Brandon Sheppard found his way to Victory Lane for the 13th time this season Saturday night at Port Royal (Pennsylvania) Speedway. Sheppard led the race flag to flag once it finally got underway. Storms forced the race to start three hours late at 10 PM.

This was the first World of Outlaws race at the track in nearly a decade -- the last time it was on the circuit was in 2008.

Sheppard took the lead from Tyler Erb on the first lap and never looked back.

As soon as Erb lost the lead, he fell another spot. Jason Covert, who restarted next to Erb on the Dixie style restart, had the dominant line and used it to slide into second on lap three. Covert held onto the position for the remainder of the race.

"Hats off to my guys," Sheppard said. "They work really hard on this thing to give me a good car. It started getting black there in the groove, and we stayed a little bit freed up in the cushion there. So I think a little bit of an adjustment would've been better. It was a little treacherous out there, but nothing fell off of the car so good job to the team. I owe it all to them guys."

The second caution brought the end to Erb's night as he blew a tire after successfully holding off hard charges from both Devin Moran and Chris Madden. The field restarted on lap 26 with Madsen now in third position.

Sheppard remained the leader, but Covert was giving him everything he had, cutting the lead down from 1.336 seconds to inches when a red-flag accident occurred.



Nick Dickson was entering the first corner on lap 39 when he hit the cushion hard, causing his car to spin 360 degrees before it came crashing back to earth. Dickson walked away from the accident.

On the restart, Sheppard successful pulled away from Covert and Madden, creating nearly a two-second lead on a track type that he doesn't feel particularly comfortable on as a driver. This was his second podium finish on a half-mile track this week, as he came in third at Georgetown (Delaware) Speedway on Thursday night.

"Half-miles haven't been my best tracks, but my team has stuck behind me and they are really good support for me," Sheppard said. "They put it all on me to get the job done, and it's been a big learning curve this year. I feel like we have made leaps and bounds on the half-miles so that's good for me." 

Sheppard took over Josh Richards' ride after he retired following his 2016 championship-winning season, and Richards' stats seem to be haunting Sheppard as he finishes the season. Sheppard has 13 wins on the season and will attempt to match Richards' 18 wins last season, which is the current record for series victories.

"Josh [Richards] was always good at [half-miles] so I had some big shoes to fill," Sheppard said. "But I am getting better and I am hoping for a good rest of the season."

Top 10 Finishers
1. Brandon Sheppard
2. Jason Covert
3. Chris Madden
4. Rick Eckert
5. Austin Hubbard
6. Devin Moran
7. Mason Zeigler
8. Kyle Hardy
9. Jeff Rine
10. Dale Hollidge