Elbridge, NY -  July 4, 2010 - Matt Sheppard kicked off the Independence holiday the same way he ended last season in September at Rolling Wheels Raceway Park, with a dominating victory over top tour contenders Brett Hearn and Billy Decker in Sunday's 'Stars & Stripes 100' presented by SUNY Canton. The Fourth of July revival at RWR was far more significant for Sheppard as the win narrowed Decker's lead in the Super DIRTcar Series to 13 points and filled his pocket with another $6,000 winner's check.

While rain shortened his first-ever DIRTcar Big-Block triumph at Rolling Wheels to 68 laps in autumn, 'Super Matt' took advantage of a sweltering day in Central New York to sweep the July 4 card. Powered by a C.C. Performance engine, the JB Motorsports no. 9s Xtreme Lubricants/Bicknell ride was ahead of the game from the opening green flag with Sheppard earning the Bilstein Shocks Fast Time Award, copping his heat race qualifier, then leading flag-to-flag in the holiday 100-lapper.

"Its great winning on holidays and even better getting one at Rolling Wheels," remarked Sheppard, 27, who scored four DIRTcar Sportsman Modified feature wins at RWR in 2000 before adding his first in the Big-Block ranks last September. "It took a real long time to win one race here and now I got two out of the last three so it's pretty special."

"It's also been a good weekend. We finished third at Brewerton on Friday but ruined the frame, then came back out strong last night at Fulton. Have to thank my car owner Jeff Brownell, he put me in a new car and we came out and won the next two nights," said Sheppard, who is now tied with touring adversary Jimmy Phelps atop the DIRTcar Northeast Big-Block win chart this season with 10 checkered flags.

Series stalwart Gary Tomkins picked up a borrowed ride from former Modified campaigner Joe Beyea to finish fourth while Danny Johnson charged back after an early pit stop to salvage fifth-place at the stripe. Older brother Alan Johnson in a new Jake Spraker ride settled for sixth ahead of veteran Steve Paine and rising stars Justin Haers, Ryan Phelps and Billy Dunn, while Rob Bellinger, Tom Sears Jr. and Roy Bresnahan were the last to complete the prescribed 100-lap distance.

In the customary pre-race draw that included top-four qualifiers from each of the three preliminary races, Sheppard selected outside front row while the pole-position sat waiting for the Decker, the 12^th and final driver to choose a number. And that was about as close as his competition ever got as the Waterloo warrior opened up an early advantage and never looked back.

Sheppard reached the back of the 30-car starting field by lap eight and with 10 laps complete around the spacious 5/8-miler the defending Super DIRT Week Syracuse 200 winner had seemingly effortlessly extended his margin to a half-straightaway. Although mired in traffic as Sheppard out-distanced himself from the pack, early chasers were Paine, Decker, Dunn and Tomkins.

Tour rookie Lance Willix II forced out the first of just three yellow flags after slowing between the turns three and four on lap 18 with a broken left-rear wheel. The ensuing lap 25 restart was far more dramatic as a frontstretch pile-up blocked the track this requiring a rare flag situation to clean up the carnage left by nearly a dozen racing machines. Beginning when contact was made by Australian Peter Britten and Alan Johnson just past the starter's stand, the lengthy ordeal came to and end with the mounts of Dale Planck, Rich Scagliotta and Kevin Bates suffering the most damage and ending up pitside for the remainder of the night.

Sheppard resumed command back under green while Jimmy Phelps and Danny Johnson made it back trackside just in time without losing a lap making adjustments in the pits. A simple tire change from a hard Hoosier on the right-rear to a soft compound was the only call made by car owner/crew chief Mike Payne while Phelps was in and out on two occasions as the Randy Kisacky-led crew attempted to remedy a radiator leak after a rock had poked through in the early stages.

The patchwork job by Phelps' HBR Motorsports squad and speedy tire exchange provided by Johnson's skeleton speedway crew seemed to produce dividends, yet in the end Phelps' radiator ran dry and the Wave Energy Drink 98H Mohawk Northeast/Troyer mount dropped from third to 17^th after coasting intot the infield pits with less than five laps to go.

At the halfway mark, Johnson had already charged through into an eighth-place position while Phelps hovered around 15^th following a second pit stop to refill the leaking radiator. New Jersey runner Michael Storms came to a halt in Vinny Salerno's Four s Star to incur the second caution period, at which time Phelps dashed to the pits hoping to cure the problem.

Carving his way toward the front lap after lap, Johnson aboard the Honeoye Auto Parts-Currier Plastics-Waste Management/Bicknell entry joined in two separate battles that kept the near-capacity crowd teetering on the edge. Johnson first worked over Haers and brother Alan to grab sixth by lap 60 and for the next 10 circuits diced with Paine and Tomkins before securing fifth-place with still 30 laps to go.

Local pilot Tim Currier came to a stop in turns one and two to require the third and final caution period of the evening on lap 81. While Sheppard, Decker and Hearn remained locked in the battle up front, Phelps zeroed in the closest competition ahead as he picked off cars one-by-one on his way toward the front.

Still a half-track behind Sheppard , Phelps swept past cousin Ryan Phelps for ninth on lap 71, disposed of Alan Johnson on lap 74 and moved into seventh by Haers with a quarter of the race still remaining. Sixth-place running Danny Johnson was the next to fall behind the on-rushing Phelps car on lap 81, with Paine giving up fifth to the Baldwinsville, N.Y. chauffeur the following circuit. Phelps was not done yet, nosing ahead of Tomkins at the line on lap 87 then bolting under third-place Decker with 10 laps to go.

"It got pretty dusty at one point and tough to see, I wanted to be in front of everybody so I had the best vision. The guys gave me such a good car it was easy to stay ahead. When you spend that much time together, you gotta be good friends or else it doesn't work. Tonight we were clicking together right off the trailer," Sheppard added.

Reacquainting himself with the podium after his first top-three feature race finish of the season on tour, Hearn advanced from eighth to fifth in the points standings following a solid second-place finish on Sunday.

"Happy to put June behind us, just a weird month from start to finish," noted Hearn, 51, the all-time Super DIRTcar Series winner with 103 career tallies in extra-distance high-paying affairs. "Races that we were running good in we didn't finish and the other ones we just didn't run good in and finished."

"Getting back here, now I've knocked down a handful of top-fives in a row and feel like we're hitting on some rhythm again. To come from 11 ^th to second on a track like this against this kind of competition, it's a pretty big deal. Now if we can ever draw and get some decent track position, it would certainly be helpful."

"Tonight I thought we were probably a second-place car and that's right where we finished so I'm pretty happy with that. I would've liked to have Matt chase me down instead of the other way around. It's just so tough to get by Matt lately, he's been the fastest just about every race and even harder to beat when he starts up front," added Hearn, who notched his record seventh overall Hoosier Tire-VP Racing Fuels Mr. DIRTcar Championship in 2009 steering the familiar Madsen Motorsports no. 20 Wentworth Custom Homes-Benjamin Moore Paints/TEO entry.

Results for Decker have been on the other end of the racing spectrum as the 'Franklin Flyer' is yet to finish outside the front-five after the opening seven series stops with his lone victory posted in the Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway opener at the end of March.

"Sure, another top-five is probably good in the big picture but we were just terrible tonight," exclaimed Decker, 45, in search of his third career Mr. DIRTcar crown and second in three years for owners John & Laura Wight. "The crew is working its tail off, we just can't put a handle on it. "

"We have been consistent, thank goodness the Series shows have been our best races. We're just not very good lately. Horrible on restarts tonight, but after about 10 laps we got going pretty good. "Everybody is working hard, we've got some plans this week to exercise some torches and welders. Already looking forward to getting back to Cornwall (July 11), it's a nice facility we usually have fun at and they always have a great crowd  there," Decker offered.

Next Sunday Big-Block Modified title chasers cross the border and head toward Cornwall Motor Speedway for the 16^th Annual Akwesasne Mohawk Casino International 100 on July 11. Decker collected the feature gold in 1999, 2003 and 2007 while Jimmy Phelps is the defending race winner.

Don't forget to join Rolling Wheels Raceway on facebook and follow DIRTcar Racing on Twitter (@DIRTcarNE).

It's not too late to get your second annual All-Star Weekend tickets. Drivers will be competing for over $100,000 dollars while fans enjoy Super DIRTcar Series action, driver autographs, fireworks and non-stop entertainment. All-Star Weekend gets underway July 16-17 at Cayuga County Fair Speedway. For tickets, go to www.DIRTcar.com/tickets or call 315-834-6606.

DIRTCAR MODIFIEDS (100 Laps) - 1.MATT SHEPPARD 2. Brett Hearn 3. Billy Decker 4. Gary Tomkins 5. Danny Johnson 6. Alan Johnson 7. Steve Paine 8. Justin Haers 9. Ryan Phelps 10. Billy Dunn 11. Rob Bellinger 12. Tom Sears Jr. 13. Roy Bresnahan 14. Larry Wright 15. Peter Britten 16. Tim Currier 17. Jimmy Phelps 18. Lance Willix II 19. Chris Hile 20. Rick Laubach 21. Dave Rauscher 22. Mike Ward 23. Michael Storms 24. Boyd MacTavish 25. Rich Scagliotta 26. Dale Planck 27. Kevin Bates 28. Randy Chrysler 29. Vic Coffey 30. Chuck Bower

DIRTCAR SPORTSMAN (20 Laps) - 1.JUSTIN WRIGHT 2. Eric Giguere 3. Adam Hilton 4. Matt Hulsizer 5. Jipp Ortiz 6. Dan Wiesner 7. Mark Chiddy 8. Mike Fowler 9. Jimmy Johnstone 10. Greg Mrzywka 11. Rich Townsend 12. Dave Marcuccilli 13. Jim Spano 14. Steve Gray 15. Ricky Newton 16. Ben Wheeler 17. Mark Potter 18. Tim Schneider 19. Robert Humphreys 20. Joe Cook 21. Tim Sears Jr. 22. Fran Hilton 23. John Juhl 24. Christine Martin 25. Beth Schneider 26. Dave Emmons 27. Matt Emmons

DIRTCAR STOCK CARS (15 Laps) - 1.FRANK BURNELL JR. 2. Russ Marsden 3. Nate Peckham 4. Andy Fisk 5. Mike Welch 6. Derrick Excell 7. Mike Rasbeck 8. Pete Kowalski 9. Pat Hobbs 10. Bryon Dewitt