Sheppard Ends Winless Drought with Fourth Illini 100 Triumph

Brandon Sheppard and Rocket1 Racing are undoubtedly one of the most successful pairings in the history of dirt Late Model racing.

But ever since they reunited over the winter, the conversation surrounding them hasn’t been about how often they were winning. It was about when they would win again.

The answer to that question? Saturday night at Farmer City Raceway.

Sheppard hadn’t won a race since the 2024 Gateway Dirt Nationals, and his last outdoor win came in a preliminary Feature at last year’s Prairie Dirt Classic. The Rocket Chassis house team hadn’t celebrated in Victory Lane since Tim McCreadie won the Topless 100 last August. And Sheppard hadn’t won the Illini 100 since 2019.

The five-time and reigning World of Outlaws Late Models champion brought all those streaks to an end with 60 flawless laps around one of his favorite tracks.

“I’m so happy, man,” Sheppard said following the 88th win of his World of Outlaws career. “Everybody has been talking us down. Do you miss Longhorn, do you miss this, do you miss that? No. I’m not back because I never left.”

Sheppard’s race began in the 11th starting spot, while Bilstein Pole Award winner Cody Overton led the field to green alongside second-starting Drake Troutman. Troutman took the early advantage and went to work on building a gap in hopes of becoming the second rookie in as many nights to win their first World of Outlaws race.

A clean-and-green start to the Feature meant slower traffic quickly became a factor, but Troutman masterfully maneuvered his way through to hold onto the top spot. Behind him, Overton, Brian Shirley, Bobby Pierce and Devin Moran found themselves under a blanket as they dueled for second.

With 25 laps complete, Shirley got to the outside of Troutman in Turns 1 and 2 and briefly grabbed the lead, but Troutman found enough grip on the bottom in the next set of corners to wrestle the position back.

Moran spun in Turn 4 to bring out the first and only caution of the race, erasing Troutman’s gap to the field. On the restart, he would have a different Illinois driver to deal with, as Sheppard had made his way around Shirley and up to second before the pace slowed.

When the race went back green, Sheppard rode the cushion for all it was worth and blasted off Turn 4 and into the lead. Less than five laps later, Sheppard’s gap to the field was already over three seconds. From there, “B-Shepp” put the No. 1 on cruise control, slicing his way through traffic on the way to the checkered flag.

“That was Farmer City right there baby,” Sheppard said. “That was elbows-up, get it on, cushion right up against the wall. That was the Farmer City we like to see for sure.”

While Sheppard was driving off into the sunset, Pierce was busy battling Troutman for second in the laps following the restart. Pierce prevailed and kept Sheppard in sight in traffic, but came up one spot short of a third-straight Illini 100 victory.

“Really love racing here, such an up-on-the-wheel track,” Pierce said. “When I saw Brandon catching lap cars, I thought I was going to have a chance at catching him. Right when I saw him catching those lap cars, he went right through them like a hot knife through butter. He did a great job getting through them. That was my only chance.”

Troutman brought the No. 22* home third for his third podium of the season, enough to take the lead back in the MD3 Rookie of the Year standings by 34 points over Dotson.

“We’ve been so dang close, I just wish we could pull one off,” Troutman said. “That’s part of it, these two are by far the best guys in Illinois. They’re tough to beat, and I saw them up on the boards after that caution and knew I was kind of a sitting duck.”

Illini 100 podium