There’s a reason Shelby County Speedway is the only racetrack that has a Tuesday date on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series outside the Winternationals at Ocala (Fla.) Speedway this year.

The third-mile fairgrounds oval put on a true Race of the Year candidate in Tuesday’s 53-lapper that saw seventh-starting Bobby Pierce buzzsaw his way to the win. Twelfth-starting Brandon Sheppard finished second, third-finishing Ricky Thornton Jr. briefly took the lead on a three-wide move, and 23rd-starting Hudson O’Neal raced his way to fourth.

That was just the proverbial cherry on top of what was already a successful night in the making for the Lucas Oil tour’s second-ever visit to Harlan, Iowa.

“It’s definitely worth it,” Schwallie said of carving out a midweek date for Shelby County in the tour’s busy schedule. “We had a great first visit to Shelby and Eagle (Raceway in Nebraska) last year, which we already expanded Eagle (to a three-day event in May). That was a phenomenal weekend for us. This one was a banger of a night, too.

“You ask yourself, how could you do more here? I don’t know where at in the schedule, but it’s a heckuva racetrack, too. Just enjoy it when there’s nights like this.”

Virtually the entire Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series pit area couldn’t stop praising the Shelby County Fairgrounds facility Tuesday, starting with Pierce, who landed nine slide jobs from laps 26-37 on his way to the lead.

“First off, I have to say, thank you, Shelby County Speedway,” Pierce said, his first words to FloRacing pit reporter Dustin Jarrett in victory lane. “Awesome, awesome racetrack. All these fans coming out, packed house, that’s awesome.”

Rocket1 Racing’s Mark Richards and Sheppard were among those left with grand impressions, even after a tantalizingly-close runner-up finish from the 12th-starting spot.

“I mean, it’s awesome,” Richards said of Shelby County. “This place is awesome.”

“Man, track prep tonight was on point,” Sheppard said. “You could race all over it. Last year, it was a little bottom dominant. Gary (Hopp) and the boys learned from that, and they fined-tuned it for us right there in the feature. Made for a really great race, I thought.”

Tuesday’s 53-lapper compelled drivers to dream about what’s possible in Shelby County’s future as Thornton, a current Iowa resident, boldly declared that “hopefully next year when we come back, it’s a two- or three-day show.”

Brandon Overton (“It does, for sure”), Richards (“It definitely has got all the potential”) and Sheppard (“Oh yeah, for sure”) are among those firm in the belief that Shelby County is capable of hosting a bigger event.

“Why would it not be capable? It’s an awesome racetrack. It’s a nice facility,” Richards added. “Got plenty of room to park. The town’s behind it. This is probably, this is as close to a Fairbury town (in Illinois) behind the racetrack that there is. The whole town is behind this event.”

Beyond the crowd-stirring on-track product, Schwallie and drivers are amazed by Shelby Count’s five-star hospitality. The Shelby County Chamber of Commerce & Industry rounded up a number of local businesses and handed out $100 gift cards for series personnel, drivers and teams to spend while in Harlan, Iowa.

Between their travels Saturday from Wheatland, Mo.’s Lucas Oil Speedway and Tuesday, Schwallie said that the Shelby County Cattleman’s Association on Monday fed his series personnel ribeye sandwiches. And on Tuesday, a local pizza shop, Pizza Ranch, provided the Lucas Oil staff lunch.

“The hospitality, we’ve had some really good ones with hospitality,” Schwallie said. “Georgetown, Del., they roll out the red carpet for us. Of course, Fairbury does an excellent job with that. And that’s not the most important part of our racing. It’s just nice it happens that way sometimes. We had a lot of local community involvement in this event. That local community rallying behind it, and helping the get word out about what’s coming to town, being proud that we are coming to their town, is what have on a Tuesday night. Altogether an awesome night.”

By his account, Thornton had the most fun-filled weekend of any driver in the country, notching three victories in IMCA stock car and modified competition across Nebraska’s Beatrice Speedway and Boone County Raceway. The Chandler, Ariz., superstar passed 40 cars across four features, too, that included a 20th-to-second charge in Monday’s stock car race.

Thornton, who “thought I had a lot of fun last night (at Boone County),” said that Tuesday at Shelby County “was more fun.”

“Any time you can race with J.D. (Jonathan Davenport) and Bobby like that, and throw sliders and you know they’re not going to run you over … obviously it sucks to not win in a race like that, but Bobby was really good,” Thornton said.

Some drivers envision what a big event like the Silver Dollar Nationals would look like at Shelby County Speedway. As much as Pierce enjoyed Tuesday’s feature, he still sees sprint car hotbed Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D., as best suitable for the Silver Dollar Nationals, as long as the 3/8-mile’s inside berm can be pushed in for a wider racing surface.

“I mean, there won’t be another I-80 (Speedway in Greenwood, Neb., the original home of the Silver Dollar Nationals). That place was pretty badass. Huset’s is good,” Pierce said. “I hear they are knocking the berm down on the inside possibly. I’d really love to see them do that. If they do that. I think Huset’s can be an awesome racetrack. It’s a good track, it’s just a little too narrow. That’s the downside of that track. Facility is awesome.

“This place (Shelby County) is nice with the town support, it kind of feels like Fairbury in a way. Track’s good; as long as they do that, the track is really good. Obviously, we were racing all over it. You have to love seeing the fan support from the town. It felt like Small Town America, Small Town USA. A lot of people here. It was packed.”

Davenport, who led the first 36 laps before fading to finish fifth, said that with a harder tire compound (he went with the softer right-rear as opposed to Pierce’s harder right-rear) he could’ve kept up with Pierce’s rip-roaring pace.

So much that Davenport thinks the racing surface for the 53-lapper could’ve gone another 20 or 30-plus laps for an even more exciting finish. 

“I think so,” Davenport said, offering feedback on how the Shelby County could become even racier. “I think, just a few tweaks on the racetrack, and it’ll be even better. I think if they would flatten the bottom out just a little bit more, and move the banking out further and make it a little more progressive, then it wouldn’t shelf-off at the top. There’s still a big cushion out there at the very end, but’s so far out there and it falls off just enough that it can’t keep up with the bottom.

“I think just a little bit of change. I don’t know if they have enough guardrail left there, I don’t think they do through (turns) one and two, to put a little more banking where it won’t fall off. I think they’d have to move the bottom out. This guy has enough equipment to do anything he needs to. And, you know, he might’ve already done that and have it be already top dominant. I don’t know, we’ll have to see. I definitely think it has a lot of potential. I liked this place last year.”

Adding to the drivers who approve, Dennis Erb Jr. wasn’t going to make the trip west this week for Tuesday’s race at Shelby County and the Silver Dollar Nationals at Huset’s. But he watched the replay of last year’s Lucas Oil feature at Shelby County and thought he’d check out the venue that hosts IMCA Late Models weekly and was shortened to a third-mile from a 4/10-mile layout before the 2022 season.

Though he started fourth and ran up front before fading to finish eighth, “the track work that they did put a lot of excitement in there for the race.” Erb sees potential for more at Shelby County, too.

“They have a lot of area here, a lot of pit area,” Erb said. “They have the room, I think. It looks like it’s growing. I wasn’t here last year, but I watched it. … It looks like it could be an event that can get bigger.”

Hearing testimonials from drivers, finding room for more dates — perhaps a multi-day event — at Shelby County will be perhaps on Schwallie’s to-do list when mapping out the 2026 season.

“You crawl, walk, run. Obviously, we’ve had two very successful weekdays here,” Schwallie said. “We’ll see what lies ahead. It’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem to figure out. Where it fits, how it fits.”

But as Schwallie has found out, there’s not much room in the Lucas Oil schedule. Adding another multi-day event to the schedule like May 15-17’s Malvern Bank High Bank Heist at Eagle Raceway isn’t easy.

“We are,” Schwallie said when asked if he’s running out of room to add multi-day events on the tour’s schedule. “Even the Eagle event, adding that into May can be risky that time of year with the weather. We were blessed to have a good weekend there. I don’t know where else we can put this at in the calendar, just observing other major events in the sport, taking the breaks where we need them, yet you never know. We always have something up our sleeve.”