World of Outlaws Notebook
Notes: Reworked tracks improve Outlaw features
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Josh Richards won at Fayetteville. (butlerracingphotos.com)
All the pre-race concerns that Josh Richards and Tim McCreadie had about their chances of contending for victory in Friday night's 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series main event at Fayetteville (N.C.) Motor Speedway were, in the final analysis, unfounded.
Richards and McCreadie started 10th and 11th, respectively, in the talent-laden field — seemingly tough post positions considering that passing was at a premium during heat races. But Richards won the headliner and McCreadie finished just a half car length back in second place, prompting both drivers to hail the track crew for whipping the red-clay surface into shape before the feature.
"With Southern dirt, it's so hard to get a track right," said Richards, who held off McCreadie's furious late-race challenges to become the first repeat winner in nine WoO events this season. "You don't really have a lot to work with because of the sandy tracks down here, and it was looking like the track might be one-lane after the heats.
"But they did a great job at intermission trying to do their part to get the racetrack better for us. You gotta give them a lot of credit because we could pass in the feature."
McCreadie was even more vocal about the work done to reinvigorate the speedway.
"Like I said in the (postrace) interview on the homestretch, this place listened to a few people who I think know a lot about racing — the guys who are actually on this track racing," McCreadie said. "They graded half up the track, left the bottom alone, watered and packed it in, and it got wide. Down in (turns) three and four, it got real wide; actually the cushion was better than the bottom.
"Hat's off to them," he continued. "We could've had as good a car, but if they hadn't touched the track we probably wouldn't have run where we did. They made it where you can race on it so we were able to get where we (finished) and I thank them for it. It was a lot more fun than it was in the heats."
McCreadie made very similar comments about Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway's track-prep team after scoring his first WoO victory of 2010 at the 3/8-mile oval Saturday. Swainsboro's surface was also reworked before the feature, contributing to the entertaining racing that concluded two of the most action-packed programs the tour has ever contested on consecutive evenings in the Southeast.
"Just like last night, I have to thank the track guys here for going out there and working on the track before the feature," McCreadie said following the race. "If we have a racy track we'll put on a show for everybody, and that's what happened again tonight."
T-Mac's unique trophy
Swainsboro promoter Paul Purvis and his staff came up with a unique trophy to present McCreadie as a memento for his victory. Playing off the annual Pine Tree Festival in Swainsboro all weekend, Purvis and Co. commissioned the creation of a wooden replica of a pine tree sitting atop a Dirt Late Model.
It was carved out with a chainsaw in an hour on Friday by the Masters of the Chainsaw, top sculptors from Pennsylvania's Poconos who conducted an exhibition during the Pine Tree Festival.
McCreadie kissed the carving, which was engraved on its back with the event name, track and date, while posing with it for photographers. It then drew plenty of attention sitting in the back of McCreadie's trailer from drivers and crew members who visited to congratulate the New Yorker.
Hubbard's solid finishes
Rookie sensation Austin Hubbard returned to contender status during the Southeastern doubleheader, ending a three-race slump with back-to-back third-place finishes at Fayetteville and Swainsboro.
The 18-year-old from Seaford, Del., had been a non-factor since breaking out with a sizzling stretch of three consecutive top-three finishes — including his first career WoO victory — in late March. He finished no better than 11th in his next three tour starts and used two provisionals to gain entry into features during that span.
"I think we got back to our kind of tracks this weekend," Hubbard said. "It's no secret that I struggle in the slick (surfaces) like we've had the last few races and I have to work on getting better in those conditions. We'll get there, but right now we're at our best at tracks like we ran the last two nights, kind of the in-between condition – not too slick and not too heavy.
Smith's roller coaster
Brady Smith's emotions bounced back-and-forth between high and low throughout the April 30-May 1 weekend. For starters, Smith thought he might have broken a brand-new engine after only running a couple laps of Friday night's practice session at Fayetteville. He looked down while speeding along the homestretch and noticed that his dashboard gauge showed no oil pressure, prompting him to immediately turn off his powerplant.
"When it says zero, it's a scary feeling," Smith said of the oil-pressure gauge. "I couldn't hit the kill switch fast enough when I saw that."
Fortunately, Smith and his crew found that the reading resulted from a faulty oil-pressure gauge. They installed a new one and the Wisconsinite proceeded to rip off his series-leading third fast time of the season and win a heat race, but he picked the wrong tire combination for the feature and faded from the sixth starting spot to a disappointing 10th-place finish.
Smith seemed primed to salvage his weekend on Saturday night at Swainsboro, where he entered the 50-lapper's late stages in a battle for second with Darrell Lanigan and well within striking distance of eventual winner McCreadie. But on lap 42 he tangled with a lapped car between turns three and four and spun, relegating him to a heartbreaking 15th-place finish and dropping him to seventh in the points standings.
Clanton's struggles
Shane Clanton was so disgusted after seeing a pair of potential top-five finishes slip through his fingers last weekend that all he could do was shake his head and joke about his fate.
"I guess we have to build a bullet-proof car somehow," Clanton cracked after finishing 14th at Swainsboro, where he was battling for fourth on lap 14 when he stopped to bring out a caution flag because his hood flew up due to broken pins.
Actually, Clanton's fate at Swainsboro was better than the previous evening at Fayetteville. He had just inherited fourth place on Friday night thanks to Steve Francis's spin when his machine's right-front ball-joint broke, forcing him to limp into the pit area and not return.
Smith's happy companion
The last time the WoO visited Clint Smith's home state of Georgia on March 20 at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, the tour veteran left the track not with a first-place trophy but a puppy. That day a young black Lab mix dog was found trapped in a hole on the racetrack grounds and, when no one stepped up to claim the pooch, Smith adopted him.
Now the little guy is named Rocket and happily lives at Smith's shop. He made his return to the racetrack over the weekend, making the doubleheader trip in Cat Daddy's hauler with Smith's wife, Kim, and teenage daughter Jenna.
No longer tired and weak like when he was saved at Screven, Rocket is a healthy, growing dog and pranced around the pit area all weekend. He brought his master no good fortune, however – Smith registered a respectable ninth-place finish at Fayetteville, but he could only manage 17th (last driver on the lead lap) at Swainsboro after making a pit stop on lap 42 to replace a left-rear wheel that came off his car.
Odds and ends
Russ King didn’t leave Swainsboro with a smile on his face, but the 2009 Rookie of the Year was at least encouraged that he's headed in the right direction after scoring a season-best finish of 11th. "Baby steps," said King, who qualified through a heat at Swainsboro for just the second time this season in 10 events. ... The WoO next heads to Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway on Friday and Bluegrass Speedway in Bardstown, Ky., on Saturday. Both events will feature 50-lappers paying $10,000 to win. Lincoln is hosting the tour for the fourth consecutive year, while Bluegrass Speedway — a half-mile oval promoted by Steve Francis's new in-laws David and Anita Ferrell — will run a WoO event for the first time in its history.
