Matt Sheppard Triumphs In Clash With Stewart Friesen At Autodrome Drummond

Matt Sheppard Triumphs In Clash With Stewart Friesen At Autodrome Drummond

It was a clash of the titans once again as "Super" Matt Sheppard passed and held off Stewart Friesen to win the Racing Stock 100 at Autodrome Drummond.

Jul 25, 2018 by FloRacing Staff
Matt Sheppard Triumphs In Clash With Stewart Friesen At Autodrome Drummond

DRUMMONDVILLE, Quebec — It was a clash of the titans once again as "Super" Matt Sheppard passed and held off Stewart Friesen to win the Racing Stock 100 at Autodrome Drummond on Tuesday night. The pair of superstars swapped positions from the previous night’s race at Autodrome Granby, where Friesen won and Sheppard took second place. 

The 4/10-mile race track in Drummondville featured a tremendous amount of passing throughout the entire field. The running order was constantly in flux as drivers searched high and low for a fast way around. But in the end, Matt Sheppard’s smooth, easy, high line on the cushion proved to be the fastest line of them all. Erick Rudolph grabbed third for the second night in a row as well.

The No. 9S finished in Friesen’s tire tracks at Autodrome Granby, but Sheppard counter-punched at Autodrome Drummond by flipping the script and taking home the checkered flag ahead of the Halmar Racing No. 44. 

“Stewie’s obviously been running really good. It seems like the nights we’ve been really good we’ve had some really bad luck," Stewart said. "We kept getting those cautions right at the end. I just had to hold on and get this back to Victory Lane.”

The race was not for the faint of heart as multiple cautions inside the last 25 laps gave Friesen several opportunities to make the pass. But once Sheppard found his preferred line on the high side of the track, he never left it. Lapped traffic, when the green flag runs were long enough for the leaders to catch it, made life difficult for the No. 9S racing driver, but he managed to get through when necessary. Otherwise, on the open track, Sheppard was obviously the fastest car in the field. Once he cleared Friesen’s jabs for the lead, Sheppard would slowly pull away from the No. 44. 

Wins never come easy though and Sheppard’s team had to be on top of the conditions: “We made some good adjustments. A lot of rain the last two nights and a lot of restarts.”

Sheppard was ecstatic to win in front of the massive Autodrome Drummond crowd. 

“Thank you guys for having us up here," he said. "Thanks to all these fans. The crowd is incredible here. The Canadian fans really get into it.”