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 SHINNSTON,
WV – It was a frustrating holiday week for Josh.
The young star known as ‘Kid Rocket’ launched into the traditional busy
summer stretch of racing with a big triumph in the ‘Red Miley Memorial Penn
National 53’ on July 1 at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway, but that
momentum was dulled by a barrage of flat tires that plagued him in his next
two starts.
Josh had his hopes of contending for victory in the Tuesday-night (July 3)
World of Outlaws Late Model Series event at Missouri’s Lebanon I-44 Speedway
derailed by popped tires. He somehow managed to salvage a seventh-place
finish in the 50-lap feature despite being slowed by four flat tires during
the program – including one before a single lap was completed.
The 19-year-old from Shinnston, W.Va., started third in the event, but he
relinquished the position during an opening-lap caution period due to a cut
right-rear tire on his Mark Richards Racing-owned Seubert Calf Ranches/Ace
Metal Works/TSR-Tony Stewart Racing/Petroff Towing/MCB Motorsports Rocket
Chassis No. 1. After a quick pit stop he marched back up to sixth place
before another flat tire forced him to the pit area on lap 23. Josh climbed
to fifth by lap 37, but then another flat caused him to slow and make his
third pit stop of the race.
“It was real frustrating to keep getting flats,” said Josh, who stayed on
the lead lap through all the pit stops. “There were a lot of little rocks in
the track (surface) and they were cutting tires. We weren’t lucky enough to
avoid getting flats.”
Josh and his race team were scheduled to head south to compete in the
two-day WoO LMS ‘Freedom 100’ on Friday and Saturday at Pike County Speedway
in Magnolia, Miss., but the event was postponed on Thursday morning due to
heavy rain that had already deluged the track and a forecast of more to come
for the weekend.
Since Josh and Co. were still camped out at sponsor Ed Petroff’s shop
outside St. Louis when the Pike County news was announced, they decided to
stick around a day and enter Friday night’s UMP DIRTcar Racing
Summernationals event at nearby Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Ill.
The flat-tire syndrome didn’t leave Josh at the three-eighths-mile Tri-City
oval. Contact with another racer on the first lap of the 40-lap A-Main cut
down a tire on Josh’s car and forced him to pit; a few laps later he clipped
a uke tire on the inside of the track, bending his car’s left-front spindle
and prompting him to park the machine for the night. He was credited with a
21st-place finish.
Josh headed back to the Rocket Chassis shop in Shinnston, W.Va., on
Saturday. He has no plans to race this weekend, giving his team time to gear
up for the second half of the WoO LMS season that begins on July 20 at
Virginia Motor Speedway.
“We’re gonna spend some time in the shop and try to catch up on everything,”
said Josh, whose team has been on the road for much of the past month. “We
need to over some things so we’re ready for the rest of the year.”
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