EMPIRE STATE GLORY: Hess sweeps the night at Stateline

It's the Waterford, PA driver's second career World of Outlaws victory 

BUSTI, NY – JUNE 17, 2021 – Anytime the World of Outlaws enter the Northeast, there’s a group of hungry competitors hoping to defend home turf. Dave Hess did that and more, by winning Thursday’s Morton Buildings Feature at Stateline Speedway.

Hess started on the pole and held off challenges from three-time and defending Series champion Brandon Sheppard for his second career World of Outlaws victory.

He also swept the night, by setting Slick Woody’s Cornhole Co. Quick Time and winning his Drydene Heat Race.

It’s a night Hess will remember in front of his home crowd.

“Stateline’s always been good to me,” Hess said. “We’ve won some other big shows here, but never came through with the Outlaws. We’ve had a great car all year and I knew we had a shot at this thing and to get it done is just awesome.”

Despite leading all 40-laps of the race, it wasn’t smooth sailing for Hess. He had to deal with lap traffic throughout the last 10 circuits.

While he was finding his way around slower cars, he was nervous about his tire choice.

“We stayed soft on tires, but I guess the cars behind me were the same way,” Hess said. “I was worried someone might be getting their hard tires to come to life.”

Reigning Series champion Sheppard had a chance to get by Hess early in the race but ultimately came up short.

We got to [Hess] and his guys moved him up like they should have,” Sheppard said. “We ran second that’s all there is to it.”

Even though “The Rocket Shepp” finished second, he’s still happy with the direction the team is going.

“We were pretty good, it just wasn’t our night again,” Sheppard said. “I’m just glad we got our consistency back and we’re going to try and keep this roll going.”

Sheppard’s runner-up finish helped extend his points lead to 52 over Chris Madden, who finished fifth.

Max Blair, who won the 2019 World of Outlaws event at Stateline finished third. He felt his starting spot put him in a hole throughout the Feature.

“We were pretty good, I just think starting sixth kind of hurt us,” Blair said. “You can’t start behind these guys and think you’re going to get by all of them.”

Boom Briggs, who lives 15 minutes from Stateline Speedway crossed the line fourth. He was happy to finish in the top-five in front of his family.

“We’ll definitely take a top-five anytime,” Briggs said. “Hats off to my family who’s all here, and my crew, we just picked the wrong tire.”

UP NEXT: The Most Powerful Late Models on the Planet return to action on Friday, June 18 at Thunder Mountain Speedway in Knox Dale, PA for the Connor Bobik Memorial.

If you can’t make it to the track, watch all the action live on DIRTVision with the annual Platinum FAST PASS subscription for $299/year or the monthly FAST PASS subscription for $39/month

Morton Buildings Feature (40 Laps)-1. 44H-Dave Hess [1][$10,000]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard [3][$6,000]; 3. 111V-Max Blair [6][$3,500]; 4. 99B-Boom Briggs [4][$2,800]; 5. 44-Chris Madden [13][$2,500]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin [9][$2,300]; 7. 28-Dennis Erb [5][$2,200]; 8. 22-Greg Oakes [17][$2,100]; 9. 1X-Chub Frank [10][$2,050]; 10. 7R-Ross Robinson [24][$2,000]; 11. 29-Jason Genco [16][$1,600]; 12. 7-Ricky Weiss [18][$1,400]; 13. 16-Tyler Bruening [14][$1,200]; 14. 22B-Darrell Bossard [22][$1,100]; 15. B1-Brent Larson [23][$1,050]; 16. 33-Chris Hackett [2][$1,000]; 17. 97-Cade Dillard [8][$1,000]; 18. B22-Bump Hedman [21][$1,000]; 19. 4S-David Scott [7][$1,000]; 20. X3-Wyatt Scott [12][$1,000]; 21. 40-Dutch Davies [11][$1,000]; 22. 1J-Jake Finnerty [15][$1,000]; 23. 9K-Mike Knight [20][$1,000]; 24. 8X-Damian Bidwell [19][$1,000] Hard Charger: 7R-Ross Robinson[+14]

Qualifying Flight-A –1. 44H-Dave Hess, 15.484; 2. 4S-David Scott, 15.809; 3. 111V-Max Blair, 15.936; 4. 1-Brandon Sheppard, 16.006; 5. 0G-Deshawn Gingerich, 16.12; 6. 94-Bryce Davis, 16.156; 7. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 16.228; 8. 40-Dutch Davies, 16.252; 9. 44-Chris Madden, 16.252; 10. 1J-Jake Finnerty, 16.408; 11. 19-Bob Dorman, 16.478; 12. 96-Mike Smith, 16.588; 13. B22-Bump Hedman, 16.621; 14. 76-Steve Kania, 16.627; 15. 8X-Damian Bidwell, 16.633; 16. 22-Greg Oakes, 16.644; 17. 01W-Khole Wanzer, 16.831; 18. 18-Mike Wonderling, NT