In back to back seasons Brandon Sheppard has won the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model championship. This is his second straight title and third in four seasons for the Illinois native.
After not finishing better than 15th in his previous 10 seasons, Sheppard has won three titles and a runner up finish in the last four years. All of his titles have come with Rocket1 Racing whom he joined forces with in 2017. Sheppard becomes only the fourth three time champion in the series. This title puts him in company with Darrell Lanigan, Josh Richards and Billy Moyer.
Similar to last year, “B-Shepp” has dominated the Late Models even in the odd year that was 2020. In 40 starts this year he has total 14 wins, 31 top fives and 36 top tens. It has been yet another year of domination for Sheppard and he has shown why every time out. Night in a night out, the best guy on the track with fenders on the car.
Consistency has been key for Sheppard and company this season. With only three finishes outside the top ten all year, Sheppard has shown dominance without even finding the winners circle. He still has found it plenty this season and locked up the title before even running the final weekend in Charlotte.
In the middle of July Sheppard won four straight times out with the World of Outlaws. While the tour ran the midwest, he took six of seven nights with wins in Iowa, North Dakota and Wisconsin. It was his most dominant stretch of the season and showed why he was going to be tough to beat in the points standings.
There was no challenge for Sheppard in the points race. The next closest driver was Ricky Weiss and that wasn’t even close. Weiss tallied the series’ fourth most wins at two. He tied that category with Cade Dillard and Chris Madden. Dillard was third points. No other driver won more than six races as Brandon Overton had six wins in only 14 starts this year.
Even with the title locked up, Sheppard has been after more trophies for the mantel. On Wednesday night during the Last Call in Charlotte he took his Rocket chassis No. 1 to fifth behind winner Overton, Dennis Erb, Tim McCreadie and 10-time World of Outlaw Sprint Car champion Donny Schatz. Thursday night Sheppard had an issue during the main event and wound up 14th.
It’ll be a short offseason as Sheppard’s title defense begins with the traditional trip to Volusia Speedway Park for the DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals. The opening event is on January 14th from Barberville, Florida.
