World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series
Dillard nears conclusion of busy season
By Mike Warren
World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series
Cade Dillard has three overall Late Model victories in 2023. (joshjamesartwork.com)
The 2023 season isn’t Cade Dillard’s first full-time season with the World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series, but it's been his busiest.
While many full-time drivers focus solely on racing, that isn’t true for the 32-year-old from Robeline, La. He’s also balancing his time at the track with his business — CDR Race Cars. It’s one of his many challenges as the series swings into fall for Sept. 29-30 action at Atomic Speedway near Chillicothe, Ohio.
“It’s tough,” said Dillard, who drive for team owner Shane Sprinkle. “It’s probably why you don’t see me run 100-plus races a year. I love racing and love what I do, but I’m lucky to be able to drive for someone like him who’s respectful of my time with my family and my business.
“We take a lot of pride in what we do with our modified program. We started this deal about a year and a half ago with the intention of building a handful for some of my closer customers, and it blew up way faster than I intended. We’re on car number 25 right now, and with a lot of deposits in, it’s going to get us well into next year.”
That wide-open approach to his business and racing comes amid a mid-season chassis change. Earlier this year, Dillard bought a Longhorn Chassis, and It didn’t take long for him to find success. He won a preliminary feature at the Dairyland Showdown at Mississippi Thunder Speedway in Fountain City, Wis. Since then, he’s been trying to find the right comfort level behind the wheel.
“It was good right out of the box,” Dillard said. “I got a win, and from then on out, it’s just been getting myself comfortable, what I like, and what adjustments I make throughout the night. I just kind of did all of my setup-related stuff on my own, so the main thing is getting myself comfortable, and in the last few weeks, I feel like we’ve made a lot of headway.
“We’ve had good speed early in the night in qualifying and heat races. But I had to figure out where I was going wrong with the adjustments I made later in the night. Hopefully, it’ll lead to some more speed in the feature.”
One factor that has eased the stress of balancing a chassis change and his business is the consistency of his crew. Donnie Pederson has been his crew chief since 2016, and the two have found plenty of success together, including Dillard’s four World of Outlaws victories. Pederson, a "huge part of our success," Dillard said, is also responsible for the team’s weekly maintenance, a vital part of racing on a national tour.
“We’ve obviously shared a lot of success together,” Dillard said. “He keeps our stuff very nice, and we never have mechanical failures because of something falling off. Some stuff is out of our hands that may cause a DNF, but anything related to his job we’ve never suffered a DNF for. That makes a big difference in running for points."
Colbey Richman joined the team in 2023, bringing experience to Dillard’s racing operation after working with four-time World of Outlaws champion Josh Richards and other teams. Dillard said the addition to his team has been a great asset.
“He’s a hard worker. He keeps our rig and everything looking nice and clean,” Dillard said. “Our tires. He’s always ahead of them. He’s always looking for ways to improve what he does. Everybody just gets along good, and everything is clicking pretty good right now.
“I just have a really good group of guys right now. It’s a plus to have them, and it definitely makes my life much easier.”
As the team builds momentum toward the season-ending World of Outlaws World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Nov. 1-4 — he won his third Super Late Model feature of the season Saturday in Comp Cams Super Dirt Series action at Boothill Speedway in Shreveport, La. — Dillard isn’t satisfied with his 2023 results. However, he said he’s starting to feel more comfortable behind the wheel of his Longhorn, which has him looking ahead to 2024.
“It was a struggle swapping cars in the middle of the year,” Dillard said. “Before that, I felt like I’ve never been the best in Florida (during winter competition), so I always get behind there. Naturally, I’d like to have some better runs and more wins than we’ve had. My car owners deserve better results than we’re getting, but we’re working hard.
“Am I satisfied right now? No. But getting acquainted with a new car in the middle of the season just took me time to figure out what I needed. I wouldn’t give myself the best grade, but it’s definitely got me looking forward to next year. We’ve been building a notebook with these Longhorns, and I feel like we’ve found a lot of speed the last few weeks.”
Dillard is closing in on the end of his busiest WoO season with a chance to claim a top-10 spot in the points standings for the second time (he was ninth in 2021 after dropping off the tour full-time in the season's latter stages). He trails 2015 series champion Shane Clanton by 60 points with nine races remaining and has an opportunity to earn $40,000 at season’s end — a $3,000 bump from where he is now. No matter where he finishes, though, he’ll work until that checkered flag flies at Charlotte.
"We’re wide open all the time,” Dillard said.
