This may not be the week for Daryn Klein to start experimenting with car owner Steve Lampley’s new XR1 Rocket Chassis. Then again, the Fairview Heights, Ill., driver may not need to, despite his own convictions.

Klein, who leads the Super Late Model point standings at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill., heading into Tuesday’s visit by the fledgling Castrol FloRacing Night in America tour, has split his time this season between his own 2018 family-backed Rocket XR1 and Lampley’s 2021 model. | Watch on FloRacing

“It’s been going all right. It’s had its up and downs, but it’s been going,” said Klein on Monday while taking a break from his family’s appliance business. “We’ve raced probably nine times and I’ve got four wins and a couple of seconds.”

Klein has three starts at Tammy and Kevin Gundaker’s Tri-City Speedway this season, with a pair of wins to his credit. He’s also been competing at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, Mo., and Highland (Ill.) Speedway while he sticks close the St. Louis area. None of the three tracks are more than 50 miles away from home for the 30-year-old.

Despite netting four victories in nine starts between two cars with at least one victory at each of the three ovals, Klein insists that he’s still trying to get a handle on Lampley’s machine. In three starts behind the wheel of Lampley’s No. 33, which has been piloted by a variety of drivers in recent seasons, Klein has a victory (at Tri-City), a runner-up finish and an 11th-place finish Friday in MARS Racing Series action at Kankakee County Speedway in Kankakee, Ill.

“We’ve got a brand new car and we’ve been trying to get it figured out,” Klein said. “It’s been tough. It’s so much different than our older (Rocket) XR1 for whatever reason I don’t know. If we can get qualified and sort of maintain up front in the heat race (Tuesday), I think we’ll be all right because our feature stuff seems to be pretty good in that car right there. But early on, the car is a little wild. So hopefully we’ll get qualified and that’ll be the best thing.”

With an upstart tour that touts three-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., as its current points leader, along with Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, and Kyle Larson of Elk Grove, Calif., as winners, Klein doesn’t expect anything easy on Tuesday, especially while still trying corral a new car.

“Honestly it’s going to be tough,” he said. “We’ve creeped up on it. We’re getting closer with it. But for whatever reason (Lampley’s car) is so much different than my older XR1 Rocket car. It’s like trying to rewrite a whole notebook basically. (The new cars) travel farther so you can be softer on the nose. The motor program is quite a bit different. We are on Fords and they’ve got a Chevy, so there’s quite a bit of weight difference there, and just how the motor drives. Just all those contributing factors have kind of made it quite a bit different than my stuff.

“I don’t think Rocket (drastically changed the design), not that they’ve told us. I mean, there’s a couple bars that are in different spots or that are bent a little bit different. They definitely got more ground clearance somehow … they physically do. Then when you put them at attitude and start measuring stuff, they got more ground clearance. I don’t know if that’s something there or if it’s just the motor that’s that much different with weight. But it’s been, not a struggle, but it’s definitely been a learning experience that’s for sure, trying to creep up on (a balanced setup).”

Klein understands that finding just the right balance to achieve his car’s optimal performance is important not just for Tuesday’s program, but also for the rest of the season as he chases points in the Bi-State Super Late Model Challenge, a miniseries between Highland and I-55 which will pay $5,000 to its champion. The stakes are raised higher Tuesday.

“When them guys come to town, I don’t want to call them a lot better than our local guys, but they don’t mess around,” Klein said. “They don’t make mistakes. (Tri-City) is hard to pass on. Normally you can capitalize on guy’s mistakes. But if you don’t qualify out front on a show like what is coming in (Tuesday), you’re pretty well going to have to ride it out until you can skim your way into the feature and hopefully the track widens out and slows down or it builds some character or something to make it a little racier. You know Granite is fast. It’s tough to move around on. You almost have to be where you have to be. It’s gotten to where you can’t screw around that’s for sure.”

As the season progresses, Klein, who is recently engaged, expects to continue splitting time between his family car and Lampley’s. He said it’s an ideal situation because Lampley is eager to run a few bigger events, while Klein's father — who owns about 75 percent of the family team — “pretty well dictates wherever we go,” said Klein.

The family business, as well as other personal commitments, tend to pull in different directions. In addition, he and his fiancée just purchased 40 acres and are trying to finish up a pole barn on the property, forcing Klein to carefully prioritize. Still, he’d like to compete in as many big events as possible, so he hopes to continue running his own car once a week, while also chauffeuring the Lampley machine once a week.

“With our business, we don’t really get to go out too much and do that kind of stuff,” said Klein. “With Steve, he gives me the opportunity to be able to do that as long as we can race smart and keep stuff underneath us and not destroy a lot of stuff. I think the opportunity is there to do that with him. It’s looking pretty good so far. We’ve been successful at it for the three times we’ve been out. We just got to keep building on it.”