After two days of waiting, Brandon Overton won the World of Outlaws Late Model Series Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, PA, on Saturday.

The Firecracker weekend was originally scheduled as a three-day show, but Mother Nature was not kind. Rain forced the postponement of Thursday night's race, canceled Friday's event, and pushed three days' worth of activity into one packed Saturday.

As if to make up for lost time, both the 30-lap preliminary and the 100-lap feature were led flag to flag by a single driver--both of whom were named Brandon.

In the preliminary, Brandon Sheppard had a fan from the stands draw his starting position and was rewarded with the pole position.

"We had a good heat race and were able to finish second which put us in the redraw. That was key here," Sheppard said. "I assume it was pretty hard to pass out there. We had a pretty balanced race car, and we were able to keep a good momentum line and get it done."

In the main event, he was not quite as lucky and started 12th. While it was indeed difficult to pass, he managed to get past four cars and finish eighth. That result allowed him to retain the points lead by a sizeable margin over Tyler Erb.

One year after getting his first Outlaws win in a preliminary event for the 2016 Firecracker 100, Overton earned his most prestigious win of his career.

Overton took his cue in the big show from Sheppard. He scooted out to the lead with the drop of the green flag and withstood a mid-race challenge by Tim McCreadie and Mike Marlar.

"Man I tell you what, I come here and get my first Outlaw win, and then I get the biggest win of my career," Overton said. "I just can't thank my boys enough. I crashed the crap out of this thing earlier today, and my boys fixed it up, and tuned it up, and we put ourselves in position to win. This is a dream come true."



Overton actually lost the lead for about a 0.2 of a mile on lap 21. Overton gave up the low line entering turn one, and T Mac took advantage. He slid up in front of Overton and raced down the backstretch, but turnabout proved to be fair play. Overton completed the slide job, led lap 22, and protected the bottom on the next circuit.

Taking advantage of their battle, Marlar closed in and took second. Marlar confirmed what Sheppard assumed--passing was not easy on the 0.4-mile dirt track.

"There really wasn't a lot of room there to pass [Overton] but I was right under him a lot of times," Marlar said. "They had one little sweet spot on the track, and I tiptoed to the left of it and to the right of it but I just couldn't make anything happen out there."

Marlar was able to settle the battle for second in his favor over McCreadie, who rounded out the top three.

To stand on the podium, McCreadie withstood a late-race charge from Don O'Neal. Chris Madden rounded out the top five.

Top 10 Finishers

1. Brandon Overton
2. Mike Marlar
3. Tim McCreadie
4. Don O'Neal
5. Chris Madden
6. Dale McDowell
7. Russ King
8. Brandon Sheppard
9. Mike Norris
10. Chub Frank
Complete Results

Season Winners:

Brandon Sheppard: 6 (Whynot Motorsports Park on March 24, Farmer City Raceway on April 1, Fayetteville Motor Speedway on May 6, Wayne County Speedway on May 27, Senoia Raceway on June 3, Lernerville Speedway on June 24)
Shane Clanton: 3 (Volusia Speedway Park on February 24, Cherokee Speedway on May 6, Tazewell Speedway on June 3)
Brandon Overton: 2 (Smoky Mountain Speedway on May 13, Lernerville Speedway on June 24)
Rick Eckert: 1 (Screven Motorsports Complex on February 17)
Chris Madden: 1 (Screven Motorsports Complex on February 18)
Don O'Neal: 1 (Volusia Speedway Park on February 25)
Timothy Culp: 1 (LoneStar Speedway on March 26)
Brian Shirley: 1 (Farmer City Raceway on April 2)
Mike Marlar: 1 (Duck River Raceway Park on May 14)
Devin Moran: 1 (Atomic Speedway on May 26)