Attica’s podium

Rusty Schlenk of McClure, Ohio, dominated Friday at Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park for a $5,000 Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series victory, steering a car he’d wrecked a week earlier at his home track, Oakshade Raceway.

"I didn't know if this thing could go around the racetrack again,” the third-starting Schlenk said, “but I think it goes around it even better.”

The 36-year-old Schlenk overtook polesitter Kyle Moore on the fourth lap and led the rest of the caution-free 40-lapper, putting all but five competitors a lap down while wrapping up his victory in 11 minutes, 22 seconds. He notched his third victory of the season at Attica and 41st of his career.

Moore battled much of the rest of the way with fifth-starting Seth Daniels of Jackson, Ohio, as the pair swapped the second spot multiple times. Moore secured the position with a last-lap pass and Daniels knew it was a good battle despite Schlenk’s dominance.

“If that race would have been for the lead, you fans would have been going nuts,” said the 24-year-old Daniels, whose third-place finish was his best career performance in a Late Model touring event. “But congrats to Rusty. He kind of stunk us up there a little bit.”

Thanking Wilson Excavating for believing “in me 100 percent,” Daniels said, he’s eager to gain more experience in the Late Model division. The former modified racer’s accomplishments include a $5,000 Dirt Track World Championship victory in the modified division in 2020 at Portsmouth (Ohio) Raceway Park.

"We're just racing around trying to get experience. We're about as green of a Late Model team as you can get,” Daniels said. "This will be our second season in a Late Model and we’re learning every time we come race.”

Daniels won once in his rookie season, grabbing a Super Late Model victory at Skyline Raceway in Stewart, Ohio. Friday’s run matches his best finish of the year from April 27 at Atomic Speedway in Chillicothe, Ohio. Daniels finished fifth seven days earlier in Northern Allstars Late Model Series action at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway.

Holiday history

The World of Outlaws Case Late Model Series has never established a long-lasting Memorial Day weekend tradition, but that may change with Ultimate Motorsports Park in Elkin, N.C., posting the national tour's richest purse on the spring holiday.

The Ultimate Showdown, scheduled for twin $4,000-to-win semifeatures Friday and a $35,000-to-win finale Saturday, makes the 3/8-mile oval formerly known as Friendship Speedway the 12th track to host a Memorial Day weekend event during the WoO’s modern era beginning in 2004.

Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, W.Va., hosted eight series races on Memorial Day weekend 2012-2016, but no other track has hosted more than four events and in three of the past six seasons, the series didn’t compete at all over the holiday.

WoO never ran head-to-head against West Plains (Mo.) Motor Speedway's unsanctioned Show-Me 100 from 2004-08, but when the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series took over sanctioning of the Missouri showcase — it’s still the tour’s Memorial Day centerpiece at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo. — WoO began scheduling on the holiday.

The World of Outlaws have averaged a respectable 37 cars per Memorial Day weekend event with about half the events carrying purses similar to regular-season events (twice WoO paid $25,000-to-win: May 26, 2012, at Tyler County in a race won by Darrell Lanigan and last season at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, when Ryan Gustin captured the finale of a three-race weekend). The series drew a holiday weekend-best 65 cars for its first Tyler County event in 2012, but only one other event over Memorial Day in series history has drawn more than 40 cars.

(Two Memorial Day weekends are outliers for the World of Outlaws. In 2006, WoO opted for a weeknight lead-in race to the Show-Me, running a few days earlier at Missouri’s Bolivar Speedway with Rick Eckert winning. And in 2020, when Covid-19 postponements pushed the Show-Me to July, WoO ran at Minnesota’s Jackson Motorplex with Ricky Weiss and Ricky Thornton Jr. grabbing victories).

This year’s event in Elkin, N.C., marks WoO’s first Memorial Day weekend race in the Southeast, and it’s a lucrative one. The finale alone carries a total purse of $164,125. While the winner’s share of $35,000 is $15,000 less than Lucas Oil Speedway’s Show-Me 100, most Ultimate finishers will receive bigger paychecks than Show-Me counterparts including for third ($12,500 vs. $10,000), 10th ($5,000 vs. $4,000) and last-place money ($3,000 vs. $2,000). The Show-Me is scheduled to start 28 cars, four more than Ultimate’s posted payout.

Odds and ends

• The Northern LateModel Racing Association is scheduled to compete north of the border for the first time in nearly six years with the weekend’s McNaught Cup at Dead Horse Creek Speedway in Morden, Manitoba. The track, formerly ALH Motor Speedway, reopened last season and hosted its first-ever Late Model events with Shane Edginton and Mike Greseth grabbing victories. NLRA’s previous Canadian visit came in August 2018 at Victory Lane Speedway in Winnipeg, Manitoba (the track was then called Red River Co-op Speedway). NLRA was scheduled to compete in Morden, Manitoba, in 2011, but the race was cancelled. Saturday and Sunday’s programs each pay $2,000-to-win.

• Getting his holiday weekend off to an early start, Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points leader Ricky Thornton Jr. drove a Jordan Grabouski Racing entry to a $16,667 victory Wednesday during a three-weeknight show at Clay County Fair Speedway in Spencer, Iowa. The rest of Thornton’s holiday will be spent at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., for the $50,000-to-win Show-Me 100 on the Lucas Oil circuit.

• Bridgeport (N.J.) Motorsports Park hosts its lone Super Late Model event of the season Sunday with an invitation-only event paying $4,000-to-win, part of the track’s Triple 40s with big-block modifieds and wingless sprint cars also in action. The night’s Late Model fast qualifier will receive $300 from Chris Spotts Welding.

• A tight Schaeffer's Spring Nationals points chase will be decided as the Ray Cook-promoted tour wraps up with Friday-Sunday races at Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Ga., North Georgia Speedway in Chatsworth, Ga., and Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn. Pearson Lee Williams of Dublin, Ga., holds a two-point lead on Donald McIntosh of Dawsonville, Ga., with Christian Hanger of Winchester, Tenn., further back in third. The rain-plagued tour has completed six events with six drivers grabbing victories.

• The Valvoline American Late Model Iron-Man Series, which in merging with the former Sunoco American Late Model Series has shifted toward more Midwestern events, is set to open with three holiday weekend races paying $5,000-to-win beginning Friday. Attica (Ohio) Raceway Park opens the weekend followed by events at Oakshade Raceway in Wauseon, Ohio, and Mudlick Valley Raceway in Wallingford, Ky. Oakshade’s event is the 35th annual Barney Oldfield Memorial, celebrating the racing pioneer from Wauseon who was a two-time starter in the Indianapolis 500.