PORT ROYAL, Pa. (Aug. 22) — Brandon Sheppard knows his XR2 Rocket Chassis performs to his liking just about anywhere he goes. But on a slicked-off half-mile? Those conditions hadn’t been tested yet with Sheppard’s relatively new race machine until Friday's Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series feature at Port Royal Speedway.

Finishing third behind Ricky Thornton Jr. and Jonathan Davenport, two of the most successful drivers at Port Royal of late, proved as another promising sign for the XR2’s potentiality as Sheppard continues to dial in Mark Richards’s latest undertaking.

“It just shows how good this thing is. We definitely can be better tomorrow,” Sheppard said. “If I had to go back out in that condition, I think we’re way better. Still, to come out of there third, knowing we can be a little better and knowing how we can be a little better, just says a lot about the car and the shocks. Durham Engine is really good. This car, the XR2, is really amazing. It’s just good. That’s all I can tell ya.”

Friday marked Sheppard’s ninth podium finish in 21 races since the team debuted the XR2 on June 29. Where Thornton and Davenport beat Sheppard came down to the opening 10 laps. Sheppard ran second until Davenport got around him on lap 11. 

From there, Thornton and Davenport distanced themselves from Sheppard, who tried letting the race come to him from behind. The New Berlin, Ill., doesn’t plan on changing much on his race car before Saturday’s 50-lap program paying $50,000-to-win.

“I could see (Thornton) the whole time. He could run the top a little better than I could there. But you know, I’d get to lapped traffic and I could come to him there a little bit. They’d clear a few guys and then I’d be away from them. I’d come back to them a little bit, and there wasn’t a whole lot of making up speed there. Like I said, did the best we could to keep the car underneath me. We had a really good balance. We were just a little short tonight.”

Almost For Daulton Wilson 

Daulton Wilson was in position to win his heat race and potentially start third in the 40-lap main event. But the Fayetteville, N.C., driver for JRR Motorsports couldn’t fend off one the most consistent forces in all of Dirt Late Model racing, Jonathan Davenport, on the initial start of the night’s second heat race.

Starting from the pole, Wilson felt like “I got the launch” on Davenport, but “I wasn’t 100 percent clear of J.D” when the two jockeyed into the opening corner. That proved to be the difference from Wilson running inside the top-five vs. where he finished in ninth.

“We always seem to race OK. I just didn’t get 100 percent clear (of Davenport in the heat race) down the frontstretch to get up and run the cushion,” Wilson said. “He turned under me and put himself in position. That’s part of it. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

In the feature, Wilson started seventh and backed up two positions in the nonstop affair. 

“We was all right there. We just needed to get rolling there a little sooner and have some clear racetrack,” Wilson said. “I don’t think many people passed. I don’t know how good the racing was, but we were all kind of right there together, just rode. We weren’t bad. We’ll build on it and get better for tomorrow.”

Odds And Ends

Ricky Thornton Jr.’s victory marked his 46th career full-field triumph on the Lucas Oil Series, tying him with Don O’Neal for fourth on the all-time victories list. Snapping a 15-race winless lull in the Late Model, it was his first with the series since July 11 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. He has three career series victories at Port Royal, including April scores in 2024 and ’25. … Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., is back at the wheel of his Longhorn Chassis this weekend after debuting a brand-new Infinity Race Car last weekend at Batesville Moor Speedway’s Topless 100. “I guess my Longhorn is probably my primary car. That Infinity, that whole program we’ve done with Infinity is a lot of R&D. They’ve had some test cars I’ve drove, this and that. It’s been fun doing it. But if you ain’t careful, testing all the time … we’re learning. It’s fun as heck doing it, but it’s distracting, too, when these guys are turned into one thing the whole time. We’re just going to play around with it the rest of the year. We’ll have it. And then my Longhorn is kind of a tried-and-true thing. Sometimes when you come to these big races, you need a sure thing.” … Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., raced the final 15 laps Friday without a working throttle spring, which hurt his chances at improving his 10th-place finish: “We had a mechanical issue tonight. I thought we got going pretty good right there. Got back by Hudson O’Neal, was getting by (Garrett Alberson). All of the other guys was right there in front of me (when he ran as high as seventh). … I didn’t have no throttle control. It’s impossible to drive one without a throttle spring. It was either all or nothing. We’ll be fine. We’ll fix it up and go at it again.” … Garrett Alberson debuted a new Longhorn Chassis with a seventh-place finish. The Roberts Motorsports team built the car in three days after returning home from the Nutrien Ag Solutions Topless 100 at Batesville Motor Speedway, where they junked a cars in the wreck involving Cade Dillard. The Las Cruces, N.M., driver still has the same car he won with at Port Royal last year — it’s his backup car on this trip atop the team’s trailer, but he said that car hasn’t been the same since it needed a new front clip following May 23’s hard crash at Wheatland, Mo.’s Lucas Oil Speedway. … Brandon Overton also debuted a new Longhorn Chassis on Friday, per Steve Arpin, the China Grove, N.C., chassis co-owner who made the trip to Port Royal to assists customers. … Former series regular Ross Robinson of Georgetown, Del., finished 13th in his second race aboard his new XR2 Rocket. … Indiana, Pa.’s Gregg Satterlee endured his unluckiest race night of the year when his fan belt broke making his way to the staging area right before hot laps. The nine-time winner this year (three wins at Port Royal) missed time trials to make repairs, only to stumble upon more misfortune when his right-rear went flat with three laps remaining in the 10-lap B-main. … Trever Feathers of Winchester, Va., was another regional driver from the Mid-Atlantic with sour luck Friday. His nose folded under his No. 27 Team Zero Race Car during hot laps, forcing him to miss time trials. Trying to race his way into a heat-race transfer, contact while battling Gary Stuhler the midpack sent him into the turn-two wall, caving in his rear deck.