CASA GRANDE, Ariz. (Jan. 16) — If there’s anyone who’d welcome a reset and the chance to start over at the Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout, it’s Brandon Sheppard.

With finishes of sixth, 11th, 14th and 22nd, it’s not hyperbolic to say that virtually nothing has gone the 32-year-old’s way in the Sonoran Desert this week. Unfavorable pill draws. Engine woes. Flat tires. Neutralized by dirty air while mired in the midpack.

All the above has compounded into a forgettable week for the Berlin, Ill., driver, who’s even harbored second thoughts about making the cross-country trek to Central Arizona Raceway’s 3/8-mile oval that hasn’t been too kind on the track.

“Yeah, I wish I would have stayed home now honestly,” Sheppard said. “You know, it’s just one of them deals, man. We need to qualify better. That’s what it boils down to. You can’t even adjust your car accordingly when you start back there with them guys. You have to do different stuff to your car to be able to race, you know, and all that bad air and them crumbs rather than if you were starting up front. We’re just trying to make s--- happen. It’s all we can do.”

The two-time miniseries champ's week began with a thud when engine issues sidelined from Saturday’s opener on lap 16. After starting 18th on Sunday, he salvaged an 11th-place finish despite a flat tire that sent him to the rear on lap 24. He finally showed flashes of speed Wednesday, qualifying fifth and finishing third in his heat to set up a 10th-to-sixth run in the 30-lap feature.

But Friday returned him to square one as Sheppard went out second-to-last in Group B time trials, only managing an eighth-place qualifying effort that made for another uphill battle. Starting 16th in the 30-lap feature, he never ran higher than 13th before another flat tire set him back on lap 17.

"I mean, I don't think our car is terrible. I think we’ve just qualified bad all weekend and it's hard to pass here. It’s just one of them deals, we need to start up front in the heat race. We haven't been doing that. We gotta draw better for one. … I felt like that's killed us a lot because I felt like our car's been decent.”

What struck Sheppard on Friday is the razor-thin lap time margins in qualifying.

“Everybody’s stuff's good out here. Like tonight, third (Jonathan Davenport) was a 15.240 and we were a 15.298. So it's like, we're right there. Obviously we're not making the best decision on the car, but at the end of the day, I feel like our qualifying car is decent. We're just not making the speed that we need to make, whether it’d be because we're going out too late or whatever.

“I don't know what it is. We just need a little luck go our way and start off running, race, and really see what we got. You know, we haven't even really been able to show if we got any speed or not.”

Sheppard hasn’t found a viable baseline setup for a virtually brand-new Rocket Chassis XR2 that his father, Steve, debuted at the Kubota Gateway Dirt Nationals inside The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Mo., last December. Even should the five-time World of Outlaws Late Model Series not get anything going Saturday or Sunday, he’s confident the poor results won’t have any bearing on Georgia-Florida Speedweeks with Rocket1 Racing.

“Whether we make the wrong decision on the car, we'll never know because we start back there,” Sheppard said. “It’s hard to come up through there, and then we've had flats. Two top-10 runs we should have had, we’ve had flat tires. Yes, it's been a s----- week. It is what it is, it’s part of racing.

“When you get kicked down, you got to get back up. That's all you can do. So we're gonna finish the week out as strong as we can, and then make something happen come Speedweeks.”