Sheppard Returns to Lucas Oil Victory Lane at East Bay

Brandon Sheppard returned to the East Bay Raceway Park victory lane on Tuesday Night during the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned Wrisco Industries Winternationals. It was Sheppard’s fourth career win at the “Clay by the Bay” as he becomes the third different winner in three LOLMDS events so far in 2020.

Brandon Overton charged from his 13th starting spot to finish second, his second podium finish in three series races this season.  Tim McCreadie who started tenth raced to third at the finish.   Tim Dohm, who started on the pole finished in fourth and defending series champion Jonathan Davenport rounded out the top five drivers.

Dohm and Sheppard started on the front row and had a spirited race for the lead in the early going.  Sheppard led the first circuit before Dohm assumed the point a lap later.  Sheppard the regained the lead as he had to hold off a brief challenge from Overton to secure his 16th career series victory.

Sheppard who was in contention for the win on Monday night until he and Kyle Bronson got together was not going to be denied victory lane in the second race of the week at East Bay.  “I was surprised that he (Overton) was there.  There are a lot of tough cars here and especially when I messed up down in that one corner.  I started doing something different and I knew the top was going to go away as the race wore on.  I probably squeezed Brandon off a little bit going into one there.”

“My guys have been doing a great job on the car, but I have been slacking off and it feels good to get back to victory lane with the house car.  It is a relief for me for sure because I was beginning to wonder what I was doing out there.”

Overton in the Wells Motorsports Longhorn came from 19th to finish second on Saturday Night at Golden Isles in the season-opener and tonight again made the most of his opportunities.  “What an awesome racetrack.  I just got there a little too late when it cleaned up a little bit on the bottom.  We had a really good race car again.  Yesterday I just made the wrong adjustments on everything and I kind of figured it out tonight in our heat race. On to tomorrow.  This place is crazy.  We just have to quit burying ourselves early in the night. We kind of have been using up our stuff to get to the front.”

McCreadie the opening night winner at Golden Isles on Saturday made a nice charge to finish third earning his second podium finish in three races.  “You are forced to move out there a lot.  We made some good changes on this Mega Plumbing ride.  We made it way better in the feature.  I did get every restart on the bottom there at the end which helped.  For a lot of years all I ever thought was that winning is all that mattered and everything else wasn’t a lot of fun, so you realize you are going to leave a lot of nights unhappy.  Consistency is not a bad thing, because once you are consistent and you gain speed the wins will come.”

The winner’s Mark Richards Racing Rocket 1 House Car is powered by a Durham Racing Engine and sponsored by Valvoline, Seubert Calf Ranches. Ace Metal Works, Sallack Well Service, Sunoco Race Fuels, Keyser Manufacturing, Integra, Rocket Pre-Owned Motors and Gunters Honey.

Completing the top ten were Mike Marlar, Josh Richards, Jeff Mathews, Devin Moran and Billy Moyer.

Complete results