GIBSONTON, Fla. — Brandon Sheppard escaped with a victory Thursday night at East Bay Raceway Park, as the 29-year-old Illinois driver nearly gave away a sure victory when he got into the fourth-turn wall heading to the white flag.
Sheppard recovered quickly enough to hold off Earl Pearson Jr. and Kyle Bronson for his second straight Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series triumph during the Wrisco Industries Winternationals at the third-mile oval.
Pearson recorded his best series finish of the campaign. Bronson charged from 16th for the second night in a row as he came home in third after finishing in fourth on Wednesday.
Pearson was 0.516 seconds behind the winner and Bronson was just 0.641 seconds behind Sheppard at the finish.
Devin Moran crossed the line in fourth, followed by Hudson O’Neal, who started 17th.
Brandon Overton took the lead at the start of the 40-lap main event and it looked like it was going to be his night again at East Bay as he and Pearson ran 1-2 for the first 20 laps of the race. Brian Shirley roared past Pearson and Overton to take the lead on lap 21. One lap later, Sheppard took over the point as Overton started to fade.
A caution flag with two laps to go set up a green-white-checkered finish which proved to be almost detrimental to Sheppard after the hitting the wall in turn four he stayed against the concrete for most of the frontstretch, but he able to right the ship just in time.
It was Sheppard’s 24th career Lucas Oil Late Model Series triumph and third of the season.
“I thought I gave that one away that was a crazy race for sure,” said Sheppard, who started eighth. “I got rolling pretty good on the top there early in the race. As long as I was passing guys I was going to stay up there. I got the lead and my crew told me I was good to just stay up there so I just kept going.”
Pearson, driving Jason Papickh’s No. 46, was not close enough to Sheppard when the leader bounced off the wall on the final lap coming up just short of his first series win since 2020.
“I just run around the bottom,” Pearson reported. “That’s where I usually like to race. I knew he (Sheppard) would be tough on the top there. He made a little of a mistake there which he usually doesn’t do. After that he didn’t make any more mistakes on that last lap. We got close to him. There is no doubt he’s tough here. He has won a lot of races here.”
Bronson put on a show again for home-track fans taking third.
“I didn’t get a good-enough restart there at the end. It was a driver mistake there,” he said. “I just didn’t fire off like I should have. When he (Sheppard) made the mistake, I wasn’t there to pounce on it. That’s the way it goes we will just take it a learn from it. We will work on the car some more tomorrow and hopefully we will be a couple more spots better. I overheated the right rear tire there. I was married to the top. I grew up here, this is where I cut my teeth at racing street stocks.”
The finish:
Brandon Sheppard, Earl Pearson Jr., Kyle Bronson, Devin Moran, Hudson O’Neal, Max Blair, Tyler Erb, Daulton Wilson, Ashton Winger, Brian Shirley, Shane Clanton, Stormy Scott, Tyler Bruening, Garrett Alberson, Johnny Scott, Ross Robinson, Jimmy Owens, Tim McCreadie, Boom Briggs, Tanner English, Dennis Erb Jr., Brandon Overton, Spencer Hughes, Josh Putnam, Colten Burdette, Ricky Thornton Jr.