“Squirrel” led with 21 laps remaining to claim his second 2024 World of Outlaws CASE Late Model victory.
Brian Shirley is riding high at the perfect time with the latest World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment model.
On Wednesday night, the Chatham, Illinois native claimed a hard-fought victory in the first race of the series at Highland Speedway, with Bobby Pierce, Tyler Bruning and Brandon Sheppard giving it their all in pursuit of the No. 3S Bob Cullen Racing Late Model.
Shirley started the night off with a win in Heat 4, earning the Bilstein Pole Award in the Beat The Heat 40 Feature with a first place prize of $10,000.
Shirley then dropped to second place as Tyler Bruning, a driver from Decorah, Iowa, used the top line of the course to take the lead on the opening lap. Early on, Shirley tried to get to the bottom line of the course, but Bruning picked up speed through the corners and held off Shirley.
Bruning began to widen his gap on Shirley as he battled with driver Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Illinois for second place.
Multiple cautions in the first half of the race created new opportunities for others in the field to pass Bruening, especially Shirley, who tried to surprise the No. 16 Skyline Motorsports car into the lead.
The chance to take the lead came on lap 19. Despite a slow start from Bruning, Shirley passed Bruning down the center line of the quarter-mile race track to take the lead.
Throughout the second half, Shirley maintained a gap on the tight pack of cars behind him, while Roblin, Louisiana driver Cade Dillard and Oakwood, Illinois driver Bobby Pierce were firmly in the top five for the final half of the race.
While Dillard battled it out with Sheppard, Pierce worked his way up the ranks, overtaking Bruning for second place behind Shirley.
When Pierce passed Bruning with four laps to go, it was too late to challenge Shirley, and “The Squirrel” rolled through two checkered flags to claim his second win of the 2024 season at his hometown race track.
“It's really awesome,” Shirley said. “World of Outlaws races are held in a lot of places so it's always special to win a race in your hometown. We don't come to Highlands very often so it's always a big deal and to win in front of a crowd like this is awesome.”
“At the end of the day, winning is always a morale boost. It gives you confidence. We're not 100% perfect yet with where we want the car to be, so I know it's itching to get there. The more races we get, the better we'll be at the end.” Brian Shirley crosses the finish line to win the Beat the Heat 40 at Highland Speedway (Photo by Emily Schwanke)
Pierce finished second and continues to close the gap in the series title race, now 72 points behind the leader with 12 races remaining in the 2024 points race.
“I was down to ninth at the start,” Pierce said. “The restart got me back up (the field). Without the restart I would have stayed at the back. Hopefully I can get some wins here. If I want to get some points, I need wins. I absolutely need wins.”
“But I think I can get better. I'm looking forward to getting in the other car because I wasn't feeling good tonight. I didn't feel good tonight. I managed to finish second. I want to thank the crew for their hard work. There are three races here and I'm going to try to win all three.”
Bruning finished third, earning his first podium in the World of Outlaws CASE Late Models since 2022.
“Finally, it went well all night from start to finish,” Bruning said. “The hot lap, the start wasn't great. Once I got the car back to what I'm used to, it picked up right away. It's a long week with three more races and it's always good to start off on a good note when you leave for the next race. It's been good up until now, but we've had some bad luck, we've gotten tangled up and just haven't been able to pull it off. It went well all night tonight, so let's see what we can do from here.”
Shepherd finished fourth and extended his lead over Mooresville, North Carolina, driver Nick Hoffman to 46 points leaving Highlands, Ill. Dillard was the final of the top five finishers in the feature race.
Summary note:
Dirt King Simulator Hottest Hot Lap: Ryan Gustin
Simpson Quicktime Award: Cade Dillard
Heat Race Winners: Dennis Erb Jr., Brandon Shepherd, Tyler Bruning, Brian Shirley
Last Chance Showdown Winners: Shannon Babb, Tristan Chamberlain
Bilstein Pole Award: Brian Shirley
FOX Factory Hard Charger: Brent Larson (+9)
NEXT TIME: The World of Outlaws CASE Late Models will race in Illinois for the final time in 2024 at Spoon River Speedway on Thursday, Aug. 15. After that, the “Most Powerful Late Models on the Planet” will compete in the Hawkeye 100 at Maquoketa Speedway in Iowa for two nights on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 16 and 17.
In addition to racing on the Macuoketa track, there will also be off-track activities for fans to enjoy on Saturday, including a car show from 9am to 3pm, a Kids Zone from 12pm to 4pm, a Hawker Trucking Toys for Tots donation drive, driver autograph sessions from 4:30pm and a cornhole tournament starting at 12:30pm.
Tickets for Spoon River Speedway are available here.
Tickets for Maquoketa Speedway are available here.
If you can't make it to the track, you can watch every lap of the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models season on DIRTVision using your computer or mobile device.
CASE Late Model Feature (40 laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley (1); 2. 32-Bobby Pierce (7); 3. 16-Tyler Bruning (2); 4. B5-Brandon Shepherd (4); 5. 97-Cade Dillard (5); 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin (12); 7. 10-Darin Klein (6); 8. 40B-Kyle Bronson (8); 9. 25-Jason Feger (14); 10. 28-Dennis Erb Jr. (3); 11. 18-Shannon Babb (17); 12. 19-Dustin Sorensen (13); 13. 97JR-Cody Overton (15); 14. 9-Nick Hoffman (19); 15. B1-Brent Larson (24); 16. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain (18); 17. 78-Chad Zobrist (16); 18. 4-Jordan Soule (22); 19. 52-Matt Bailey (9); 20. 22*-Max McLaughlin (23); 21. 17-Todd Reage (25); 22. 11G-Gordy Gundaker (20); 23. 24H-Mike Harrison (10); 24. 27-Rodney Melvin (11); 25. 15-Clayton Stuckey (21)
