Josh Richards left Portsmouth Raceway Park in Portsmouth, Ohio, on Saturday night with two victories — winning the Dirt Track World Championships and the $100,000 check that went along with it and the Lucas Oil Late Model Championship, which was worth $75,000.

The race began with Jonathan Davenport on the pole leading from the start. He paced the field for the first 35 laps. Last year’s winner, Brandon Sheppard, was the next to lead the race, taking the spot from Davenport on laps 36 through 46.

When a caution for Earl Pearson Jr. took away his lead, Richards was ready to pounce. He restarted third and made his way around the leaders in the first corner. He would go on to lead the rest of the race.

But that was only half the story.

Entering the final show Richards was 40 points outside of first place, with Tim McCreadie atop the leaderboard. McCreadie's night was soured after suffering two flat tires over the course of the race — ultimately dropping him to 17th. Scott Bloomquist, who was running third in the points behind Richards, also had a tire go down while running second to the leader. Bloomquist finished 14th in the end.

The night ended with Richards 65 points on top of McCreadie and 115 in front of Bloomquist.

“I have to collect my thoughts right now,” Richards said. “I can’t thank everyone enough for this opportunity. I made a tough decision last year to switch teams. We didn’t know what was going to happen. We started the year off well, and then we went to a bunch of new tracks and kind of fell off a little. We struggled a little bit, but so did those other guys. We got on a hot streak in July though.”

In Richards’ final laps, he started to feel his car slip as the tires aged. While he felt every vibration of the track, the 29-year-old driver was able to withstand it for the win over the field.

“It’s been a crazy year. Randall Edwards has done such a great job as crew chief,” Richards said. “There are so many people behind this team and that supported me. I felt everything in the last four or five laps. I have been through this scenario enough to know. I knew the tires were slipping away, but fortunately they held up to the end.”

Sheppard held on to finish second after leading midway through the race. He has a working relationship with Richards family and was excited to see Josh win.

“We had a pretty good car,” Sheppard said. “Josh got around me on that restart, and he did a good job out in front. I look up to him a lot. I drive for his dad. It’s been a dream come true driving for Mark (Richards). We have had a great year. Being able to learn from Josh has been great. We would have liked to get the win tonight, but there’s nobody else I’d like to finish second to than Josh.”

The pole-sitter Davenport completed the podium after losing his early momentum.

“Congrats to Josh and Brandon on their run tonight. We were good early on," Davenport said, “I just don’t have this place down pat yet for some reason. We keep getting closer.”

Mike Marlar and Jared Hawkins claimed their final top fives of the season.

Top 10 Finishers

1. Josh Richards
2. Brandon Sheppard
3. Jonathan Davenport
4. Mike Marlar
5. Jared Hawkins
6. Zack Dohm
7. Chub Frank
8. Brandon Overton
9. Darrell Lanigan
10. Dennis Erb, Jr.

Complete Results, With Heat Races