Sheppard Collects First Silver Dollar Nationals Win at I-80 Speedway

GREENWOOD, NE (July 25, 2020) – Brandon Sheppard led the final 14 laps to win Saturday Night’s 10th Annual Imperial Tile Silver Dollar Nationals at I-80 Speedway. Sheppard passed race leader Chad Simpson on the 88th lap and pulled away to take his first career win in the crown event. He pocketed $53,000 for the Rocket House Car Team in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series sanctioned race. Ricky Thornton Jr. got by Simpson in the closing laps to take the $20,000 second-place prize. Simpson finished third, earning $10,000. Tim McCreadie was fourth with Ricky Weiss in fifth. 

Sheppard dedicated his win to the family of Tim Hitt, who passed away on Friday. Hitt was the original house car driver for Rocket Chassis in the early 1990’s. Sheppard’s fourth visit to Lucas Oil Victory Lane in 2020 made him the eighth different winner in ten Silver Dollar Nationals.  

“I had it in the back of my mind that I was going to wait as long as I could to get to the top of the track. I knew I was abusing my equipment up there. I hit the wall a few times off of two. It was a crazy race,” said the 27-year-old Illinois native. Current LOLMDS point leader Jimmy Owens led the first 43 laps of the race until he began having problems under the hood of his car and Tyler Erb took over the top spot. Erb started to pull away from the field as the caution for Owens came out with 64 laps scored. Owens entered the hot pit area and retired from the event. He was credited with a 23rd place finish.

Simpson grabbed the point from Erb on the restart and then held off Sheppard until the reigning Dirt Track World Championship winner became the fourth different leader of the race. Sheppard took the lead on lap 88 and held it to the finish.  Thornton, Jr. grabbed the runner-up finish in his debut weekend at the Nebraska track.

“Congrats to Brandon on the win. Thanks to Todd and Vickie Burns for giving me a chance to drive their car.” Simpson came home third. “The car was really, really good mid-race. I could roll through the middle good with my momentum. The guys told me under caution to keep rolling the middle, my laps times were really good. My crew guys were telling me to use top when I was coming down the frontstretch once. As soon as I came off of turn two Brandon went by me on the topside and I knew it was over.” 

The winner’s Mark Richards Racing Rocket Chassis is powered by a Durham Racing Engine and sponsored by Valvoline, Seubert Calf Ranches, Gunters Honey, Ace Metal Works, Integra Racing Shocks, Sunoco Race Fuels, Keyser Manufacturing, and Rocket Pre-Owned Motors. Completing the top ten were Josh Richards, Tyler Erb, Jonathan Davenport, Chris Ferguson, and Tanner English.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary 

10th Annual Imperial Tile Silver Dollar Nationals 
Friday and Saturday, July 24th – 25th, 2020
I-80 Speedway – Greenwood, NE

Penske Race Shocks Round 1 Heat Race #1 Finish: 1. 0-Scott Bloomquist[1]; 2. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[3]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport[5]; 4. 20-Jimmy Owens[2]; 5. 24X-Bill Leighton[4]; 6. 7W-Ricky Weiss[8]; 7. 40-Joel Callahan[6]; 8. 32S-Chris Simpson[9]; 9. 80-Allan Hopp[7]

FK Rod Ends Round 1 Heat Race #2 Finish: 1. 18J-Chase Junghans[2]; 2. 14J-Jake Neal[4]; 3. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 4. 04-Tad Pospisil[1]; 5. 18-Shannon Babb[8]; 6. 75-Terry Phillips[6]; 7. 8-Kyle Strickler[5]; 8. 25-Shane Clanton[7]; 9. 2J-Johnny Scott[9]

Simpson Race Products Round 1 Heat Race #3 Finish: 1. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[1]; 2. 50-Shanon Buckingham[2]; 3. 56C-Colton Horner[3]; 4. 39-Tim McCreadie[6]; 5. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[4]; 6. 32-Bobby Pierce[5]; 7. 6D-Cory Dumpert[8]; 8. 112-Tyler Smith[7]; 9. 85-Josh Leonard[9]

Ohlins Shocks Round 1 Heat Race #4 Finish: 1. 1C-Chad Simpson[2]; 2. 62-Justin Zeitner[1]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[8]; 4. 55D-Nick Deal[3]; 5. 14-Josh Richards[7]; 6. 98-Ben Schaller[5]; 7. 53-Andrew Kosiski[6]; 8. 32B-Cody Laney[4]; 9. 52-Brian Kosiski[9]

MyRacePass Round 1 Heat #5 Finish: 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 2. 9-Devin Moran[1]; 3. 2S-Stormy Scott[2]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[6]; 5. 22F-Chris Ferguson[8]; 6. 16-Tyler Bruening[3]; 7. 49T-Jake Timm[5]; 8. 81E-Tanner English[7]; 9. F15-Jeremy Conaway[9]

Penske Race Shocks Round 2 Heat Race #1 Finish: 1. 7W-Ricky Weiss[2]; 2. 25-Shane Clanton[3]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[6]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 5. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[7]; 6. 18J-Chase Junghans[8]; 7. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[9]; 8. 32B-Cody Laney[5]; 9. F15-Jeremy Conaway[1]

FK Rod Ends Round 2 Heat Race #2 Finish: 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[8]; 2. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[5]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[1]; 4. 22F-Chris Ferguson[2]; 5. 16-Tyler Bruening[7]; 6. 04-Tad Pospisil[9]; 7. 75-Terry Phillips[4]; 8. 80-Allan Hopp[3]; 9. 55D-Nick Deal[6]

Simpson Race Products Round 2 Heat Race #3 Finish: 1. 14-Josh Richards[2]; 2. 81E-Tanner English[3]; 3. 8-Kyle Strickler[5]; 4. 1C-Chad Simpson[7]; 5. 0-Scott Bloomquist[9]; 6. 6D-Cory Dumpert[1]; 7. 2S-Stormy Scott[8]; 8. 56C-Colton Horner[6]; 9. 40-Joel Callahan[4]

Ohlins Shocks Round 2 Heat Race #4 Finish: 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 2. 2J-Johnny Scott[1]; 3. 9-Devin Moran[9]; 4. 49-Jonathan Davenport[5]; 5. 50-Shanon Buckingham[7]; 6. 62-Justin Zeitner[8]; 7. 14J-Jake Neal[6]; 8. 53-Andrew Kosiski[3]; 9. 112-Tyler Smith[2]

MyRacePass Round 2 Heat #5 Finish: 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[3]; 2. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[7]; 3. 32S-Chris Simpson[1]; 4. 98-Ben Schaller[4]; 5. 24X-Bill Leighton[6]; 6. 49T-Jake Timm[5]; 7. 18-Shannon Babb[2]; 8. 85-Josh Leonard[8]; 9. 52-Brian Kosiski[9]

Tiger Rear Ends B-Main #1 Finish (Top 4 Transfer): 1. 22F-Chris Ferguson[1]; 2. 04-Tad Pospisil[2]; 3. 24X-Bill Leighton[3]; 4. 16-Tyler Bruening[6]; 5. 2J-Johnny Scott[8]; 6. 18-Shannon Babb[7]; 7. 32-Bobby Pierce[5]; 8. 49T-Jake Timm[10]; 9. 80-Allan Hopp[12]; 10. 2S-Stormy Scott[4]; 11. 40-Joel Callahan[11]; 12. 85-Josh Leonard[13]; 13. (DNS) 55D-Nick Deal; 14. (DNS) 52-Brian Kosiski

FAST Shafts B-Main #2 Finish (Top 4 Transfer): 1. 8-Kyle Strickler[2]; 2. 81E-Tanner English[4]; 3. 25-Shane Clanton[3]; 4. 14J-Jake Neal[1]; 5. 75-Terry Phillips[9]; 6. 32S-Chris Simpson[6]; 7. 56C-Colton Horner[7]; 8. 53-Andrew Kosiski[10]; 9. 98-Ben Schaller[5]; 10. 32B-Cody Laney[11]; 11. 6DX-Dylan Schmer[14]; 12. 112-Tyler Smith[12]; 13. F15-Jeremy Conaway[13]; 14. (DNS) 6D-Cory Dumpert

S&S Showdown Non-Qualifiers Race Finish (20 Laps): 1. 75-Terry Phillips[2]; 2. 56C-Colton Horner[5]; 3. 49T-Jake Timm[6]; 4. 32B-Cody Laney[8]; 5. 2J-Johnny Scott[1]; 6. 6DX-Dylan Schmer[10]; 7. 40-Joel Callahan[9]; 8. F15-Jeremy Conaway[14]; 9. 112-Tyler Smith[12]; 10. 80-Allan Hopp[7]; 11. 85-Josh Leonard[11]; 12. 18-Shannon Babb[3]; 13. 32S-Chris Simpson[4]; 14. (DNS) 55D-Nick Deal; 15. (DNS) 52-Brian Kosiski

Lucas Oil Feature Finish (101 Laps):

Race Statistics
Entrants: 46
Lap Leaders: Jimmy Owens (Laps 1 – 43); Tyler Erb (Laps 44 – 64); Chad Simpson (Laps 65 – 87); Brandon Sheppard (Laps 88 – 101)
Wrisco Feature Winner: Brandon Sheppard
Margin of Victory: 2.778 seconds
Cautions: Earl Pearson Jr. (Lap 15); Fuel Stop (Lap 40); Tanner English (Lap 42); Ben Schaller (Lap 55); Bobby Pierce (60); Jimmy Owens (Lap 64); Kyle Bronson (Lap 70)
Series Provisionals: Stormy Scott
High Point Provisional: Bobby Pierce
Series Emergency Provisionals: n/a
Track Provisionals: Andrew Kosiski, Ben Schaller
Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Brandon Sheppard, Ricky Thornton Jr., Chad Simpson
Optima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Tanner English (Advanced 12 Positions) 
Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Jimmy Owens
Allstar Performance Most Laps Led: Jimmy Owens (43 Laps)
Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Brandon Sheppard
Eibach Springs Rookie of the Race: Tanner English
ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Durham Racing Engines
Miller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket Chassis
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Danny White (Brandon Sheppard)
Dirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Jimmy Owens (Lap #16 – 18.0839 seconds)
STEEL-IT Tough Break of the Race: Jimmy Owens
PFC Brakes Pole Award: Ricky Thornton Jr.
Time of Race: 63 minutes 24 seconds