World Of Outlaws Late Model Series

It Took 5 Months For Chris Madden To Get Win 2 And 1 More Night For No. 3

It Took 5 Months For Chris Madden To Get Win 2 And 1 More Night For No. 3

It took five months for Chris Madden to get his second win of the season, but only one more night for win three.

Jul 13, 2017 by Dan Beaver
It Took 5 Months For Chris Madden To Get Win 2 And 1 More Night For No. 3
It took 36 laps for Chris Madden to take the lead, but a minor mistake by Brandon Sheppard and a determined charge by Madden was the difference maker in Wednesday’s World of Outlaws Late Model Series race from Ogilvie (MN) Raceway.

Madden won his first race of the season the second night the Outlaws raced, but he would be forced to wait almost five months to get another. He won July 8 at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, MN and now has back to back wins for the season.

Madden was pleased because the run finally gave him a chance to finish what he started in a race.

"We've had some speed through our car all through the year we just haven't been able to put it all together," said Madden. "We've had some bad luck, broke some drive shafts, and a couple of engine failures but other than that we've been pretty good and haven't been able to finish it but we have a new Longhorn out from Clements Automotive with Penske Shocks, Hoosier Tires and VP Fuels. Our race car was awesome here."

Sheppard held on to finish second. He was looking for his eighth win of the Outlaws season and his second of the month. Sheppard won earlier in July at Federated Raceway at I-55 kept a streak five-month streak of winning at least one race per week alive.

"We had a pretty good racecar," said Sheppard. "I just got in the wall about halfway through the race... and once we lost the spoiler we got a little bit loose and I don't think we had the right tires on either but we'll take it and head into tomorrow night."

Sheppard was leading comfortably when he tagged the wall on lap 20 and dropped some debris on the track to bring out a caution. Ten laps later, he built a 1.7-second lead over Madden, but that is when Madden found a little more speed in his No. 44 car. In five laps, he cut the lead to less than half a second. He completed the pass on the next circuit.

"We have some tough guys we race with out here,” Madden said from Victory Lane. “I love racing with Brandon. He is a hell of a wheelman and that kids got a bright future ahead of him.

Chad Simpson stood on the bottom step of the podium with his third-place finish and that felt almost as good as standing at the top.

"It's a win for us and this team right now," said Simpson. "We haven't raced a whole lot this year and that's why we're up in [Minnesota] now to try to get some races in and to try to get a feel for this car. I think this is the best we've ran this year and the best I've felt in it so I think we're headed in the right direction now."

Top 10 Finishers
1. Chris Madden
2. Brandon Sheppard
3. Chad Simpson
4. Rick Eckert
5. Shane Clanton
6. Tyler Erb
7. Frank Heckenast Jr.
8. Devin Moran
9. Eric Wells
10. Morgan Bagley