GIBSONTON, Fla. — Brandon Sheppard passed race leader Brandon Overton on lap 13 to win for the seventh time in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at East Bay Raceway Park.
On Wednesday night the four-time Dirt Track World Championship winner claimed night No. 2 of the Wrisco Industries Winternationals for his second series win of the season.
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 with Kyle Bronson rallying from a pit stop to finish fourth on his home track. Ricky Thornton Jr. rounded out the top five.
Sheppard, who started on the pole led the first seven laps of the race until Overton, who started right behind Sheppard, 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.
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,” Sheppard said. “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.”
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 10 of ‘em before you get a chance to win one,” he said. “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 finish:
Brandon Sheppard, Ashton Winger, Tyler Erb, Kyle Bronson, Ricky Thornton Jr., Hudson O’Neal, Earl Pearson Jr., Stormy Scott, Tim McCreadie, Devin Moran, Tyler Bruening, Brian Shirley, Dennis Erb Jr., Mark Whitener, Daulton Wilson, Garrett Alberson, Tanner English, Cody Overton, Brandon Overton, Josh Putnam, Ross Robinson, Freddie Carpenter, Spencer Hughes, Shane Clanton, Chase Junghans, Clinton Hersh.