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Quick Time: Texas Late Model racing on the rise

March 6, 2013, 11:50 am

By Todd Turner

DirtonDirt.com managing editor

Take a quick lap around the proverbial dirt track with managing editor Todd Turner for a roundup of Dirt Late Model racing through the latest weekend of action along with some other quirks of racing (and the occasional ax-grinding). Quick Time appears throughout the regular season every Wednesday at DirtonDirt.com:

Frontstretch: Go Texas!

There was a time when talk of Late Model racing in Texas virtually began — and ended — with the Ingalls clan of Longview, mostly revolving around Hall of Fame driver Doug Ingalls. Don’t look now, but even without anyone from that talented family regularly competing the full-fender division, the Late Model presence is growing in the Lone Star State.

A Texas-based team on a national tour for World of Outlaws Late Model Series Rookie of the Year candidate Morgan Bagley is just part of the story as Texas is set to host its biggest slate of Late Model sanctioned and special events in many years, and perhaps ever. In 2013, as many as a half-dozen Texas tracks are expected to host a regular Late Model division in a state where Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite sometimes seemed to be a lone Late Model voice in the wilderness.

This year's schedule includes a whopping 22 sanctioned and special Late Model events in Texas, nine more than any season over the past 10 years and more than twice as many as all but two of those seasons. Four organizations — the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, Comp Cams Super Dirt Series, Championship Dirt Motorsports and P&W Sales Southern United Professional Racing — are sanctioning Texas events.

Louisiana-based SUPR has a bigger focus on Texas than anytime in its 24-year history with 17 of its 29 races in Texas, including at two new Texas dirt tracks, Cotton Bowl Speedway in Paige and Timberline Speedway in Corley. SUPR has had two Texas drivers among the top five in series points each of the past two seasons, a first for back-to-back seasons since 1992-’93.

Late Models in Texas? Don’t mess with ‘em.

Turn 1: Back from a layoff

Speaking of Texas, Jeremy Payne of Springfield, Mo., made his first stateside starts in the Late Model division since 2011 in SUPR action at the Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track near Fort Worth as well as Kennedale (Texas) Speedway Park. Driving for Allgayer Racing, Payne finished third at TMS and clicked off a victory at Kennedale, his first-ever on the SUPR circuit.

Let’s hope the Arizona transplant and former Terry Phillips teammate, a long-time successful modified racer, makes a return to the Late Model division, at least on a part-time basis. Here are five other modified refugees we’d like to see back in Late Models:

Joey Kramer, Hanover, Ind.: The lanky driver has been among Indiana’s top modified drivers for years and is the reigning Eldora champ. It’s been nearly 10 years since he ran a few seasons in Late Models, making a World 100 start for the Kentucky-based Harrod brothers along with Dirt Track World Championship and North-South 100 appearances.

Jeff Taylor, Cave City, Ark.: He’s at the top of his modified game after capturing last year’s IMCA Super Nationals in Boone, Iowa, but the 40-year-old was also a successful Late Model racer, finishing in the top five in points five times on the MARS DIRTcar Series, where he’s the sixth all-time winningest driver.

Scott Drake, Webb City, Mo.: The modified standout owns four career Lucas Oil MLRA victories, including back-to-back triumphs in 2006.

Bart Hartman, Zanesville, Ohio: He’s mostly slipped away from Late Models since his 2009 World 100 victory, primarily focusing on modifieds. But there are plenty of fans who’d like to see Hartman make a few more runs in the full-fender cars.

Joey Jensen, Forest Lake, Minn.: The former Late Model champion at Superior, Wis., is coming off a 12-victory modified season while primarily chasing the USMTS circuit.

Turn 2: Keep it to yourself

Much has been written about NASCAR’s suspension of Nationwide Series driver Jeremy Clements, a former dirt racing standout. Not to delve into the suspension (too severe) or freedom of speech (it doesn’t mean you can say anything without consequence), but his exact words that violated NASCAR’s Code of Conduct were described as racist but never revealed.

An MTV reporter confirmed he used the “n-word,” but not in describing another person. Reading between the lines, it seems most likely Clements used that term as a verb to describe a driving style of a driver disrespecting another.

It’s unacceptable and disgusting terminology, but something I hear from dirt racers on occasion in postrace interviews after dustups. People are sometimes tasteless and bigoted and racist — and all of us say things we shouldn’t in the heat of the moment — but that isn’t what bothers me.

What bothers me is when someone utters reprehensible words directly to me as if I’ll condone such speech. I ask myself: Do I seem like a person who would accept such language? That’s what bothers me.

Backstretch: Straddling the fence

Settling on race nights can be tricky for areas with multiple tracks, and 191 Speedway near Campton, Ky., faces such a situation this season with 201 Speedway in Sitka, Ky., planning a full season of Saturday evening races for the first time since 2010.

While 191 Speedway has raced on Saturdays in recent years, the eastern Kentucky track has come up with an unusual solution to avoid every-week, head-to-head events with 201 Speedway, which also runs Late Models.

As contributor Dustin Jarrett pointed out, instead of racing the same night each week, 191 will race two Friday evenings per month and two Saturday evenings per month. Some months, the Friday-night races will be back-to-back, while the track will alternate Fridays and Saturdays other months.

To allow those who work Fridays a chance to get to the track, Friday drivers’ meetings will begin at 7:15 p.m. The drivers’ meeting will be at 5:30 on Saturdays. Will the Friday-Saturday experiment work? We’ll see, but 191 Speedway regulars will have to keep a copy of the track schedule handy all season long.

Turn 3: Tweet of the week

Steve Casebolt ‏@caseboltc9: “Thanks for all the love on the Bama Bash win everyone. Not many can say they've ever won a race in the snow with a flat tire but we did it!”

Turn 4: Turn back the clock

Five items from this week in Dirt Late Model history:

March 5, 1993: Bill Frye of Greenbrier, Ark., won a co-sanctioned raced at Battleground Speedway in Highlands, Texas, for his first career victories on the Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series and Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series.

March 9, 1997: Front-row starter Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., lapped all but four competitors with a flag-to-flag, $10,000 victory in the Don Smith Ford/WJHL TV-11 100 at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn. The final 71 laps went caution-free as McDowell outran Billy Moyer, Scott Bloomquist, Randle Chupp and Skip Arp.

March 8, 2004: Jeff Boyd, the 2000 Late Model champion at Muskingum County Speedway in Zanesville, Ohio, died after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 46. Boyd, of Newark, Ohio, drove the No. z28 Late Model.

March 10, 2006: Rebounding from a lackluster opener and slow start the following night, Steve Drake of San Luis Obispo, Calif., rallied late to outrun opening-night winner Kelly Boen for a feature victory at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track. Drake collected $3,000 in his Jim Biggs-owned car with Boen, Trevor Glaser, Kellen Chadwick and Nick Perivolaris rounding out the top five on a night with nearly 50 Late Models in the pits.

March 10, 2008: Bill Nelson, a race car owner and promoter heavily involved in United Midwestern Promoters racing, died while undergoing open-heart surgery in Champaign, Ill. He was 50. Nelson owned cars for champion racer Steve Hillard as well as promoted the Northern Allstars series and Vermilion County Speedway in Danville, Ill.