MENOMONIE, Wis. — It took Chase Junghans more than three years — 1,151 days to be exact — to return to victory lane on the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series tour following his first career series victory back in 2015. While his next WoO triumph may not have come quite soon enough for the Manhattan, Kan., driver, at least it didn’t take three years. In fact, it took less than 11 months.

Pulling away from second-running Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., following a lap-39 caution, Junghans completed a flag-to-flag victory Sunday at Red Cedar Speedway for his third career series win and a $10,000 payday. He finished 1.402 seconds ahead of polesitter Shane Clanton of Zebulon, Ga., who grabbed second from Sheppard on the late restart. Fourth-starting Ricky Weiss of Headingley, Manitoba, slipped by Sheppard to finish third.

Sheppard, winner of 13 World of Outlaws races this season, settled for fourth after starting third, while Cade Dillard of Robeline, La., improved one spot to complete the top five.

The victory helped right the ship for Junghans, 26, who, after posting a third-place finish on July 5 at Independence (Iowa) Speedway, progressively had worse finishes during the World of Outlaws trek through the upper Midwest. He was fifth at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn., on July 6; sixth at ABC Raceway on Ashland, Wis., on July 9; ninth at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., on Friday; and 13th at Ogilvie (Minn.) Raceway on Saturday.

“We were really good tonight. Just hat’s off to my guys. They never give up,” Junghans said. “We’ve had a bad last couple of nights and to get this win off our back, it’s definitely a momentum builder.”

Other than Sheppard’s lap-27 attempt to pull even as they raced down the backstretch, the only challenge Junghans faced after taking the lead from his outside front row starting position, was negotiating lapped traffic. He quickly drove away from Clanton at the start and built a 1.717-second advantage over Sheppard by the halfway mark.

Setting a torrid pace around the third-mile oval, Junghans lapped half the field by the time the race’s lone caution waved on lap 39 for a slowing Brent Larson of Lake Elmo, Minn., who gave up the seventh spot when he coasted to the pit area. Clanton, who was running third at the time, knew that was his best opportunity to get back to the front and perhaps repeat Saturday’s victory at Ogilvie.

“We had a perfect spot starting on the pole there,” said Clanton. “They were burning that cushion down pretty hard earlier in the race and I was letting ‘em, hopefully burn their tires up, but Chase had just enough saved. I think that’s what happened to Sheppard there, he blistered a tire or something. We needed that restart a little earlier and maybe it would’ve cleaned the racetrack up a little sooner and maybe we’d had something for him.”

He did have enough to scoot by Sheppard, but not quite enough to challenge Junghans. Weiss took advantage of the yellow as well as he grabbed a podium spot while bumping Sheppard back to fourth. But like Clanton, he could only watch as Junghans pulled away again.

“Chase ran a really good race,” said Weiss. “He’d kinda take off and run away from us and we couldn’t even see him. Then he’d bottle back and then he’d take off again. I thought a few times when he’d bottle back that it had to be one good race because we were all kinda under a blanket there. Then they kinda ran off and I was just kinda battling with Clanton for a little bit. Then the caution came out and we both seemed to fire pretty good. One or two more laps and I was starting to get right beside Shane there. I just wish it was a couple more (laps).”

Notes: Junghans’ previous World of Outlaws victories came at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., in 2015 and at Eriez Speedway in Hammett, Pa., last August. … It’s just the third time this season that Brandon Sheppard has been kept out of victory lane in back-to-back series races. … Sheppard lowered the track record in qualifying as the WoO tour made its debut at Red Cedar Speedway while wapping up its five-race swing through the upper Midwest. … Despite still looking for his first career WoO win, Ricky Weiss was still upbeat. “Hopefully we can keep getting these interviews and one day be on top of the roof,” Weiss told series announcer Rick Eshelman. … The late caution hurt hometown driver Jimmy Mars as well. Mars was running fifth, but lost several spots on the restart and came close to tagging the wall in turn one. He managed to battle back to finish seventh. … Sixteen of 24 starters finished the race, with 10 completing 50 laps.