CONCORD, N.C. – Brett Hearn hasn’t raced regularly since the end of the 2019 season, but that certainly didn’t mean he was giving it up for good.
Hearn showed exactly why he is considered one of the legends of big-block modified racing on Saturday night with a dominant performance during the Super DIRTcar Series season finale held at The Dirt Track at Charlotte as part of the NGK NTK World of Outlaws World Finals.
“I’ve been sitting on the sidelines running a race track for the last two years,” said Hearn, who has spent the last two years serving as the promoter of Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, N.Y. “I never really envisioned being back in victory lane again because I was so far out of the seat.”
Staring from the pole for the second-straight night, Hearn led the field into turn one at the start of the 30-lap feature with Peter Britten, Mat Williamson and Rocky Warner giving chase. Warner quickly moved to second on the opening lap before the caution waved for a car stopped in turn four.
The race resumed with Hearn and Warner at the front of the pack, with Hearn holding the lead as Warner did his best to challenge the 63-year-old racing veteran. Warner made several attempts to pass Hearn with runs on the top, but each time Hearn repelled Warner and held his position at the front of the field.
Warner’s night came to an unexpected end with 17 laps left when he suddenly slowed on the frontstretch to draw the caution flag. That gave the runner-up spot to Australia’s Britten, with Williamson and Sheppard next in line.
Hearn got a good jump on the field in turn one and held the lead as Sheppard moved up to third, but the caution flag waved after one lap was completed when four cars came together in turn four.
Britten gave Hearn everything he had during the restart, hanging to Hearn’s outside through turns one and two before Hearn managed to pull clear down the backstretch. Hearn slowly stretched his lead from there as Britten fell into a battle with Sheppard for the runner-up spot.
He went on to lead the entire distance, finishing more than half a second clear to earn the 920th victory of his amazing career. The victory was his 140th with the Super DIRTcar Series and the 450th DIRTcar-sanctioned win of his career.
“As I drove down here tonight I said to myself, ‘If I can’t see myself in victory lane, I’ll never get there,'” Hearn said. “As the week progressed I came into tonight thinking and visualizing being on this (victory lane) stage and that’s what happened.”
Sheppard was able to slip past Britten with two laps left to finish second as he formally wrapped up his eighth Super DIRTcar Series championship. Britten was third, followed by Demetrios Drellos and Williamson.
The finish:
Brett Hearn, Matt Sheppard, Peter Britten, Demetrios Drellos, Mat Williamson, Justin Haers, Max McLaughlin, Alex Yankowski, Jimmy Phelps, Billy Decker, Tim Fuller, Jack Lehner, Ronnie Davis III, Mike Mahaney, Rich Scagliotta, Pat Ward, Jordan McCreadie, Adam Pierson, Mike Gular, Jeremiah Shingledecker, Erick Rudolph, Alex Payne, Mike Trautschold, Old Dwyer, Bob McGannon, Rocky Warner, Larry Wight, Tim Sears Jr., Duane Howard, Tim McCreadie, Chris Hile.