Inside Dirt Late Model Racing
Column: Dotson shines while owner gets his laps
Becoming an owner of a high-profile Dirt Late Model team with a hired gun driver has suited John Henderson well. He’s enjoying his new role as the leader of an operation that this year is tackling the World of Outlaws Late Model Series with rising star Ethan Dotson of Bakersfield, Calif., behind the wheel.
“The reason I do this,” the 44-year-old from North Augusta, S.C., said of his ASD Motorsports, “is because I love it.”
Nevertheless, Henderson won’t deny that he still has an affinity for climbing into the cockpit himself. He’s been competing off-and-on in the Super, Crate and Limited Late Model ranks for nearly two decades, but last season made only a handful of starts — and none past mid-June — as his newly expanded team began to spread its wings, first with Wil Herrington of Hawkinsville, Ga., driving and then, starting Memorial Day weekend, with Dotson.
So this season, Henderson is getting his competitive juices flowing again. He’s hoping to run 30-35 Super Late Model races, mostly in his native Southeast but perhaps a few more far-flung shows.
“I really miss racing,” Henderson said. “As much as I love coming here and watching them, I really do miss racing.”
Henderson spoke of his desires during last month’s Federated DIRTcar Nationals at Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, Fla., where he was in attendance as a car owner while Dotson battled in DIRTcar- and WoO-sanctioned events. But the previous week he had returned to action, joining Dotson in the field for Feb. 7-8’s Mideast Super Late Model Series-sanctioned Winter Freeze at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga.
How did Henderson’s go? Pretty darn well. With finishes of third and sixth, his outlook on his own racing for 2025 was pushed sky-high.
Considering Screven represented Henderson’s first competitive laps since last June’s Comp Cams Super Dirt Series-sanctioned weekend at Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, Miss. (he tested a few times after that last season), he wasn’t sure what to expect. The lengthy layoff combined with his continuing recovery from an off-season injury — he broke his left leg below the knee just before Christmas when he slipped off a ladder while hanging victory checks in his shop — put some doubts in his head.
Henderson conceded, though, that the obstacles made Screven’s opener easier on him.
“To be honest, it was kind of nice,” said Henderson, who was still walking with a limp last month. “The first night there was, like, no pressure, because I hadn’t been racing in so long, I just got over a broken leg. It was like, if I suck, I got all the excuses in the world.”
Henderson could barely have drawn up a better comeback run. He qualified fastest in his group to start outside the front row in the 40-lap feature and proceeded to lead 31 circuits before ceding the top spot to eventual winner Casey Roberts of Toccoa, Ga., and slipping to third in the final rundown. Dotson started fifth but was unable to match his owner’s speed as he faded to a 10th-place finish after knocking off his car’s spoiler.
Noting that his healed left leg “didn’t bother me racing at all,” Henderson added with a smile that he “was just gonna use it as an excuse if I was terrible and Ethan outran me by five seconds, but he couldn’t keep up.”
Henderson’s performance impressed his team’s new full-time crew member R.C. Whitwell, the veteran Dirt Late Model and modified driver from Tucson, Ariz., who joined ASD Motorsports to work with his buddy Dotson after spending last year wrenching for Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series regular Garrett Alberson of Las Cruces, N.M.
“I’d never seen him race before,” Whitwell said. “I saw him blowing everyone’s doors off and I’m like, ‘Man. I don’t know why we hired Ethan.’ ”
Henderson laughed at Whitwell’s comment.
“I think he was like, ‘All right, maybe this guy’s not a complete dumb ass,’ ” Henderson joked.
Screven’s finale brought more pressure for Henderson. Expectations were raised.
“Then the second night, well, I was like, ‘Hell, I ran pretty good last night. Now I gotta run good again tonight. I gotta back it up,’ ” Henderson said. “And me and Ethan had a bet" on who would finish better.
Henderson was quick again in Screven’s Saturday program, earning a group fast-time honor for the second straight night to again start outside the front row, this time in a 50-lapper. A miscue on the initial start, however, left him with damage that hampered his car, causing him to slide to a sixth-place finish — and finish behind Dotson, who overtook Henderson early in the race and went on to finish second to $15,000 winner Cody Overton of Evans, Ga.
“I just got into the wall there on the first lap and knocked part of the spoiler off so I was just holding on after that,” said Henderson, who did send one message to Dotson during the race: “When he got by me, I went ahead and doored the s--- out of him in the left-side door just so he remembered, ‘Hey, that’s my boss.’ ”
Henderson has made one start since Georgia-Florida Speedweeks, finishing eighth in March 2’s Ginger Owens March Madness event at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, S.C. (Dotson didn’t enter the race, instead finishing second in a $10,000-to-win show that night at East Alabama Motor Speedway in Phenix City, Ala.)
Henderson doesn't have a firm race schedule, but he expects to join Dotson at some special events — the crown jewels at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, are two he’s eyeing if he feels he can be competitive — and run others with the mechanical help of Tyler Breashears, the ASD Motorsports team manager who oversees work in the shop rather than traveling the full WoO slate with Dotson.
As for his season-long expectations, Henderson is looking for modest returns. He’s never been a big winner during his driving career — his lone touring Super Late Model victory came with the Ultimate Southeast Series in 2011 at Gordon Park Speedway in Augusta, Ga., and he owns a handful of Crate Late Model triumphs, most at Swainsboro (Ga.) Raceway — so running competitively, and perhaps nabbing a win or two, would satisfy.
Henderson relishes being able to race at all. In August 2020 he was involved in a rollover crash at Cherokee that sidelined him for an extended period. He left the track that night not thinking he had suffered any ill effects, but soon afterward he began experiencing headaches. Two months later he condition worsened and he sought medical attention, which led to the finding that he had bleeding on the brain from the accident and immediate surgery was necessary to relieve it. Doctors told Henderson to take time off so the right side of his skull, which was opened from the center of his head to the back of his skull to drain the blood, could completely heal.
Henderson’s primary focus now is providing Dotson the material to be successful on a national level. It’s why Henderson shied away from racing himself for so long after bringing Dotson on board last year.
“I was really just giving Ethan and them time to get all their stuff together and get going good and get going in the right direction,” Henderson said. “I just felt like I was taking away from them if I was racing. This year I felt like they had their stuff going pretty good, so it was time for me to race again.”
Henderson has primarily fielded his own equipment, but prior to the 2024 season he stepped up its scope with his hiring of Herrington. He had sold his asphalt business and partnered with his friend Ian Stewart, a super saloon dirt racer from New Zealand who had a motorsports parts business in the United States and was known for his engineering expertise with drifting cars, to launch ASD Motorsports.
The new program began at the start of ’24 with Herrington driving Barry Wright Race Cars crewed by Breashears, who had been Henderson’s mechanic for the previous year-and-a-half, and Rece Vaught. After Herrington’s stint with the team ended in the spring, Henderson hired Dotson, a 26-year-old modified transplant who was a free agent after splitting with Coltman Farms Racing, and they debuted together at last year’s Show-Me 100 at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo.
Dotson heated up with ASD late in 2024 — winning four times in October and November — leading to the decision to chase the WoO tour this season. Henderson has assembled a formidable effort for Dotson, too, with Breashears, 31, managing the shop and the road crew consisting of Whitwell, 40, Nick Carpenter, 23, and Brady Muzney, 19, with Chase Shaffer also a full-time employee serving as the team’s media rep. The team has four Longhorn cars (one is Henderson’s personal machine) and is well stocked in the powerplant department with seven Clements engines.
Henderson didn’t know Dotson before he became a candidate for the ride following Herrington’s departure, but they’ve quickly developed a close relationship.
“Me and s---head over there are a lot alike unfortunately,” Henderson said with a laugh as he gestured toward Dotson. “We hit it off and it’s been pretty good since. We just all fit together. Everybody does. Everybody has their problems, don’t get me wrong, but they hit the ground running right out of the gate and it’s been good.”
Dotson has flashed his national touring bonafides already this season, registering a pair of top-five finishes (both fourths) in the first five WoO events contested at Volusia. He briefly led the points standings after the third race but fell back after he was knocked from contention in the Friday feature when he couldn’t avoid hitting leader Ricky Thornton Jr. as the Chandler, Ariz., driver bobbled on the cushion, but he still ended Speedweeks tied for fifth in the standings, just 16 points behind leader Ryan Gustin of Marshalltown, Iowa.
“He’s probably one of the most natural talented people that I’ve seen in a race car,” Henderson said of Dotson, who will return to WoO action this weekend with a doubleheader at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn. “Just for the limited experience that he’s got in Late Models, I’ve seen him take the car when I know it’s not any good and figure out how to finish decent. He really, really does adapt well.
I think (running) the modifieds with the smaller tires, it’s gotta help. I mean, I think that’s one reason you see it show with Ricky (Thornton Jr.) and all those guys … that smaller tire deal, that’s a big difference.
“Sometimes it’s hard for me, and it’s for everybody else that’s watching, to be like, ‘Why didn’t he finish it?’ ” he continued. “He hasn’t been racing that long in Late Models. He has to learn. He’s gonna mess up some, but at the end of the day he’s gonna make some mistakes.”
Henderson has high hopes for Dotson and his team. He said he’ll serve as a “test dummy” to try setup ideas for Dotson’s effort and also help in any way necessary.
“That’s the biggest part I struggle with to be honest, is how much to be involved and how much to not be involved,” said Henderson, who still works for the company that purchased his asphalt business and also continues to and I do some development work with his H&A Development firm. “Because when I see the car coming off the racetrack, I wanna be like, ‘All right, let’s do this, this and this,’ but I can’t do that. I’m not driving it. It’s not me feeling it.
“To know went to shut up, when to be assertive … I get it wrong a lot. I’m still learning how to do that.”
Henderson anticipates that just being around Dotson and his team will make him a better driver this season — and that has him excited.
“I think R.C. will tell you, I want to be involved because I want to race, and I want to learn from what they’re doing,” Henderson said. “I really think with my racing, I can tell a big difference already.”
Ten things worth mentioning
1. In the wake of Henderson’s leg-breaking fall, his crew didn’t show much sympathy. In fact, they busted his chops as he was receiving treatment. “I’ll show you a picture,” Henderson said as he began looking through the photo album on his phone. “This is what my guys do to me. So I’m sitting in the ER, I just told the nurse that I needed some pain medication because my leg was killing me, and then they send me this picture.” He held up a shot of a crime scene-like taped outline of a body where he had gone down on his shop floor. “I start laughing, and (the nurse is like), ‘You don’t need no pain medication. You’re good,’ ” he added. “(The crew) thought it was pretty funny.”
2. Henderson’s home in North Augusta, S.C., is a short drive from Georgia’s famed Augusta National Golf Club where the Masters Tournament is held. He said he’s attended the event in the past, but this year he’s leaving town when the Masters takes place April 10-13. “We’re renting our house out (to a Masters attendee) for eight days this year and we’ll probably go on vacation somewhere,” he said.
3. Here’s an interesting nugget from the Midwest: Shannon Babb of Moweaqua, Ill., revealed in a social media post that he’s planning to chase the MARS Championship Series title in 2025. If I’m not mistaken, it will make the first time the 51-year-old racer has run a full series schedule since 2015 when he finished fourth in the DIRTcar Summer Nationals points standings.
4. Another notable announcement: Dale McDowell of Chickamauga, Ga., will race this season with Reece Monument Company — the Tazewell, Tenn., business owned by Mike Reece, the former car owner and current sponsor of Newport, Tenn.’s Jimmy Owens — as the primary backer on his Team Zero Chassis No. 17M fielded by his brother and crew chief Shane. The 58-year-old veteran plans to make his first start of the season in his sibling’s equipment this weekend in the World of Outlaws-sanctioned doubleheader at Smoky Mountain Speedway.
5. Dirt Late Model racing received a quick nod during Sunday’s broadcast of the NASCAR Cup Series event at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway when Tyler Reddick’s young son, Beau, was caught wearing a Devin Moran T-shirt before the start of the race. Moran is a good friend of Reddick from their days racing Dirt Late Models and attended Reddick’s wedding last summer.
6. I caught a glimpse on Facebook of the new wrap that Hall of Famer Gary Stuhler of Greencastle, Pa., will sport on his Langenfelder Mechanical Contractors Longhorn Chassis this season and thought it looked pretty sharp with a gold stripe accenting its white-and-block primary colors. And what’s the gold signify? He’s celebrating his 50th year of racing. “I started racing with I was 6,” Stuhler joked in a text he sent me. (He in fact turns 70 on April 13.)
7. National touring regular Max Blair’s wife, Brandy, made a recent Facebook post of a neat letter that Longhorn Chassis co-owner Steve Arpin personally penned to the couple’s young daughter Hayes. Arpin wrote that to Hayes that he “just wanted to say that it was so great to meet you in Florida” during Speedweeks and included a care package of Longhorn gear (shirts, hats, etc.) that she can “wear while you are cheering on your Daddy!” Arpin even sent along some Longhorn stickers with the suggestion that she share them with her friends at school. Judging by the pictures Brandy posted, Hayes was very happy to receive the surprise gifts.
8. As a leftover from a story I wrote last week about Jason Riggs of College Grove, Tenn., he mentioned that he became interested in Dirt Late Model racing at a track that would seem a bit off the beaten path for a driver who started racing in Illinois and Tennessee. “Where I learned about the races was at Skyline Raceway (in Stewart, Ohio),” he said. “I grew up in Athens, Ohio, with my mom, and Skyline was near there. My grandpa was a tow truck driver at Skyline every Friday night.”
9. Kye Blight, the Aussie driver who has been a regular Dirt Late Model competitor in the United States for several months in each of the past few years, is Down Under for his regular season and last Saturday captured the Australian Late Model Championship event at Perth Motorplex. He beat Myles Moos of Lincoln, Ill. — the lone America in the field — to the finish line in the title race, then repeated his performance in Wednesday’s midweek special event at the track with a victory in the feature after overtaking Moos in lapped traffic. (Moos finished third.) A big week of racing at Perth continues this Friday and Saturday with the two-day Australian Late Model Nationals.
10. Speaking of Perth Motorplex, DirtonDirt.com/FloRacing pit reporter Ben Shelton is in Australia with his wife, Sheryl, as a guest announcer for the five nights of racing from March 7-15. He’s been posting regular updates of the racing and his off-day excursions on social media.
