After the Checkers
Breakdown of World's second preliminary night
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
Brandon Sheppard won Friday at Eldora Speedway. (Zach Yost)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 11) — Takeaways and analysis from Friday’s 56th annual World 100 prelim night, a pair of $12,000-to-win split-field semifeatures won by Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill. (RaceWire) and Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind. (RaceWire):
ROCKET READY: Well, what do you know? Are we really surprised that the season’s steadiest crown jewel performer, Brandon Sheppard and Rocket1 Racing, earned high-point honors? Two nights, two quick times. Sheppard charged from 13th to third on a hammer-down surface Thursday, then went from fourth to victory on a slicker racetrack Friday. It seemingly doesn’t matter what kind of conditions Eldora presents. Sheppard and Rocket1 can excel in all of them. On the cushion, they make speed. Off it, they look glued to the racetrack. They’ve had the most complete package through two nights and, just as importantly, stayed out of trouble — something several other heavy hitters can’t say. For a driver who’s had virtually nothing go his way in the World 100 — he’s never finished among the top five in 12 previous starts, a truly mind-boggling statistic — everything finally seems to be falling into place. Sheppard’s charge from sixth to second in Friday’s shootout qualifier also offered a glimpse of what he’ll have to do Saturday. He starts sixth in the first heat, a daunting assignment that could become even tougher if rain alters the racetrack.
J.D.’S ADVERSITY: After back-to-back nights of setback-inducing incidents, Jonathan Davenport might be showing a few chinks in the armor. A run-in during Thursday’s shootout forced him off the track, then he overstepped Eldora’s top side and knocked the deck out during Friday’s qualifying session. That mistake forced him to charge from 16th to sixth in his shootout before repeating the same 16th-to-sixth rally in the semifeature. We haven’t gotten a true gauge of Davenport’s strength because he’s started deep in both semifeatures, advancing from 25th to 11th Thursday and 16th to sixth Friday. Starting from the outside pole of Saturday’s fifth heat, Davenport finally has the clean-air opportunity to show whether he can still seize the moment and reassert himself as the driver everyone came to Eldora expecting to see up front.
BOLD STATEMENT: If Hudson O’Neal’s fourth-to-first charge on Friday’s opening lap isn’t an indication of what he and SSI Motorsports are capable of, then I don’t know what is. It’s the kind of audacious move you’d expect from Bobby Pierce or perhaps Tyler Erb. But O’Neal? That was bold, even for him — and it speaks volumes about the race car underneath the 2023 World 100 winner. Much of the summer, O’Neal has been stuck in that third-to-seventh-place range: consistently competitive, but unable to break through the glass ceiling and win. Friday’s victory — his first with SSI since May 14 at Eagle Raceway — suggests he finally has. With that kind of speed and confidence resurfacing at precisely the right time, O’Neal suddenly looks capable of becoming a two-time World 100 winner.
CONTENDERS: Outside of Brandon Sheppard, Jonathan Davenport and Bobby Pierce, who has a legitimate shot in Saturday’s 100-lapper? The heat races will shape the answer, of course, but Nick Hoffman and Dale McDowell have been business as usual through two nights. Both can win from virtually anywhere. Hudson O’Neal can, too, provided Friday’s victory truly marked the breakthrough described above. The same goes for Ricky Thornton Jr., who has returned to his front-running ways. Chris Ferguson and Josh Rice have officially entered the championship conversation as well. We already knew they were capable, but cracking the top 10 among the drivers to beat at the World 100 represents a significant step. Ferguson has checked every box: qualifying second and first, advancing from sixth to third in both shootouts and finishing fourth and second in the semifeatures. I wouldn’t call him a Tier 1A favorite, but he has earned Tier 1B status. Though Rice slipped from third to seventh in Friday’s semifeature, I’m chalking that up as a notes-gathering outing. His sixth-to-first charge in Friday’s Shootout and 11th-to-second drive in Thursday’s semifeature are enough for me to label him a Tier 1B contender, too.
STAT OF THE NIGHT: A pair of streaks were snapped in Sheppard and O’Neal’s victories. For Sheppard, he ended a 15-race winless drought, which had been his longest of the season. O’Neal, meanwhile, snapped a 34-race drought with his SSI Motorsports team.
