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SHINNSTON, WV – A weekend trip to the Midwest helped Josh
Richards get his groove back.
The 19-year-old star shook off the struggles that had been plaguing him in
recent weeks by registering back-to-back top-five finishes in World of
Outlaws Late Model Series competition. He finished third in Friday night’s
50-lap event at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway and was fourth in Saturday
night’s ‘Boswell Brawl 50’ at Indiana’s Kamp Motor Speedway.
Best of all, ‘Kid Rocket’ was one of the biggest movers-and-shakers in both
events. He started 10th at Farmer City and 11th at Kamp.
“The last couple races we had some bad luck,” Josh said after completing the
weekend’s action. “Now things are getting back to going well, so hopefully
it keeps going.”
Josh’s Mark Richards Racing owned Seubert Calf Ranches, Ace Metal Works,
Tony Stewart Racing, Petroff Towing, MCB Motorsports, Rocket Chassis No. 1
suffered some battle scars during Friday night’s race on a rough springtime
track at Farmer City – its right-side door was caved in and a header broke
off following an early-race encounter with Jimmy Owens – but he charged
forward to score his best WoO LMS finish since winning the season opener on
Feb. 17 at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park.
“I didn’t know the race was actually over,” said Josh, who never saw the
checkered flag displayed because he was so focused on his battle to keep
third place. “But I was glad it was over. I had some pizza before the race,
and I felt like I was gonna throw up the whole race.
“The pizza was good,” he added with a smile, “but I ate too much and the
track was rough, so that wasn’t too good on my stomach.”
In Saturday’s first-ever WoO LMS event at Kamp, Josh and his crew weren’t
happy with their car’s performance after he transferred to the A-Main with a
third-place finish in his heat. So they made wholesale changes to the
machine that ended up paying off.
“We ran a swing-arm car last night (at Farmer City) and all the way up to
feature time tonight,” said Josh. “After the heat we switched to our normal
stuff, a four-link setup. I’m not real comfortable with that swing-arm deal
yet, so we switched to our normal stuff so we don’t end up getting ourselves
too far back in the points.
“Come feature time, we weren’t as good as we should’ve been,” added Josh,
who reached fourth place with a pass of Shannon Babb on the white-flag lap.
“But I could maneuver a little better than some of those guys, and that
helped a lot.”
Josh’s strong weekend moved him into a tie with Francis for fourth in the
WoO LMS point standings, 38 points behind co-leaders Babb and Clint Smith.
The WoO LMS is idle until the five-race ‘Monster Midwest Tour’ kicks off on
Wed., May 9, at the Davenport (Iowa) Speedway Quarter-Mile, but Josh will be
busy this week. On Thursday (May 3) he’ll travel to Paducah (Ky.)
International Raceway for a ‘NASCAR Night’ program that will see him serve
as crew chief for Nextel Cup star Tony Stewart, who will make his first
start of the season in the Bass
Pro Shops, Tracker Boats, Rocket No. 20 dirt
Late Model he plans to run in selected events. Then, on Friday and Saturday
(May 4-5), Josh will visit Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway to run his blue No.
1 in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series ‘99’ event, a two-day show topped
by a 99-lap, $24,999-to-win feature. |
