February 13, 2025 | By Mike Warren, Super DIRTcar Series PR

Matt Sheppard Scores 11th DIRTcar Nationals Win in Super DIRTcar Series Opener

BARBERVILLE, Fla. — The opening night of the 2025 Super DIRTcar Series season turned into a historic moment for Matt Sheppard.

With his 11th Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals victory Wednesday night at Volusia Speedway Park, the 10-time champion has more Series wins than any other driver at the track.

The $5,000 victory is his third win in his last four starts at “The World’s Fastest Half Mile,” a win he said came down to track position.

“The way my car was and the way the track was tonight, the key was getting out front and following your car wherever it wanted to go,” Sheppard said. “This is definitely a tricky place, and I didn’t really know where I wanted to be, and I was having trouble steering like everybody does. I was able to utilize as much of the racetrack as I could to keep my speed up.

“Thankfully, it all worked out, and we made it to the end, and we got a gator. It’s a good way to start the trip off.”

Sheppard, the SRI Performance and Stock Car Steel Pole Award winner, led the field to the green in the 30-lap Feature, pulling away from Billy Pauch Jr. and Justin Haers, who battled for second down the backstretch.

The first of several yellow flags slowed the field on Lap 2, as Anthony Perrego and Darren Smith both went to pit road with damage.

When the race resumed, Sheppard took over the lead again. But behind him, reigning SummerFAST champion Alex Yankowski pulled into second, trying to chase the No. 9S down.

A caution for Jeff Taylor on Lap 4 began a string of restarts where Sheppard and Yankowski fired from the front row. Sheppard held off Yankowski’s challenges for most of the race, except for one occasion when Yankowski took the lead on Lap 13. However, that pass was negated when Garrett Krummert flipped in Turn 1, bringing out the caution before they completed another lap.

At that point in the race, Sheppard changed his restart strategy, choosing to fire from the inside lane.

“It got to the point where I really wanted to restart on the top, but every time I did, he’d jump me on the bottom, and I was kind of screwed,” Sheppard said.  “It was kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

Both drivers remained in the top two positions until Jack Lehner got a right-rear flat tire on Lap 23. On the next restart, Sheppard and Yankowski made contact coming down the front stretch. As they reached the start/finish line, Sheppard pulled away, and Haers took advantage of the open inside lane to wrestle second away from the No. 84Y.

However, that was as close as Haers got to the front as Sheppard led all 30 laps to earn his 98th career Super DIRTcar Series victory.

Haers finished second, narrowly missing out on his third DIRTcar Nationals win. The Phelps, NY driver, who also earned the JAM Performance Fastest Hot Lap award, said he was thrilled with his performance.

“We got this motor last year," Haers said. "We ran it at Charlotte, and it runs really well here. It’s the first race of the year. To come out in second, I love Volusia, Daytona, and the vibe. I’ve been coming here a long time. I have two awesome wins here, and another one would be awesome.”

Yankowski grabbed the final spot on the podium after running second for most of the Feature. The Covington Township, PA driver said he knew restarts were an essential key to victory.

“I had a pretty good race car,” Yankowski said. “It was tough for everyone to turn. I think me and Sheppard was tight on entrance almost all night. I thought we did a good job of doing what we could do, and hopefully, we can just get that little bit better tomorrow.”

Billy Pauch Jr. finished fourth, earning his best DIRTcar Nationals finish, and Jimmy Phelps rounded out the top five.

Up Next: The Super DIRTcar Series returns to Volusia Speedway Park on Thursday, Feb. 13, as Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals continues. Joining the Beasts of the Northeast will be the World of Outlaws Late Models.

TICKETS: DIRTcarNationals.com

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every race live on DIRTVision – either at DIRTVision.com or by downloading the DIRTVision App.


SUPER DIRTCAR SERIES (43 entries)

DIRTcar Nationals Night 1 (30 Laps): 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[1]; 2. 3-Justin Haers[4]; 3. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[3]; 4. 1-Billy Pauch Jr[2]; 5. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[8]; 6. 70A-Alex Payne[13]; 7. 21A-Peter Britten[15]; 8. 44-Stewart Friesen[12]; 9. 88-Mat Williamson[7]; 10. 4-Anthony Perrego[22]; 11. 15X-Justin Stone[9]; 12. 99L-Larry Wight[20]; 13. 91-Felix Roy[24]; 14. 9-Will Thomas[6]; 15. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[27]; 16. 35C-Chris Curtis[21]; 17. 2-Jack Lehner[11]; 18. 58-Louden Reimert[19]; 19. 8-Rich Scagliotta[16]; 20. 5H-Amy Holland[17]; 21. 20-Rick Laubach[18]; 22. (DNF) 25-Erick Rudolph[10]; 23. (DNF) 29-Garrett Krummert[5]; 24. (DNF) 11T-Jeff Taylor[25]; 25. (DNF) 51-Ryan Krachun[23]; 26. (DNF) 11C-Matt Caprara[14]; 27. (DNF) 12-Darren Smith[26]

Last Chance Showdown 1 (10 Laps): 1. 99L-Larry Wight[1]; 2. 4-Anthony Perrego[2]; 3. 91-Felix Roy[3]; 4. 12-Darren Smith[6]; 5. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[4]; 6. 6-Matt Stangle[9]; 7. 7Z-Zach Payne[5]; 8. 28-Mario Clair[11]; 9. 21M-Bob Mcgannon[10]; 10. 35B-Francois Bellemare[12]; 11. 11N-Ricky Newton[8]; 12. (DNS) 16X-Danny Creeden

Last Chance Showdown 2 (10 Laps): 1. 35C-Chris Curtis[1]; 2. 51-Ryan Krachun[4]; 3. 11T-Jeff Taylor[3]; 4. 48T-Dave Rauscher[2]; 5. 66-Corbin Millar[5]; 6. 14-CG Morey[6]; 7. 14B-Brendan Darrah[8]; 8. (DNF) 70H-Jim Britt[10]; 9. (DNS) 28L-Eric Lauziere; 10. (DNS) 22J-Bubba McPhee; 11. (DNS) 14S-Brian Swarthout

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3-Justin Haers[1]; 2. 88-Mat Williamson[4]; 3. 15X-Justin Stone[2]; 4. 70A-Alex Payne[6]; 5. 30-HJ Bunting[3]; 6. 99L-Larry Wight[5]; 7. 91-Felix Roy[8]; 8. 7Z-Zach Payne[7]; 9. 16X-Danny Creeden[10]; 10. 6-Matt Stangle[9]; 11. 28-Mario Clair[11]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[1]; 2. 9-Will Thomas[3]; 3. 25-Erick Rudolph[2]; 4. 11C-Matt Caprara[4]; 5. 5H-Amy Holland[7]; 6. 4-Anthony Perrego[8]; 7. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[6]; 8. 12-Darren Smith[5]; 9. 11N-Ricky Newton[10]; 10. 21M-Bob Mcgannon[9]; 11. 35B-Francois Bellemare[11]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 1-Billy Pauch Jr[1]; 2. 29-Garrett Krummert[3]; 3. 2-Jack Lehner[2]; 4. 21A-Peter Britten[4]; 5. 20-Rick Laubach[5]; 6. 35C-Chris Curtis[6]; 7. 11T-Jeff Taylor[8]; 8. 66-Corbin Millar[7]; 9. 14S-Brian Swarthout[9]; 10. (DNS) 28L-Eric Lauziere; 11. (DNS) 22J-Bubba McPhee

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[1]; 2. 9S-Matt Sheppard[2]; 3. 44-Stewart Friesen[3]; 4. 8-Rich Scagliotta[7]; 5. 58-Louden Reimert[4]; 6. 48T-Dave Rauscher[8]; 7. 51-Ryan Krachun[6]; 8. 14-CG Morey[5]; 9. 14B-Brendan Darrah[9]; 10. 70H-Jim Britt[10]

Group A Qualifying: 1. 3-Justin Haers, 00:17.085[15]; 2. 84Y-Alex Yankowski, 00:17.164[2]; 3. 15X-Justin Stone, 00:17.206[1]; 4. 25-Erick Rudolph, 00:17.243[18]; 5. 30-HJ Bunting, 00:17.359[16]; 6. 9-Will Thomas, 00:17.386[5]; 7. 88-Mat Williamson, 00:17.399[14]; 8. 11C-Matt Caprara, 00:17.464[6]; 9. 99L-Larry Wight, 00:17.465[4]; 10. 12-Darren Smith, 00:17.482[7]; 11. 70A-Alex Payne, 00:17.496[20]; 12. 83X-Tim Sears Jr, 00:17.553[21]; 13. 7Z-Zach Payne, 00:17.622[9]; 14. 5H-Amy Holland, 00:17.638[19]; 15. 91-Felix Roy, 00:17.652[11]; 16. 4-Anthony Perrego, 00:17.689[17]; 17. 6-Matt Stangle, 00:17.690[8]; 18. 21M-Bob Mcgannon, 00:17.726[22]; 19. 16X-Danny Creeden, 00:17.779[13]; 20. 11N-Ricky Newton, 00:18.051[12]; 21. 28-Mario Clair, 00:18.291[3]; 22. 35B-Francois Bellemare, 00:18.393[10]

Group B Qualifying: 1. 1-Billy Pauch Jr, 00:17.078[2]; 2. 98H-Jimmy Phelps, 00:17.173[16]; 3. 2-Jack Lehner, 00:17.218[8]; 4. 9S-Matt Sheppard, 00:17.339[4]; 5. 29-Garrett Krummert, 00:17.428[7]; 6. 44-Stewart Friesen, 00:17.490[13]; 7. 21A-Peter Britten, 00:17.564[12]; 8. 58-Louden Reimert, 00:17.612[3]; 9. 20-Rick Laubach, 00:17.625[15]; 10. 14-CG Morey, 00:17.675[11]; 11. 35C-Chris Curtis, 00:17.737[5]; 12. 51-Ryan Krachun, 00:17.790[17]; 13. 66-Corbin Millar, 00:17.800[6]; 14. 8-Rich Scagliotta, 00:17.848[9]; 15. 11T-Jeff Taylor, 00:18.109[10]; 16. 48T-Dave Rauscher, 00:18.204[18]; 17. 14S-Brian Swarthout, 00:18.405[20]; 18. 14B-Brendan Darrah, 00:18.600[14]; 19. 28L-Eric Lauziere, 00:19.115[21]; 20. (DNS) 70H-Jim Britt, 00:19.115; 21. (DNS) 22J-Bubba McPhee, 00:19.115

Redraw Order: 1. 9S-Matt Sheppard[8]; 2. 1-Billy Pauch Jr[3]; 3. 84Y-Alex Yankowski[2]; 4. 3-Justin Haers[1]; 5. 29-Garrett Krummert[7]; 6. 9-Will Thomas[6]; 7. 88-Mat Williamson[5]; 8. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[4]