Quick Time presented by PFC Brakes

Quick Time: Breakdown of Lucas Oil title chase

October 4, 2017, 2:54 pm

Take a quick lap around the proverbial dirt track with Todd Turner and Andy Savary 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, presented by PFC Brakes, appears throughout the season on Wednesdays at DirtonDirt.com:

Frontstretch: Drivers of the Week

National: The continued consistency of Tim McCreadie lifted the Watertown, N.Y., driver into the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points lead after his third-place finish at Rome Speedway. He has a 15-point margin on Scott Bloomquist with two events remaining.

Regional: Greg Oakes of Franklinville, N.Y., swept both Zimmer's United Late Model Series events at McKean County Raceway during the Fall Classic weekend, earning $4,500 in all.

Weekly: Winning for the fifth time in the last six Late Model races at Nevada (Mo.) Speedway, Dustin Mooneyham of Aurora, Mo., picked up $1,750 in Saturday’s special at the southwestern Missouri oval.

Crate: Benji Hicks of Mount Airy, N.C., collected $4,000 at Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin, N.C., in the track’s Dirt Wars, a special for the SECA-sanctioned drivers.

Turn 1: Ebbs, flows of Lucas points

With the tightest Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points chase in series history set to come down to the final two series events, interest in the national tour has never been higher.

As it stands, Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., leads the way with 7,935 points over Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn. (7,920 points) and Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va. (7,875 points), leaving just a 60-point gap among the top three heading to this weekend’s $20,000-to-win Pittsburgher 100 at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway in Imperial.

However, a recent examination of the Lucas Oil points uncovered a fascinating twist: None of those three drivers have been the top Lucas Oil point-getter over the past two months. That honor goes to three-time series champion Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., who was the top points racer on the circuit from August through September.

Following this discovery, we wondered what other things may be uncovered in a more extensive points breakdown. We dug into the Lucas Oil title chase month-by-month to discover ebbs and flows, listing the top six series regulars in points (putting them in the top half among 2017’s dozen Lucas Oil regulars) each month. — Andy Savary

Lucas Oil Series monthly points
February (four points races)
Josh Richards (870 points)
Scott Bloomquist (855)
Tim McCreadie (820)
Jimmy Owens (715)
Earl Pearson Jr. (710)
Dennis Erb Jr. (655)

March (one points race)
Earl Pearson Jr. (260 points)
Josh Richards (230)
Jimmy Owens (220)
Tim McCreadie (210)
Darrell Lanigan (205)
T6. Scott Bloomquist (175)
T6. Dennis Erb Jr. (175)

April (six points races)
Scott Bloomquist (1,230 points)
Don O'Neal (1,205)
Tim McCreadie (1,110)
Dennis Erb Jr. (1,060)
Darrell Lanigan (1,035)
Jimmy Owens (1,020)

May (six points races)
Scott Bloomquist (1,295 points)
Tim McCreadie (1,280)
Josh Richards (1,210)
Don O'Neal (1,195)
Earl Pearson Jr. (1,185)
Gregg Satterlee (1,150)

June (one points race)
Dennis Erb Jr. (230 points)
Darrell Lanigan (210)
Josh Richards (200)
Earl Pearson Jr. (195)
T5. Scott Bloomquist (190)
T5. Don O'Neal (190)

July (11 points races)
Josh Richards (2,530 points)
Tim McCreadie (2,245)
Jimmy Owens (2,125)
Hudson O'Neal (2,095)
Scott Bloomquist (2,090)
Don O'Neal (2,035)

August (four points races)
Scott Bloomquist (885 points)
Tim McCreadie (880)
Jimmy Owens (815)
T4. Darrell Lanigan (795)
T4. Josh Richards (795)
Gregg Satterlee (735)

September (five points races)
Jimmy Owens (1,100 points)
Tim McCreadie (1,015)
Scott Bloomquist (1,000)
Don O'Neal (940)
Josh Richards (890)
Darrell Lanigan (860)

Current series points (through Oct. 1)
Tim McCreadie (7,935 points)
Scott Bloomquist (7,920)
Josh Richards (7,875)
Jimmy Owens (7,335)
Don O'Neal (7,285)
Darrell Lanigan (7,080)

Turn 2: More Lucas Oil analysis

So what exactly did we uncover in our monthly breakout of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points standings? Let's examine some notable drivers specifically:

Tim McCreadie: T-Mac has been the model of consistency, ranking among the top three in points during every month with more than one points race. While he has never been the top driver in a single month, he is the lone driver to accomplish that top-three consistency, putting him atop the Lucas Oil standings today.

Scott Bloomquist: The Hall of Famer leads all drivers as the top points-getter in three different months, all of which had four or more points races. His spring and fall performances have been dynamic, helping him to a second-place rank in the current standings. However, he was largely undone by a subpar summer, which unfortunately serves as the tour's busiest points stretch.

Josh Richards: The Lucas Oil newcomer has benefitted from getting hot at the busiest times, namely during July (which saw 11 points races) and Speedweeks (though only four races counted for official points). Since taking the points lead with his summer streak, Richards has fallen off notably, tying for fourth in August points and ranking a distant fifth in September. With this, he's slipped to third in the standings.

Jimmy Owens: As mentioned above, the three-time series champ was the top Lucas Oil points-getter from August through September, vaulting him to fourth in points. While he's certainly the most improved points racer over the course of the season, his nightmarish spring was too much to overcome.

Earl Pearson Jr.: On the opposite side of Owens sits Pearson, who ranked among the top point-getters in four of the first five months this season. However, in three months since, he has dropped off substantially, failing to appear in the top half of series regulars in any month. The fading Pearson has slipped from fourth to seventh in the standings.

Hudson O'Neal: While he's ninth in the current standings, the teenager holds a 65-point edge on Gregg Satterlee in the Rookie of the Year chase. At the season's end, the biggest difference in the secondary chase may come down to July, where O'Neal posted his strongest performances, topping Satterlee by 205 points.

Backstretch: Eyes on Pittsburgher

A look at statistics heading into this weekend’s Pittsburgher:

• Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn., is the race’s only five-time winner, breaking a tie with Davey Johnson with his 2015 victory at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway. In his last 10 Pittsburgher starts going back to his 1993 victory, Bloomquist hasn’t finished worse than fourth.

• Though the long-running Pittsburgher has primarily flown under the banners of Dirt Late Model racing’s biggest tours (STARS, Lucas Oil and World of Outlaws), the event’s richest payoff came in 2009 when Bart Hartman of Zanesville, Ohio, swept two $10,000 feature legs and earned a $10,000 bonus for a total windfall of $30,000 on the UFO Race Championship Series.

• The event drew a race-record 100 Late Models in 2000, breaking the mark of 90 from ’97.

• Besides five-time winner Scott Bloomquist, the only Southerner to win the Pittsburgher is Shane Clanton of Locust Grove, Ga., on the World of Outlaws circuit in 2006. Clanton overtook Chub Frank amid traffic to lead the final 13 laps in his first Pittsburgher appearance.

• The Rocket Chassis house car team has frequently entered two cars in the event, including when Dale McDowell finished fifth in a backup car to house car regular Josh Richards in 2006. In other events, Bart Hartman drove a Tim Hitt backup car in 1998 and, in 2002, Rick Eckert drove a Steve Francis backup car.

• Chub Frank (2001) of Bear Lake, Pa., and Bart Hartman (2004) of Zanesville, Ohio, both won the Pittsburgher in their 13th appearance at the event.

• Michael Norris of Sarver, Pa., set the PPMS mark with a 17.106-second lap at last year’s event, more than four seconds quicker than Davey Johnson’s quick time of 21.191 seconds in the 2000 Pittsburgher.

• While Steve Francis wasn’t a factor in 1998’s Pittsburgher, a race won by Tim Hitt, the Ashland, Ky., native still picked up a $15,000 paycheck the same weekend. The night before the STARS-sanctioned Pittsburgher feature, Francis won the Hav-A-Tampa-sanctioned Mountain Dew 100 at Portsmouth (Ohio) Raceway Park. Francis, Bart Hartman, Mike Balzano, Rick Aukland and Steve Lucas flew back and forth between PPMS and Portsmouth to compete in both events.

Turn 3: And other random stats

• Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, will try to become the third straight back-to-back winner of Greenville (Miss.) Speedway’s MSCCS-sanctioned Gumbo Nationals this weekend. Timothy Culp of Prattsville, Ark., won the event in 2014-’15 while Bub McCool of Vicksburg, Miss., won three straight times from 2011-’13.

• Since the doubleheader was first introduced on the Lucas Oil tour in 2006, no driver has swept the weekend at Georgia’s sister tracks Dixie and Rome Speedways in nine seasons during which both tracks contested their events.

• With eight straight victories on the East circuit of the MARS DIRTcar Series, Tanner English of Benton, Ky., has closed within one win of the tour’s single-season record of 14 (set by Terry Phillips of Springfield, Mo., in 2002) with three races remaining. English’s eight-race winning streak is already the longest in MARS history.

• Since concluding his difficult 2017 UMP DIRTcar Summernationals campaign, Ryan Unzicker of El Paso, Ill., has finished among the top five in 26 consecutive Late Model starts, piling up 14 victories, including seven of his last eight starts.

• Other than two-time race winner Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., Michael Page of Douglasville, Ga., became the first home-state winner of the Dixie Shootout since Rome’s Buddy Morris won in 1992. Page beat four former race winners to the checkered flag with Don O'Neal, Scott Bloomquist, Chris Madden and Jimmy Owens completing the top five.

Turn 4: Turn back the clock

Five items from this week in Dirt Late Model history:

Oct. 5, 1980: Buck Simmons of Baldwin, Ga., collected a record-setting $16,200 in capturing Fad’s Flexi-Flyer 100 at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Ga. Simmons overtook runner-up Rodney Combs late in the race while Larry Moore, L.D. Ottinger and Charlie Swartz rounded out the top five in the National Dirt Racing Association event.

Oct. 10, 1986: Ronnie Johnson of Chattanooga, Tenn., completed a two-day show at Crossville (Tenn.) Raceway with a Southern All Star Dirt Racing Series that wrapped up his second title in two years on the B.J. Parker-founded circuit.

Oct. 8, 1995: Mark Miner of Stockbridge, Ga., outdueled Scott Sexton for the lead on lap 62 and held on the rest of the way to win the fourth annual Newport Auto Parts 100 at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tenn. Miner earned a career-high $15,000 in taking the checkers ahead of Sexton, Scott Bloomquist, Bill Frye and Stan Massey.

Oct. 6, 2000: Wet grounds, wet weather and a chilly forecast at Eldora Speedway forced the postponement of the Eldora Million, a $1 million-to-win event for Late Models at the historical half-mile oval in Rossburg, Ohio. More than 200 competitors were on the grounds when the announcement was made that morning. The race was rescheduled for June 8-9, 2001.

Oct. 7, 2005: In a victory that wrapped up the World Dirt Racing League championship, Denny Eckrich of Tiffin, Iowa, won the first race of a doubleheader weekend at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kan. Eckrich led all 30 laps for a $3,000 victory while outrunning Terry Phillips, Kyle Berck, Justin Fegers and Al Purkey.