Brandon Sheppard. Jimmy Owens. Brandon Overton.

They are undoubtedly the Big Three of the 2020 Dirt Late Model season, one fortysomething and two twentysomethings who have scrawled their names all over this most unique of campaigns. They are the division’s biggest winners (a combined 60 victories among them), all three have already captured a crown jewel event, they’ve continually swapped the No. 1 spot in DirtonDirt.com’s weekly Top 25 power rankings and the two who follow national tours (Sheppard and Owens) are rolling toward points championships.

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It’s the Year of B-Shepp, the O-Show and Big Sexy. Only Tim McCreadie, with $50,000 wins in June’s Dirt Late Model Stream Invitational at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, and August’s North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., can even approach the spectacular trio’s earnings this season. T-Mac nor anyone else, though, can match their consistent strength and overall win rates.

As the Dirt Late Model world focuses its usual post-Labor Day weekend attention on Eldora — for the Sept. 10-12 Intercontinental Classic that will be run in front of empty grandstands because of coronavirus concerns that forced the track to push the scheduled 50th running of the World 100 to 2021 — statistics show that there’s a better than 50 percent chance one of the Big Three will end up cashing the finale’s $50,000 first-place check. Sheppard, Owens and Overton have entered the same event 22 times this season and each of them has won on four occasions.

The three superstars — three guys who get along swimmingly — would certainly relish a showdown on Eldora’s high banks.

“That would be awesome,” said Sheppard, the 27-year-old from New Berlin, Ill., who has 26 triumphs in 2020 (19 with the Rocket Chassis house car, seven with his family-owned No. B5). “The only bad part about that is then the people come out on social media and stuff and say, ‘This guy is better than this guy,’ or whatever.”

Overton, 29, of Evans, Ga., would be surprised if the Intercontinental runs off without his David Wells-owned car, Sheppard’s blue No. 1 and/or Owens’s Ramirez Motorsports machine in contention: “It don’t matter where you take those three cars. I feel like those three cars can win the race if everything lines up for one or the others.”

And Newport, Tenn.’s Owens, at 48 the grizzled veteran of the group, is hopeful for a very specific outcome: “Well, it’d be OK of Sheppard won the first (preliminary) night, Brandon (Overton) won the second (prelim) night and I won the third night (Saturday’s 67-lap feature). Then we can all remain where we’re supposed to be.”

There was, of course, a smirk on Owens’s face as he made that comment. He is, after all, the elder of the trio, the driver with the most years of racing, crown jewel victories and national tour titles under his belt, so he’s entitled to take a few good-natured jabs at his decidedly younger competitors.

“They’re good competition,” Owens said of Sheppard and Overton, before laughing and calling them a “bunch of young punks.”

“No, don’t say that,” added the 17-time 2020 winner and runaway Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points leader, making it clear he was joking. “They’re both hard racers, both good racers. I’m just proud to be up there with ‘em. You get a lot of respect from both of ‘em, especially being in the position we’re in (this season). It’s fun racing.”

These are three standout drivers who are largely cut from the same cloth, lending a friendly feel to their status atop 2020’s Dirt Late Model summit. They have similar demeanors, talents and outlooks, and they most definitely do not view each other as fierce rivals even as they have found themselves chasing the same prize in nearly half of their starts.

“Those are two guys that I feel like are the same as me,” Sheppard said of Owens and Overton. “They’re out here to make a living. They’re not trying to be better than the guy next to them at any point. They’re just here to do their job, try to win races, try to make a living doing this. I think they would say the same thing about me if they heard me say that. 

“We have respect for each other on the racetrack and we have respect for each other’s equipment and our own equipment. That’s what it takes to make a living. You’ve got to be competitive and be a really hard racer, but know when enough is enough and when you can’t take chances and just go to the next night.

“At some point they’re gonna be mad at me and I’m gonna be mad at them. That’s just how racing is. But they’re two guys who are pretty level-headed like I am and they can brush it off and know if we do get into each other it’s not intentional on any of our parts. That says a lot about the racers that they are.

“We know that they’re gonna be tough no matter where we go in the country,” Sheppard added. “But at the end of the day, we all have the same goal — try to win the race that night — and if they’re the ones we end up racing for the win, that’s awesome for the fans because they might think we have a big rivalry going on, who’s better than who or whatever, but really I don’t think any of us think of it that way. I’m sure there’s some people who would think about it like that, but between us three I don’t think any of us are that type of people. They’re just a lot of fun to race with.”

Overton sees a lot of himself in both Sheppard and Owens.

“I feel like Brandon’s almost kind of like me, you know what I mean?” said Overton, a winner of 17 features — most notably August’s $50,000 USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis. — in his first full season driving for Wells. “As much as he wins and stuff, he could be cocky, and he’s not. He’s laid-back and probably just enjoying the situation he’s in, and that’s kind of how I feel. I’m kind of to the point where I’m like, yeah, if we do good, that’s good, but I just enjoy racing and I’m, like, happy with my deal. That’s kind of how I see him.

“Jimmy’s almost the same way. He’s really, really good, he’s won just about everything you can win, and he still is about as normal as you can get. I’ll see him in the pits and he’ll talk to me, come over and bulls--- for a little bit.

“You’re not gonna have any trouble out of them,” he continued. “If they run into you or they hit you, 90 percent of the time, it’s that they’re getting after it. It ain’t like they’re trying to run over somebody. Any of those guys that are good, that have won the big races and know how to win the big races, they ain’t out there beating damn wheels. The more you hit, the slower they go, you know what I mean? I think they’re smart enough racers to know that you can’t beat the hell out of ‘em and expect to win all the time. They show everybody as much as respect as they’re shown, so I guess they race you how you race them.”

The three drivers aren’t exactly the same. How many racers are? But they share many qualities that have made them so successful in 2020.

“I think Brandon and Brandon drive pretty similar, and then Jimmy’s had to change,” said Mark Richards, the veteran chassis builder who fields Sheppard’s familiar Rocket house car operation. “Jimmy used to never like to hustle a cushion … not saying he couldn’t do it, but he’s had to step that game up. He didn’t grow up that way, and now, you have to get up on it. Both Brandons, they don’t have an issue doing that.

“And both Brandons have become really smart drivers for long races. Jimmy was already there, and both Brandons have come a long way as far as becoming that person who can win those long races. There’s a lot of guys out there who can go fast, but they go fast too early and they don’t have a race plan. That’s the biggest thing — getting to that point in your career where you’ve realized that you can’t win these races on lap 10 or lap 15 or lap 20, because a hundred-lap race anymore, it’s a long distance. And even in the 50-lap races and the 40-lap races, even though they have to get up on the wheel, they still have to drive a pretty smart race. There’s some guys out there that think this race is over on the first lap.”

Richards, 59, called all three “great drivers” who understand the intricacies of racing the right way.

“You never seen ‘em running over people. You never see ‘em taking people out,” Richards said. “All three of those guys have respect for other racers, level heads, and if somebody gets into them it’s not like it’s retaliation time.

“You never see Brandon Overton in a conflict very often over something that happened on the track, and you don’t see Jimmy Owens in one, and you don’t see Brandon Sheppard in one. That probably goes a long way. You have to be there to win these races, so there’s a reason that they take care of their cars. If you watch all three of them, they don’t take crazy chances, and the guys that do take those chances, at best their odds are 50-50 … they’ve got a 50-50 shot of making it or not making it.

“You take what you can get and hope that your car’s good for the last part of the race,” he added. “It ain’t the last race, and if you treat it like it’s gonna be the last race, it may be the last race.”

Richards noted that he has “a lot of respect for all three of ‘em” and isn’t surprised at all to see Owens and Overton challenging his hired gun for Driver of the Year honors.

“Jimmy Owens, he’s been here (at the top of the sport), so it’s not like he’s coming along,” Richards said. “Brandon Overton, I’ve been watching him come along and I knew what he was, and as soon as he got in a stable situation it was inevitable that he was gonna be one of the top guys. David Wells is a perfect car owner, because David Wells will get him what he needs, there’s no pressure, and Brandon Overton is in a situation now where he doesn’t have to answer to a crew chief or a car owner. He’s got a car owner who’s gonna go along with him, and that’s success there.”

Overton finds it humbling to stand alongside Sheppard and Owens as the kings of Dirt Late Model racing this season. He’s certainly proven himself in recent years on the national level, but to break out like he has after hooking up with Wells just last fall gives him special satisfaction.

“It is definitely (cool) for me,” said Overton, who, like Sheppard and Owens, has won on both the WoO and Lucas Oil tours this season. “I kind of feel like they’re supposed to be there, like that’s what’s expected of them, they’re supposed to do that. Me, I’m just happy that it’s happened that way for me. We’ve had a really good year, and what’s bad about it is we should’ve won a lot more than we’ve won. Five or six features we were leading and if we didn’t win I’d have been pissed, so I feel like we definitely should’ve won more. But that’s the way it goes. We’ve had a great year. I’m not complaining. If we don’t win a race from here on out, we’ve had a really good year.

“It’s been fun, too, it’s, like, refreshing to come back and, just starting out with David and them, and them kind of unleashing this and giving all this to me and saying, ‘Hey, this is your baby, take care of it and see what you can do.’ I don’t think it could’ve went any better.

“Jimmy’s probably won everything that you can win; he don’t have to win anything else to prove that he’s good,” he continued. “Sheppard proves it week-in and week-out that that’s the best team and he’s one of the best drivers and they’ve got their stuff together. So for me to be down here (in Georgia), kind of far away from the racing … I got my own little deal down here that I can do, but as far as being in like a hotbed, I’m not in an Illinois, I’m not in a Tennessee, you know what I’m saying? It’s cool.”

The always modest Owens, meanwhile expressed the feeling that his season has been the most unexpected of the elite trio. Despite his resume bulging with crown jewel victories, he might have a point; this is his first prolific checkered-flag campaign since 2014, his last of eight seasons driving for Mike Reece when he won 15 times, including the USA Nationals and Topless 100.

“I’m not surprised with Overton,” said Owens, who drives an XR1 Rocket car. “He’s gonna win in anything he drives. He’s proved that. He’s good, he’s hungry, he’s on top of his game right now. And you could put either Brandon in a wheelbarrow and they’re gonna put on a show and make it hard on you either way it goes.

“I would be more surprised of the season we’re having. I mean, we’ve been on the verge of having good years and things fall apart and just don’t go as you planned, but this year everything’s going as planned.”

The fact that Owens is two decades older than Sheppard and Owens adds another layer to his return to vintage form. He agreed with Richards’s assessment that he’s had to turn up his outside-running aggressiveness to deal with the hard-charging young talents that has emerged in the division, but he doesn’t consider his decided maturity as having any role in his racing.

“Well, I’ve definitely had to adapt to (to today’s more aggressive driving) a lot better,” Owens said. “I was definitely a lot better at it when I was younger. Then we had our spurt with the good, dry-slick stuff, and now we’ve kind of had to convert back to the cushion-pounding here the last few years.

“But heck, I don’t know. It’s part of the product. I’m just glad to be able to keep up.

“Really, the age thing I don’t think plays in as a factor any,” he added. “I don’t get tired, I don’t get fatigued, I don’t get stressed out or none of that stuff. I think it’s just coincidence that it’s younger guys who we’re up on top with.”

Overton doesn’t see a graying driver in Owens.

“A couple of times I’ve watched him qualify and it looks like Jimmy’s the same age as us, you know what I mean?” said Overton, who campaigns a Longhorn Chassis. “It all comes down to, if you car sucks, you ain’t gonna drive it in there and put it in the fence. Because you know it’s not gonna stick or you know it’s gonna be loose, you can’t drive it the way you want to drive it. It doesn’t mean he’s old and can’t get after it anymore. It’s just probably the last couple years his car hasn’t been as good as he is. He’s got his confidence up because he’s got his car really good, and now he just puts it all together. Once you get your car running good again, you start taking the chances again, you start blasting around the top, or you start moving around a lot more, or you start hustling it because you got some confidence, like, ‘Hey, I can win.’ ”

Overton conceded that he tends to tilt toward Owens’s more conservative approach.

“Sheppard’s probably a little more exciting to watch than Jimmy,” Overton said. “He can get up there and rip the top, and Jimmy will do it if he has to. I guess that’s how I am. Like, if I have to go run the top — which I do, I like running around the top too — but Sheppard and them are kind of the ones who can do it, like, religiously. I do it if that’s the fast way around the racetrack, but I’m not always looking like, ‘Hell, I need to get up there against the fence.’

“Watching Brandon race, like at Eldora or something, it’s neat as hell to watch. Like, that’s where they’re going. As soon as the bottom dies and the middle dies, instead of trying to kind of momentum and roll around through there, him and Bobby (Pierce) and guys are straight to the top. It definitely takes a little bit of talent to get up there and do that.”

Does that style give Sheppard an edge when the division’s top three drivers join a select group of 45 other Dirt Late Model standouts at Eldora for the Intercontinental Classic? That’s a question none of the trio — who will likely race together in only a handful more races (the Sept. 17-19 I-80 Nationals, Oct. 16-17 Dirt Track World Championship, Nov. 6-7 World Finals) this season — can readily answer.

“Man, I don’t know,” Overton said when asked to handicap the Eldora weekend. “I’d say as far as a 100-lapper (at Eldora), they’ve probably got me beat a little bit. But I feel like I’ve made enough mistakes now that I kind of know which direction I need to go.

“I kind of got to redeem myself (after a poor 21st-place finish in June’s Stream Invitational finale). In the past I’ve won prelims in about every car that I’ve driven there (his latest success came in Friday’s Stream preliminary feature), but in the (big race) … I’ve ran up front, but I’ve always had to come from a B-main or back in a heat. This year when we went (for the Stream) I had my qualifying down, my heat-racing down, and I was setting myself up pretty nice. We just had some problems in the feature so I didn’t get to show how fast we were.

“We can go over there (for the Intercontinental) and the track can be different and, hell, we’ll struggle to line up,” he added. “But I took good notes so we’re ready to go back and I’m excited. I know it sucks without the fans and all, but we’re still going to Eldora. When you win there, there ain’t nothing better. There’s only a select few that win there.”

Owens, who won Eldora’s World 100 in 2007 and ’11 and Dream in ’09, sandwiched a runner-up finish in Friday’s Stream preliminary with finishes of 24th on Thursday and 18th in the 67-lap finale. He mourned his penchant for experiencing probably “more DNFs at Eldora than a I do at any other racetrack in the country,” but he has positive vibes heading back to the track.

“I feel pretty good about it myself, so I don’t know who has the best feeling (among him, Sheppard and Overton),” Owens said. “I’m excited to go. I’m pretty confident. We want to go and win, and we’re probably as hungry to win up there right now as any of those guys are.

“I don’t know who all I’d put my money on between any of us. Of course, there’s a whole, big field of cars out there other than us three, too.”

And Sheppard? He’s the most recent Eldora crown jewel winner among the three (2019 Dream), and he led more than half of June’s Stream feature before settling for a fourth-place finish. But he’s not considering himself a favorite.

“I don’t think I can sit here and pinpoint which one of us is better than the other,” said Sheppard, who has been the top finisher 10 times in races he’s run this season with Owens and Overton (both Owens and Overton have been the best finisher among the three on six occasions). “It’s kind of a typical deal — we’re gonna go to some places and one of them’s gonna win, and we’re gonna go some places and the other one’s gonna win. Everybody has their own place where the other one is a little bit better than the other, and obviously our cars are really good right now.

“I think all of us are really tough this year,” he concluded, “and we’ll all be running good (at Eldora).”