World of Outlaws Prairie Dirt Classic • night 2

Since the first time he strapped into a dirt Late Model over 20 years ago, Brian Shirley has dreamed of conquering the Prairie Dirt Classic.

Saturday night at Fairbury Speedway, that dream came true.

The Chatham, IL native has done everything there is to do for a driver born and bred in the “Land of Lincoln.” DIRTcar National championships. DIRTcar Summer Nationals titles. Hundreds of Feature wins. The only thing missing was a win in the state’s biggest race. Nineteen years after his first PDC start, Shirley finally got the job done.

Once he took the checkered flag, Shirley couldn’t even make it to Victory Lane before the party began. Halfway through his cooldown lap, “Squirrel” parked the No. 3S and climbed out on the backstretch to salute the Fairbury faithful.

“It’s so awesome. All these fans, I just appreciate the raw emotion from the fans,” Shirley said. “This is for my wife, she’s in the hospital right now. Luckily, on that day off, I got to go up and see her and spend the night with her before we head off to Wisconsin here.”

Shirley’s night started on the outside of Row 2 behind two of his fellow Illinois gassers, Brandon Sheppard and Bobby Pierce, on the front row. He stayed in the top five early on while both of the top-two starters faded, putting him third behind Hudson O’Neal and Jonathan Davenport after 10 laps. The rain delay led to a bottom-dominant track in the opening laps, but Shirley was one of the first to make the outside work and used it to get by Davenport on Lap 22.

With O’Neal ripping the cushion as well, Shirley had to go back low in his bid for the top spot. He proved to be equally fast through the middle, as Shirley got enough of a run off Turn 4 to get to O’Neal’s inside down the frontstretch and completed the pass in Turn 1 to take command.

The name of the game from that point was restarts – the 100-lap contest was plagued by a flurry of cautions, but Shirley kept the field at bay time and time again. The list of challengers included the likes of Pierce, Davenport and Nick Hoffman – all of whom were involved in a restart pileup with 15 to go.

When the carnage was cleaned up, Shirley and Sheppard were the two primary contenders remaining at the front of the field. Shirley pulled away initially, but Sheppard wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

By the time the white flag was in the air, Sheppard was all over the back bumper of Shirley’s machine. The No. 1 went low and got alongside Shirley down the backstretch, but Shirley blasted off the FALS cushion in Turn 2 to take the upper hand into the final corner. Shirley blocked the slider line in Turns 3 and 4 while Sheppard again dove to the bottom, and Shirley won the drag race to the line to clinch his first World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision win of the year in the biggest event on the schedule.

“Those last couple laps, I could feel ‘B-Shepp’ down there,” Shirley said. “I just kept telling myself to try and stay up on that wheel. I was so nervous to go down there and try because I had just been running that same line for so long. The good Lord was just letting it just come down to one lap.”

Sheppard’s runner-up effort was his sixth podium in the PDC, continuing the hot streak he and Rocket1 Racing have been on over the past four weeks that now includes seven podiums in their last 11 starts.

“Brian did a great job there, he got it out front pretty early and kept it out there like he was supposed to do,” Sheppard said. “Once we got lined out I couldn’t really do much. I was trying every line possible out there but I just couldn’t get close enough to him to throw a slider or anything. I was waiting for him to mess up or something and he didn’t.”

Rounding out the all-Illinois podium was Dennis Erb Jr., who went from ninth to third in the Feature for his best PDC finish since 2016.

“We had a good car all weekend,” Erb said. “Just a little off there at the end of the race, but all in all, just glad the way the night turned out, and we’ll just go on to the next one.”

Hoffman recovered from the late-race incident to finish fourth, while Tim McCreadie advanced 16 spots up to fifth to complete the top five.

RACE NOTES:

Brian Shirley set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.

Garrett Alberson, Tyler Bruening and Ricky Thornton Jr. won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Brandon Sheppard won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Cody Overton won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Brandon Sheppard won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Nick Hoffman was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Tim McCreadie was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Bobby Pierce was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Cody Overton was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Daulton Wilson was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.

Max Blair was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Jason Jameson was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision will head to Wilmot Raceway for the first time ever for the Wilmot Late Model Showdown on Monday, July 28. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.

If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.

Feature (100 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[4]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[9]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[10]; 5. 9M-Tim McCreadie[21]; 6. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 7. 157-Mike Marlar[7]; 8. 2-Cody Overton[29]; 9. 18D-Daulton Wilson[15]; 10. 111-Max Blair[8]; 11. 96-Tanner English[16]; 12. 12J-Jason Jameson[6]; 13. 6-Hudson O’Neal[3]; 14. 49D-Jonathan Davenport[5]; 15. 58-Garrett Alberson[17]; 16. 25F-Jason Feger[11]; 17. 11R-Josh Rice[13]; 18. 19R-Ryan Gustin[23]; 19. 89-Mike Spatola[25]; 20. 1T-Tyler Erb[20]; 21. 16-Tyler Bruening[18]; 22. 24-Ryan Unzicker[27]; 23. 22*-Drake Troutman[24]; 24. 42-Mckay Wenger[22]; 25. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[12]; 26. 74X-Ethan Dotson[28]; 27. 1W-Donny Walden[26]; 28. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[19]; 29. 32S-Chris Simpson[14]