Brandon Sheppard knew Ocala Speedway would throw him a curveball, but would he expect to swing and miss that badly during Wednesday's Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series program?

Let’s put it this way: The Longhorn Factory Team topped multiple practice sessions on Monday at the wonky 3/8-mile oval only to qualify ninth of 20 cars in Tuesday’s first group of time trials and eighth of 22 cars in Wednesday’s first group.

“That’s the crazy thing. Had a practice day here and we were top of the board every time we went out,” Sheppard said. “We were really good. Felt good about everything. Track was slicker. Past two race days has been way more wet when we’ve qualified and we just haven’t been able to get around there any good. We’ll work on it and try to be more consistent the rest of this trip. That’s what we need to concentrate on right now.”

On paper, Sheppard and the new-look Longhorn Factory Team that appears to have no shortage of crew help and brainstorming minds, aren’t terribly off the mark (finishes of seventh, second, ninth, second, fifth, fifth, ninth, 16th, and ninth across four different racetracks).

But on the contrary, they don’t pass the eyeball test one month into the new season and Sheppard is well aware.

“I think we made some gains on the car. Hell, I don’t know,” Sheppard said. “We can keep saying that over and over again, and we haven’t yet. Definitely feels good. I feel really good, just can’t … I don’t know. I’m no good out of the box.”

In six features these Speedweeks, he’s now gained 33 positions — accentuated by Volusia’s DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals opener where he finished second from 16th and then Wednesday’s 20th-to-ninth at Ocala — and he hasn’t gone backwards in a feature yet.

“Don’t know why, but you get behind with these races and you just have to manage and hang on, and race to get up there as far as you can,” Sheppard said. “It’s one of them deals, as I said, the competition is super tough, the tracks aren’t really racy, so when you get behind in qualifying, it makes it tough to have a good starting spot. You have to have a good starting spot in order to run up front consistently with these guys.”

Though Sheppard’s turned in some promising practice runs (he topped the charts in four of the eight sessions he logged on Thursday), he’s still finding himself not quick enough from the outset.

Sheppard said “usually it takes us until heat race time to get to where we’re really good,” but that’s still not the productivity he’s looking for. Instead of needing six to 13 laps to get his car to the point of serviceability (three laps in hot laps, two in qualifying, eight in the heat race), he can’t afford the lulls out of the gate much longer.

Again, Sheppard’s not all that far off on paper, results wise. If he had to rate the current state of affairs, he’d give the first month’s report card a C, which is “probably about the same” from where he was last year.

“At the end of the day, we want to win. And we ain’t winning yet,” Sheppard said. “So we have to work until we get there. That’s what we’re going to do.”