-Dave Hess, 13.189; 17. 1x-Chub Frank, 13.26; 18. 15-Chris Smith, 13.323; 19. 99B-Boom Briggs, 13.594
COMPLETE RESULTS: http://woolms.com/results/2018-results/2368-04-20-18-whynot-motorsports-park
Submitted By: Kirk Elliott
