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Cody Overton discusses his new ride. (DirtonDirt.com)

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Dec. 8) — The Indiana Convention Center doors reopen at 9 a.m. Friday for the second of three days at 2023’s Performance Racing Industry Trade Show, where more than 40,000 attendees are expected to check out more than 1,000 companies over 750,000 square feet floor space making up more than 3,600 booths, many with a Dirt Late Model focus. Friday's blog-style notebook (complete PRI coverage):

5:05 | Day Two complete

That'll do it for Friday's live blogging. Check back in tomorrow shortly after doors open at 8 a.m. for the final day of coverage. In the meantime be on the lookout for more stories from the Indiana Convention Center, such as features on Scott Bloomquist putting surgery on hold to plot 2024 plans as well as the adjusted Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series playoff format.

4:55 p.m. | Gardner's crew search

For the first time ever, Bob Gardner’s future racing plans are in a place of limbo. With the 2024 season on the horizon, the East Peoria, Ill., veteran can’t commit to the series he’s most loyal toward, the MARS Championship Series, because following next week’s Gateway Dirt Nationals, he’ll have zero crew help.

“This is very unchartered. A little overwhelming. A little scary,” Gardner said. “Usually at this time, we have a car built and ready to go racing the following year, with plans with what we’re going to do. We’re chomping at the bit right now. Sitting back on my heels, keeping my eyes open to see what’s out there. The scary part is I have no plan.”

Over the past few seasons, Gardner’s managed to race all across the Midwest with Mike Tillie shouldering much of the maintenance and car work load as his lone crewman. But Tillie, for reasons that Gardner fully understands, has taken a job with SRI Performance in Indianapolis and therefore can no longer be the right-hand man the Illinoisan needs.

Fortunately for Gardner, there’s time to fill the void. But Gardner will not and cannot race on his lonesome.

“No shame to my help I’ve had in the past, but it’s not getting any cheaper,” Gardner said. “I’ve been doing it predominately out of my own pocket forever. It’s just gotten to the point where I know what it takes to be competitive. And I just can’t do it out of my own wallet. These crew guys aren’t cheap. They work a lot of hours. And there’s not a whole lot of them out there. The money aspect and not having crew, I really don’t know what I’m doing after the Dome to be quite frank."

Gardner’s words are essentially a PSA that he’s fielding applicants for whomever has an interest in working for his race team.

“If somebody deserves it and has the experience and the resume, then yes, (it’ll be paid),” Gardner said. “I feel like I had a pretty good year this past year. I have a very good relationship with Rocket. I feel very strongly if I can put a team together, we can be competitive next year. It’s just a lot of pieces to the puzzle. I’m starting from scratch.”

A solid stable of resources are at Gardner’s disposal: two Rockets Chassis, three Clements Racing Engines, and “everything I need to go racing.” That said, he’d hate for his equipment to idle. This past year he finished third on the MARS tour and though he couldn’t pick up a Super Late Model, he feels he’s one step away from competing with Jason Feger and Ryan Unzicker, the tour’s leading two drivers this year.

“It’s the little parts that make parts a team,” Gardner said. “Now I need to build a team that can go win.”

4:33 p.m. | Kerbystrong

Blake Damery and his family will realize a dream in 2024 with the hightest profile running of the Kerbystrong 100 on Aug. 10 at Macon (Ill.) Speedway.

Ever since Damery’s father Kerby — a Macon resident and former Super Late Model champion at his hometown track — died in February 2015 following a battle with cancer, the Damery family has supported an annual race in Kerby’s memory at the high-banked, fifth-mile oval. But next year the event will move to another level as it becomes a $10,000-to-win, long-distance showdown sanctioned by the MARS Late Model Championship tour.

“Starting from the beginning, we wanted a big race, a Herald & Review 100-type or even bigger than that, because we’re four blocks from the track. I’ve been at the track since I was born,” said Blake, who has followed in his late father’s tire tracks to become a full-fender racer. “I believe it was a Super Late Model event, $2,000 to win, when we started it, and we were trying to get the modifieds and sportsman involved too since those were the classes that dad ran.

“We had a pretty good turnout the first couple years, but just with the way Late Model car counts and stuff went, we kind of turned it into a higher-paying Crate race to try and draw more cars. We were racing Crates at the time too so we were able to run it.”

During the 2023 season, however, Damery and his brother, Luke, began setting the stage for the creation of the high-profile Kerbystrong 100.

“We hit some MARS races towards the end of the year and talked to (series officials) Matt Curl and Jonathan Clayton and started to get the ball rolling,” Damery said. “We talked to (Macon owner) Chris (Kearns) a little bit, and Chris got ahold of my mom (Nikki) a few weeks before they put the schedule out trying to confirm the date. We were pretty adamant about making it a $10,000 (to win), 100-lap race, so Chris was able to work with us on that.

“We’re trying to find a title sponsor and stuff, but we’re pretty excited.”

Damery, who moved up to the Super Late Model division from Crates this season, said his family’s foundation that supports cancer patients and their families has raised more than $250,000 over the years their father’s memorial race has been contested at Macon.

3:54 p.m. | Plotting a return

Riley Hickman of Cleveland, Tenn., hasn’t raced anything approaching a full season since 2020, but the four-time Southern All Star Series champion has the itch to hit the track more often in ’24.

“I got to race a little toward the end of this season and we made the decision I’m gonna try to race a little bit next year,” Hickman said while he and his wife, Angie, visited Friday morning with Brian Key and Shanon Rush in the Hoosier Tire booth. “We’ll start off with the Crate USA Winter Series and see how that goes. If all goes well, we’ll possibly try to run that Hunt the Front (Super Dirt Series) deal. The schedule works pretty good for me and business and everything else.”

Hickman, 45, made six starts at Tennessee tracks from late July through the end of the ’23 campaign, rolling up five top-five finishes spread across Topless Outlaws, 604 Crate and sportsman division appearances. His last Super Late Model run was his lone 2022 start — a fifth-place finish in a Southern All Star show at I-75 Raceway in Sweetwater, Tenn. — but he’s eyeing a return to the headline class.

“It’s a pretty good little deal to run and I like those guys,” Hickman said of the Southeast-based Hunt the Front circuit that has posted a $50,000 champion’s prize for its second season of operation. “I think they’re pretty good for the sport and I’d like to try and support it as much as I can.”

While Hickman’s own action has been modest for the last three years, he’s remained deeply involved in the sport. He helped operate Boyd’s Speedway in Ringgold, Ga., until its recent closing and has gone racing with his three sons, 16-year-old twins Drew and Dillon and Bryson, 13.

“When I came off the road and we slowed down racing-wise there, I sold some stuff but I still got our hauler and some race cars,” Hickman said. “I’ve got to get a few things in line to go Super racing again, but I’d like to still race. I miss the racetrack part of things, I really do. I really enjoyed doing the deal at Boyd’s and being involved in racing in that aspect in our area to help racing survive. I hated it ended the way it did but it was out of my control.

“(Now) my kids are trying to race a little bit. Drew and Dillon have been running the 602, 604 and sportsman classes, and Bryson, I had him racing the Crown Vic class and Ronnie Johnson gave him a (Late Model) so we’ve been putting that together and getting him ready to make some laps (in the 602 Crate ranks).”

With the Hickman boys breaking into the sport as racers, dear old dad hasn’t had much time to pursue his own competition.

“It’s a struggle when you go and you take three cars,” Hickman said with a laugh. “Angie over here, she’s trying to pull her hair out watching all of ‘em race.

“But it’s cool,” he added. “I get to live out racing through them a little bit and get to see what my dad experienced with me when he towed me up and down the road.”

1:27 p.m. | Focused on ’24

Garrett Alberson took a step back on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series in 2023. His car owner, Ken Roberts, believes the 34-year-old driver from Las Cruces, N.M., is ready to rebound in ’24.

After going from five top-five and 19 top-10 finishes over 48 starts in his rookie 2022 season to three top-five and 16-top 10 runs in 51 races this season — and falling from seventh in the ’22 points standings to 11th in ’23 — Alberson is returning for a third straight Lucas Oil Series tour of duty with Roberts. The duo is confident they’ve righted their wrongs and will be on an upward trajectory once the calendar turns.

Roberts indicated while browsing the PRI show that the team has changed its off-season pattern with an eye on better results during the coming season.

“We’re taking the whole month of December off,” Roberts said. “Usually we do the Dome (Gateway Dirt Nationals in St. Louis), but this year we’re gonna just focus on our program to get better for the ’24 season and I can already see a difference. I can see a difference in the team, I can see a difference in our prep work. I just feel like we’re better prepared.

“I feel like it gives us a chance to look over our notes, and we’re finally kind of putting it all together. We’re just really excited going into ’24. I think we’ve got some good ideas and some good things that will hopefully elevate our program.”

Roberts, 61, said Alberson has put in some outside-the-cockpit time to improve.

“It’s kind of cool, we sent Garrett down to Charlotte during that (early November) weekend of the World of Outlaws (World Finals) just to hang out with different teams and it allowed him to just observe the tracks, observe the different teams and observe the cars,” Roberts related. “He kind of came back rejuvenated. Because he’s so focused on driving, now he came back thinking, You know, a lot of these ideas we talked about I’m actually seeing people implement. He said, ‘I’d kind of like to now move forward.’

“We sent him down to Bilstein (Shocks in North Carolina) for a day to work too. He came back and he started taking shocks apart and we’ve never done that.

“We’ve done some prep work just making sure the (Longhorn) cars are identical as possible so there’s no differences,” he continued. “And the main thing is, everything’s fresh, so brand new rear ends, everything gone through, transmissions, all the engines are all fresh. We feel like we’re going into the season 100 percent ready to roll and we’ve not been able to do that the last couple of years.”

Roberts said Alberson’s first 2024 action will come during the Jan. 6-14 Wild West Shootout at Vado (N.M.) Speedway Park before the team tackles the Lucas Oil Series at Georgia-Florida Speedweeks.

“We love the series. The people who are involved there to a really good job,” Roberts said of the Lucas Oil circuit. “We’ve now finally been to all the tracks, or most of these tracks, once or twice, so we feel now we have to put it all together. This is our year to elevate our program and we’re putting everything we have into it to make sure that happens.”

12:25 p.m. | Missouri youngster

Jace Parmley of Neosho, Mo., took a step forward with his Dirt Late Model pursuits in 2023. He recognizes, however, that he still has plenty to learn.

“I’m young, I’m 21, I’m chasing some experience,” he said while checking out the PRI show on Friday morning. “My car’s there, my crew’s there. It’s just coming down to me and being able to make some right decisions and getting more comfortable in the race car.”

A young veteran of six full-fender seasons, Parmley broke through this season with three victories, including two $1,000 Limited Late Model scores at Salina (Okla.) High Banks. His first came on April 21 with the Dirt Track Bank Cash Money Super Dirt Series and he repeated June 24 on the Complete Well Testing Sooner Series.

“One of them was on a last-lap pass and the other I did the high-side shuffle and was able to get the win,” said Parmley, who also captured a $1,000 Cash Money triumph on July 21 at Electric City Speedway in Butler, Mo.

Parmley “kind of stayed close to home” this year to run Limited Late Model and a smattering of open-competition events, but he hopes to spread his wings a little more next season with his 2019 Capital Chassis that is powered by an all-aluminum 406 cubic inch, 18-degree Chinook engine.

“We’re all about having fun and trying to get my name out there a little bit, so we’re planning on going up to Lucas (Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo.) and racing some more up there, take a shot at the Show-Me (100),” Parmley said. “Last year we came pretty close (to qualifying for the crown jewel event) and this year we’re hoping to make it in.”

12:07 p.m. | Cody Overton's new ride

Cody Overton didn't expect to leave Indiananpolis with a national touring ride, but the 26-year-old Evans, Ga., driver will after connecting with Dave Steine of the Tri Star Engines and Transmissions team. In a deal that quickly came together and was revealed today, Overton officially signed on as the driver of the Tri Star Engines and Transmissions team to run as a rookie in 2024 on the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series. He replaces Ryan Gustin, who established himself as a winning national series driver with the Davenport, Iowa, team before departing to join Todd Cooney Racing. Taylon Center remains as crew chief for the Tri Star team. Check out Kyle McFadden's DirtWire for details.

11:38 a.m. | For mom and dad

Joe Kosiski and his family no longer own I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb. — the track was, in fact, demolished after being sold in 2022 — but he’s still striving to “keep the Late Models and the series coming to our area.”

In that vein, Kosiski and his family’s auto parts and salvage businesses are involved as sponsors in the first-ever Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event at Shelby County Speedway in Harlan, Iowa, a track that sits about one hour and 15 minutes northeast of the former I-80 Speedway.

Kosiski said he wanted to see a major national-level Dirt Late Model show close to his home in Omaha, Neb., and Shelby County certainly fits the bill. A $10,000-to-win Lucas Oil Series program is scheduled for the track on Tues., July 16, one day after the circuit visits Eagle (Neb.) Raceway — a sprint car facility that is barely 15 minutes from I-80 — and just before the tour spends three days at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D., for the July 18-20 Silver Dollar Nationals that was founded by Kosiski.

“My youngest brother (Steve) is still involved with them guys that work up there (at Shelby County) so they called and asked if me and Steve would do something (to help present a Lucas Oil event),” Kosiski said while browsing the Indiana Convention Center aisles on Friday afternoon.

Kosiski was happy to step up to assist Shelby County officials in the promotion of an event that will serve as a tribute to the Kosiski family, most notably Joe’s mother and father.

“My dad was the one who got all of us going and racing so heavy, and it’s what we do now,” said Kosiski, who will continue to oversee his twin Malvern Bank East and West tours for Late Models in 2024. “So we’re trying to help the racetrack and sponsoring that part of the race for them. We’re really doing it for my mom and dad for all that they’ve done.”

8:23 a.m. | Second day looms

Some may be moving slower than others for the second day of the show, either because folks had 20,000 steps on a busy first day or they may have enjoyed Thursday’s nightlife in downtown Indy a bit too much. There’s already a lengthy line at registration for new arrivals more than an hour before attendees can check out the exhibits.

We’ll be scouring the show floor for more news from Dirt Late Model teams and drivers, with one expected announcement today from the Dave and Judy Steine-owned Tri Star Engines and Transmissions team which previously fielded a car for World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series regular Ryan Gustin of Marshalltown, Iowa. With Gustin announcing in October he’d be driving a second car for fellow Iowan Todd Cooney on the WoO circuit, we’ll see who will fill the Tri Star team’s seat and whether they’ll continue running a national tour as the team has done for two consecutive seasons.

We’ll also be seeing what other Dirt Late Model schedules may drop with the Comp Cams Super Dirt Series slate promised sometime during the show. We’ll also check on schedules for Ray Cook’s Schaeffer's Spring Nationals and Schaeffer's Southern Nationals and other circuits, although a healthy number of races have been scheduled for 2024 (we have about 337 officially announced races on our master schedule so far, mostly for Super Late Model events; among dozens of series and independent events, our master schedule typically has 1,100 or so events listed annually).

And after the show floor closes tonight, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series folks will be heading to Lucas Oil stadium for the postseason banquet. Hudson O’Neal will celebrate the first Lucas Oil championship for the Rocket Chassis house car team and the series will hand out an array of other honors, including the Mike Swims Award. You can watch the banquet at FloRacing.

Editor's note: Reporting by DirtonDirt.com staffers Kyle McFadden and Todd Turner along with other DirtonDirt.com contributors and staffers (some credited specifically); remote assistance from staffers Kevin Kovac and Aaron Clay.

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