{"id":2786,"date":"2024-11-10T04:02:22","date_gmt":"2024-11-10T08:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldofoutlawsworldfinals.com\/?p=2786"},"modified":"2024-11-10T04:59:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-10T08:59:15","slug":"2024-world-champions-gravel-sheppard-williamson-claim-series-championships-at-world-of-outlaws-world-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldofoutlawsworldfinals.com\/news\/2024-world-champions-gravel-sheppard-williamson-claim-series-championships-at-world-of-outlaws-world-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"2024 WORLD CHAMPIONS: Gravel, Sheppard, Williamson Claim Championships at World of Outlaws World Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"
Photo by Chris Owens<\/em><\/p>\n All dreams, all hopes, all anxieties, all wonders, and all dirt roads led to three drivers being crowned champions at the World of Outlaws World Finals <\/em>Saturday night.<\/p>\n David Gravel, of Watertown, CT, Brandon Sheppard, of New Berlin, IL and Mat Williamson, of St. Catharines, ON, conquered all paths en route to the 2024 title with their respective series.<\/p>\n Gravel and his Big Game Motorsports\u00a0 team \u2013 consisting of Cody Jacobs, Stephen Hamm-Reilly and Zach Patterson \u2013 earned their first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series championship. He became the 11th different Series champion and first new champion since 2019. Also, his car owner, Tod Quiring, became the first new team owner to win a title since 2013.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a dream come true,\u201d Gravel said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been working at this for a long time. To do this with Big Game (Motorsports) in our fourth year together feels really really good.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheppard made history by becoming the winningest World of Outlaws Late Model champion in Series history by claiming his fifth Series championship \u2013 breaking the tie with Josh Richards. However, this was his first with the Sheppard Riggs Racing Longhorn Factory Team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s crazy to think about now,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cThese things are not easy to win, and we did it the absolute hardest way possible, that\u2019s for sure. Longhorn and the whole Riggs family gave me everything I needed to get the job done. It\u2019s been a trying year with a ton of ups and downs. We\u2019ve showed a lot of speed but haven\u2019t had the wins that we needed. It was a battle of attrition to keep the thing up front and just be consistent\u2026<\/p>\n \u201cThe stars lined up, man. I\u2019ve battled for this a lot of years now. I know how to do it, it\u2019s just a matter of putting together the package to be consistent and be OK when you\u2019re not going to win that night.\u201d<\/p>\n Williamson earned his second Super DIRTcar Series championship \u2013 first since 2019 \u2013 becoming the eighth driver in Super DIRTcar Series history to win multiple titles.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Williamson said about winning the championship. \u201cThe second one was way harder than the first one. We worked really hard. The guys do such a good job of getting this thing prepared. I really have to thank them for everything they do. It\u2019s really cool to be sitting here on the front straightaway (at The Dirt Track at Charlotte) celebrating something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheppard and Williamson had to endure the stress of waiting until the final lap of the weekend to be crowned the champion, while Gravel was able to lock up his title on Friday. His championship rival, Carson Macedo, won Friday night\u2019s race, but Gravel\u2019s fourth-place finish gave him enough points to lock up the title \u2013 ending the season with 15 wins, 44 top five finishes and 60 top 10s.<\/p>\n Gravel\u2019s championship season started with him winning the second race of the year at Volusia Speedway Park and then taking home his third Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals <\/em>Big Gator title. He and the Big Game Motorsports team were then masters of consistency, finishing outside the top 12 only two times in the first half of the season. And in that time, Gravel also picked up his first Kings Royal<\/em> title and a Summer Nationals<\/em> win at Williams Grove Speedway.<\/p>\n Their win count dropped in the second half of the year, picking up only two wins in that time span, but only had two finishes outside the top 10 with the worse being 13th.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started off really good, but when I started to build a big lead (in points) I crashed and it got close again and then stretched it out a little bit,\u201d Gravel said. \u201cWe went through a little bit of a slump. Once we got away from the West Coast, I thought we battled back and ran really good to close off the year. It feels good to get the job done, finally.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheppard\u2019s championship season was tame in the win column, grabbing three Series wins on the year \u2013 compared to his other four championship years, which saw him earn 18 wins with his first and second titles, 14 wins with this third title and eight with his fourth. However, he too was a master of consistency. He only had eight finishes worse than eighth in 41 starts \u2013 and only one outside the top 20.<\/p>\n Although, one of those finishes outside the top 10 came during the first World Finals<\/em> Feature of the week, putting Nick Hoffman within 26 points of him. And then Bobby Pierce won Friday night\u2019s Feature, while Hoffman suffered a mechanical failure, moving Pierce to second in points \u2013\u00a022 points behind Sheppard.<\/p>\n The drama continued on the final night as Pierce battled for the lead, while Sheppard fought to stay within the top 10 to hold on to his points lead. But Pierce suffered a flat tire near the halfway point and could only recover to a 17th-place finish. Sheppard finished ninth and clinched the title by 38 points.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a crazy year,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cWe\u2019re super happy and thankful for all the sponsors that have stuck behind us. My dad and my grandpa. The whole Riggs family. The whole Longhorn family. Just everybody that\u2019s involved with this team. It\u2019s wild to think about standing here right now. I know the Riggs family has been trying to get one of these for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n The Super DIRTcar Series had the closest points battle of the three Series entering the World of Outlaws World Finals<\/em> with Williamson trailing 10-time Series champion Matt Sheppard by 15 points. That points lead evaporated for Sheppard and transferred to Williamson after Sheppard\u2019s engine overheated during the first Feature of the weekend. Williamson then went on to win Friday night\u2019s Feature and finish third on Saturday \u2013 securing the championship by 33 points over Sheppard.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our first year (as a team with Buzz Chew Racing) we came down to Charlotte and won the championship and it was like, \u2018Wow, we did it. Good job guys.\u2019 And then the next year you expect it and the year after you expect it and the year after, and so on and so forth,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cTo get the second one finally done is unbelievably cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Williamson ended the season with eight Series wins, 14 top five finishes and 17 top 10s. He also earned his second straight DIRTcar Nationals<\/em> Big Gator title in February.<\/p>\n The 2025 season for the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series will commence at Volusia Speedway Park for the DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals<\/em>, Jan. 22-25. Then, the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals<\/em> at Volusia Speedway Park will start the new year for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series (Feb. 5-8) and Super DIRTcar Series (Feb. 12-15). For tickets, CLICK HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you can\u2019t make it to the track, you can watch the entire 2025 season for all three series live on DIRTVision<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Photo by Chris Owens All dreams, all hopes, all anxieties, all wonders, and all dirt roads led to three drivers being crowned champions at the World of Outlaws World Finals Saturday night. David Gravel, of Watertown, CT, Brandon Sheppard, of New Berlin, IL and Mat Williamson, of St. Catharines, ON, conquered all paths en route … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":2787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[22,8,68,26,81,14,29,92,63],"class_list":["post-2786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-big-block-modifieds-2","tag-brandon-sheppard","tag-david-gravel","tag-late-models-2","tag-mat-williamson","tag-sprint-cars","tag-the-dirt-track-at-charlotte","tag-world-of-outlaws","tag-world-of-outlaws-world-finals"],"yoast_head":"\n