Eldora Speedway

Notes: Traffic-snagged Sheppard lets RTJ past

October 10, 2026, 11:37 am

By Kevin Kovac and Byran Ault

DirtonDirt

Brandon Sheppard (1) settled for second in the Clash on the Wabash opener. (Heath Lawson)

ROSSBURG, Ohio (Oct. 9) — Brandon Sheppard leaned against a counter inside the Rocket1 team’s trailer and glumly recounted the main storyline of Friday’s 40-lap Clash on the Wabash preliminary feature at Eldora Speedway. | RaceWire

“Just did a bad job there in the lapped traffic and got beat,” Sheppard said.

The 33-year-old star from New Berlin, Ill., appeared primed for a $10,000 victory in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event after he wrestled the lead from Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., on lap 18, but Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., snatched the top spot away on lap 37 just before a caution flag flew and left Sheppard to settle for a runner-up finish.

There were no excuses from Sheppard. He knew he should have been more aggressive dealing with slower cars. Hesitating just slightly cost him enough momentum to let Thornton charge off turn four between Sheppard’s car and the outside wall and seize command.

“I mean, they’re racing, too, I get it,” Sheppard said of the slower cars driven by Tyler Erb and Garrett Smith that he approached shortly before the lap-37 caution flag. “ It’s not like they knew that I was there. It’s not like they did anything wrong. They were holding their line.

“But from my point of view, they’re swinging out so wide getting into the corner. They were coming from the wall, coming down across the track, which was what I was doing too, so I felt like if I tried to enter in the top behind them, I’d be too close to them and I’d lose the air and mess my corner up worse.

“It was just, the track is was kind of fast so it was hard to pass anyway,” he continued. “The best way you could pass was just kind of run in there and get just enough ahead of them to where you could take their air off, but once I got to them, the track had gotten slicker and I couldn’t carry quite as much speed into the corner, which then kind of screwed me up. And at that point, you needed to go to the top, but I didn’t, so it is what it is.”

There was the key takeaway for Sheppard, the approach he should have taken.

“Looking back, obviously, ring the top, try to slide them that way,” Sheppard said. “At that point in the race, the bottom was pretty much burnt up because that’s where everybody ran. The middle of the track was slick, crummy, and there was a nice cushion up there. So at the end of the race, to make the most speed, I think you needed to be ringing around the top and I didn’t go up there.”

Sheppard took the loss on the chin, noting that just one month ago at Eldora, with the roles reversed, Sheppard overtook Thornton amid lapped traffic to win a World 100 semifeature. He also was very pleased with the performance of his Rocket Chassis.

“We have a really good race car,” Sheppard said. “The car is balanced. Our consistency here just at Eldora in general is greatly improved in these past couple years, so I’m definitely proud of my guys for that.”

And the second-place finish moved Sheppard another step closer to a first career Lucas Oil Series title to go along with his record five World of Outlaws Late Model Series championships. He added 25 points to his lead, extending his edge to 65 points over fifth-place finisher Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., and 75 points over third-place Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, with just Saturday’s 50-lap, $50,000-to-win Clash on the Wabash finale and Oct. 16-17’s Dirt Track World Championship at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells remaining on the tour’s schedule. — Kevin Kovac

Alberson back in mix

Garrett Alberson finished eighth in Friday’s feature, or most drivers, which he’d typically consider a mediocre finish. But the driver from Las Cruces, N.M., was all smiles with a top-10 run as he continues his comeback from facial injuries he suffered in an August incident at Florence Speedway.

“Overall it was a huge step forward in our progress from where we’ve been,” Alberson said. “Looking at the last couple of weeks were pretty depressing. We rode the struggle bus way harder than I thought we would. Obviously it’s not the result that you want, but it was still a huge confidence boost. Like, you feel like you’re back in the mix with the guys.”

Alberson, who was struck in the helmet by an object during Florence’s North-South 100 on Aug. 8, returned to the cockpit two weeks ago at Brownstown Speedway’s Jackson 100 weekend after a lengthy absence. He finished 19th in the C.J. Rayburn Memorial and 20th in the 100-lapper, then placed 21st in last Saturday’s Pittsburgher feature.

“I think our car’s pretty fast,” said Alberson, who posted the overall quickest lap in Friday’s time trials. “I’m just rusty on the racing part of it for sure. We need a little balance work to go win the race, but the speed’s pretty decent. I’ve just got to put all the pieces back together myself, I feel like.”

Alberson entered Eldora’s action in the same Longhorn Chassis he debuted at the Pittsburger.

“I didn't get the right set-up (at PPMS),” Alberson said. “You know, the guys built a good car. I just made some big mistakes on the setup end of it. We were able to stop and go through it really well and kind of get back to our program that we had before all that stuff happened. And now I feel like we’re kind of back in the ballpark speed-wise, so I feel good about that. I’ve just got to work to make a little better decisions on the driving part of it now.

“I swear, like, the aggression level has stepped up since I've been out of it,” he added. “I mean, you would think a few weeks wouldn’t make a difference. I just kind of have to acclimate to that, I think.”

Alberson, who started second, was able to get a strong run off turn two on the opening circuit of Friday’s 40-lapper. But when he attempted to pass Chris Madden down the backstretch he misjudged the cushion in turn three, slipped high against the wall and lost several spots.

He was proud to salvage eighth. He readily admitted that the past couple weekends have made him question whether he can return back to his old form before the accident.

“Aside from the vision stuff (from an injury to his left eye), I felt like my head got hit pretty hard and you just don’t feel like yourself for a long time,” said Alberson, who was very emotional after his heat win. “On top of that, just the way things transpired, timing-wise, there was just a lot of difficult weeks in there. Just weeks where you're like, ‘Are we even going to make it?’ you know what I mean? Just mentally, physically, just a lot of difficult weeks, and then we’re going to get back in the car. And then we were so bad, when I got back in the car, it’s like, ‘Man, can I even do this?’ The last couple weeks were pretty trying. It’s just been a lot.

“You got a lot of support from the racing community as a whole, right? That also kind of feels overwhelming,” he added. “Everybody treated us so well, and, like, basically kept us afloat there. It happened to be a pretty difficult time and the racing community stepped in and saved us. I go back to the track not knowing if I’m ever going to be able to, like, live up to your expectations that was made for a couple tough weeks. I want to feel like I can kind of make it worth all their time and their money. That was just a huge step forward.” — Bryan Ault

Invigorated Floridian

A new crew chief and new car has Kyle Bronson of Brandon, Fla., feeling great — and hopeful for a better future after a struggle-filled season.

A fourth-place run at Friday’s Clash on the Wabash preliminary feature with his fresh Longhorn Chassis indicated he’s on the right track.

“It felt really good, you know, and I gotta give it all to my guys,” Bronson said. “They’ve been working their ass off, and they’ve really built this car here in a week. And like I said, this made my job a lot easier there, and I feel like they got a pretty good balance going on here for me, so really, we just need to get racing and fine-tune this thing and get myself more comfortable in it.

“This whole deal’s a package deal and it’s been frustrating as of very late, but days like today makes it worth it.”

The past two weeks have brought a heavy amount of change to Bronson and his crew. Anthony Burroughs signed on as Bronson’s head wrench before the Lucas Oil tour’s stop at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway last weekend after departing the Koehler Motorsports team and driver Ricky Thornton Jr., and after racing Rocket Chassis all year Bronson made the switch back to a Longhorn and debuted it at Eldora.

Bronson credited Longhorn’s Steve Arpin, Matt Langston and Kevin Rumley for getting him back into racing for wins.

“I mean, definitely there’s pros and cons of both cars and all,” Bronson said of Longhorn and Rocket Chassis. “Burroughs, a lot of his knowledge is from the Longhorn stuff. That was the deal we made when we was able to hire Burroughs, is to go do this (Longhorn) deal, and like I said, it worked out.

“We just gotta keep working. People think (Rocket’s) Mark (Richards) is gonna slow down, and that’s never going to happen. That guy’s the hardest working guy I know. Like I said, both of these guys build really, really good cars. And like I said, I’m just proud to be in a fast one.”

Bronson has been tending to start off A-mains fast, taking early leads before fading later in the race. During the recent Jackson 100 at Brownstown Speedway, Bronson paced the field for laps 2-23 before fading to finish 16th, and he commanded laps 25-62 in August’s North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky. before falling back to finish 10th.

Friday saw the opposite, which has Bronson encouraged. From his 10th starting spot, he charged forward, passing Chris Madden for fifth in the 40-lapper’s first 20 circuits. He snuck around Josh Rice of Crittenden, Ky., after a restart with three laps to go to cross the finish line in fourth.

“The balance of the car was really good,” Bronson said. “I messed up in that heat race there and let Ricky get by me on the start there, and just made a couple of bad moves. Just being fresh in the car, we didn’t get to practice it. Today’s the first day on it, and like I said, just really looking forward to getting this thing fine-tuned and getting ready to put this thing back in the winner’s circle here pretty soon.” — Bryan Ault

Odds and ends

Running a Longhorn Chassis from his Double L Motorsports stable that he entered in Eldora action for the first time, Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., said his setup faded away after he ran in the top-five early in the feature. He thought his engine was going sour so he retired midway through the race, but his crew discovered that the loss of power resulted from a spark plug that fell off. … Josh Rice challenged for the lead early in the feature but couldn’t find a way past Chris Madden, then slipped to fourth because it seemed he “got to where my stuff was way too hot” from the battle. He ended up sixth with mangled right-rear bodywork after tangling with the lapped car driven by Dan Ebert of Lake Shore, Minn., on lap 37. … Chris Ferguson of Mount Holly, N.C., felt his Stinger Race car was running well in 10th place and he was headed to a solid finish before the left-rear tire blew out on lap 14, prompting him to retired because of resulting body and suspension damage. … Four-time Lucas Oil Series champion Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., failed to qualify in his first competitive action in two years. He had his Longhorn Chassis in third, one spot from transferring, at the two-to-go signal in the second B-main, but then he slid high against the wall in turn two racing with Jerry Bowersock of Wapakoneta, Ohio, and fell back to a seventh-place finish.