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SHINNSTON, WV – It wasn’t easy, but Josh Richards scored a good-looking
third-place finish in Saturday night’s third annual Circle K Colossal 100 at
The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.
Fighting through a nearly disastrous opening lap, a race-long push condition
and flying clay that hampered both his vision and perhaps even his car’s
handling, the 20-year-old sensation from Shinnston, W.Va., pulled out a
career-best finish in the $200,000 event.
“It was a good finish for us,” said Josh, who pocketed $10,000 for placing
in the show position. “I wish we would’ve been a little bit better, but the
way things looked early I thought we were gonna be stuck in like 13th
(place) the whole race. We finally broke free towards the middle of the race
and got closer to the front.”
After timing 13th-fastest in qualifying and registering a convincing victory
in his heat race on Friday night, Josh drew the 13th starting spot for the
$50,000-to-win A-Main. He lost several positions on the first lap, however,
when he took evasive action to avoid hitting outside polesitter Eddie
Carrier Jr.’s spinning car in turn four.
“That first lap was wild,” said Josh. “There were cars spun around, banging
together, slowing. When (Carrier) spun, I bumped him and a few cars went by
me. I thought for sure they’d throw a caution and restart the deal, but they
didn’t. When the caution finally came out a couple laps later we were back a
few spots.”
A Hoosier tire selection for the right-front corner that was a bit too hard
created a “little bit of a push” on Josh’s Mark Richards Racing-owned
Seubert Calf Ranches/Ace Metal Works/TSR-Tony Stewart Racing/Petroff Towing/MCB
Motorsports/Ernie’s Auto & Hauling Rocket Chassis No. 1. The car improved
late in the distance, however, and Josh was able to advance several
positions, moving from the sixth spot he held on the caution-plagued event’s
final restart, on lap 82, to third by lap 95.
Josh’s biggest problem might have been the thick mud that cars were kicking
up all race long on the heavy track, which was hit by early-evening rain
that delayed the start of Saturday’s program by two hours.
“Visibility wasn’t really good at all,” described Josh. “I ran out of
(helmet) tearoffs on like lap 20. Every caution I was trying to scrape the
mud off my shield, but it didn’t help too much. We changed helmets during
the red flag (for Chub Frank’s flip on lap 45), which probably saved me.”
The opening-lap scramble threw up an immense amount of mud that clung to the
nosepiece of Josh’s car, adding untold pounds to its front end – a
development that might have caused Josh’s mount to drive “kind of sluggish,”
as he reported.
Josh credited The Dirt Track’s surface-prep crew with doing the best job
possible with the speedway given the wet weather.
“If it didn’t rain, I think it would’ve been a really good racetrack,” said
Josh. “Early on (in the 100) it wasn’t the greatest because it was just so
fast and then slimy in spots on the bottom, but they did what they could.”
Josh congratulated fellow Rocket driver Steve Francis and the Beitler
Motorsports team on their big victory in the Colossal 100.
Josh, whose led off his Colossal 100 weekend on Thursday by making an
appearance with his car at a local Circle K store and doing an interview on
the Sirius satellite radio NASCAR show Tradin’ Paint, remained second in the
World of Outlaws Late Model Series after the event because it offered only
show-up points toward the tour championship.
This weekend Josh plans to drive the Ernie Davis-owned Rocket No. 25 in
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series events on Fri., April 25, at Bedford (Pa.)
Speedway and Sat., April 26, at Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway.
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