I don’t claim to be an expert in track prep. I do know how drive a tractor (have since I was 12). I know how to bushhog a field and plow a field and pull a variety of equipment behind said tractor. That’s just part of the stuff you learn when growing up out in the country.

But just because I know how to handle certain farm equipment, that doesn’t mean I’m a farmer by any means. I left our home at 18 — a little Tennessee farm with a few dozen milk cows and a decent size hay field — and MORE

Parity in our sport seems to be at an unprecedented level. Or is it?

I don’t think we’ve ever seen a stretch in Dirt Late Model racing’s history where so many drivers had a legitimate chance to win a big race, even a crown jewel event, but somehow, on most nights the cream seems to rise to the top.

Right now, that’s Chandler, Ariz.’s Ricky Thornton Jr. and Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill. Thornton has nearly 20 victories this season, including a $100,000 triumph in Tuesday’s XR Super MORE

Dirt racing fans are a passionate lot. Following July 8’s NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50 finale at Deer Creek Speedway in Spring Valley, Minn., a race that ended in a photo finish — sort of — between Hudson O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., and Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., social media was once again at a fever pitch as the Dirt Late Model crowd weighed in on the result.

Though it appeared to the naked eye that O’Neal, who took the lead from Chris Madden on the 36th lap, beat Pierce to the MORE

The fact that Clarksville (Tenn.) Speedway was the site of my first DIRTcar Summer Nationals race 22 years ago is strange in a couple of ways. | Complete Summer Nationals coverage

For starters, I’m a native Tennessean, yet it wasn’t until I moved to North Carolina and went to work at National Dirt Digest that I attended my first race of any kind at Clarksville. Secondly, I actually lived in Illinois — the heart of Summer Nationals country — for more than a year before I moved to North MORE

The first time I went to Eldora Speedway, Billy Moyer won the World 100. That was 1991. The next year I went and watched Donnie Moran win. I returned in 1993 and to my surprise — not really — Billy Moyer won again. For a reason I can no longer recall, I decided not to go back in 1994. Possibly I had to work or I couldn’t afford to go. Or maybe I didn’t go because I thought it a forgone conclusion that either Batesville, Ark.’s Moyer or Dresden, Ohio’s Moran would win the 100-lapper. MORE