In five years of being a full-time World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model driver, Brandon Sheppard rocketed his way up the stats sheet to becoming one of the best of all time. With his fourth title – behind the wheel of the Rocket1 Racing house car – he now ties Josh Richards for the most championships of all time. And, with this being his third consecutive title, he became the first driver in Series history to accomplish that feat.
“It’s pretty amazing,” Sheppard said, before taking a pause to almost comprehend the achievement. “That part of it hasn’t set in for me yet. At the end of the day, that was our goal going into the year to win another championship. We’ve definitely been up and down this year as far as speed goes. Definitely not as good as we wanted to be but it was a good year for us. Obviously, a good points year for us, winning the championship.
“To be able to tie Josh with four championships is huge for me because I look up to Josh as a driver. I always have. His dad (Mark Richards, owner of Rocket1 Racing) giving me this opportunity back in 2012 when Josh was doing other things, I never thought we’d be to this point. Not this soon. It’s definitely really cool.”
Sheppard will return to the seat of the blue Valvoline #1 Late Model in 2022, looking to surpass Richards in two categories and stake his claim as the king of the Series. One more championship will make him the winningest champion and two more victories will help him pass Richards for the most wins all-time – Richards currently has 78 wins and Sheppard has 77.
Sheppard ended the 2021 season with eight wins, 34 top-fives and 42 top-10s.
Final Series Points:
1 Brandon Sheppard 6760 0
2 Chris Madden 6562 -198
3 Tyler Bruening 6244 -516
4 Dennis Erb Jr 6172 -588
5 Ricky Weiss 6146 -614
6 Ryan Gustin 5966 -794
7 Boom Briggs 5746 -1014
8 Brent Larson 5580 -1180
9 Cade Dillard 4674 -2086
10 Kyle Strickler 3148 -3612
Nick Graziano has the full championship recap:
Photo's - World Of Outlaws